GeekwithEnvy

Laptop

New HP Computers Not designed for Windows 7

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Looking to buy a new PC? Make sure you get one with the operating system you want, already pre-installed.

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HP support mentions that downgrading your new Windows 8 PC may cause hardware issues and you may ultimately have to return to Windows 8 to get things to work again. Besides having major hardware issues, reverting to Windows 7 could be a time consuming task that will require you to modify the BIOS in order to work with previous versions of Windows.

Here is the response from an HP Administrator when asked about downgrading:

“HP does not recommend downgrading on any HP consumer desktop and notebook products. After October 26, 2012, HP consumer desktop and notebook products will ship only with Windows 8. Windows 7 will not be supported on these new platforms, and no drivers, apps, or Windows 7 content will be available through HP. If users choose to downgrade their HP consumer desktop or notebook system, HP will continue to support the hardware but if there is an issue where HP diagnostics are required OR it is determined that the loaded software or upgrade operating system is causing the issue, HP may suggest returning the system to the original Windows 8 OS that shipped with the computer.”

As a Windows 8 user I don’t feel the urge to downgrade. In most cases I have actually spent very little time using the new tile UI, in fact I spend about 90% of my time on the “old desktop”. I don’t purposely avoid the new UI, it’s just that many of the apps I use are either not designed for Windows 8 or have one too many bugs at this point. Only time will tell if users start to drop Windows 8 and go back with Windows 7, but I don’t see why anyone would. Microsoft will obviously be continuing to patch the new OS to ensure things are running smoothly and there are even a few ways to make Windows 8 look and feel more like previous versions.

 

Are Days of the Desktop Computer Numbered?

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Desktop ComputerAs I look around at so many smart phones and super light weight and thin laptops of today’s world, I can’t help but imagine the desktop computer fading out of the picture. For the longest time, it was said that laptops just don’t have enough power to do everything a desktop can.

Aside from making calls, mobile devices at best were used for mini-games, calculating a tip or text messaging. As our chips have become smaller and our wireless networks more advanced, we see our world becoming more connected while at the same time we become less connected, that is, in a wireless sense. I can do just about anything I need from my laptop and heck just about anything I need with my smart phone. Let’s not forget about the in between products like tablets, these things are great for handling day to day business and if I’m feeling bored at lunch I can open up my favorite game and update my achievements from anywhere.

To go even deeper, our devices look to become a nothing but a shell, a shell that connects to the cloud. The cloud won’t just be for storage either. Cloud computers may soon handle our processing needs. There is talk of cloud gaming in which our televisions connect to remote hardware to play our favorite titles. Cloud gaming would be a dream come true for developers who will no longer need to port from system to system or wonder how well the game will look and perform on a given machine. Why make thousands of small somewhat powerful devices when you can have everyone just plug into one massively powerful and connected “mega device”. It really can get hard to wrap your head around such a future.

There is however something that bothers me about this change. Perhaps it is the geek in me, but building my own machine is just the kind of weekend project I look forward to. Maybe there will be a market for custom built mobile devices with different CPU architectures for the same phones, a kind of a-la carte mobile experience for the uber geek in some of us or perhaps we focus our efforts elsewhere with the cloud. Mobile is guiding our future in computing faster than ever before and I can’t wait to see how this all evolves.

Alienware M17x R4

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The Alienware M17x has amazing performance, an HD display and high-definition surround sound for a pretty amazing gaming experience. As always Alienware delivers on eye candy as well by offering up some amazing visual appeal to the hardware itself. This laptop is sure to deliver on power.

Looking like part of the star ship enterprise, it really is a great looking laptop. Everything about the design feels like a gaming laptop from the body and keyboard straight to the specialized software. The Alienware Command Center software allows for some nice customization options that you really don’t see anywhere else. Other nice features include shutting down unnecessary programs and playing certain music when launching your favorite games.

Just as you would expect this laptop has the horsepower to drive today’s demanding games with the 3rd gen Intel i7 at its core and graphics driven by the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX. Display options vary with the 17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 120Hz NVIDIA 3D Vision Bundle being the best selection.

Another nice perk with these laptops is that they come without any preloaded software that normally comes with new machines, this is really a nice feature that anyone can appreciate, considering most of us spend the first half hour removing all of it anyway.

The M17x R4 is really an amazing piece of hardware that makes portable gaming a reality. Packing all that power into a tiny shell comes at a price though when it comes to battery life, which is something that engineers will need to improve in the future but this laptop is still a gaming beast and I think well worth the buy.