Ed Bott

Ed Bott

Senior Contributing Editor

Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications. He has served as editor of the U.S. edition of PC Computing and managing editor of PC World; …both publications had monthly paid circulation in excess of 1 million during his tenure. He is the author of more than 25 books, including Windows 10 Inside Out (now in its 4th edition) and Windows 11 Inside Out (scheduled for publication in 2022).

Ed Bott is a freelance technology journalist and book author. All work that Ed does is on a contractual basis. Since 1994, Ed has written more than 25 books about Microsoft Windows and Office. Along with various co-authors, Ed is completely responsible for the content of the books he writes. As a key part of his contractual relationship with publishers, he gives them permission to print and distribute the content he writes and to pay him a royalty based on the actual sales of those books. Ed's books are currently distributed by Pearson Education under the Microsoft Press imprint. On occasion, Ed accepts consulting assignments. In recent years, he has worked as an expert witness in cases where his experience and his knowledge of Microsoft technology and licensing have been useful. In each such case, his compensation is on an hourly basis, and he is hired as a witness, not an advocate. Ed sometimes receives fees and/or travel expenses for live speeches and webinars from companies and organizations. Acceptance of these fees does not constitute an endorsement of the company's products. Ed does not own stock or have any financial interest in any technology company. Ed does not accept gifts from companies he covers. All hardware products he writes about are purchased with his own funds or are review units covered under formal loan agreements and are returned after the review is complete.

Latest from Ed Bott

Intel releases first Core M processors for business-class convertible PCs

It's taken longer than expected, but Intel has finally officially released the first CPUs using its Broadwell architecture. The new processors enable the holy grail of mobile computing: full PC power in a completely fanless package.

September 5, 2014 by Ed Bott in Processors

Does your PC have what it takes to run Windows 8's Hyper-V?

If you're planning to test the beta of Windows 8 when it arrives early next year, you'd better start thinking about your hardware now. One of the killer features of the new operating system, Hyper-V virtualization, is picky about hardware. Here's what to look for.

December 8, 2011 by Ed Bott in Processors

Finally, Adobe releases a 64-bit Flash Player

After years of promises, Adobe has finally delivered a Flash Player that offers full support for 64-bit browsers. Flash Player 11 also includes a wide range of performance, reliability, and security improvements. Is this enough to rehabilitate Flash's tattered reputation?

October 6, 2011 by Ed Bott in Processors

IE9 FAQ: how to install, uninstall, and tweak the IE9 RC

This morning, Microsoft officially made the long-awaited Release Candidate build of Internet Explorer 9 available to the general public. As usual, my inbox is overflowing with questions. Can I install over the beta? Do I choose 32- or 64-bit? No spell checker? I've got these answers many more.

February 10, 2011 by Ed Bott in Processors

Microsoft makes Windows 7 RC available, but can't handle the rush

See my follow-up post: Database glitch caused Windows 7 RC server meltdown.Early this morning, at around 6AM Pacific time, the public—or at least that subset of the public willing to pay for an annual MSDN or TechNet subscription—was finally allowed to download the Windows 7 Release Candidate in a Microsoft-approved ISO image from a Microsoft-run server.

April 30, 2009 by Ed Bott in Processors

OS X versus Vista, RAM division

Now that I have a recent-vintage MacBook for testing, I'm finally able to make some head-to-head comparisons between OS X and Vista. Because this system has a mere 1GB of RAM, I was curious to get a sense of how thrifty OS X Leopard is when it comes to memory usage. Vista gets a bad rap for demanding huge amounts of resources. Is that reputation fair or accurate? I put both systems to the test so I could see for myself. The results were surprising.

October 24, 2008 by Ed Bott in Processors