Windows 7 official pricing announced

Vista and XP users will need to pony up $119.99, $199.99, or $219.99 on October 22 to score their Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate upgrade, and those of you who want a full retail disc will need to roll up with $199.99, $299.99, or $319.99 respectively. It's not quite that simple, though: starting tomorrow, June 26, you'll be able to pre-order upgrades at much cheaper prices -- $49.99 for Home Premium and $99.99 for Professional..

Link:
http://www.engadget.com/...

In case you don't know the difference between the versions check this out:
http://www.veign.com/blog/2009/02/windows-7-versions.html

Does MS think users are this stupid?

Is this chart a joke by MS?
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/...

Colossal Patch Tuesday addresses 31 Windows, IE8 vulnerabilities

Just when it appeared Windows and its associated services were looking more stable month after month, Microsoft chose June to tackle a plethora of vulnerabilities including no fewer than 14 that its security engineers believe could be exploitable within the next 30 days.

With that many fixes I think it will be better to wait a couple days to make sure the patches don't introduce any problems.

Link:
http://www.betanews.com/article/...

Windows 7 to be released October 22

The news comes in advance of comments being planned for the Computex conference in Taiwan early tomorrow morning, by Microsoft Corporate Vice President for OEMs Steve Guggenheimer. There he is scheduled to officially deliver the news that Windows 7 general availability worldwide will begin on Thursday, October 22.

Link:
http://www.betanews.com/article/...

New zune to bring touchscreen

The new Zune is coming with some much needed improvements:

• Zune HD comes with a built-in HD Radio receiver so users can listen to higher-quality sound than traditional radio on the go. Users also will have access to the additional song and artist data broadcast by HD Radio stations as well as additional channels from their favorite stations multicasting in HD. If you don’t like the song playing on your station’s HD channel, switch to its HD2 or HD3 channels for additional programming.
• The bright OLED touch screen interface allows users to flip through music, movies and other content with ease, and the 16:9 widescreen format display (480x272 resolution) offers a premium viewing experience on the go.
• The HD-compatible output lets Zune HD customers playback supported HD video files from the device through a premium high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) audiovisual docking station (sold separately) direct to an HD TV in 720p.*
• Zune HD will include a full-screen Internet browser optimized for multitouch functionality.
• Zune HD is Wi-Fi enabled, allowing for instant streaming to the device from the more than 5 million-track Zune music store.

Now if they would just fix the horrible software that is used to update the media or release an API so developers can incorporate the Zune syncing in their own software, like Media Monkey.

Link:
http://www.zune.net/en-us/press/2009/0526-zunehd.htm

Windows 7 RC1: 10 Things You Need to Know

Windows 7's about ready to come out of the oven, and now everybody can shove their hands in the warm OS pie. And really, you should. Here's everything you need to know to dive in.

Link:
http://gizmodo.com/5241882/...

Get your copy of Windows 7 RC (legally)

Welcome to Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) testing. We're on our way to Windows 7, and if you like trying out pre-release software, now’s your chance. You get to see what's coming, and we get to see if our changes and fixes from the Beta testing are working correctly.

How do you test the software? You put it on your PC, and then do what you'd normally do. Your PC will automatically and anonymously send our engineers the information they need to verify the fixes and changes they made based on the Windows 7 Beta tests.

I currently have Windows 7 RC running in a Virtual PC and so far so different. Going from XP to 7 is going to be a shock.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/...

Talking About Windows

Find out what the industry and Microsoft Engineers are saying about the next OS from Microsoft, Windows 7.

Link:
http://talkingaboutwindows.com/

Window 7 to include XP Mode

Windows XP Mode is specifically designed to help small businesses move to Windows 7. Windows XP Mode provides you with the flexibility to run many older productivity applications on a Windows 7 based PC.

All you need to do is to install suitable applications directly in Windows XP Mode which is a virtual Windows XP environment running under Windows Virtual PC. The applications will be published to the Windows 7 desktop and then you can run them directly from Windows 7.

Still have to get used to the new interface, for those who have not moved to Vista.

Link:
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/...

SaveAllAttachments for Microsoft Outlook 2007

This outlook add-in adds the missing feature in Microsoft outlook which allows you to save and with option to remove all attachments from multiple emails at once.

Link:
http://www.netpro.biz/saveallattachmentsol2007.html

[ found on LifeRocks ]

Microsoft Sync Framework

Introducing the Microsoft Sync Framework – a comprehensive synchronization platform enabling collaboration and offline for applications, services and devices with support for any data type, any data store, any transfer protocol, and network topology.

Link:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sync/default.aspx

Zero-day vulnerability in PowerPoint spawns Microsoft alert

Security Advisory 969136 describes the new problem as one that can allow remote code execution if the file recipient opens an infected file. The Microsoft Security Research & Defense blog is rather more useful (not to mention straightforward -- yes, they're seeing it out in the wild, used in targeted attacks), recommending several defensive maneuvers while we await a patch.

Link:
http://www.betanews.com/article/...

Engineering Windows 7

This blog post talks about a few of the improvements that will be in our Release Candidate (RC) based upon customer feedback. There are many under the hood changes (bug fixes, compatibility fixes, performance improvements, and improvements) across the entire dev team that we just don’t have room to discuss here, but we thought you’d enjoy a taste of some changes made by three of our feature teams: Core User Experience, Find & Organize and Devices & Media.

Great information if you're looking to see what's happening with Windows 7

Link:
http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/...

Get IE8 now and make my life more difficult

Yup, that's right, IE8 is available today and that means I have to support another browser when developing websites. I just wish IE6's market share would drop enough so I could drop it from my list of supported browsers.

Video: Microsoft Office Labs vision 2019

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&showPlaylist=true&from=shared" target="_new" title="Future Vision Montage">Video: Future Vision Montage</a>

Microsoft Elevate America and Small Basic - two new releases from MS

Two new releases from Microsoft that may be of interest to some:

Microsoft Elevate America: Microsoft is partnering with governments, private, public and community organizations to launch Elevate America; free and low cost resources that provide the skills, training and certifications needed for people of all ages who are preparing for job opportunities in today's changing economy.

Small Basic: Small Basic is a project that's aimed at bringing "fun" back to programming. By providing a small and easy to learn programming language in a friendly and inviting development environment, Small Basic makes programming a breeze. Ideal for kids and adults alike, Small Basic helps beginners take the first step into the wonderful world of programming.

How to backup your Outlook Signatures

The signatures for Outlook are stored in the folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures

Now all you have do to is go to the folder and make a backup of all the files. Each signature will have three associated files (.htm, .txt and a .rtf file).

Simple if you know where to look.

10 Ways Microsoft's Retail Stores Will Differ From Apple Stores

Microsoft announced plans to open retail stores, hoping to boost visibility of many of its products and its brand. The move seems to be an effort to mimic the success that Apple has had with its retail stores. The news is just too tempting not to have some fun with. So here are some yet-to-be-officially-revealed details about the Microsoft stores.

Funny and clever.

Link:
http://www.pcworld.com/...

Microsoft to open retail stores

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 12, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that David Porter will join the company as corporate vice president of Retail Stores. He will lead Microsoft’s efforts to create a better PC and Microsoft retail purchase experience for consumers worldwide through the development and opening of the company’s own retail stores. Porter will report to Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner. He is joining Microsoft from DreamWorks Animation SKG, where he was head of worldwide product distribution.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/...

Microsoft offers clarifications on Windows 7 SKU issues

A number of key details surrounding Microsoft's announcement yesterday on Windows 7 versions were left up in the air, and now spokespersons are working to bring them down to earth.

Link:
http://www.betanews.com/article/...

Windows 7 versions

Click the image for a larger version

Read more:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/...

Microsoft Adds Clickjacking Protection to IE8

Protection against malicious Web attacks and tweaks to a feature that lets users browse the Internet privately are among updates Internet Explorer users can test in the first release candidate for IE8, which Microsoft made available Monday.

As first reported by the IDG News Service Friday, Microsoft released the feature-complete version of IE8 to the Web Monday. Microsoft added performance tweaks to existing features and one major security update to block Web attacks known as "clickjacking" that the company said makes IE8 the only Web browser to offer such protection.

Clickjacking lets hackers put a transparent filter on sites so they can view what information a user is accessing and what activities that user is doing, said James Pratt, an IE senior product manager at Microsoft. For example, if someone is on a bank Web site, attackers can use clickjacking to see the user's bank information and acquire passwords, and the user will not know the information is being viewed remotely, he said.

Link:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/...

Microsoft axes Flight Sim

Redmond, Washington-based ACES Studio, the Microsoft-owned internal group behind the venerable Microsoft Flight Simulator series, has been heavily affected by Microsoft’s ongoing job cuts.

Development sources have told Gamasutra that a large portion of the dev house’s staff has been let go - with multiple reports indicating that the entire Flight Simulator team has been axed.

Link:
http://www.steve-lacey.com/...

Microsoft cuts 1400 jobs today

Wonder what departments within Microsoft are being trimmed today to the tune of 1400 total jobs. 5000 jobs will be cut in total. Will this delay the release of the new OS, Windows 7?

Only 7 hours to install Windows 7 beta

Currently running in a Virtual PC environment.

More posts coming on what I find when poking around the Windows 7 Beta. Want to see something specific? Leave a comment.

Microsoft Tag

Microsoft Tag creates unlimited possibilities for making interactive communications an instant, entertaining part of life. They tranform physical media (print advertising, billboards,product packages, information signs, in-store merchandising, or even video images)—into live links for accessing information and entertainment online.

With the Microsoft Tag application, just aim your camera phone at a Tag and instantly access mobile content, videos, music, contact information, maps, social networks, promotions, and more. Nothing to type, no browsers to launch!

The above tag is one I created quickly through Microsoft's tag manager.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/tag

Patch, Patch , Patch

Make sure you run Windows Update today and patch the security exploit found in IE.

The update should be coming anytime now and I will update this post when its been released.

Windows Update:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

Official Security Bulletin with patch:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/

Microsoft confirms that all versions of IE have critical new bug

Microsoft said research confirmed that the bug is within all its browsers, including those it currently supports -- IE5.01, IE6 and IE7 -- as well as IE8 Beta 2, a preview version that the company doesn't support through normal channels.

Users running any of those browsers on Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003 or Server 2008 are at risk, Microsoft said.

It adds IE6 and IE8 Beta 2 to the list, recommends disabling .dll to stay safe

Link:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/...

The Matrix on Windows

Little known Microsoft websites

DreamSpark: DreamSpark is simple, it's all about giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and design tools at no charge so you can chase your dreams and create the next big breakthrough in technology - or just get a head start on your career.

Microsoft Art Collection: The Microsoft Art Collection's mission is to create an inspiring work environment that fosters creativity and innovation.

Microsoft Surface: A Multi-touch product.

DLL Help Database: The database contains information about DLL files that are included with selected Microsoft products.

Microsoft Store: Buy any of the many Microsoft products and swag

CodePlex (Open Source hosting): CodePlex is Microsoft's open source project hosting web site. Start a new project, join an existing one, or download software created by the community.

Microsoft Automotive: Automotive industry solutions are powered by a winning combination of innovative Microsoft technology and partner experience and knowledge.

Microsoft Research: Microsoft Research is dedicated to conducting both basic and applied research in computer science and software engineering.

Download Vista SP2 Beta via Windows Update

If you like to stay on the bleeding edge of technology (and you’re running Vista) you may want to consider modifying two registry keys on your system so that you can participate in the Vista SP2 Beta program. To join the program all you have to do is...

Link:
http://cybernetnews.com/2008/...

Followup: Convert Excel and PowerPoint to webpage

The Google trick for converting a Word document to clean HTML also works pretty well for Excel documents and PowerPoint presentations.

Much better than anything provided by Microsoft for saving Office documents as a webpage (HTML).

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067 – Critical

Patch quickly!

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...

Direct link to the download:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...

or just use Windows Update

Next Windows version to be called Windows 7

Microsoft announced last night that they’ve come up with with a name for Windows 7. You might be expecting something along the lines of “XP” or “Vista,” but they aren’t going that route this time around. They’ve actually decided to go back to their roots and call the next major release “Windows 7.” This is just like the old days when Microsoft named milestones based on version (3.11, etc…) or year (95, 98, etc…).

Link:
http://cybernetnews.com/2008/10/14/...

Software: SyncToy v2.0

SyncToy 2.0 for Windows is available as a free download from the Microsoft Download Center. The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers.

Features:

• Dynamic Drive Letter Assignment: Drive letter reassignment will now be detected and updated in the folder pair definition.
• True Folder Sync: Folder creates, renames, and deletes are now synchronized for all SyncToy actions.
• Exclusion Filtering Based on Name: File exclusion based on name with exact or fuzzy matching.
• Filtering Based on File Attributes: The ability to exclude files based on one or more file attributes (Read-Only, System, Hidden).
• Unattended Folder Pair Execution: Addressed issues related to running scheduled folder pairs while logged off.
• Folder Pairs With Shared Endpoints: Ability for folder pairs associated with the same or different instances of SyncToy to share end-points.
• Command line enhancements: Added the ability to manage folder pairs via the command line interface.
• Re-Architect Sync Engine: The SyncToy engine has been rearchitected to provide scalability and the ability to add significant enhancements in future releases.
• Sync engine is also more robust insomuch that many single, file level errors are skipped without affecting the entire sync operation.
• Sync Encrypted Files: Sync of Encrypted files works when local folder and files are encrypted, which addresses the common scenario involving sync between local, encrypted laptop PC folder and remote, unencrypted desktop PC folder.
• 64-Bit Support: SyncToy now has a native 64-bit build (x64 only) for 64-bit versions of Windows.
• Folder pair rename
• Sub-folder Exclusion Enhancements: Descendents created under excluded sub-folders are automatically excluded. Usability improvements for the sub-folder exclusion dialog.
• Folder Pair Metadata Moved: Folder pair metadata removed from MyDocuments to resolve any issues with server-based folder pair re-direction setup.
• Setup Improvements: Integrated setup with single self-extracting archive file and no extra downloads if you already have .NET Framework 2.0 installed. Enabled silent install for the SyncToy Installer file (see readme.txt file for more information). Removed combine and subscribe actions.
• Removed combine and subscribe actions.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/...

Convert a Word document to HTML (easy and free)

HowTo: Convert a Word document to clean HTML

Ever have a need to convert a Word document to HTML knowing that Word itself produces some of the worst HTML code ever? There is a simple, easy trick to get this done.

1. Make sure you have a Gmail account
2. Send the Word document, as an attachment, to your Gmail account
3. Sign in to Gmail and view the email with the attachment
4. Click the 'View as HTML' link at the bottom of the email
5. With the page opened, 'View source' from your browser
6. Copy the code

That's all there is to it. Google produces some pretty clean HTML from a Word document. It may have to be updated to XHTML 1.0 specifications (Google uses some deprecated tags)

I had a pretty complex tabled document with lots of text styles and it did a very good job.

MS launches new Xbox website

Xbox Flavors:
Link:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/default.htm

MS drops Seinfeld

Remember those awful Microsoft ads with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? Well, now you can forget them. Microsoft flacks are desperately dialing reporters to spin them about "phase two" of the ad campaign — a phase, due to be announced tomorrow, which will drop the aging comic altogether.

That didn't last long.

Link:
http://valleywag.com/5051455/...

Microsoft Pro Photo Tools 2

Microsoft Pro Photo Tools provides a set of tools for photographers to perform various tasks with their images—including RAW captures. The current version enables you to quickly geotag your photos, view and edit metadata, and more, leveraging the power of Windows and Microsoft Live Local.

Features:

• Geotagging with flexibility
• Determine location name automatically
• Determine GPS coordinates from location name
• Identify location on a map
• View images on a map
• Edit image metadata
• RAW support
• Extensibility

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/...

Microsoft Jerry Seinfeld Ad #2

First ad for Microsoft using Jerry Seinfeld

Defrag a single file with Contig

Contig is a single-file defragmenter that attempts to make files contiguous on disk. Its perfect for quickly optimizing files that are continuously becoming fragmented, or that you want to ensure are in as few fragments as possible.

Another great utility from SysInternals

Link:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897428.aspx

5 Microsoft Power Toys you should know about

SyncToy
With new sources of files coming from every direction (such as digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops), SyncToy can help you copy, move, and synchronize different directories

Tweak UI
This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.

Power Calculator
With this PowerToy you can graph and evaluate functions as well as perform many different types of conversions.

Image Resizer
This PowerToy enables you to resize one or many image files with a right-click.

Alt-Tab Replacement
With this PowerToy, in addition to seeing the icon of the application window you are switching to, you will also see a preview of the page. This helps particularly when multiple sessions of an application are open.


Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/Downloads/...

15 fun things you can do with your spreadsheet in less than 5 seconds

Who said Excel takes lot of time / steps do something? Here is a list of 15 incredibly fun things you can do to your spreadsheets and each takes no more than 5 seconds to do.

Link:
http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/08/01/...

Microsoft Enviroment video datacenter server numbers and power consumption?

"15 datacenters hosting 148,357 servers sitting on 17,406 racks consuming 72,500KW of utility power as of the end of January 2008 (as indicated by the bar chart). If you’re a bit of a imperial measurement person, that’s 97,000 horsepower."

Link:
http://www.istartedsomething.com/...

CodePlex - Open Source Project Hosting

CodePlex is Microsoft's open source project hosting web site. Start a new project, join an existing one, or download software created by the community.

As you would assume its a lot of projects written using MS technologies like ASP.NET.

Link:

Windows Updates released to DVD ISO image

I didn't know that Microsoft was releasing the monthly security updates to a DVD ISO image as well as through the Windows Update tool. I guess for someone in an enterprise environment a DVD of the updates may be a desirable thing.

August 2008 DVD ISO:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...

Learning early

This is one of my 3 neices.

Allowing users to edit the same Excel file at the same time

Link:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/...

Scroll all the way to the bottom and look for the answer in green (Accepted Solution)


To allow users to only edit specific ranges when working in a shared workbook:

From the Tools menu, select Protection, and then Allow Users to Edit Ranges.
This advanced option allows multiple users (for example, when working on a network) to update data in a well defined and private area. Each workbook user is allotted a range in the sheet with a unique password.

Link:
http://www.exceltip.com/st/...

Importing web data into a usable format using Excel

You ever come across a web page with lots of data you would like a copy of? Maybe in the format of a pretty Excel spreadsheet. Follow the steps below to get data from a web page into an Excel spreadsheet.

Scrape data from a web page:

1. Find a source of data you want (for an example use: Country List)
2. Open a new, blank Excel document
3. Select menu -> Data -> Import External Data -> New Web Query
4. In the address bar enter your URL (try the sample I used above)
5. Under Options (right of the address bar) try with no formatting first and then try Rich Text or HTML (attempts to style it to match the web page)
6. Press 'Go'
7. After the page has completely loaded you should see yellow boxes with black arrows next to tables that can be imported. Scroll down to the main table and click the arrow. It should now be a check.
8. Press 'Import'
9. Press 'OK'

That should be it. Your table of data should not be an excel spreadsheet where the data is nicely laid out in columns. From here you can work with the data in Excel or export to CSV (can be used to easily import into an database).

Also, I bet you didn't know that the data will be automatically refreshed when the data on the web page is refreshed. Pretty cool. Huh?

Enjoy!

Microsoft's Search 4.0 for desktops

No, it's not WinFS, the file system that was supposed to revolutionize the way files and documents are stored in Windows. But if it gives users tools that accomplish the same things WinFS was supposed to provide, does Search 4.0 come close?

Link:
http://www.betanews.com/article/...

Get a free copy of Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite with MSDN Premium

DonationCoder and Veign have teamed up to give away a free copy of Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite with MSDN Premium. What we decided is to hold a 1 month contest where someone enters by simply submitting a new application built with one of the free versions of Microsoft Visual Studio Express. A great opportunity for any developer.

Oh, the subscription is valued at over $10,000. How does that sound?

This is no-joke and there are no catches.

Read all about it at DonationCoder:
http://www.donationcoder.com/Forums/...

Windows Live SkyDrive

Password-protected online file storage. Always available where you need it.

Offers:

• 5 GB of free online storage, available from any computer with Internet access.
• Create personal, shared, and public folders -- you decide who has access to each folder.

Personal

• Use personal folders to back up important files that are only for you.
• Get to your files from any computer with Internet access by signing in with your Windows Live ID.

Shared

• Shared folders make it easy to collaborate with coworkers or classmates.
• You decide how much control each person has over each shared folder. Some can just read what's there: others can add and delete files.
• Everyone who is sharing uses their own Windows Live ID.

Public

• With public folders, anyone on the Internet can view your files, but they can't change them.
• Want to show your public files to others? Just send them a link! Each folder and file has its own web address.

Link:
http://skydrive.live.com/welcomemoreinfo.aspx

Is this Windows 7

Posted over at Crunchgear with many more:
http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/05/27/...

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1

Service Pack Update for Virtual PC 2007 qualifying Windows Server 2008, Vista SP1 and XP SP3.

Notice it says for XP SP3 only. This appears in the main section of the download but if you read further down it says supported on XP SP2.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Deployment Tools

The Windows XP System Preparation tool enables administrators to prepare Windows XP system images as part of an automated deployment. You can use the System Preparation tool to perform the following tasks in a manner that is supported by Microsoft

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...

Microsoft offers hope for people who want to keep XP

Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer on Thursday offered a glimmer of hope to fans of the company's XP operating system, saying customer demand may see the company reconsider a decision to stop selling XP in June.

Link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080424/...

Microsoft's Rich Signature (undocumented)

In this article I'm going to try to provide documentation for the undocumented Rich Signature produced by Microsoft compilers. I'm not completely sure when this signature was introduced, I wrongly believed that I had been introduced with Visual Studio 2003, but I was shown that it is present even in VC++ 6 executables. So, I guess this signature has been introduced with that compiler. Information about this topic is non-existent (seems strange, but it's a fact). Thus, most readers probably don't know what I'm talking about.

Link:
http://ntcore.com/Files/richsign.htm

Internet Explorer 7 'Tips and Tricks'

This document is designed to help IT administrators and developers evaluating Internet Explorer 7 understand some of the common issues seen with application compatibility. The examples provided in this document will help IT administrators and developers understand the issues involved, why they occur and how to workaround them with Internet Explorer 7 in your environment.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...

Windows Vista SP1 problems

A day after it was released for public download, Windows Vista SP1 is drawing barbs from some computer users who say the software wrecked their systems..

Rule of thumb for me with major service packs (like this one and the XP SP3 coming soon) is to give it at least 6 months before installing. Let everyone else work out the issues.

Microsoft on Tuesday made Vista SP1 widely available for the first time. The company has admitted it's still not perfect.

Does that scare you?

Link:
http://...windows-vista-sp1-wreaks-havoc-on-some-pcs

Microsoft Seadragon

Seadragon is an incubation project resulting from the acquisition of Seadragon Software in February. Its aim is nothing less than to change the way we use screens, from wall-sized displays to mobile devices, so that visual information can be smoothly browsed regardless of the amount of data involved or the bandwidth of the network.

If you missed the seadragon/photosynth demo then make sure you check out how cool this technology actually is or could be.

This goes on the list with Microsoft Surface as some very cool technologies being developed by Microsoft.

Link:
http://labs.live.com/Seadragon.aspx

Amazing Photosynth Demo built on Seadragon

Excel as a 3D Game Engine?

Cutting-edge computer games use different graphics subsystems -- so-called 3D graphics engines. Source (used in Half Life 2), Unreal Engine (Unreal Tournament), idTech 4 (Doom 3), CryENGINE2 (Crysis) or Clever's Paradox engine are well-known among the players and the game industry experts.

It's time to learn a new 3D game engine name: Microsoft Excel.

Link:
http://www.gamasutra.com/...

Give IE8 a test drive

Whats New:

• Activities
• WebSlices
• Favorites Bar
• Automatic Crash Recovery
• Improved Phishing Filter

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/...

3 places to get answers

Askville

Yahoo! Answers

Live QnA

Meet the fource

Nothing to say, except. Wow! (not sure if thats good or bad).

Link:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/events/aa570304.aspx

Microsoft to make big announcement

When: 8:30 a.m. PST (17:30 CET) to 9:15 a.m. PST (18:15 CET), Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008

Teleconference Information: Listen-only news conference U.S. dial-in: (888) 810-3138 (toll-free) or (630) 395-0279 (toll) - Verbal passcode: Microsoft

Said to not be about the Yahoo deal.

Link:
http://.../microsoft-announcement-feb-21

Are you ready for Vista SP1?

Microsoft Corp. will release Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) on Monday, Feb. 4, according to reports Friday from Tech ARP.com, a Malaysian Web site.

Other sources, meanwhile, claimed that Windows Server 2008 will also reach RTM (release to manufacturing) in the coming week.

Luckily I'm still on WinXP and probably will be for the next couple of years. I see no reason to move to Vista and will probably wait to see what Windows 7 is like.

Link:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/...

Microsoft maintains list of all Windows keyboard shortcuts

• Windows Logo+E: Windows Explorer
  
• Windows Logo+L: Log off Windows
• Windows Logo+P: Starts Print Manager
• Windows Logo+C: Opens Control Panel
• Windows Logo+V: Starts Clipboard
• Windows Logo+K: Opens Keyboard Properties dialog box
• Windows Logo+I: Opens Mouse Properties dialog box
• Windows Logo+A: Starts Accessibility Options (if installed)
• Windows Logo+SPACEBAR: Displays the list of Microsoft IntelliType shortcut keys
• Windows Logo+S: Toggles CAPS LOCK on and off

Complete List:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449

Sysinternals Suite

The Sysinternals Troubleshooting Utilities have been rolled up into a single Suite of tools. This file contains the individual troubleshooting tools and help files. It does not contain non-troubleshooting tools like the BSOD Screen Saver or NotMyFault.

The Suite is a bundling of the following selected Sysinternals Utilities:

• AccessChk
• AccessEnum
• AdExplorer
• AdRestore
• Autologon
• Autoruns
• BgInfo
• CacheSet
• ClockRes
• Contig
• Ctrl2Cap
• DebugView
• DiskExt
• DiskMon
• DiskView
• Disk Usage (DU)
• EFSDump
• FileMon
• Handle
• Hex2dec
• Junction
• LDMDump
• ListDLLs
• LiveKd
• LoadOrder
• LogonSessions
• NewSid
• NTFSInfo
• PageDefrag
• PendMoves
• PortMon
• ProcessExplorer
• Process Monitor
• ProcFeatures
• PsExec
• PsFile
• PsGetSid
• PsInfo
• PsKill
• PsList
• PsLoggedOn
• PsLogList
• PsPasswd
• PsService
• PsShutdown
• PsSuspend
• RegDelNull
• RegJump
• RegMon
• RootkitRevealer
• SDelete
• ShareEnum
• SigCheck
• Streams
• Strings
• Sync
• TCPView
• VolumeID
• WhoIs
• WinObj
• ZoomIt

Link:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/...

What is this?

http://thesource.ofallevil.com/en/us/default.aspx

Even Bill Gates doesn't truly like Vista

What did Bill Gates just say?
http://gizmodo.com/342920/holy-crap-did-bill-gates-just-say

Microsoft co-founder on 700 MHz bidders list, Verizon Wireless not

Thus far, the preliminary list of bidders in the US Federal Communications Commission's 700 MHz auction is a veritable cavalcade of small telecom companies, plus small and large companies alike looking to become telecom companies. Google Airwaves, Inc. is the least surprising, and perhaps most spotlighted member of the group thus far.

Link:
http://.../Microsoft_cofounder_on_700_MHz_bidders_list

The list of bidders:
http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/default.htm?job=auctions_home

3 stubborn PC problems you can fix

1.You keep getting a "your system is running low on virtual memory" message
2.Your windows slide off the desktop . . . and you can't grab them
3.Your taskbar has disappeared

Read about the fixes:
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/getstarted/pcproblems.mspx

First look at the new Microsoft Download center

Use Microsoft's Silverlight technology and is painfully slow. Man I hate when websites add flash and cool effects over speed and usability. Just ruins the experience.

Link:
http://preview.microsoft.com/downloads/...

FastCGI Extension for IIS 6.0

The FastCGI Extension for Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 enables popular application frameworks (such as PHP) to be hosted on the IIS web server in a high-performance and reliable way.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx...

Network Monitor 3 One Click Capture Tool

Wish you could get a network capture from a computer with no capture software installed? Wish you could have a network traffic "flight recorder" on a USB key? Here's your answer!"

The motivation behind creating this tool was to provide an extremely simple way to get a trace from an end user. And the name says it all, though maybe a small bit of false advertisement as it may take a bit more than just one click :). Once you have it downloaded to your machine, you can launch the executable and it will lead you through some simple dialogs that install the tool and start a trace. Once the trace is complete, which means it was manually stopped by the user or the default time of 2 hours have passed, a window will be opened to the location for the capture, called OneClick.cap.

Link:
http://.../nm3-one-click-capture-tool-beta.aspx

Get your @live.com email address today

Microsoft has finally made available the @live.com email address. Reserve your name now before somebody else does. Oh, and different countries can get their country tld's...

I have the Veign live.com email address.

Start here:
http://get.live.com/getlive/overview

Gatineau is Microsoft's answer to Google Analytics

Microsoft will be releasing an analytics program similiar to Google Analyitcs at some time in the future. Right now its in an invite only beta called Gatineau.

Read all about it:
http://www.liesdamnedlies.com/2007/10/its-here.html

Link to beta invite:
http://advertising.microsoft.com/microsoft-adcenter-gatineau

Strange Virtual PC 2007 behavior?

I have noticed a strange behavior in Virtual PC 2007 running on Windows Vista Business. When I start it, it always appears in the system tray. Then, if I right click on the icon and select the "Show Virtual PC Console" command, the program is shown in the taskbar, but it is minimized and I'm unable to restore the normal window

Link:
http://...Strange_Virtual_PC_2007_behavior.aspx

SyncToy v2.0 Beta

SyncToy 2.0 Beta for Windows is available as a free download from the Microsoft Download Center. The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers.

Whats New:

• Dynamic Drive Letter Assignment: Drive letter reassignment will now be detected and updated in the folder pair definition.
• True Folder Sync: Folder creates, renames and deletes are now synchronized for all SyncToy actions.
• Exclusion Filtering Based on Name: File exclusion based on name with exact or fuzzy matching.
• Filtering Based on File Attributes: The ability to exclude files based on one or more file attributes (Read-Only, System, Hidden).
• Unattended Folder Pair Execution: Addressed issues related to running scheduled folder pairs while logged off.
• Folder Pairs With Shared Endpoints: Ability for folder pairs associated with the same or different instances of SyncToy to share end-points.
• Command line enhancements: Added the ability to manage folder pairs via the command line interface.
• The SyncToy engine has been rearchitected to provide scalability and the ability to add significant enhancements in future releases.
• Sync engine is also more robust insomuch that many single, file level errors are skipped without affecting the entire sync operation.
• Sync Encrypted Files: Sync of Encrypted files works when local folder and files are encrypted, which addresses the common scenario involving sync between local, encrypted laptop PC folder and remote, unencrypted desktop PC folder.
• 64-Bit compatibility
• Folder pair rename
• Sub-folder Exclusion Enhancements: Descendents creates under excluded sub-folders are automatically excluded.
• Folder Pair Metadata Moved: Folder pair metadata removed from MyDocuments to resolve any issues with server-based folder pair re-direction setup.
• Removed combine and subscribe actions.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...

Microsoft Tester Center

The Microsoft Tester Center showcases the test discipline as an integral part of the application lifecycle, describes test roles and responsibilities, and promotes the test investments required to deliver high-quality software.

Link:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/testing/default.aspx

Quick test from Windows Live Writer

Trying an offline blogging application called Windows Live Writer to see how well it works. Reason is I want to do some bigger and better blog posts that will take time to generate and an offline blogging application will help.

Link:
http://get.live.com/betas/writer_betas

How strong are your passwords?

Microsoft has an online Password Strength Checker that will let you know. If your passwords are too weak, or you are looking for password ideas, then check out the article on How to create strong passwords.

Also, if you're looking to make a whole bunch of passwords at a single time then check out Veign's Online Password Creator.

Link:
http://.../protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx

Microsoft and Zend juice PHP for Windows

Zend Technologies, the industry's PHP steward, today delivers the first fruits of its collaboration with Microsoft while expanding the companies' relationship.

FastCGI is an alternative to the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and follows work by Zend in turning the PHP engine to boost the performance on Windows servers of web applications written using PHP. In the past, Microsoft has claimed a performance boost for PHP of up to 20 per cent using FastCGI.

Link:
http://.../microsoft_zend_server_core/

Steve Ballmer lets the cat out of the bag

A team of Microsoft spokespeople have been working throughout the day to devise a plausible explanation for a comment made by CEO Steve Ballmer during a company gathering in the UK, which on its face appears to say it is considering litigation against users of Red Hat Linux for copyright infringement.

Read more:
http://...Microsoft_Scrambling_to_Explain_Ballmer_Comment/

HealthVault from Microsoft beats Google to the punch

When it's your job to protect your family's health, you need every advantage. Imagine if you had a way to collect, store, and share the health information critical to your family's well-being.

HealthVault is the new and FREE way to do just that.

Imagine controlling the flow of your health information. Whether you need to search the Web for the most up-to-date treatments, catalog existing health records, receive test results, or monitor current physical readings — HealthVault gives you the control you need.

Link:
http://www.healthvault.com/

Microsoft Office Goes Online

Read the full story over at SarahInTampa's blog:
http://www.sarahintampa.com/sarah/2007/10/microsoft-offic.html

This is something I have been giving a lot of thought lately. What will the software world look like in 5 years? In 10 years? Will desktop application development be needed anymore for software built for the masses? Will everything move to the online world? Google and Microsoft think so.

The online world and online applications have so many benefits that it may be an inevitable future and the reason I have realigned myself to websites and online applications. Slowly the hurdles of online applications are being overcome, like offline work (see Google Gears) and as more are addresses, like security, the need for a local application will become less.

What are your thoughts? How would you like having you sensitive data processed online?

How Windows Update Keeps Itself Up-to-Date

There have been some questions raised about how we service the Windows Update components and concerns expressed about software installing silently. I want to clarify the issue so that everyone can better understand why the self-updating of Windows Update acts the way it does.

Link:
http://.../how-windows-update-keeps-itself-up-to-date.aspx

Windows Server 2008 Step-by-Step Guides

Windows Server 2008 Step-by-Step Guides: "These step-by-step guides help IT Professionals learn about and evaluate Windows Server 2008."

Excel 2007 Web Data Add-In

The Excel 2007 Web Data Add-In makes it easy to use a Web page as a data source in Excel. The add-in plugs into Excel 2007 seamlessly, its entry point located on the Data Tab under the From Web option. The system extracts data by learning from a user’s selection of data they wish to capture into Excel. The more selections, the more the system is trained. An example scenario: You wish to import and track data from MSN's weather page. Visit the site using the tool, enter Data Capture mode, and select a row or two of data from the table. Then click Select Similar, and the system will find similar data based on your previous selections. You then can click Import and leverage Excel's rich data-editing capabilities, including the Refresh command, which will revisit the Web page and extract potentially new, updated data.

Link:
http://research.microsoft.com/research/downloads...

Misc. Microsoft downloads of interest

BITS Repair Tool for Windows Vista (KB940520):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx

Microsoft Office Hotfix Installer v.2.0:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx

Microsoft Application Verifier v3.4:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx

Windows Desktop Search 3.01 for Windows XP (KB917013):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx

Scriptomatic 2.0

A completely new version of the famous Scriptomatic, the utility that writes WMI scripts for you. (And, in the process, teaches you the fundamental concepts behind writing WMI scripts for yourself.) Unlike its predecessor, Scriptomatic 2.0 isn’t limited to writing just VBScript scripts; instead, Scriptomatic 2.0 can write scripts in Perl, Python, or JScript as well. In addition, Scriptomatic 2.0 gives you a host of new output formats to use when running scripts, including saving data as plain-text, as a stand-alone Web page, or even as XML. Scriptomatic 2.0 handles arrays, it converts dates to a more readable format, and it works with all the WMI classes on your computer; on top of all that, it also writes scripts that can be run against multiple machines.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx...

Microsoft Unveils Microsoft Money Plus

Building on the company’s 17-year history of delivering award-winning financial management solutions, Microsoft Corp. today launches Microsoft® Money Plus, the latest release of the popular Money product line. Money Plus debuts innovative new tools that enable consumers to effortlessly manage all their finances. With customizable “Insights,” Microsoft Money Plus delivers important financial information right to the desktop, without the need to open the Money program. Consumers can personalize Insights to alert them when they are close to preset spending limits or when bills are coming due and can also quickly and easily check accounts to see balances and cash flow.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/...MoneyPlusPR.mspx

Hungary competition authority raids Microsoft office

Hungary competition authority raids Microsoft office: "Hungary's competition authority (GVH) said it had raided Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Hungarian subsidiary because it suspected the firm had abused its market power when dealing with software distributors."

Link:
http://.../technologyNews/idUSL2671940720070726

Microsoft Signs Ad Deal with Digg

Microsoft Signs Ad Deal with Digg: "Few details are known at this point, although Digg creator Kevin Rose says it's 'similar to the one Facebook signed with Microsoft last year.' This means that Digg will turn over control the site's advertising exclusively to Microsoft and its adCenter platform."

Link:
http://.../Microsoft_Signs_Ad_Deal_with_Digg/1185391775

Internet Explorer 8 Alpha screenshots

A person at leneros.com has posted some of the images saying that the images actually are that of Internet Explorer 8 Alpha.

Judge for yourself if it is or if it's just a theme or some hack. Me thinks its a fake.

Link:
http://.../internet-explorer-8-alpha-screenshots/

Microsoft Windows Vista 30-Day Eval VHD

For organizations with complex desktop infrastructures, whether large or small, Windows Vista Enterprise is the operating system designed specifically to help realize a better return on IT investments. In this VHD, you'll have the opportunity to road-test new and improved features including management (e.g. MUI, BDD, etc…) usability (e.g. Search, Navigation, etc…) and security (UAC, Windows Defender, etc…), enhancements to the Windows Vista platform.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Leaked Details!

Not only is Windows XP Service Pack 3 alive and kicking, but Microsoft also managed to leak details about what the refresh will contain. The Redmond Company's policy when it comes down to future releases of the Windows platform is to gag all details. Windows XP SP3 is old news for Microsoft. And with the general availability of Windows Vista it was pushed to the background. But in all fairness, Microsoft never confirmed the cancellation of the third service pack for Windows XP.

Link:
http://.../Windows-XP-Service-Pack-3-Leaked-Details-57825.shtml

Windows Vista SP1 Beta coming this year

Within its recent response to the United States Department of Justice that stated it would modify Windows Vista to enable end users and OEMs to change the default desktop search it uses, Microsoft for the first time discussed Service Pack 1 for the OS, saying a beta will come this year.

Link:
http://.../Windows_Vista_SP1_Beta_Due_This_Year/