Will the lack of good Windows 8 apps kill Windows tablets?

New research shows that Windows 8 has barely half of the most popular iOS apps, and that's one more reason that Windows 8 tablets simply haven't caught on. Apps sell tablets, and unless Microsoft closes the app gap, Windows tablets may never make it.

Nick Landry, product manager at Infragistics, which makes user interface development tools, has found that Windows 8 has only 54% of the most popular mainstream iOS apps. Many of the apps are must-have apps for many people, including Instagram, Vine, Pandora, Facebook, and YouTube. Also missing are business-oriented apps including LinkedIn. Also missing are popular apps including Google Maps, Groupon, and Foursquare. And you also won't find many news-oriented apps such as Flipboard, Bloomberg, and BBC News. If you want to do online banking with an app, you're out of luck if you use Windows 8 and have Citibank or Chase accounts.
Will the lack of good Windows 8 apps kill Windows tablets? | Computerworld Blogs
 
I will tell my clients, if you are looking for a tablet to check email, surf the web and play games, go with the iPad, the games there are awesome, the games on Windows 8 , most of them suck, they are repetitious, stupid and most do not work and crash

If you are looking for productivity, then get a windows 8 or pro tablet
 

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Um... the same tech journal people predicted that android would die a slow and painful death because it had less apps than iOS 2 years ago. Back then, the tech media had been taken over by iFanboys.

We're suppose to believe their doomsday prediction now?
 

My Computer

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Yes
 

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I guess the question is, what do you need a tablet for? As robinb9 mentioned earlier, if you want or need iOS apps, you are likely going to want to use an iPad. If you want to use things like Office and do work with a tablet, you go with a Surface RT (as other vendors aren't really helping there, because it's a new market - see Asus and Samsung for examples). I don't think it will take too long once vNext of the Surface (both Pro and RT) come out for more people to use it, more apps to be ported to WinRT across x86 and ARM, and thus a better app ecosystem (which may, or may not, spill over to Windows Phone and Xbox One) to develop.

Windows 8 and Windows RT are just a year old this month, so I'm not ready to judge it positive or negative yet on scale. I do like Windows RT (and have a Surface RT as my daily driver), but that's because I don't play games or need some of the iOS-only apps, making my choice fairly easy. If you really like some set of apps or games that isn't in the Windows App store right now, then you have to make a decision if that's important to you or not.
 

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Well, I still think Droids suck eggs, and are ripoffs of iPhones, but they now have 80% of the market. Why not? They are thousands of times cheaper that iPhones. But I am just not impressed with Droid, never have been.

iPads have windows 8 over a barrel with the sheer amount of quality apps. The reason why Droids have survived is because the developer saw a secondary market - And started making Droid apps as quick as they could. SO now, anything you can get for iOS, you can get for Droid.

But the same devs, have not seen Windows 8 as a tertiary market. They have simply refused to start making the apps for Windows 8. So they don't exist, not to mention the Windows 8 store as well has being horribly laid out, has a VERY bad search engine. Give me the iPhones App Store for quickly locating the stuff I need. Not to mention the Genius bar that finds apps I could use and the suggestions are useful - For instance I just found a remote mouse for Windows 8, with a Charms bar and everything - And it was FREE:

http://www.benzle.com

BUT - You can install Windows 8 on a Surface Pro, which is Microsoft's "iPad". To have a desktop system in a TABLET is highly provocative. It's just too bad that the windows store will never amount to much. By now, there should be a few really good apps - And Angry Birds. is still the only decent app in the store. The Droid market filled up QUICK. The iOS store had good usable apps Immediately. Nobody really wants to make good 8 apps. and if they do, how will we ever find them?
 

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    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
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    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
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    AMD 4400+/4200+
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    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
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    2 GB/3GB
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    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
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    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
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    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
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    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
I am a little confused about the store having a very bad search engine - I've found win+Q (or using the search charm on my tablet when not using the keyboard) to be sufficient, but perhaps you mean something else specifically? The 8.1 store does have a better layout, so that might make searching a little (or a lot) better. I'm assuming you mean something specific to the way it searches, I don't want to make assumptions.
 

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    Windows 8.1 x64
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    PC/Desktop
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    Custom
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    Intel Core i7 4790K @ 4.5GHz
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    Asus Maximus Hero VII
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    32GB DDR3
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    Nvidia GeForce GTX970
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    1x Samsung 250GB SSD
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    Corsair AX760i
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    Fractal Design Define R4
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15
I am a little confused about the store having a very bad search engine - I've found win+Q (or using the search charm on my tablet when not using the keyboard) to be sufficient, but perhaps you mean something else specifically? The 8.1 store does have a better layout, so that might make searching a little (or a lot) better. I'm assuming you mean something specific to the way it searches, I don't want to make assumptions.
Try searching for something like "Facebook" and tell me which is a genuine Facebook app? Or which of them are any good...?

(I'm using 8; it's possible the 8.1 revamp has made this better)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1, 10
Try searching for something like "Facebook" and tell me which is a genuine Facebook app? Or which of them are any good...?

(I'm using 8; it's possible the 8.1 revamp has made this better)
Just to try this, I searched for "Facebook", selected "Free" and "highest rated".

One result on the first page is apparently called "Sexy Fit Girls Daily" (how does that link to Facebook...?) and although it has 5 stars, it's gained this from having a massive following of one person who rated it.

If the developer can only find one person to rate their app (maybe they even rated it themselves) then how good is this app...?

Ah I found why it came up - it's published by that well-known and trusted corporation:
"Sexy Hot Girls Gallery Images Sex Facebook Twitter"

Seems legit... ;)
Screenshot (4).png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1, 10
I would have liked 3 versions of surface tablets windows RT, windows 8 and windows 8 pro

i bought an asus smart vivio. Running windows 8 but if there was a surface 8 comparable in price I would have purchased the surface because it has nicer hardware features
 

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    4 Windows 7 Pro Sp1- 4 Win 8 Pro, 1- xp pro sp3
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    Dell Optiplex 390, 380, 3 Vostro Laptops (7 computers in all)
    CPU
    desktop/laptop
    Memory
    4gigs
    Graphics Card(s)
    atm randioum
    Hard Drives
    350,250
Well, I still think Droids suck eggs, and are ripoffs of iPhones, but they now have 80% of the market. Why not? They are thousands of times cheaper that iPhones. But I am just not impressed with Droid, never have been.

iPads have windows 8 over a barrel with the sheer amount of quality apps. The reason why Droids have survived is because the developer saw a secondary market - And started making Droid apps as quick as they could. SO now, anything you can get for iOS, you can get for Droid.

But the same devs, have not seen Windows 8 as a tertiary market. They have simply refused to start making the apps for Windows 8. So they don't exist, not to mention the Windows 8 store as well has being horribly laid out, has a VERY bad search engine. Give me the iPhones App Store for quickly locating the stuff I need. Not to mention the Genius bar that finds apps I could use and the suggestions are useful - For instance I just found a remote mouse for Windows 8, with a Charms bar and everything - And it was FREE:

http://www.benzle.com

BUT - You can install Windows 8 on a Surface Pro, which is Microsoft's "iPad". To have a desktop system in a TABLET is highly provocative. It's just too bad that the windows store will never amount to much. By now, there should be a few really good apps - And Angry Birds. is still the only decent app in the store. The Droid market filled up QUICK. The iOS store had good usable apps Immediately. Nobody really wants to make good 8 apps. and if they do, how will we ever find them?

Um... you joking? You think angry bird is a quality app?

What about apps like mobile scanner? What do you define as quality apps?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
I am a little confused about the store having a very bad search engine - I've found win+Q (or using the search charm on my tablet when not using the keyboard) to be sufficient, but perhaps you mean something else specifically? The 8.1 store does have a better layout, so that might make searching a little (or a lot) better. I'm assuming you mean something specific to the way it searches, I don't want to make assumptions.

Hahahahaha! You think the Windows 8 Store is laid out better than the Apple Apps store or the Droid store? And as much as I have a severe distaste for DROIDS I do use them sometimes and I HAVE used their store and it';s 500 times easier to use than the Windows 8 store. Maybe they improved it a little in 8.1 but I have decided, I'm not updating to 8.1 - I like 8 the way it is, I don't really use the store.

As far as the store in 8, it has to be pretty much the same content as the 8.1 store - When I type in VLC for instance, it returns all kinds of fakes. When I type "Word" the same thing. But when I type "OneNote" - the FAKES are shown in the list before the actual Microsoft app.

If you know the exact name of a windows 8 app, and type iot in to the store, you will be shown a whole bunch of results that have nothing to do with what you typed in.

Now, I HAVE had this happen in the Apple App Store, but not as much as it happens in Windows 8 - Actually what I type in always shows me results in Apple - Results I can use.


Actually I just typed in VLC into the Apple store -And there is a brand new VLC for iOS. When I just did the same thing in Windows 8 - It's all paid fakes!
 

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    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
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    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
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    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
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    2 GB/3GB
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    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
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    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
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    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
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    "1842 x 1036"
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    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
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    Works 550w
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    MSI "M-Box"
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    Water Cooled
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    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
Try searching for something like "Facebook" and tell me which is a genuine Facebook app? Or which of them are any good...?

(I'm using 8; it's possible the 8.1 revamp has made this better)

NONE of them - There are NO valid Facebook Apps in there, None are made BY facebook, and I refuse to use a FB app that's 3rd party.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
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    Works 550w
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    MSI "M-Box"
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    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
Um... you joking? You think angry bird is a quality app?

What about apps like mobile scanner? What do you define as quality apps?

It IS - I have Angry Birds Space and Angry Birds Star Wars - Both GOOD game engines, good graphics, good sounds, and good controls. It works exactly the same as it works on my iPhone - THAT makes it a QUALITY app.

I found NO app named "Mobile Scanner" - Just "Mobile Document Scanner" - I can't use that on my PC. Actually that's all there was, Mobile Document Scanner - The reason why I'll never use crap apps like that? They do not scan an image and SAVE it on your device or PC - They UPLOAD it. Like hell!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
I am a little confused about the store having a very bad search engine - I've found win+Q (or using the search charm on my tablet when not using the keyboard) to be sufficient, but perhaps you mean something else specifically? The 8.1 store does have a better layout, so that might make searching a little (or a lot) better. I'm assuming you mean something specific to the way it searches, I don't want to make assumptions.

Hahahahaha! You think the Windows 8 Store is laid out better than the Apple Apps store or the Droid store? And as much as I have a severe distaste for DROIDS I do use them sometimes and I HAVE used their store and it';s 500 times easier to use than the Windows 8 store. Maybe they improved it a little in 8.1 but I have decided, I'm not updating to 8.1 - I like 8 the way it is, I don't really use the store.

As far as the store in 8, it has to be pretty much the same content as the 8.1 store - When I type in VLC for instance, it returns all kinds of fakes. When I type "Word" the same thing. But when I type "OneNote" - the FAKES are shown in the list before the actual Microsoft app.

If you know the exact name of a windows 8 app, and type iot in to the store, you will be shown a whole bunch of results that have nothing to do with what you typed in.

Now, I HAVE had this happen in the Apple App Store, but not as much as it happens in Windows 8 - Actually what I type in always shows me results in Apple - Results I can use.


Actually I just typed in VLC into the Apple store -And there is a brand new VLC for iOS. When I just did the same thing in Windows 8 - It's all paid fakes!

VLC is busy making their app and it's about to be released. FB will be here soon too. I don't care either way because I have the web version and VLC in desktop. But, I can see why an RT user would need VLC. Facebook... not so much. I prefer the web version.
 

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  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    Tablet
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Microsoft Surface Pro 3, Dell Venue 8 Pro, i5 2500K overclocked PC
    CPU
    i5
    Memory
    4gb Surface Pro, 8gb PC
Um... you joking? You think angry bird is a quality app?

What about apps like mobile scanner? What do you define as quality apps?

It IS - I have Angry Birds Space and Angry Birds Star Wars - Both GOOD game engines, good graphics, good sounds, and good controls. It works exactly the same as it works on my iPhone - THAT makes it a QUALITY app.

I found NO app named "Mobile Scanner" - Just "Mobile Document Scanner" - I can't use that on my PC. Actually that's all there was, Mobile Document Scanner - The reason why I'll never use crap apps like that? They do not scan an image and SAVE it on your device or PC - They UPLOAD it. Like hell!

Upload it? :confused: Don't know what planet you live on.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
Try searching for something like "Facebook" and tell me which is a genuine Facebook app? Or which of them are any good...?

(I'm using 8; it's possible the 8.1 revamp has made this better)

NONE of them - There are NO valid Facebook Apps in there, None are made BY facebook, and I refuse to use a FB app that's 3rd party.
I suspected that would be the case. But you can't tell that from the Store Search which I agree is really not good. It was a fun exercise to try it though.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1, 10
Hi there
99.9999% Of those stupid "appy" things (or should they really be called "apey") things are just

a) JUNK and

b) Vehicles for disseminating unwanted commercials -- we are bombarded with these enough already -- seems every time I swap channels on a TV there's commercials --I've seen commercials now after 7 mins into a program --I'm sure a few years ago you got at least 25 mins of program before a break (Outside the USA of course) and there was a restriction as to how many minutes of commercial breaks were allowed in an hour. Nowadays a 35 min program takes ONE HOUR !!!!.

There are very few decent FREE one's and there's absolutely no QC on android - so it's touch and go whether a release of the Android OS itself will kill your app from working - and usually a lot of these apps are done by individuals on a whim so often an update is either WORSE than the previous version or won't work at all. Also you can't rely on any fixes being forthcoming in any timely matter at all.

Windows phones and tablets could make this stuff a lot better by insisting on some decent QC before allowing any old rubbish into the store --but there again due to the nature of windows is it really feasible to prevent applications from being installed unless they come from the store -- and you don't want to kill the individual entrepreneurial spirit by bogging down developers with endless large company Change control and QC stuff.

So on the one hand perhaps we have to put up with a bit of "Wild West" and just let the whole thing sort it self out by natural evolution.

What Windows DOES have is a sensible security system - which android apps don't have so maybe an advantage to windows when it comes to making more and more financial transactions via mobile phone.

(I'm sure organised crime has definitely looked at the possibilities with the Android system).

Cheers
jimbo
 

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    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
A lack of good Windows Phones apps, until this year, didn't kill Windows Phone so the answer is no. A year after the first Android tablets hit the market there were less than 20 tablets apps, they were running phone apps stretched across the screen which looked like crap.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7, Windows 8 RP
Upload it? :confused: Don't know what planet you live on.

That's what those apps DO. I can't see how that program would benefit any user on a PC. If it works on your envy thing, fine. But most PC users will never have any use for anything like that. Therefore, Angry Birds so far is the best Windows 8 app there is.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
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