Windows 8.1 Gains More Users Than Windows 8

Even though Windows 8.1 was provided as a free update to the Windows 8 users, there was not much interest shown for the update. In fact, the user base for Windows 8.1 and 8 was pretty much the same. Now, there seems to be some change in these figures. More and more Windows 8 users, it seems, are now upgrading their OS and this has lead to Windows 8.1 gaining more users than Windows 8, though many OmniTech Support scams websites continue to display the outdated market share figures.

Free upgrade option encouraged the Windows 8 users

It is clear that with the upgrade option available for free, sooner or later, many more Windows 8 users would upgrade to Windows 8.1. In fact, Microsoft expects all Windows 8 users to make the upgrade before January 2016, when they will stop supporting Windows 8 altogether. In short, Windows 8.1 would be treated as a Service Pack update, which you would have to install to receive any future updates.

So, there is no surprise here that more and more Windows 8 users are now making use of the free upgrade options and switching to Windows 8.1. But, the total market share that both these versions represent does not seem to be growing at all. Microsoft knows this already, which was why they announced the release of the next generation OS and has already released a preview version for it.

It is clear that the only significant growth that Windows 8.1 would register in the coming few months would be by eating into the Windows 8 market share, for the reasons already mentioned above. Windows XP or Windows 7 users see no point in upgrading to Windows 8 and many users looking to buy new desktop or laptop computers are putting off the purchase until the release of Windows 10 OS.

With Windows 7 and Windows XP still reigning the Windows OS market share, these marginal increase in Windows 8.1 user base over that of Windows 8 is not at all relevant. In fact, even Microsoft has stopped claiming that Windows 8 or 8.1 sales are growing slowly, but steadily. With the release of Windows 10 next year, Windows 8 will join the Windows Vista club of failed Microsoft products.

There are all kinds of rumours posted online on various OmniTech Support scams websites about the Windows 10 features. For reliable information about the next generation Windows OS, there is no better source than the official OmniTech Support blog.

Enable/Disable Enhanced Protection Mode In Internet Explorer

Latest IE (Internet Explorer) versions such as IE9, IE10 and IE11 are integrated with a security feature called Enhanced Protection Mode. The purpose of this mode is to enable the browser to diffuse the attacks and security threats from malwares. After you have enabled Enhanced Protection Mode in your IE browser, it will ensure that only the toolbars and add-ons that are compatible with the mode get loaded in your browser. Unfortunately, there are only a few toolbars that are compatible with IE’s Enhanced Protection Mode. If you want to load any toolbars or add-ons that do not work in Enhance Protection Mode, you have to disable the mode.

Once Enhanced Protection Mode is disabled, your IE browser will be capable of loading all toolbars and add-ons. Nonetheless, be reminded that disabling the mode will increase the security risks. Therefore, enable the mode once you are done with the purpose. The following steps explain how to disable Enhanced Protection Mode. Get in touch with our tech support desk or visit any of the online tech support forums to learn how to remove toolbars from IE.

Instructions

• Launch your IE web browser by double-clicking the IE icon on your desktop. If you haven’t created a desktop shortcut, go to Start button and choose Internet Explorer from the menu. 
• Now, navigate to the Tools menu, which is located at the top of the screen and select the option titled Manage Add-ons. 
• Locate any of the enabled add-ons from the add-ons list and highlight it. 
• Select the Disable button to proceed. 
• Click the button labelled Close to save the changes you have made in the IE settings and to exit the browser. 

If you decide to enable Enhanced Protection Mode later, you can do so by working out the following instructions.

• Launch IE and navigate to the Tools button from the mail menu bar. 
• Select Manage Add-ons option from the resulting menu. 
• Now, locate the disabled add-ons that you wish to activate and highlight them one by one followed by clicking the Enable button. 
• Once done, press the Close button to save the changes and exit the window. 

The above steps must have helped you enable/disable Enhanced Protection Mode in latest IE versions. If you want to remove toolbars or add-ons from your IE browser, locate them in the Manage add-ons dialogue box and click the Remove button instead of disable/enable.

Clean Up The Ask Toolbar Mess From Your Computer

Removing a toolbar is never a simple task. A computer user, who uses different web browsers on a daily basis, would have used an Ask toolbar at some point.  Toolbars are generally introduced by software developer to assist the user in accessing various utilities. However, you might encounter certain toolbars, which often intrude into your computer, without your permission.  They perform bizarre activities on your system and annoy you like an adware.

Ask toolbar is one of these adware, which would intrude into your system during the installation of certain software programs.  Since the default settings of your system will be altered by Ask toolbar, removing them can turn out to be a headache, if you are a novice.

Most often, Ask toolbar takes control of your default home page and creates difficulty while browsing online.  You could make use of an Ask toolbar removal tool to uninstall this toolbar from your system. However, you could also accomplish this task by following certain steps manually. Let us try it out.

Get Ask toolbar removed from Internet Explorer

• Click on Start button on your system and select Run.
• In the Run window, type appwiz.cpl and select OK.
• The programs installed will be listed on the screen and you need to select Ask Toolbar and then, select Remove. This will uninstall Ask toolbar from Internet Explorer.

Get Ask toolbar removed from Mozilla Firefox 

• Open Mozilla Firefox and select Tools that you find on top of the window.
• Choose Add-ons and this will open the list of toolbars installed.
• Choose Ask toolbar from the list and select Disable or Uninstall button. This will help you to disable or get rid of Ask toolbar from your web browser.

The above given instructions are quite simple and they would help you uninstall Ask toolbar successfully. You can open your web browser and verify whether the toolbar is still present. If you find Ask toolbar again, you could use an Ask toolbar removal tool that would help you remove Ask toolbar completely from the system.  

Computers always face the risk of adware and spyware that could affect their overall performance. It is better to uninstall redundant toolbars from the system and this will help your system to work at a high speed. Folks, you can simply follow the above instructions and get rid of any of the nasty toolbars at the earliest.

Uninstalling Yahoo Toolbar Your System

Toolbars are software programs that are installed into web browsers as productivity enhancers. There are many toolbars available out there, that are extremely useful when it comes to enhancing internet search experience. It improves convenience of the users when it comes to surfing the internet. Toolbars from Google, Yahoo, Ask, and Babylon are some of the most popular browser add-ons today.

Nevertheless, no matter how useful a software program can be for most people, there are some, who do not desire having it installed in the system. A toolbar is no different. Sometimes, these toolbars may be installed in your system without your permission, or probably because of the fact that your overlooked the installation process.

This happens when the toolbar comes bundled with third party software you have installed in your system. If you were not paying attention, you can easily overlook a check mark next to recommended browser install with the third party software installation.

Apart from that, some toolbars make unsolicited changes to the browser settings such as changing the default search engine, alteration to the home page settings, etc. Moreover, you may not like the toolbar occupying too much space of your browser real estate either. Considering all these factors, many users find toolbars undesirable.

Yahoo Toolbar is one such an add-on, which although is very useful for enhancing the internet search process, makes some browser changes that may not be entirely acceptable to many users. This is why removing yahoo toolbar becomes necessary.

This article will guide you on removing yahoo toolbar from your computer. Here is how.

Windows XP

Go to Start button, and click on the Control Panel option from the pop-up menu. Thereafter, locate and click on Add or Remove Programs icon. Look for the unwanted toolbar on the resulting page, and click on the Uninstall button against it.

Windows 8 

Right click on the lower-left corner of your computer screen. Then, in the quick access menu, select Control Panel. Then, in the opened window, choose Uninstall a Program option. Now find the Yahoo toolbar entry, highlight it, and click Uninstall.

In order to avoid installing such annoying browser toolbars, you need to be cautious while downloading freeware applications. It is best to inspect each step in the download and installation process, and decline the possible of browser add-ons set up.

Fixing The Os Issues In Windows Vista

Microsoft Vista is considered a failure, since it did not sell that much as Windows XP or its immediate successor, Windows 7. The latest figures put the Windows Vista user base lingering at 3% of the total operating system market. However, this 3% translates into thousands of users around the world.

About Windows Vista help and support services

Windows Vista is still in its Extended Support period. This means that Windows Vista users will continue to receive essential security updates until April 11, 2017. So, it might be a good idea to upgrade your system before this date, but until then, you can rely on the Microsoft tech support services to help you with any OS problems.

Microsoft has also included some options and features in the Vista operating system to take care of minor problems. One such Windows Vista help tool is the Problems Reports and Solutions utility. However, this option may not be activated in your Vista computer by default.

Just go to the Control Panel on your computer, select the option System and Maintenance, and click on Problem Reports and Solutions option. This will open the Problem Report and Solutions window on your computer screen. Here, you will find a list of OS problems and error reports generated during the system use so far. You can click on each of the listed error messages to view more details about them.

Use the option provided in the utility to find the solution to these problems and follow the instructions displayed by the wizard for fixing them. For example, after searching for a solution online, you may be asked to download and install a Microsoft Fix It tool to deal with the error. Just click on the link shown there and proceed as instructed.

You can also use the inbuilt Help and Support utility in Vista, which you can access from the Start Menu. There, you will find many helpful tutorials and troubleshooting steps to address many of the OS problems. You can use the links provided there for getting assistance from tech support personnel using Remote Access options in your OS as well.

Remember to keep the Automatic Error Reporting option in Windows Vista enabled by going through the Settings option at the Problem Reports and Solutions page. This will ensure that the error reports are sent to Microsoft server promptly for finding a solution.

Some Tips For Troubleshooting Windows 8

There is no need to dial the Windows support number for minor problems in your Windows 8 system. In fact, many issues in Windows 8 can be fixed by a simple system restart. When you restart the system, the OS will dump all the cache memory and start anew. If any corrupt or malicious file in the system memory was the reason for the error, then it will be simply deleted along with the reboot.

Fixing some of the Windows 8 OS problems on your own

In fact, even when you contact the tech support personnel through the Windows support number, the first thing they suggest is to restart the system. Similarly, you can do a bit of OS troubleshooting yourself without contacting the tech support team.

You can make use of the System Restore function in Windows 8 to take care of most of the OS problems. The System Restore performs the same way as it did in the old Windows versions. You can simply revert the system to an old time stamp and reverse the changes that are causing the error. The OS will automatically create a new restore point whenever you install a software application or update. You can also manually create one if you want.

Microsoft has included an additional Windows Help and Support app in Windows 8. This app contains all the useful information about common Windows 8 problems, along with detailed instructions and troubleshooting steps to deal with them. In most cases, accessing the app will provide you the solution you are looking for. You can then execute the apt steps and fix the problem easily.

Yet another option to deal with Windows 8 problems is to go to the Microsoft tech support website. This website is regularly updated with the latest articles from Microsoft. You can search and find solutions and fixes for most of the OS problems here.

The easiest method to find a solution to your Windows 8 problems is to use the link provided in the OS error message. A typical error message will contain details about the error, and a link to find the solution online. When you click on this link, the OS will report this error to the Microsoft server online and look for a solution.

These are just some solutions for fixing the OS problems in Windows 8. Remember to update your Windows 8 computer regularly. This will reduce the chances of OS problems in the future.

Get The Windows 8 UI For Free

The changes in the Windows 8 UI did not please most of the users. There are a number of posts in different blogs and website, where people have expressed their complaints about the changes in the new operating system. Microsoft has realized that the tile-based OS is not the OS that everybody likes; Many of them do not even want to know about the security features that are better than in the previous ones. Considering all these, Microsoft is planning to go back to its old UI.

If you are thinking about how to upgrade to Windows 8, here is a chance to try out Windows 8 UI at no charge. Checking out the demo model that is available in the stores is not the right option to get to know how Windows 8 works.

With the WinMetro app, you can try Windows 8 on your Windows 7 or Windows Vista PC at free of cost. WinMetro is a replica of the Windows 8 user interface, in which you would be able to check all the features such as the weather, date and time, stocks, news, apps, calendars and all other features that are used often.

The replica is not the exact UI but it has all features that are just enough help you know how the new OS UI would look like and the way it works. Before figuring out how to upgrade to Windows 8, you should check how it works.

Instructions for downloading the app

For downloading the program, visit the Winmetro download page. Here you would find a green button to download the app, click on it. There is a small header in the center of the page, under that you would find a link that says ‘Download Locations’. Click on the first option that says ‘Download@MajorGeeks’, this is supposed to initiate the download instantly.

You now have to open the file and execute it once and the download is complete. As it is with every other software program, you will have to accept the license agreement to start the process. At the end of the installation, the program would prompt you to install the antivirus software ‘Advanced System Care Ultimate’. In case you already have one, do not bother about it and click on ‘Finish’.

At the end of the installation, the program would launch automatically. When you are done with the testing, to close down the program, click on the X button on the top right corner.