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Features

• Windows 8.1 Blue preview: It beats Windows 8

  Microsoft's Windows 8.1 Preview does much to improve Metro, but little to make Windows 8 more attractive to either new or longtime Windows users

• 10 factors that hobbled Windows 8 and what Windows 8.1 might do to fix them

  Microsoft is making a big effort to resuscitate Windows 8 with a preview of the first major upgrade to the operating system since it launched last October, but it has a lot to overcome.

• First look: Windows Server Blue beta shows compelling improvements

  There's a lot to like in Windows Server 2012 R2, but the key question centers around how Microsoft will handle licensing, our reviewer says. That alone might be the gating factor for the eventual success of this OS release.

• Why I hate the look and feel of iOS 7

  Earlier this month, Apple unveiled iOS 7, the successor to the mobile OS that powers iPhones, iPads and iPod touch models. Not everyone is sold on the new look and feel, including columnist Alex Burinskiy.

• What's the matter with Microsoft?

  Microsoft's had a tough year already. It's retreated from flubs in licensing, the design of its flagship Windows OS and most recently, innovations it wanted to bake into the Xbox One. SO what's going on?

• ATIV Q's dual OS tablet could be 'brilliant' or trouble for IT shops

  Samsung's upcoming 13.3-in. ATIV Q convertible tablet runs both Windows 8 and Android and unfolds to function as a laptop. Despite such versatility, some analysts believe it might pose a support dilemma for IT shops and confuse average users.

• The Microsoft break-up that never happened

  Thomas P. Jackson, the former federal judge who in 2000 ruled that Microsoft should be split into two companies, died Saturday. What if his ruling, overturned before it could be implemented, had gone into effect?

• First impressions of Apple's iOS 7

  The star of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference last week was clearly iOS 7, which gets a new look and a raft of new features. Columnist Michael deAgonia takes a look at what's coming this fall.

• Apple plays defense, Microsoft goes on offense in battle for iPhone customers

  Rivals Apple and Microsoft bookended the week by revealing productivity tools aimed at the same pool of customers: The millions who own Apple's iPhone.

• Launch of Outlook RT testifies to Microsoft's app troubles

  Microsoft's announcement Wednesday that it will add Outlook to Office on Windows RT says as much about the company's app problem as it does about customers clamoring for a business-grade email client.

• How Windows Red can fix Windows 8: The right strategy for Microsoft

  When Microsoft first outlined its strategy 32 months ago to bridge the old style of PC computing with the new world of tablet computing, we were optimistic. Although Apple had revolutionized computing with the iPad, creating the fastest-adopted technology ever, its approach walled off the tablet from the PC, with two different operating systems, user interfaces, and applications. Instead, Microsoft promised a unified, adaptive approach that would satisfy everyone.

• How Windows Red can fix Windows 8: The right strategy for Microsoft

  When Microsoft first outlined its strategy 32 months ago to bridge the old style of PC computing with the new world of tablet computing, we were optimistic. Although Apple had revolutionized computing with the iPad, creating the fastest-adopted technology ever, its approach walled off the tablet from the PC, with two different operating systems, user interfaces, and applications. Instead, Microsoft promised a unified, adaptive approach that would satisfy everyone.

• Hey, Microsoft: It's the apps, stupid

  Microsoft has revealed some of the changes in Windows 8 due to reach customers in a month, but didn't address what analysts called the biggest barrier to the OS' success.

• Office on Surface Pro suggests a shift in Microsoft's sales strategy

  Microsoft yesterday announced that Surface Pro tablets it will start selling in Japan on June 7 will come with a fully-functional copy of Office, a bundle one analyst said hints at a change in Microsoft's sales strategy for its homegrown hardware.

• Smacking SharePoint into shape

  More than half of all SharePoint shops have had to add functionality to the core software, which came as a surprise to a number of them. Here's what they're doing.