Most modern SSDs come with some form of hardware encryption. On these drives with hardware encryption, it’s usually permanently turned on - all data written to the NAND is typically stored in encrypted form. This stems from the fact that all writes to NAND had to be scrambled to begin with (writing long repeated strings of data to NAND can cause problems for data retention). The earliest implementations weren’t sophisticated enough to be considered real encryption, but these days it’s not uncommon to see hardware AES-128/256 support. The bad news has been that relying on OS driven filesystem encryption always meant the use of software encryption on top of your drive’s native encryption. This was particularly a problem on SandForce based drives, where full disk...

The Windows 8 Copy Dialog Box

Microsoft revamped the Copy Dialog box in Windows 8. You now get useful visualizations of the progress and speed of your file copy. You can also pause/resume individual copies...

17 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/29/2012

Windows 8 Consumer Preview: The Four Corners

During Microsoft's Windows 8 Consumer Preview Event at MWC today, Microsoft demonstrated some of the new features in the CP release out today. While the Metro UI obviously lends...

60 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/29/2012

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Available for Download

Adventurous Windows users can now download the Windows 8 Consumer preview from Microsoft's web site using the link provided below. The preview version of the new OS is available...

14 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/29/2012

Microsoft Showcases SkyDrive Metro and Desktop Apps for Windows 8

Microsoft has talked a bit about SkyDrive before in its plans for Windows 8, but Microsoft's Mike Torres and Omar Shahine have authored a Building Windows 8 blog post...

17 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/20/2012

Windows Store App Submission Process Detailed

Microsoft’s Jonathan Garrigues has detailed some aspects of the submissions process for the upcoming Windows Store on the company’s Windows Store for Developers blog. The post describes in detail...

4 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/15/2012

Microsoft Discusses Windows 8 Accessibility Improvements

After last week's broad, sweeping post about Windows on ARM, the Building Windows 8 team is back to discussing the nuts and bolts of the operating system - today...

13 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/14/2012

Microsoft Provides Windows on ARM Details

We've known that Microsoft has been planning an ARM-compatible version of Windows since well before we knew anything else about Windows 8, but the particulars have often been obscured...

62 by Andrew Cunningham on 2/9/2012

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Event Scheduled For Feb 29

Windows aficionado Paul Thurrott has just confirmed that the Windows 8 Consumer Preview event will be held in Barcelona, Spain on February 29, 2012. Coming from Mr. Thurrott, we...

12 by Saumitra Bhagwat on 2/9/2012

Microsoft Makes Changes to Windows 8's File Management Changes

We've been covering the changes in Windows 8 fairly closely since Microsoft started talking about the upcoming operating system, and while most of these changes will probably land in...

7 by Andrew Cunningham on 1/31/2012

Windows 8 Motion Sensor Support Detailed

Windows 8's tablet-centric focus means that it's going to pick up a lot of new features to support hardware particular to those devices - Microsoft's Gavin Gear took to...

22 by Andrew Cunningham on 1/25/2012

Windows 8 Mobile Broadband Enhancements Detailed

Using mobile broadband in Windows 8 will no longer require specific drivers and third-party software, says Microsoft's Billy Anders in a Building Windows 8 blog post today. This is...

14 by Andrew Cunningham on 1/20/2012

Microsoft's ReFS Filesystem for Windows 8 Server Explained

While Windows 8 client machines will continue to use the NTFS filesystem, Microsoft's Surendra Verma has given us some details on Windows 8 Server's new "Resilient File System," or...

18 by Andrew Cunningham on 1/16/2012

Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga 13 with Windows 8: This Is the Ultrabook We Want

We were back at Lenovo’s suite today and got a chance to spend a bit more time with a laptop that we didn’t get around to discussing on Tuesday...

31 by Jarred Walton on 1/12/2012

NVIDIA Tegra 3: Games Plus SplashTop Streaming of Skyrim

Tegra 3 tablets are a big thing for NVIDIA right now, and we’ve seen quite a few new tablets using the SoC. At NVIDIA’s booth, they had a bunch...

12 by Jarred Walton on 1/11/2012

CES 2012: Windows 8 Beta In Late February

There has been some speculation over the last few months over when to expect the beta release of Windows 8. During Microsoft's final CES keynote tonight, Microsoft put that...

20 by Ryan Smith on 1/9/2012

Windows 8's "Storage Spaces" Detailed

Windows 8's new Storage Spaces functionality will easily allow users and system administrators to pool different physical drives together into one logical drive, writes Rajeev Nagar on the Building...

38 by Andrew Cunningham on 1/6/2012

Windows 8's Refresh and Reset Functionality Detailed

Microsoft's Desmond Lee took to the Building Windows 8 blog today to detail the Reset and Refresh functionality which will allow users to restore Windows to a pristine state...

13 by Andrew Cunningham on 1/4/2012

Microsoft Announces Windows Store Details

In an announcement aimed squarely at developers, Microsoft's Antoine Leblond and Ted Dworkin yesterday revealed some hard details for the upcoming Windows 8 app store. Using Apple's and Android's...

17 by Andrew Cunningham on 12/7/2011

Windows 8 to Feature Streamlined Downloadable Installer

As with every new Windows version, Microsoft is streamlining the Windows setup process, writes Christa St. Pierre on the Building Windows 8 Blog. The biggest change is the new...

30 by Andrew Cunningham on 11/22/2011

Windows 8 Streamlines Windows Update

With every new Windows release, Microsoft promises to reduce the number of times we'll have to restart our computers. Things have gradually gotten better - today, many program installations...

39 by Andrew Cunningham on 11/14/2011

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