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Your questions: what do I like about Windows 7? For starters, I add Windows Live Apps

I saw a tweet about the post today from microsoftsubnet on the Seven things to love, hate about Windows 7 by Tom Henderson and Brendan Allen in Network World (01/15/09, See http://tinyurl.com/9ropqp). 

First off, hate is much too strong a word IMO. Perhaps they could’ve termed it "Seven things to love and a couple to improve upon before the product is released." 😉

Given the positive feedback I’ve seen on Windows 7 to date, I have lost track of the number of times I have been asked this week…

"You’ve been using Windows 7 for a while now… what do you like about it?"

I must say that I agree with some of the items in Network World’s article, especially the nod on the improved GUI, the improved backup system via the easy to use ‘Backup and Restore’ and the the improved experience of the Windows Taskbar which Henderson and Allen said…

"… leapfrogs Apple’s Dock view by providing a very tidy – but informative – view of all running applications."

But I’m not sure I agree with slide 11, "Things We Hate #3: Having to track down "essential" apps"…

"If they’re essential, why put them online? We were simply looking for basic mail and IM programs and were shunted to Windows Live Essentials. While we applaud the overall lightening of the Windows 7 footprint, we’re also being trained in a fashion to think it’s common practice to get applications online that Microsoft had previously put in the box. Yes, apps are free on Windows Live Essentials, but you just know that other advertising and teaseware elements will be there too. We’d rather not have to wade through the junk to find what we essentially need."

Installing Windows Live apps (the "essentials beta") is an easy process, and frankly thoughtful.  This way, you’re assured to get the latest versions of all the applications and download only the ones you want to install, rather than taking the entire Live apps suite.  And if I use other programs or services from other vendors already, I’m free to select what I want and what I don’t want on my computer.  This makes it easy to customize the installations on the various computers I manage on a very demanding network: our home.

Windows Live apps For instance, at home on one machine in the family room I installed Windows Live Toolbar, Mail and Family Safety (as well as Silverlight), whilst my wife’s computer incrementally gets Photo Gallery and Messenger.  For my computers, I add Windows Live Writer, the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector and Movie Maker (although I’m still a fan of Adobe Premiere and Pinnacle Studio).  Most of all, the Windows Live apps installer makes that an easy process.

Curious about adding additional Windows Live apps and services? Check out the laundry list at Windows Live Wikipedia entry for current and past items: I use Windows Live Frameit and Windows Live for mobile phones.

More likes this week.

Tags: Microsoft, your questions, Windows Live, customer experience, Windows 7.

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The new year rings in another bonus: a rise in bogus electronic greeting cards

It’s that time of year again when fake online greeting cards increase in the daily Outlook mailbox and in web based mail as well).

A common give away? The sender is often listed only by first name – no last name – and includes links to various e-card sites: this was from Michelle offering "Happy Wishes!"

Michelle has created the ecard.

Here’s your greeting card: [this one from included a URL from greetingcardcalendar.com]

Thank you, greeting-cards.com team.

As I noted in a post last year on the subject, Brian Krebs of the Washington Post highlighted this problem in his post on Not-So-Friendly Greeting Cards.  Krebs noted that the rise of fake online greeting cards that can install keystroke loggers on to your computer, rather than delivering what you thought to be an innocent e-card from a long lost aunt.

"You might want to think twice before opening that e-greeting card sent to you via e-mail. Cyber crooks have recently been blasting out millions of fake online greeting cards in the hope that recipients will click on the included links and infect their computers with password-stealing viruses.

"Previous e-greeting card scams harbored their viral payload in an infected e-mail attachment, but fraudsters now are simply embedding links in the fake card messages. Anyone who clicks on such a link without the benefit of the most recent security updates for their Web browser is likely to have their PC silently whacked with an invasive keystroke-logging program.

"… It is sad that the state of e-mail security has come to this, but Microsoft Windows users would be well-advised to simply delete any e-greeting cards that land in their inboxes."

For more info, see the Wiki link on the Storm Worm, and here on Symantec’s site.

Also, here’s the link if the embedded links above don’t work: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2007/07/notsofriendly_greeting_cards_1.html

And see my past note on how there’s no immunity from security vulnerabilities.

More info:

Tags: Microsoft, security, antivirus, antispyware, Windows Defender.

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Of interest: Sending Techmamas links and info on Windows Live Wave 3 Launch

This weekend I took some time late last night after everyone went to bed and I had finished clearing up most of my mail backlog (apologies to those of you who rec’d a mail from me over the weekend with some new request or a belated reply).  As noted, it was a busy day making a snowman. As I I Tweeted and noted to our Hawaiian friend, Kirk: given a choice, the boys would rather be making sand castles in Hawaii instead of snow forts.

It’s still cold, colder even than it was last night:

Local weather for Redmond, WA: Cloudy and 25°F, Feels Like 17°F, 14 Dec @ 9:00PM PST (which still feels like zero).

One of the emails I sent last night was to our friend, Beth: I do love her Techmamas blog.  It’s one of "50 of the world’s top bloggers" according to HP (which just gave away a bunch of gear in the "HP Magic Giveaway" http://tinyurl.com/6alc8m) along side such respected folks as Amit Agarwal, Chris Pirillo, John Obeto, Long Zheng and the irrepressible Ian Dixon.  I sent her links and more information on the Windows Live Wave 3 launch as I finished setting up my Windows Live page and raved about it over the last holiday weekend.  I like the new features in Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Live Mail and Live Writer. Brian Hall announced last month…

People sometimes ask me “What is Windows Live?” and “How does that relate to Hotmail, Messenger and Photo Gallery?” Historically, people have had entirely separate e-mail, IM, and sharing solutions – with different contact lists and totally different tools. But we’re now at a point where we can go beyond siloed communication tools that don’t work together – and start to integrate the best of them together with one contact list. In Windows Live, we’ve been working towards this for a while, but with this upcoming release, we’re taking a huge step forward in providing an integrated personal communication service – integrated across Windows Live and across other services on the web.

Quite simply, our goal with Windows Live is to help keep your life in sync. We do this by giving you great tools for communicating and sharing with the people you care about most. We help you bring together all of your digital stuff from across the web. And we optimize your experiences for where you are – on your PC, in Outlook, on your mobile phone, and on the web.

So, when can you get the new Windows Live and what does it include? In September, we released a set of beta programs for your PC. These programs will come out of beta soon – they’re the Windows Live Essentials. We also started rolling out updates to Hotmail customers. Over the coming months, we’ll release additional updates, as well as many new programs and services that we’re launching for the PC, web, and mobile phone.

Millions of you are already using the betas of our PC programs and have been providing us with great feedback. We’re hard at work on finalizing these products, and we’ll soon be releasing the final versions of Windows Live programs for your PC, known collectively as Windows Live Essentials. The Essentials include Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mail, Writer, Toolbar, and Family Safety.

On the web, we’ll be updating Hotmail, Spaces, Calendar, SkyDrive, and Windows Live Home – your dashboard to what is happening across Windows Live. We’re also introducing new profile, groups, and photos experiences on the web.

More info is also included on the Team blog in a recent post on The new face of Windows Live on the web.

Here’s a good overview of the Windows Live for mobile introduction from the Live team.

Liveside.net’s includes an intro on the Live Wave 3 launch here.

“… include the release of new services such as Windows Live Groups, Photos and Profile as well as the significantly updated Home and Mobile offerings.”

And the review on PC Magazine’s site – the only thing that PC Magazine dinged Live on was a lack of Exchange server support.

Now, to finish tracking down the presentations requested this weekend for review.  Have a good week ahead.

Tags: Microsoft, Your questions, Windows Live.

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Your questions: I can’t find Form Fill in Live Toolbar beta. Where can I find it?

Thanks to Bethany for her question sent via email

"I just installed the Live Toolbar beta and now I can’t find Form Fill.  Do you know where I can find it?"

Well, short answer is you can’t: the Form Fill and Windows Live Favorites add-ins aren’t available on Windows Live Toolbar beta.  This from the Help documentation:

"When you upgraded Toolbar beta, your Form Fill and Windows Live Favorites add-in settings were preserved on your local computer. To use these features, you must uninstall all of your Windows Live beta downloads and reinstall your previous version."

To the Live team: a great beta product but It would be nice if you were informed prior to installing the beta. Maybe you included the notice, but I missed that reference.

How do you get it back? Sadly (for now), the advice is to go back to the release version…

To uninstall Windows Live Toolbar beta:

  1. In Windows XP, click Start, and then click Run.

    –or–

    In Windows Vista, click the Start button, and then click in the Start Search box.

  2. Type appwiz.cpl, and then press ENTER.
  3. Click Windows Live Beta (all programs), and then click Remove or Uninstall/Change.
  4. Click Change, and then click Continue.
  5. Under You haven’t installed these yet, clear all of the check boxes.
  6. Under You installed these earlier, clear all of the check boxes, and then click Continue.
  7. Follow the on-screen instructions

To install the previous version of Toolbar beta:

  1. Go to the Windows Live website, and then click Get it free.
  2. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Tags: Microsoft, Your questions, Windows Live.

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Microsoft Gurus coming soon to enlighten you at retail

Well, the news has hit publicly, so I can now talk about the coming of help at retail in our new Microsoft Gurus.  No, not that Guru

I just twittered about the new technology help coming to a major computer store near you. The "Microsoft Gurus" were announced today (as noted here on MSNBC, http://tinyurl.com/6h6clw). A little late, I say, but better late than never: based on my own Labour Day customer experience at Best Buy and a local Apple Store, this can’t come soon enough:

"I was prompted to visit after I read Matt Richtel’s article in the Times, in which Geek Squad management said that their "agents have one thing over Apple and Microsoft engineers. We spend most of the day talking to people."

As Tom Pilla (he’s our general manager of corporate communications) said today…

The world’s largest software company plans to have 155 "Microsoft Gurus" in U.S. stores by the end of the year, and expand based on the project’s success… These gurus will be answering questions about PCs and Microsoft products, as well as giving demos of how the company’s products work together — help designed to get them thinking Microsoft.

Having tested the concept around the country and in Europe over the last year, we will deploy these customer service representatives at major retailers including Best Buy and Circuit City.  It will be interesting to see how hey fare along side the personal shopping assistance being offered at one major retailer

The new Retail Experience Center on the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, Wash. is designed to learn about and improve the experience consumers have selecting and purchasing Windows PCs in retail stores.As noted today on Microsoft Presspass, we’re working with our major retail partners and PC makers to improved and enhance the customer experience "with Windows at every touch-point" including…

  • rolling out Windows-branded sales environments and store-within-a-store concepts at major retailers,
  • Major PC manufactures including HP, Dell, Sony and Lenovo are working with Microsoft to enhance key areas of the PC experience, including speeding up startup and shut-down time and sleep and resume speeds;
  • Windows.com has been revamped and will point consumer to specific Windows products and experiences that deliver.

Bill Veghte said…

“We must deliver a world-class shopping experience that aligns with the brand promise and our online presence. That is why we are working with our key retail partners to make the process of evaluating, selecting and purchasing PCs with Windows as simple and informative as possible.”

As noted on the Presspass site for Windows, early pilots with retailers have included branded "store-within-a-store" displays, with some featuring trained Microsoft "Gurus" to assist PC buyers, similar to the Nordstrom model of "personal shoppers, where the focus is more on informing and supporting the customer than on the actual sale.

Initial feedback on Gizmodo was a bit harsh, exclaiming that Gurus "are kind of like Apple Geniuses, only a lot less useful."

Really? Have they met one?

An eagle eyed commenter on Gizmodo saw a job listing for Microsoft Gurus, noting the locations where they were needed, including California, Washington DC, Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Virginia and here in Washington state.

Tags: Gurus, Microsoft, Vista, Windows.

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