One of Windows Vista’s biggest selling points was that it was the only way you could DirectX 10, the software component that would be required to play the very latest video games in their full glory. Sure, you could still play games in DirectX 9, but the differences with DirectX 10, Microsoft promised, would be striking. (Check out this video showing the same scene under both systems and you’ll see what Microsoft was talking about. You can find loads of similar comparisons online.) Games like Crysis benefit clearly from the DX 10 upgrade, but that benefit hasn’t been enoug...

LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE, Belgium: Microsoft Corp CEO Steve Ballmer offered a glimmer of hope this week to fans of the company’s Windows XP operating system, saying the company may reconsider its decision to stop selling it soon. But Ballmer was adamant that most people who buy PCs today buy them with XP’s successor, Vista. “That’s the statistical truth,” he told reporters at a news conference at Louvain-La-Neuve University. “If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter.” Fans of XP — the six-year-old operating system set to be pulled off store...