Is the next evolution of Windows destined to be driverless? The search for Windows drivers has always been part of the Windows experience, so is Microsoft moving away from drivers with its upcoming improvements to Windows 8?

You still need Windows drivers

For the most part, you’ll need drivers to connect your Windows hardware to your computer, but Microsoft is trying to improve the mobile experience for users-on-the-go. In that respect, the move away from drivers is on for certain functions of the operating system.

One such function is printing. It’s always been a long, difficult slog to get Windows printing to work the way you want it to. On a home or business network, the effort isn’t always bad, but try dropping a device onto a foreign network and you could be in for trouble!

Microsoft hopes to eliminate the uncertainty of mobile printing with the upcoming update to Windows 8. Taking advantage of near-field communications (NFC) capabilities supported in Windows 8, Microsoft will introduce “tap-to-pair” printing for mobile devices using wireless networks. Users simply enable NFC-enabled Windows 8 mobile devices, then tap the device on any NFC-tagged printer and the mobile device will pair for printing services.

Additionally, direct wi-fi printing capabilities in the Windows 8.1 update will allow users with mobile devices to set up what is essentially a peer-to-peer network with a compatible printing device. A brief introduction and some handshaking is all that’s necessary to gain access to a printer through a Windows 8 mobile device. No additional drivers are needed, which makes the prospects for printing from mobile devices a lot better!

The new update will be unveiled “for show” at the end of June, and should be available to consumers by the end of 2013, though no firm consumer release date has been announced.
What does this mean for non-mobile users? Not much, though the prospects of using wireless printing in the office are pretty exciting. For the most part, Windows 8 has implemented a new printing model that relies less heavily on individual manufacturers’ Windows drivers, and more on built-in standards that devices will need to meet.

Driver maintenance will still be an issue for most Windows hardware, including graphical displays, keyboards, mice, network adapters and other essential devices. For driver maintenance in Windows 8, I recommend Driver Detective. Driver Detective, which has been downloaded millions of times, will help you locate, download, install and maintain all of the drivers required for your PC. Driver Detective supports all versions of Windows, including Windows 8. Download your copy today!

Photo Credit: Microsoft

Microsoft has announced the next evolution of its Xbox gaming platform, the Xbox One. The Xbox One will bring gesture-based and voice-based control to gaming in a way that no other platform has done to date. The Xbox One offers more than just gaming. It offers a single pathway to television, Internet and gaming – all in one device. Among all of the Xbox One hype, there is still some hope for PC users who are looking to integrate gesture-recognition into their gameplay. Windows drivers for the Kinect were released long ago, but the question for PC gamers remains: where is Kinect?

Gesture Recognition Isn’t As Simple As Having The Right Drivers

Part of the Kinect experience is being able to control gameplay using your body instead of a separate hardware device or controller. The Kinect was designed to read body movements from across the room. PC gamers aren’t like console gamers in that respect; most PC gamers are sitting right in front of their PC. Not exactly the sweet spot for gesture recognition.

The question most PC gamers have is, “How can gesture recognition technology based on the Kinect be incorporated into the PC gaming experience?” It’s a question that has yet to be answered successfully in terms of products on the market.

It’s pretty clear that the Kinect – at least in the form you see it in the stores – won’t be integrated into the PC for gaming purposes anytime soon, but the concept of gesture recognition may be closer than some gamers realize. The trick will be developing gesture recognition software (and hardware) that focuses primarily on the user’s hands and works in close proximity to the game console.

Gesture recognition is a stable of mobile devices. But mobile devices have the benefit of having the user’s hand making significant contact with a touch-screen on a mobile device. A Kinect-based technology for PC’s probably wouldn’t be a touchscreen affair. So what might it look like?

The Leap Motion controller has been much talked about as a potential answer to the question of device control in a small, short-distance 3D space. Earlier this month, Double Fine exhibited Dropchord, an app designed for the Leap Motion controller, which is supposed to debut in July.
It remains to be seen how intuitive the controller will be for the user, and what level of skill is required to make the controller work. But it’s a first step toward gesture control for PC games, and may provide an answer to the “Kinect” question for the PC platform.

Photo Credit: Leap Motion

Recently, Microsoft announced that sales of its new Windows 8 operating system were keeping pace with the sales activities of its predecessor, Windows 7 in the first six months following the launch of each product. Before anyone starts popping champagne corks, it’s helpful to remember that sales are just one measure of the OS’s commercial success. Other elements, like the availability of hardware drivers and compatible hardware sales are also important.

Installed User Base Is The Magic Metric

For most analysts, the big question isn’t, “How many people are buying Windows 8?” but rather, “How many people are using Windows 8?” It’s helpful to remember that Windows 8 licenses are coming with virtually all newly purchased PCs, but that the largest consumers of the OS – commercial customers – are much slower to install and use an OS.

When you look at usage versus sales, Windows XP and Windows 7 still each have a larger active user base than does Windows 8, but that doesn’t mean Windows 8 can’t be considered a commercial success. Windows 8, unlike Windows 7, was designed to meet the needs of mobile device users. The millions of desktop users aren’t in any significant hurry to replace their operating systems, and those who are ready to make the jump are most likely to migrate to Windows 7 for desktop devices.

Windows 8 works just fine on desktops, by the way. Despite the loads of features built in for mobile devices, Windows 8 still has a lot to offer the not-so-mobile user. One of the biggest shifts the user will need to make with Windows 8 is navigation.

Windows 8 doesn’t look like Windows 7 and doesn’t act like Windows 7 (and earlier versions of the OS) in many ways. Gone are things like the Start button – a feature which caused a lot of uproar itself when it was first introduced.

Windows 8 presents the user with “tiles” that make perfect navigational sense on a mobile device, but may not help out the desktop user all that much. Again, if you’re accustomed to the traditional Windows navigation experience, Windows 8 will definitely take some getting used to.

You will find a growing number of hardware drivers for Windows 8, and you’ll also be pleased to find that some of your Windows 7 drivers will oblige a Windows 8 installation with ease. Windows 8 takes a lot of Windows 7 along for the ride, so getting past the initial navigation switch will help reveal a device that works in much the same way it always has!

For driver management, Driver Detective offers a Windows 8 version that can help you keep your Windows 8 device completely updated in terms of hardware drivers. Driver Detective for Windows 8 provides the exact same protections that earlier versions do, and can help keep you Windows 8 device running flawlessly! If you’ve migrated to Windows 8, take your driver management software along for the ride! Download and install a copy of Driver Detective for Windows 8 today!

Photo Credit: Ceo1O17, via Flickr

Backing up a computer seems to be a confusing task for some people. I’m not sure why, but there are several schools of thought on backups. What confuses me most as a technician, is why some folks want a data-only backup. Having a recent system backup that includes all of your Windows drivers is indispensible when the unthinkable happens.

Data? Configuration? Both!

Don’t get me wrong! I understand the value of a data backup. After all, you have the programs and can reload them as needed, but you can’t recreate your data without the help of a backup. Even so, you still run the real risk of losing data that you may have created between incremental backups.
Most people seem to forget that they can also lose system configuration information when their hard disk crashes or they experience some other type of failure. Having a complete, recent backup of your system software, configuration data and hardware drivers can really bail you out of a tight spot and make the process of recovery from a crash a lot easier.

If you put your system on a backup schedule, don’t allow your backups to age by more than a month. Most people don’t mess with their system configurations too much, so your system and configurations might not change too much on a month-to-month basis. What does change is the system patches you apply from Patch Tuesday, and any out-of-band updates that might come along.

If you don’t want to put your system on a regular backup schedule, you should manually roll a system backup whenever you apply a patch, update a driver or make configuration changes. Sounds like a pain? Imagine having to re-create your system after a crash!

Your best bet is to schedule regular backups that include both your data and your system configuration. You can survive the loss of an application because you can either reload it from original media and patch back to the current revision level, or you can redownload it, if you opted for a media-less installation. Your data is irreplaceable, so it definitely requires regular backup, and your system configuration, including your hardware drivers, really requires a regular backup of some sort.

If you really want to be safe about having your system configuration protected, consider using Driver Detective. Driver Detective manages and maintains all of the hardware drivers your system requires. You’ll never fall behind on driver updates, and the current versions of your hardware drivers are always immediately at hand!

Download your copy of Driver Detective today and take some time to protect this important part of your system configuration.

Photo Credit: quapan, via Flickr