China Turns Out To Be A Tough Spot For Microsoft

Microsoft was shocked by China’s decision to ban the use of Windows 8 on its government systems. A report published in China’s national news agency Xinhua indicates that the Chinese government has directed all government institutions in the country to not use Windows 8 on any office PCs. The ban does not affect individual users. However, it is sure to affect Microsoft’s ambition to become the biggest OS seller in the world’s largest market.  Of late, Microsoft has been working out different steps to improve the sale of Windows operating systems in the Chinese market. Meanwhile, it has been reported that the Chinese government is infuriated by Microsoft’s decision to lift Windows XP support.  

Windows XP market use in China

According to a survey conducted recently, more than 90 percent of the government offices in China use Windows XP. When Microsoft lifted Windows XP on 8^th April, China was among the first countries to react to the decision. Of late, it has been reported that China is encouraging third party PC security firms to come up with effective solutions to curb security issues popping up in XP in the wake of Microsoft’s termination of support.

The country is willing to upgrade to Windows 8 or use the advanced Windows 8 transfer feature for backing up and moving data between PCs. It appears that the country has not approved Windows 8 because of the controversies over Edward Snowden’s revelation that Microsoft is supporting America to spy diplomatic data of other countries. Countries like Germany and Brazil had strongly opposed the CIA’s spying. However, no other country but China had taken a strong opposition against Windows 8 citing security reasons.

Future of Windows operating systems in China

Despite its status as the biggest country in the world in terms of population, China does not appear to be an easy spot for Microsoft to sell its operating systems. Although China does not interfere in individual users’ choice of operating systems, more than 70 percent of the individual users in the country prefer pirated or cracked versions of Windows instead of genuine licenses. To get potential customers in the country, Microsoft has to implement different sales and marketing tactics.

Features like Windows 8 transfer are welcomed by a large number of users and have been a reason for many people opting for this OS. However, it has hardly had any impact on the Chinese users.

Lenovo To Re-launch Start Menu In Windows 8 OS

The biggest complaint on the latest Windows 8 operating system is the missing Start button. Many Windows 8 users have complained about the missing Start button in the Windows support forums and these complaints have caused a big headache to the Windows engineering team. Microsoft’s introduction of the Windows 8 operating system without the Start menu was hard for a number of users to digest. Many of the users who have done the Windows 8 transfer were very disappointed by the missing Start button.

It is heard that Lenovo is not going to wait for the release of Windows 8.1 to get the Start button back. They have partnered with a startup to restore the much-missed Start menu. The Windows 8.1 was to be released from Microsoft on October 17, 2013. This has apparently started rolling out to the manufacturers. With this update, the users will be able to see the return of the Start button, even though the full cascading menu will be absent. Possibly, in the light of this compromise, Lenovo has teamed up with the software company SweetLabs to pre-install its Pokki software on the computers. According to a press release by SweetLabs, Pokki will place a small acorn button where the Start button used to be.

Pokki is also a platform to distribute apps like Pinterest, Sound Cloud, Angry Birds, Twitter, Spotify and hundreds of other apps. This announcement also brings up improved app store and app recommendation platform, that will support additional app types which include traditional Windows apps such as Dropbox, Skype and Evernote as well as the Pokki version of social apps and web apps like Gmail and Facebook.

Meanwhile, the personal computer market is in the biggest decline of history, with the Windows 8 transfer proving to be highly troublesome among the users. The Pokki package has an app store from the Windows store, a modern Start menu and a gaming arcade. As per Bloomberg, Pokki has been downloaded into more than three million Windows 8 computers, with the average consumer opening the Pokki software more than ten times a day.

As per Lenovo, the Pokki software will arrive on some IdeaPad, IdeaCentre and ThinkPad models, though they did not specify on which models. This will be rolled out in the coming weeks. Bloomberg says that Pokki will eventually come pre-installed on all the models of Lenovo PCs. Lenovo also said that the devices would be available in multiple areas globally.

Know About The Windows 8 PC Settings

Microsoft’s latest Windows version, Windows 8 has definitely created quite an impression among the computer enthusiasts. A sudden outburst of Windows admirers has been witnessed with the launch of Windows 8 OS version. It has brilliantly included some intuitive human interface features that have gained much appreciation. Want to learn more about how to change to Windows 8, visit the Windows 8 transfer site.

Changing the PC settings of Windows 8

Here we are discussing on how to adjust the Windows 8 screen setting function. In order to open the PC settings screen, you may follow these steps:

First you need to open the Charms bar’s Settings pane. You can do this using either of the three ways. 

• Using Mouse: Move the cursor to the screen’s top or bottom right corner. When you see the Charms bar appear, click on the “Settings” icon.
• Using Keyboard: Press the short keys  “Windows+I”
• Using touch screen: Slide your finger on the screen from right edge inward to pop-out the Charms bar and tap on the “Settings” icon.

From the Settings window, choose the option “Change PC Settings”. You will now get the PC Settings screen. Similar to the Control Panel that we are familiar with, the PC Settings screen breaks down into different categories. The categories are mentioned below.

• Personalize:  Using this tool you can personalize your Start screen and Lock screen picture. Also you can change the thumbnail photo for different user accounts.
• Users: Using this tool you can change your password and also can give authorization to a different person to use your system.
• Search: This category is used to prevent an app or its contents from getting indexed.
• Share: This is specially intended for those who are usually social network users who would like to share things they see on their screen. 
• Privacy: This category is intended to prevent apps from grabbing your geographic location, name and account picture.
• Devices: This lists all the connected devices to your computer like the mouse, keyboard, monitor, printer, camera, speakers and any other external peripherals. This allows you to remove or add any devices from or onto your computer.
• Sync Your Settings: Suppose you have a Microsoft account and you have logged in using that account to your Windows 8 computer, this feature lets you sync the Microsoft account settings so that when you use a different Windows 8 computer, it loads with your Microsoft’s account settings like color, background, and other preferences on that machine.

The Windows 8 transfer site provides you with information to transfer your files to the Windows 8 platform. You can access the site for any further information on the same.