Robert McLaws is letting folks know the beta of Windows Easy Transfer Companion is available at Microsoft.com. You can download the beta here. The beta works on both Windows XP and Windows Vista and is designed to help you move your applications from Windows XP to Windows Vista when upgrading to a new Windows Vista PC.

Windows Easy Transfer Companion will work with over 100 programs in transferring over to your new Windows Vista PC. It will also alert you if a program will not transfer or might have problems transferring (transferring without "high confidence"). You can transfer your applications though an Easy Transfer Cable (like the one offered from Belkin) or through your home network (LAN).

I decided to test Windows Easy Transfer Beta out myself. I prepped my Windows XP PC to transfer the applications I have installed over to my new Windows Vista Home Premium PC. Just like Windows Easy Transfer Companion, let's call my Windows XP PC my "Old PC" and my Windows Vista Home Premium PC my "New PC" for this post. After Windows Easy Transfer Companion prepares for the transfer, it tells me that my Old PC is ready and gives me Companion Key that I will need to enter on my New PC.

Once I enter the Companion Key into my New PC - my Old PC detects it is now connected through my network and the transfer begins on my New PC. It will first do a series of scans from my Old PC to my New PC. After those scans are completed, it will detect which applications are transferrable. They are displayed in groups of how well they transfer. As you can see, I have two applications that will "transfer well": Macromedia Flash Player and Windows Live Photo Gallery (very cool!). I am going to choose to just transfer Windows Live Photo Gallery.

It prepares for the transfer again and the transfer begins with statuses of the transfer appearing on both my Old PC and my New PC.

And the transfer is complete.

After the New PC rebooted, I went to test out Windows Live Photo Gallery after the transfer on my new PC. Windows Live Photo Gallery failed to open. Apparently Windows Live Photo Gallery requires the Microsoft SQL 2005 Compact Edition framework installed as a prerequisite. I neglected to transfer this from my Old PC as (see in above screenshots) it was not advised. No worries though! I went to Microsoft.com, downloaded the framework, and installed it. Windows Live Photo Gallery fired right up after that. Overall though, this tool worked great.

You can click here to view my Windows Easy Transfer Companion Screenshot Gallery.

For background information on Windows Easy Transfer and Windows Easy Transfer Companion, I suggest reading Nick's post from a few months ago that discusses using Windows Easy Transfer and the technology behind what is now Windows Easy Transfer Companion.

Tuesday saw the release of the June 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista on Windows Update.  Steven Bink highlights the update and Ian Dixon also talks about the update as well on his blog.  

The June 2007 Cumulative Update resolves several issues in Windows Media Center including a update to the Digital Cable Card component in Media Center that improves the interaction between the CableCARD, digital cable tuner, and Media Center.

With this update programs for enabling the use of Windows Media Extenders (such as the Xbox 360) have been updated. You may need to update your third party firewall to take into account the changes to these programs and enable access through the firewall to your Windows Media Extender. For example, I use Windows Live OneCare to protect my PC I use for Media Center. In Windows Live OneCare's Firewall Advanced Settings, you will notice it lists programs by name and version.

Other third party firewalls may do the same. With this month's update, those version numbers for some of the programs necessary for using Windows Media Extenders may have changed so you might need to go in and give access to those applications again with their new versions.

You read up on the details on the June 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center in Windows Vista here. And you can download the package without going through Windows Update here (although I suggest using Windows Update of course).

Microsoft this evening is announcing the managed beta of Windows Live Photo Gallery - an upgrade to the existing Windows Photo Gallery that currently ships with Windows Vista. This is part of a broader announcement of renewed focus on Software+Services with Windows Live.

Windows Live Photo Gallery includes all of the features of Windows Photo Gallery in Windows Vista - but extends the experience by adding new functionality as well as integration with Windows Live services such as Windows Live Spaces. Here is a list of a few new things you'll find in the initial beta release of Windows Live Photo Gallery:

• Improved image editing features like Panoramic stitch, histogram, and sharpen image.
• Improved tagging and organization including the ability to quickly sort by name, file type, tag or date.
• Publish photos directly to your photo galleries on Windows Live Spaces.
• Auto event grouping and tagging when importing photos (and video) from your camera to PC.
• Improved Photo Import Tool.

The beta being announced today for Windows Live Photo Gallery is only available to a limited group of beta testers and is a closed managed beta at this time. However, Microsoft intends to open the beta up for the public later this summer based on feedback they get from the closed managed beta. Windows Live Photo Gallery is available for users of Windows Vista (of course!) and Windows XP SP2.

I was fortunate enough to be able to have spent a great deal of time with Windows Live Photo Gallery and have it replace the use of Windows Photo Gallery on Windows Vista for me and management of my digital photos.  I'd like to highlight a few improvements that really stand out for me. The biggest of the improvements that I really took notice of was the improvements to the Photo Import Tool.  

The Photo Import Tool groups all photos taken on your digital camera by date and time. The user is now allowed to expand each of those groups and choose specific individual photos they would like to import instead of being forced to import the entire batch of photos (like previously with Windows Photo Gallery).

With the new Photo Import Tool, you are also in more control over the naming of the folders of your images and the images themselves on top of adding tags. You can now name your images separate from the tags you choose for the photos.

Users will be happy to know that the RAW image format support that exists in Windows Photo Gallery also carries over into Windows Live Photo Gallery. With my Nikon D40, I have Nikon's RAW image codec installed and Windows Live Photo Gallery picks up the codec and allows me to import and view these photos (.NEF files).

The next thing was the ability to upload your photos to galleries on Windows Live Spaces. On my Windows Live Space, I have multiple galleries that already exist. Windows Live Photo Gallery allows me to publish photos to my Windows Live Space by either creating a new gallery (which I am free to name whatever I want) or add to existing galleries that are already on my Windows Live Space. Either way - publishing to my Windows Live Space is really easy.

I am currently playing around with the improvement to the "photo fix" tools such as panoramic stitch. I am hoping to successfully create a panoramic photo in the near future. I'll be sure to post it once I get it done.

Here is a look at some improvements made to the fix tools including the Histogram:

These are just a few of the highlights from Windows Live Photo Gallery. I use Windows Live Photo Gallery on all my PC's for all my digital photo needs. Expect to see more posts on my experience using Windows Live Photo Gallery in the coming weeks.

Be sure to check out the new Q&A on Windows Live with Microsoft Corporate Vice President Chris Jones on this announcement and the continued focus of Software+Services with Windows Live.

Today I noticed my Windows Update icon had appeared on my taskbar. I double-clicked to see what updates were available and it was an update for the Windows Live Messenger 8.5 beta.

The update was designed specifically to test Windows Live Messenger updates pushed through the Microsoft Update engine - which you can use within Windows Vista's Windows Update client off the Start Menu. I had expressed my love for the Windows Update client in Windows Vista in a previous post, and this is why. Microsoft is putting great efforts to push updates through Windows Update and Microsoft Update that add to the Windows user experience.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe Windows Live Mail takes advantage of having updates rolled out through Microsoft Update as well.

The update to Windows Live Messenger 8.5 offers no new functionality or updates to the application itself as it was designed simply to test the functionality of rolling out an update through Microsoft Update.

Ed Bott recently purchased a new Dell C521 PC running Windows Vista Home Premium and blogs about his experience with the PC. He talks about his experience right from starting up the PC for the first time after receiving it from Dell to his experience trying to "stress" the PC out.

What Ed did to "stress" out his PC was he began copying over 6GB of photos from a network server, started playing a DVD in Windows Media Player 11, opened up 5 websites in IE7 (5 different tabs), and opened and started using Windows Mail, Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Movie Maker. Ed even noted that while all of this was taking place, Flip3D worked perfectly. And while his PC's Task Manager displayed high usage on its memory and CPU - Ed says the PC displayed an "a very impressive performance".

I'm going to try The Ed Bott PC Stress Test later tonight on my PC's. ;-)

Click here to read Ed Bott's full report on his experience.

Earlier this week I received my second Dell UltraSharp 2407FP 24-inch monitor to accompany my already in-use 2407FP monitor. I now have both 2407FP monitors connected to my ATI Radeon X1650 Pro via DVI. I have both monitors running at 1920x1200 screen resolution.

I created a video showing off running Windows Vista with multiple monitors and demonstrate Flip3D when two monitors are in use. I also talk about the ability to choose which monitor Windows Sidebar runs on.  

Video: Flip3D with 2 Monitors in Windows Vista

Windows Vista's Display Settings allows you to control both your monitors. You can designate any one of the two monitors as your PC's Primary Display. Using the Identify Monitors button at the top of the Display Settings window you can identify which monitor is 1 and which is monitor 2. When I first connected my second monitor to my PC, it simply mirrored the screen from my first monitor. However, this was not the behavior I wanted.  In Display Settings, I clicked on monitor 2 and checked "Extend the desktop to this monitor" to add the second monitor as usable desktop space. With this checked, I was then able to drag apps and use the second monitor's desktop as an extension of my desktop on my Primary Display.

Your PC will save the settings of the apps you drag to the second monitor. For example, I dragged Windows Live Mail over to my second monitor. When I exited Windows Live Mail and then opened it back up - it opened back up on my second monitor. Your PC will preserve - or "remember" - the settings of which monitor that app is opened up on even after rebooting.

So what do I use my second monitor for? I read a lot of RSS feeds and email throughout the day. While working on writing blog posts or editing video content, I keep Windows Live Mail opened up on the second monitor where I can watch and monitor new feeds (and email) as they arrive. I occasionally have Windows Media Center opened up and playing a recorded TV show on the second monitor while I work as well.

If you're running Windows Vista with two monitors, I'd love to hear how you're using both monitors!

You can also check out Nick's post from back in March on a PC running with 4 monitors.

The Dell UltraSharp 2407FP Monitors are Certified for Windows Vista.

UPDATE: You can download the final released version of the Outlook Connector here or through Windows Live Essentials at download.live.com.

Today you can now download the beta of the next version of the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector.

Download: Microsoft Office Outlook Connector (Beta)

The Microsoft Office Outlook Connector is designed to let you access your Windows Live Hotmail account through Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007. You will be able to download and install the Connector to sync up your email and contacts in Windows Live Hotmail for free. However, if you are a paid subscriber of MSN Premium, Office Live Essentials, or Office Live Premium you will get the added functionality of being able to sync up your calendar, tasks and notes from Outlook to Windows Live Hotmail.

I know many of you probably took note to the statement made on the download page of being able to "synchronize your Windows Live Calendar in Outlook". Windows Live Hotmail currently has a built in calendar service which is essentially your Windows Live Calendar. Your calendar from Outlook is published and viewable through this service in Windows Live Hotmail.

I pinged Jared Brown today who is a Program Manager on the Outlook Connector Team to discuss today's Beta release and the Outlook Connector in general. One of the benefits that Jared highlighted for me was that when the Outlook Connector is installed it does not alter any pre-existing email accounts already setup in Outlook. For example: if you are a user in a Microsoft Exchange environment and want to access your Hotmail account via Outlook, the Connector won't impact the use of being connected to a Microsoft Exchange Server. Both email accounts will work without causing issues.  "You'll essentially have two folders for each module, one will sync one won't (just like you'll have two email Inboxes etc.)," Jared explained.

I also asked Jared to talk a little bit about the backend technology that the Outlook Connector uses to sync up email and contacts. The Outlook Connector Beta uses DeltaSync - a brand new protocol for syncing up with web services (such as Hotmail) that is also used extensively in Windows Live Mail.  Previous versions of the Outlook Connector employed DAV to sync up email. However, this proved to be expensive and not quite efficient enough especially with Hotmail's extremely large user base. "DeltaSync was created to boost efficiency and finally let us create a version of the connector that we can release for free," Jared said. DeltaSync is one of my favorite backend technologies to come out of Microsoft to-date.

I installed the Outlook Connector Beta on my PC and it works as advertised. It quickly syncs together email from Windows Live Hotmail into Outlook 2007 (note that this beta also works with Outlook 2003 as well!) very nicely.

 It also syncs your Windows Live Contacts as well. When installed in Outlook - you will get a new Outlook Connector Toolbar that allows you to view your server status.

Your server status includes how much space you have left in Hotmail and any errors that may have occurred during sync. I am currently not a MSN Premium, Office Live Essentials or Office Live Premium subscriber so I get a red "x" next to calendar which fails to sync since I am not paying for a service that offers that added benefit. However email and contacts sync up great.  You can still use Outlook's calendar, it just won't sync to the Windows Live.

You are able to configure calendar sharing and add more accounts to use the Outlook Connector with. If you have multiple Hotmail accounts or Windows Live Custom Domains and Office Live accounts - they all can be configured into a single Outlook profile.  I configured up to 4 Hotmail accounts in one Outlook Profile. I saw no decrease in performance in Outlook 2007 either.

In Windows Vista, since Outlook 2007 utilizes the Windows Desktop Search indexer, any email that you sync up from Windows Live Hotmail in Outlook 2007 is easily searchable through Windows Vista's Start Menu.

Special thanks to Jared Brown for taking the time to talk with me today. Remember, this release of the Outlook Connector is a beta. If you have any issues, just go to "Send Feedback" under the Outlook Connector menu in Outlook (see above screenshot). Or leave a comment and I'll be sure to forward the feedback on to the team.

In January, Windows Vista launched with an impressive slate of Notebook and Tablet PC's. One of those PC was HP's tx1000. The tx1000 is a Pavilion Entertainment PC that is also a Tablet PC with an impressive set of specs:

• AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core TL-60 (2.0GHz/1MB)
• 2GB of DDR2 RAM
• 12.1" WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280x800)
• NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150
• 802.11b/g WLAN and Bluetooth
• 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• LightScribe DVD+/-RW w/Double Layer
• 3 Universal Serial Bus (USB 2.0)
• 1 Expansion Port 3
• TV-out (S-video)
• Integrated Consumer IR (remote control receiver)
• Integrated Altec Lansing stereo speakers
• Fingerprint Reader

I was fortunate to be able to spend a few weeks test driving the tx1000 out. You'll note the integrated IR receiver in the above specs - that is because the tx1000 truly is an entertainment PC. The tx1000 comes with a mini Windows Media Center remote that can be docked into the left side of the PC. Whenever you want watch videos in Windows Media Center (or play music), you can pop out the remote and use the remote to navigate through Windows Media Center.

The tx1000 can be configured to come with HP QuickPlay 3.0, which includes a mobile TV module that supports Internet TV streaming. My tx1000 I tested out did not come with this capability unfortunately. What I did was I recorded TV shows on my desktop PC and when I went to travel, I would grab a few of my recorded TV shows and throw them onto the tx1000 to watch while on the road. This worked out real well for me.

Speaking of traveling, one of the coolest features the tx1000 comes with is dual headphone jacks. Instead of having to buy a little adaptor to allow two users to listen through the same headphone jack, the tx1000 does it for you. This makes the tx1000 a very nice laptop to have if you're traveling with someone on a long flight or road trip.

Windows Vista also lets you control the volume level of each individual set of headphones thanks to the new sound abilities Windows Vista ships with.

The tx1000, being a Tablet PC, enjoys many of the Tablet PC features that Windows Vista offers. I was particularly impressed with Windows Vista's ability to read my handwriting and format it to text. It was able to recognize much of my hand writing without any problem.

There are a few more notable features with the tx1000. The tx1000 comes with a fingerprint reader to automate logging on to the PC and also logging on to some of your favorite websites. You also get a 1.3 MP built-in webcam at the top of the screen. The webcam works well with Windows Live Messenger.

The tx1000 has a Windows Experience Index of 3.0 with the strong areas being in the areas of Memory and the Processor.

I ran Windows Vista at 32-bit although the tx1000 supports running at 64-bit.

Overall, I found the combination of being a entertainment PC and a Tablet PC to be a very interesting combination - a combination you really don't see much of today in Notebook PC's. What do you think?

The Windows Mobile Device Center Team just forwarded this to me:

The Windows Mobile Device Center Team is excited to announce the release of Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1. This release contains key improvements and new features to support Windows Mobile 6 devices. 

Key updates in Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 include:

• Windows Mobile 6 feature support
• Information Rights Management activation - Automatically configure the Windows Mobile 6 device to open IRM-protected documents and files
• HTML mail - Set up your Windows Mobile 6 device to sync HTML-formatted mail
• Certificate Enrollment - Acquire certificates through the PC the Windows Mobile 6 device is currently connected to
• Allow data connections on the Windows Mobile 6 device when connected to the PC
• File synchronization for smartphones - Synchronize files with your Windows Mobile 6 devices, including both touch screen and non-touch screen devices
• Automatic device authentication - Connect the Windows Mobile device to the PC without the need to enter the device-lock PIN every time upon connect
• Product Registration - Register your Windows Mobile device and get connected to information and offers available for your device

Install Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/devicecenter.mspx.

Please post questions or comments to http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/list/en-us/default.aspx under the newsgroup microsoft.public.pocketpc.activesync.