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The Unofficial Microsoft Weblog
The Unofficial Microsoft Weblog
Microsoft coverage now on Download Squad! (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)
Ryan Carter and Jason Clarke haven't disappeared -- they've just moved sideways a little. Ryan and Jason's all-out coverage of Microsoft is now part of Download Squad, our blog about all kinds of software and online services.

You can roll your Download Squad experience in several different ways:

BOOKMARKS

Main blog:
http://www.downloadsquad.com

The Microsoft category:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/category/microsoft/

All Ryan Carter all the time:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/bloggers/ryan-carter/

All Jason Clarke all the time:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/bloggers/jason-clarke/

RSS FEEDS

Main blog:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/rss.xml

The Microsoft category feed:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/category/microsoft/rss.xml

The Unofficial Microsoft Weblog will remain exactly where it is, with its tremendous archive of blog entries. Use it as a reference point, and point your browser/newsreader to Download Squad for the continuous Microsoft updating you've come to expect. Thanks for reading!
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Author: Brad Hill | More...
So long Microsoft blog. (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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I just wanted to let all of you know that this will be my last post on The Unofficial Microsoft Weblog. As of this morning, I have moved over to a tiny little blog you might have heard of called DownloadSquad. It is a new opportunity and a new challenge for me, so I hope you will join me over there, and continue reading if you aren't a huge fan of DownloadSquad already. You will get a better mix of everything over at Download Squad including Google, VoIP, Microsoft, and many other topics. They already have a huge following that is definitely well deserved. If you haven't yet, come check it out. You can even continue to get Microsoft-only feeds if you wish, there are instructions on Download Squad on how to do this. I will be bringing you a wider range of topics, not just Microsoft, so it should be a great ride. Thanks for everything, all the comments, thoughts, and opinions. It has been fun.
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Author: Ryan Carter | Category: download squad | More...
Free antivirus for Vista beta testers (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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Having dipped my toe into the Windows Vista beta 2 waters, I found myself in want of anti-virus to secure my OS. I remembered Ed Bott reported about free anti-virus options for Windows Vista so I went looking, and found this article. Ed reports that there are free versions of both eTrust EZ AntiVirus and Trend Micro's PC-Cillin products available. Happy antivirusing!
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Author: Jason Clarke | Category: antivirus | More...
Stop Windows from nagging you to reboot after an update (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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Almost anyone who has applied Windows Updates during their day has been annoyed by this issue. Once Windows finishes its update, it asks you to reboot. You click "later". Ten minutes later, a window pops up asking you to reboot again. If you're unfortunate enough to be in the middle of typing, this can actually trigger the "Reboot" button (the default is this button, so simply pressing the space bar while that window is in focus will do it) effectively losing whatever you've been working on.

There's a solution for this issue, which is that the length of time Windows waits before hassling you again is configurable. Colin Mackay has the details.
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Author: Jason Clarke | Category: reboot | More...
IE7 phishing filter thought this site to be a fraud (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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The last post regarding Marc Orchant`s OneNote article was the first that I have posted here running the Windows Vista and IE 7 betas. After making the post, I viewed it in IE to double-check that everything rendered correctly, and was greeted with a warning that The Unofficial Microsoft Weblog may indeed be a phishing site.

Now I commend Microsoft for doing something about the phishing problem that plagues the web - it`s certainly not going away, and anything the tools we use can do to help us not get taken in by these scams is welcome by me. Of course, it`s quite disconcerting to discover that one`s own site is considered to be a potential threat.

But, consider that we are a site that has `Microsoft`right in our sub-domain, even though we`re not part of Microsoft`s microsoft.com domain. And we collect information, if you call asking for a name, email address and URL to comment on posts as collecting information, which in fact it is. So it`s reasonable that software might consider us as a potential threat.

Fortunately,  Microsoft foresaw that the tool might pick up many false positives, and offers a form right on the warning to allow site owners to alert the Phishing Filter team to the problem. There also appears to be a voting mechanism so that if enough regular site visitors tag the site as either legit or not, the site will be considered that way. Pretty cool, as long as that is not easily abused.

Kudos to Microsoft for attempting to further protect us. I can`t say that I`ll stick with IE7 for longer than it takes to get a feel for it - in my opinion Firefox is still leaps and bounds ahead of IE in terms of usability and extensibility. But so far IE7 is a welcome update to a sorely outdated browser.

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Author: Jason Clarke | Category: phishing | More...
Marc Orchant article on Office 2007 preview site (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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Marc Orchant, who most of you will remember as the sole voice of this Microsoft-focused blog for many months before his departure, today had an article posted at Microsoft's Office 2007 preview site. The article highlights all of the new innovations in OneNote that have turned it into a real personal information hub, collaboration powerhouse as well as a time and task management tool. Rather than steal any of Marc`s thunder, I`ll just point you to the article which is well worth a read.

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Author: Jason Clarke | Category: Marc Orchant | More...
Microsoft Calculator Plus 2 (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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Chris Pirillo points us to a freely downloadable calculator from Microsoft that is head and shoulders beyond the default Windows calculator in terms of features. Of course, as with most downloads from Microsoft these days, this one requires Windows Genuine Advantage certification. If that makes you nervous, steer clear, but if you're looking for a new calculator application that gives you conversions including currency exchange conversions (it can even download exchange rates), give this one a try.
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Author: Jason Clarke | Category: calculator | More...
The skinny on big fat Vista Part 4 (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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The newly revamped "Hibernate" function works flawlessly, even on archaic hardware like mine. It saves everything, so you can completely turn off your PC, and later turn it back on to the same turn in your favorite game. Very cool. Also, the sleep feature works well too, and doesn't leave you hanging either! One of the most amazing things about Vista thus far for me is that my drivers would not install correctly for a few devices (although it recognized more devices than my XP install did right off the bat) until I went in through the update driver option. This allowed Vista to find my driver file and install everything the way it wanted to, which worked famously. Vista did crash on me completely a few times, but at this point, I am not sure whether this is Vista's or my aging hardware's fault. To tell you the truth, I can't wait to buy a brand new PC, just to hot-rod Vista in all it's muscle. I know it has many flaws, but I think once Microsoft puts on the finishing touches, there is enough there to really please fans and critics alike.
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Author: Ryan Carter | Category: microsoft | More...
The skinny on big fat Vista Part 3 (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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A sigh of relief, a breath of fresh air, all because the wicked witch of MY is dead! Microsoft axed the whole stupid "my" routine in Vista, along with the verbose and dumbly named "Documents and Settings" folder. Thank (your favorite deity here)! It is now simply Documents, Computer, Pictures, Music, and the new Games folder. Another thing I like is that Vista places all these things into a C:\Users\username folder for better organization. This is the best way they have done it ever. Windows NT used to have these files under C:\winnt\profiles\username and XP had C:\Documents and Settings\username with all of the My pictures, My music, etc under the My Documents folder. Finally someone realized that Pictures and Music and Videos are NOT DOCUMENTS! Rock on!
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Author: Ryan Carter | Category: microsoft | More...
The skinny on big fat Vista Part 2 (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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Vista sports the new organizational structure that allows much easier browsing and finding of folders using a side-arrow and a drop down on every folder currently in your directory path. I also like Vista's new picture viewing application is excellent, even providing a slideshow view. The new search and all programs views let you type or click on what you want, and the results of both come up in the pane formerly reserved for only pinned items on the left. So instead of far reaching menus you must drill down through filling the screen, you can easily drill down via a faster, better tree-like interface. One thing I found interesting is that you can type run or calc, or notepad, and without further ado, Vista displays it, smartly knowing what I wanted, though these items, like run are not shown on the main start menu. On the integration front, Vista's new start button goes hand in hand with the new 2007 Office system beta's start-button common to most Office programs. There are many such improvements that make it easier for users to get the idea of how to use the system, since things look the same. Even display properties are interestingly arranged, while a little confusing to a seasoned user, will be very simple for a newbie.
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Author: Ryan Carter | Category: microsoft | More...
The skinny on big fat Vista (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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So, as I write this on my laptop PC currently running windows Vista, I am thinking back over the last week that I have had Vista installed. The big verdict for me is that Vista is pretty good at some things, a little annoying with the security warnings, a little clunky yet, and not perfect, but for a beta, it is good. I have an older machine running 512MB RAM, and a 1.6GHz AMD Athlon 2800 chip and a whopping 40GB hard drive. Vista does make pretty good use of my ancient hardware. I tried out the ReadyBoost feature, which allows you to plug in any flash based memory stick, thumb drive, etc to help improve the performance of Vista and thusly your computer. This works surprisingly well, and makes me want to run out and buy a 2GB flash drive, just to see what it will do with that. My PC is rated by Vista as a 1, so it isn't the greatest of performances, and I don't even have the 128MB video card needed to run Aero, but I still like Vista quite a bit. There are some significant improvements to XP, better organization, and lots of little things that make computing easier. I love the new live preview of any picture, making it easy to tell your photos apart even on the desktop, without looking at the filename. Built in support for Clear-Type fonts is cool, making everything look ethereally slick.
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Author: Ryan Carter | Category: microsoft | More...
Vista Public Beta 2 is Live! (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)
That's right folks, Microsoft Windows Vista Public Beta 2 is now available for download. I am personally going to install Vista tonight and see what works, and what doesn't for myself. For example, video games, applications, hardware, etc. The reviews I have seen say that most things work, with the exception of a few driver issues. Robert Scoble even said that Vista has made him so much more productive even with the quirks, so I look forward to testing it out in everyday use. Check out the download page for the public preview, though be aware that so many people are downloading it right now, that you may not be able to get in.
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Author: Ryan Carter | More...
MSN Spaces is the largest blogging service (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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With over 100 million unique visitors, MSN Spaces is the largest blogging service worldwide according to comScore Media Metrix. It is amazing how blogging has taken off. With popular sites like MySpace and MSN spaces, it is safe to say that almost everyone is doing it. Who ever thought that someone's random inner wonderings would actually mean something to someone else, enough to post it on the Internet? Apparently, we all like the more human element in information publishing. Blogs such as post secret draw people in by the droves, because somehow blogging reaches people in a sincere way, and sometimes a deep way. Personally I love blogging, and though I haven't set up my own blog on MSN spaces, I do like their format and options. So swing on by and see what is hoping over there. There is a new service scheduled to take the place of MSN spaces called of course, you guess it "Windows Live Spaces" later this year, and it will have more social networking, to no doubt compete with mySpace. You can read Microsoft's full story here.
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Author: Ryan Carter | Category: microsoft | More...
Windows OneCare is now in retail stores (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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This is a really good product. Microsoft did their homework on this one. I had downloaded and tested this product and it really does help people keep their systems safe and up to date. The features include anti-virus, a decent firewall, anti-spyware, PC tune-up, back-up, restore, and even email, phone and chat tech support, yup, included in the same package at the same price. The OneCare suite is available online for download, and also in most Best Buy stores and a bunch of other retailers as well. A quick Google search (sorry Microsoft) yielded that both CompUSA and MicroCenter have OneCare available for around $50 for a year's subscription. OfficeMax and OfficeDepot did not seem to have it in their search at least, as of this writing.
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Author: Ryan Carter | Category: microsoft | More...
Office 2007 may be just ducky. (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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Over at ZDnet, Marc Orchant writes about the "Office UI retraining canard." The catchy title aside, Marc states that the new user interface for Office 2007, including the "ribbon" and the newly grouped sections will eventually win users over. Marc goes on to write that the new interface was designed with a non-existent learning curve in mind. Apparently most users will take to the new UI like a flock of (your favorite waterfowl here). I suppose he is right by saying that "the biggest pushback will come from the most knowledgeable users. They have developed habits that will require some adjustment with the new UI." I certainly fall in that category, and I think a lot of people do. All I want is the option to use the new format or that old one. Though I favor the old way (who doesn't) I am starting to see some advantages to the new UI. I may come around. Stay tuned.
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Author: Ryan Carter | Category: 2007 Microsoft Office system | More...
iPods foster stealing music, apparently. (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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My first thought about Real Networks CEO Rob Glaser saying the half the music on iPod is stolen, is "you're just jealous." Honestly, as the link below suggests, many people HAVE downloaded "stolen" music, but many of them have a lot of their own music they have ripped for iPod play. Steve Ballmer allegedly echoed Glaser's sentiments by stating that "The most common format of music on an iPod is 'stolen'." May I remind both Rob and Steve that *IF* they had a decent iPod killer, there would also be "stolen" music on their players. It has nothing to do with the iPod. The problem really lies in the shift of a MAJOR music paradigm. It is mostly a matter of format. People generally rip their own albums because they want the ultra-mobility, style, and easy listening that the iPod offers. The fact that Apple has sold so many songs means that something is working. Just because the average is 25 songs to an iPod purchased legally, doesn't mean that many people still don't have an iPod, and simply buy songs for listening on their PC or Mac. This is another case of a CEO spouting off without doing his research or having the gusto to back up what he says, perhaps in the form of a REAL music store or a REAL mp3 playing device. Until then, I don't want to hear about it. Stolen music is a bigger problem than just iPod users. I thought everyone knew that by now.
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Author: Ryan Carter | Category: apple | More...
Microsoft do da ro-bot! (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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Microsoft is holding a contest to see who can develop the best new BOTs for the newly launched Windows Live Messenger Beta.  BOTs are those little pieces of software that typically help users with things such as movie times, stock quotes, even price quotes and help with using IM. For any budding IM developers out there, you can find the three, yes three, software development kits (SDKs) from Microsoft available at the www.robotinvaders.com website. Entries will be accepted until September 15th, 2006. At stake is $40,000, bragging rights, and a mention in the new messenger application. I don't know the first thing about BOT-ing, so somebody clue me in, is it hard? In any case, go check out the website and get your grooviest robot dance on. Ready? Set? BOT!
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Author: Ryan Carter | Category: bots | More...
Microsoft to bring life to PC games? (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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For a long time now, Microsoft hasn't been focusing on PC games, and even us PC gamers can't blame them. Going from zero to 360 in a few years, not bad at all. Now though, Microsoft is going to begin focusing on PC games again. Many think Microsoft will develop, or have developed a gaming platform for the PC that rivals the ease and simplicity of the XBOX brand. Hopefully this is true. A little birdie told me that Microsoft may even be planning to integrate XBOX and PC based gaming platforms via a service like the wildy popular LIVE. This would certainly give them the advantage over Nintendo and Sony, who don't have anything close to a viable PC link to them systems. In fact, most consoles far thus far kept PC gaming out of their respective portfolios, because PC's have been the enemy. Microsoft knows that there are millions of PC gamers who would love to gank their snoody console-based buddies and prove once and for all what PC gamers have known for ages: the PC is the best gaming platform ever. How can you beat a customizable 101-key controller or the ability to upgrade any part of your gaming system? You obviously can't do that with a console.
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Author: Ryan Carter | Category: halo 2 | More...
Why do people pirate software? (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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Cnet features Microsoft executive Michala Alexander talking about piracy and why people do it. Alexander states that, "it's just because people want what they can get for the cheapest price." While I understand this view and agree with the observation of human nature, I think the deeper issue is that software companies still cause a lot of piracy, because they haven't figured out what customers need. I know many people who bought a computer, then one day, inexplicably, their computer crashes. What do they do? They find the nearest guru, and ask for help. He gives them a copy of the operating system (that they didn't get when they bought the computer) to fix their computer. It may not be right, but is it fair to NOT give customers a copy of THEIR operating system THEY bought pre-installed? This is near-sighted and stingy of software companies. Most people in this situation would be fine if they could just get their computer back, yet no provision is made for them when the system crashes.  I know this isn't all of the piracy going on, but this is the portion that I have witnessed. In this way, software companies are pirating their own software.
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Author: Ryan Carter | Category: cnet | More...
Microsoft does the cam-cam. (Fri, 05 Sep 2008)

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Apple's iSight cameras now built into many products have been a big hit with mac users. Microsoft is taking a few clues and has come up with their own idea for a web cam as well. It is about time. I have often wished and wondered if this was an idea Microsoft sees the potential in, and apparently they do. The LifeCams should be available sometime this month, according to Mary Jo Foley of Microsoft Watch. No word yet on hardware integration of the product with things like laptops, but if the concept takes off it may end up in hardware in the near future. Video-conferencing would help many enterprises cut down on needless travel costs, as well as tighten the global community. It is a good idea, so Microsoft, bring it on!

[Via Microsoft-Watch.com]
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Author: Ryan Carter | Category: apple | More...
  

 
 
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