Monday, June 23, 2014

Wait For Major Changes In Internet Explorer 11 With Windows Phone 8.1

The developer preview of Windows Phone 8.1 is out in the market. According to Microsoft support site, one of the major enhancements, which come with Windows Phone 8.1, is the updates for Internet Explorer 11. The software giant says, "You may have been hearing bits and pieces of news about IE11 on Windows Phone 8.1, and we’re excited to share the full scoop on user experience improvements with you today! Our team has been laser focused on delivering a massive upgrade to four key areas of your browsing experience: quick site access, fast and fluid browsing, safety and privacy, and accessibility."

The above statement means that you could expect Internet Explorer loaded with features with this all new phone operating system. Some of the major improvements included in the browser are improved prediction of websites and quick access features for frequently accessed websites. You can also open as many tabs as you wish with the new browser, without the browser freezing or hanging.

The blog post of the company adds, "We are excited to announce that Internet Explorer 11 will sync your browsing data across phone, tablet, and PC. This includes your favorites, history, passwords, and open tabs. You can now quickly pick up where you left off when you switch devices, and finally say goodbye to emailing yourself links!" Many experts consider this an interesting feature since it will save the history of a website browsed with another device and this facilitates accessing this website with a lot of ease.

The browser also comes with data saving features. According to Microsoft support site, "We brought DataSense to IE on Windows Phone 8 to enable up to 40% more browsing with the same amount of data, and no noticeable difference in the browsing experience. This time, we are introducing High Savings Mode, which downloads only the most important pieces of the Web site and heavily compresses images."

With the new additions and features of Internet Explorer 11, Microsoft hopes to put up a tough fight against its competitors like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. It is expected that Windows 8.1 will be out in the market by June 24. We will have to wait for a few more months until the operating system finally reaches us through some models. Since Microsoft now owns Nokia, we can expect many new models from the company with the Windows 8.1 operating system.

Microsoft Is Testing Out Their Skype Real Time Translator App

Microsoft is working on a real time translator app that will work smoothly with the Microsoft Live chat sessions on their Skype Messenger. Though we have many translator applications that do the text translation in chat conversations, there were no good voice-to-voice translator applications that would perform the job in real time.

Microsoft soon to release their Skype Translator app


Microsoft hopes to bridge this gap with their Microsoft Live chat translator. This is how it will work. Imagine you’re connecting to someone online on the Skype Messenger network, and they speak only French and you, only English. Now, using the Skype voice translator it is possible to have a live voice chat session with this contact by translating his voice data from French to English and yours, from English to French.

Microsoft actually demonstrated this new technology in a press conference a few months ago, where one of their executives used the Skype Translator to chat with a colleague in Germany. The German voice was translated in to English text as well as voice. And, the German executive was listening to the German-translated version of the voice from the executive talking in English.

The Skype Translator app also displayed the translated text on screen while transmitting the voice data. The demo garnered mixed reactions from the audience. As it happens, the German translation was not that great, according to a German member in the audience.

Clearly, Microsoft has to make a few tweaks to the program and get the translation right. The German-speaker who commented was of the opinion that such a crude German translation might not be suitable for business communications. If that is indeed the case, then Microsoft need to work on their translation engine used in this program.

According to Microsoft, they intend to break down the language barriers that exist in the online world, today. Tech experts point out that this involves the use of three technologies – speech recognition, text-to-speech conversion and also, language translation. The end product might not always be a 100%. The meaning intended in the original voice data might not always be correctly captured in the translated voice, especially when colloquialisms and slangs are used in the conversation.

But, Microsoft has clearly demonstrated that it is indeed possible to have a live voice-to-voice translated conversation using their app. Let us hope that the final version they will release in the next few months live up to the expectations.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Outlook Express Errors And Fixes

Outlook Express is an email client program, which comes preinstalled with various Microsoft operating systems like Windows 98 and Windows XP. Even though this email client is considered as highly efficient, you can encounter certain troubles occasionally. Some of the most common Outlook Express problems are failure to send and receive emails, freezing of the program, unable to download email attachments etc. Now, in this post, we will take you through some of the troubleshooting steps that you could try, to fix this issue.

Check Outlook Express Settings

The first step is to find out whether you have made any changes to the settings accidentally. Any small change with the settings can affect the email program. Therefore, launch the program and click the option Tools. Choose the option Accounts. From the various email accounts you have added in the program, click the one with which you encounter troubles and select the button Properties. This opens the window for the email properties. Click the tab Servers where you will find major settings for the email. Verify if the settings match with the ones provided by your service provider. Go to the Advanced tab and find out whether the port numbers entered for the incoming and outgoing mail servers are correct or not.

Scan the computer

If you find the Outlook Express program to be responding much slower than before, it could be due to a virus infection in your computer. Therefore, download an antivirus program and run a complete scan of your computer. If you have already installed an antivirus program, update it and run the scan.

Outlook Express Add-ins

Sometimes, an add-in in the program might be causing the troubles. Therefore, disable the add-ins one by one. This will help you to find out the corrupted one. Disable or remove the corrupted add-in permanently. If it is an important add-in, which you frequently use, reinstall it.

Registry scan

Corrupted registry entries can also create Outlook Express problems. Since, it is not an easy task to go through various registry entries and check for the corrupted entries, download a registry cleaner program from the internet. It is advised that you download a paid version of the program and not the free trial versions, so that you can avail all the features. Run the scan, fix the errors and restart your PC.

With the above steps, you can fix the errors with your Outlook Express program. For additional help, you may contact our technical support team.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

How To Remove Outlook And Outlook Express From The Computer

Outlook and Outlook Express are email client programs from Microsoft. Majority of professionals around the world use Outlook or Outlook Express for their business communication purposes. Both these email client programs are easy to set up and have a simple interface. However, if you do not wish to use email client programs and like to stick on to the internet email account, it is advised that you remove Outlook and Outlook Express from the computer. This will help you save valuable space in the hard disk. In this post, we will take you through the steps to remove Outlook and Outlook Express from the computer.

Steps Involved
According to Outlook help desk, you can remove the Outlook program with a few steps. Outlook program will be listed among the other programs in the Add or Remove Programs window from where you can remove it. Let us go through the steps below.
  • Press the Windows logo on the keyboard to open the Start menu. 
  • In the Start menu, click Control Panel. 
  • Locate the icon Add/Remove Programs and double click it. 
  • From the list of programs in the window, click Microsoft Office. You will find two buttons next to the program, Change and Remove. Click the button Change. 
  • The above step will open a window for Microsoft Office Setup. Choose the option Add or Remove Features. 
  • Remove the check mark next to the program Microsoft Outlook and select the button Update. This will initiate the removal process.
As you might already know, Outlook Express is present as a default program in the Windows XP operating system. Therefore, it is one of the Windows Components and can be removed only with the help of the Windows Components Wizard. Let us now go through the steps involved in this process.
  • Open the Start button and click Control Panel.
  • Open the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel window.
  • Locate the button for Add or Remove Windows Components from the left pane of the window and select it.
  • From the list of programs, locate Outlook Express. Remove the check mark from the program.
  • Select the button Next. This will initiate the Outlook Express removal process.
  • Choose the button Finish when the process ends.
With the above steps, you can remove Outlook and Outlook Express programs from the computer. For further help, you may contact the Outlook help desk or our technical support team.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Final Version Of Windows Live SkyDrive Outwits Beta Version

Online storage facilities, or commonly known as cloud storage services, are rapidly replacing conventional storage options. It would be too outdated to imagine about conventional storage options after about a decade. Though Dropbox introduced online storage for the first time, many firms have started offering online storage services to users in the recent past. Today, there are numerous cloud storage services available for a user to choose from, many of which allow users to back up a certain amount of data online free of charge.

Although it came late, Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage facility with its Windows Live support options has significant appeal to the users.

Microsoft’s Windows Live SkyDrive

The final version of Microsoft’s Windows Live SkyDrive facility is out now. Reports indicate that the final version features many more options than the beta version. There has been a significant improvement of storage space. The beta version allowed users to store only up to 512 MB of data. When the final version came, the storage capacity was improved to 1GB. Interestingly, last year’s update upped the storage capacity again. Currently, Windows Live SkyDrive provides users with 5 GB of storage space. Although the storage space is less than Google Drive and other third party storage services, one must consider that the service is provided free of cost from the world’s number one software company.

SkyDrive available in many countries

Another good side of Microsoft’s SkyDrive is that it is available in many countries. According to the Windows Live Support team, the final version of SkyDrive is made available for 38 countries across the world. This is a significant improvement against the beta version. The beta version was made available for only three countries, UK, USA and India.

Final version of SkyDrive boasts increased reliability

The beta version of SkyDrive suffered a few drawbacks and many even considered it unreliable. Microsoft has addressed such issues in the new SkyDrive version, and assures users about the improvements brought up to the facility. A remarkable improvement that can be seen in SkyDrive is the smoothness and quickness in uploading data.

Microsoft has retained most of the appreciated features of the SkyDrive beta version in the final version. Options to integrate with popular Windows Live services and ability to create private or public folders are examples for the popular features retained in the final SkyDrive version.

How To Update To Windows 8.1 Manually

The users of the Windows 8 operating system must know that the Windows 8.1 Update was released on April 8. This was to fix many issues and difficulties that were faced by the Windows 8 users. The biggest complaint was regarding the missing Start button.

However, many of the users have complained that they are facing many issues while trying to do the Windows 8.1 Update. As per the Windows online support team, updating to Windows 8.1 is mandatory, as it will be using it as a base platform for all the future updates. By May 13, it will be mandatory for all the users of the Windows 8 operating system to do the Windows 8.1 Update.

Manual steps to install the new Windows 8.1 Update will be the only option in case you are stuck with some errors while trying to get the update through the Windows Update program. Microsoft recommends the users to connect their laptop to the power supply and then connect it to the Internet, before doing the Windows Update. This is to avoid disconnection or turning off during the process of installing the update.

As per an article on softpedia, the user will have to enter the Modern UI and making use of the Settings Charm, click or tap on Change PC settings and then open the Update and recovery option. You may then tap on the Windows Update option and then on Check now option to ensure that the Windows Update displays the most recent patches that are available for your Windows 8 computer. After finishing the process of checking the updates, you can click on the View Details option and then select KB2919355. Click on the Install button and wait until the installation completes successfully. You will have to restart the computer after finishing the installation process.

Understand that the process of installation of update may take up to 10 minutes depending on the configuration of your computer and the speed of your Internet connection. As per Microsoft, some of the users are unable to see the above-mentioned patch in the Windows Update list. The reason for this is that they may not have installed the other necessary updates.

As per the Windows online support team, “If you don’t see KB 2919355 in the list of available updates, you might be missing one or more required updates. Follow the previous steps to check for updates, install all important updates, particularly KB 2919442, restart your PC, and then check for KB 2919355 again.”

If you wish to know more about updating Windows 8 manually, you can contact the Microsoft support team or get in touch with our technical support team.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Some Tips For Printing A Webpage In Your Windows 8 OS

Microsoft’s Windows online support page offers a lot of tips with and solutions for many of the Windows operating system problems. You can easily find the solutions for many Windows 8 problems here. Microsoft has also included a Help and Support in the operating system for taking care of most of these problems.

Problems with printing a web page in the Windows 8 OS
Many users have the habit of taking printouts of webpage articles and contents. In many online magazine and newspaper websites, you will see print options for aligning the web page properly before printing. You might have spotted the printer icon or the Click here for Print-friendly version link on such web pages, right next to the content you are reading. However, many website do not provide such print-friendly options or settings for their web content.

So, when you take a printout of these web pages, you may not get the desired results. Sometimes, the printout would include all the unnecessary images and advertisements shown on the web page and this result in unnecessary use of your expensive printer cartridge ink. Follow some of these tips provided here to help to print the web pages correctly.

As already mentioned, some pages do provide print-friendly options. If you do not find them near the article you are reading, look at the options provided at the bottom, or try one of the menus shown on the page. Most websites give prominence to social networking options and the print option, in most cases, will be given under the More Options or More Tools category.

Many browser applications come with the webpage print options and you need to go through the browser menu to find them. In most browsers, this option will be there in the File menu. You will see web page print settings, print preview options, etc. These print settings include options for excluding the images, colours, etc from the web page and using only the text content for taking the print out.

Yet another solution is to copy the relevant text content from the web page that you want to print onto a word or notepad document. You can easily copy the contents and paste it on a new MS Word document and take the print out. Alternatively, you can copy the entire page to the Word document including the images, remove the bits you do not want, and then take the print out.

For more tips and solutions on printer issues, visit the Windows online support page online.