Windows 8 to Have 3 R's: Recovery, Reset, Restore

Recovery, Reset, Restore all to fight the Rot.

We all know about "Windows rot," where the operating system slowly degenerates to a slow, sluggish state after numerous installs, uninstalls, and other things that a system accumulates over time.

Those of us who perform good housekeeping practices on our computers keep our Windows installs running better, longer, but that's not the case for everyone. The action of a fresh format and/or reinstall can make things feel new again, even on old hardware. And now it seems that Microsoft could be building a reinstall feature into Windows 8.

As seen in some of the leaked presentation slides, Microsoft could have a recovery option to "reset Windows" while retaining all personal files and user accounts. One of the presentation images shows the option of reinstalling all of the app purchases from the Microsoft App Store. Interesting stuff.

Microsoft Awarded Patent for Dual-Screen Tablet

Gone but not forgotten.

Microsoft killed off its fascinating dual screen tablet, the Courier, in April of this year and, while the company said in a statement that it would be evaluated for use in future offerings, Redmond also stated, "We have no plans to build such a device at this time."

Disappointed, we came to terms with the fact that Microsoft's 14-inch (2 x 7-inch touch screens) digital journal would never come to pass. However, a recent application to the U.S. Patent and Trademarks Office leads us to believe Microsoft was definitely serious about the Courier. Despite the fact that Robbie Bach told TechFlash in May that the Courier was never a device, rather it was a project and incubation leading to innovations that could find their way into other Microsoft products, this patent filed in January suggests Microsoft was, at one time, committed to a product that looked strikingly similar to the Courier.

Microsoft received the patent this week and TechFlash reports that this kind of patent is good for 14 years, so Microsoft has until 2024 to do something with this design.