In New York City this week, Microsoft has invited over 200 members of the press to visit the Windows Consumer Experience Space at Peter White Studios. There, they will get hands on demos of scenarios that both Windows Vista and Windows Live together enable for consumers. The scenarios at the Windows Consumer Experience Space include demos of the Windows Live apps (such as Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Photo Gallery), gaming on Windows Vista, and Windows Media Center and its home entertainment capabilities.

Windows Senior Product Manager Craig Cincotta gives us a tour of the Windows Consumer Experience Space where folks will come through for their demos:

Video: Windows Consumer Experience Space Walk-thru

One of the scenarios being demoed is the ability to create panoramic shots in Windows Live Photo Gallery. I absolutely love this feature and decided to go down to Times Square and take a few shots to create a panoramic view of Times Square during both during the evening and during the day. It is an amazing experience standing at Times Square especially at night with all the neon signs and I wanted to share that experience through the panoramic shots.

In creating a panoramic shot, another scenario is being able to use Windows Live Photo Gallery to upload and share that photo to either Windows Live Spaces or Flickr. I chose to upload the panoramic shot of Times Square to my Flickr account and embed it in this blog post - however the same scenario also works if I uploaded the image to Windows Live Spaces as well. For an excellent overview of uploading photos to Flickr through Windows Live Photo Gallery, check out Program Manager Michael Palermiti's screencast and blog post.

Several of our Featured Communities were also invited to visit the Windows Consumer Experience Space such as Blair Briggs, Michael Reyes, Bob Stein, John Obeto, Patrick Husband and Jason Dunn.

In celebration of the Windows Consumer Experience Space - Microsoft has also launched Windows Vista Holiday Product Guide in which users can download to get the low-down on all the excellent new products (which are Certified for Windows Vista) hitting the market this holiday season that take advantage of Windows Vista such as the Gateway One and the Dell XPS 720.

There are many awesome consumer scenarios both Windows Vista and Windows Live can offer and we will continue to blog about them here on the Windows Experience Blog. Be sure to subscribe to the Windows Experience Blog's RSS feed since not all blog posts hit the frontpage of the Windows Vista Team Blog. 

Today the DMX Team is announcing a beta refresh for Windows Live Photo Gallery that includes the ability to publish your photos directly to Flickr. Based from direct customer feedback, the DMX Team worked with Flickr in enabling support to upload photos to your Flickr account in Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Uploading photos to Flickr through Windows Live Photo Gallery is just as easy as it is uploading to Windows Live Spaces. To upload to Flickr, all I needed to do was choose the photos I wanted to upload and hit "Publish" in the toolbar. A drop-down list will appear that allows me to either choose Windows Live Spaces or Flickr as destinations I want to publish my photos to. I of course for the sake of this post chose Flickr.  A new window appeared letting me enter options for which set I want the photo to belong to, what size I want the photo to be uploaded at, and permissions of that photo.

Windows Live Photo Gallery will notify you once your photo (or photos) have been uploaded and ask if you would like to view those uploaded photos. In choosing to view the uploaded photos, I was able to add a description and change the name of the photo.

I'd like to share one of my most favorite photos I've taken to-date which I've uploaded to Flickr using Windows Live Photo Gallery:

This is a photo I took with my Nikon D40 (which is a Certified for Windows Vista device) while camping at Timothy Lake with some friends this last summer. This is a shot of Mt. Hood here in Oregon. You can also take a look at my Windows Vista Coach Tour set. I took a bunch of photos while traveling around the East Coast last year on the Windows Vista Coach.

Program Manager Michael Palermiti has posted on the PIX Blog about today's Windows Live Photo Gallery release which they are calling the Beta 2.2 Refresh. If you already have a version of Windows Live Photo Gallery installed, you can grab the Beta 2.2 Refresh by running Microsoft Update (the Windows Update client in Windows Vista will detect a new update is available if you have it configured to use Microsoft Update). If you don't have Windows Live Photo Gallery installed and you want to give it a try, just head over to the Windows Live Betas page and choose Windows Live Photo Gallery.  

You can also check out the Flickr Blog where they talk about partnering up with Microsoft for Windows Live Photo Gallery.

For me, I am going to leverage both Windows Live Spaces and Flickr in publishing my digital photos to the web with Windows Live Photo Gallery. For personal photos such as family events and things I've gone and done with friends - I will upload those to Windows Live Spaces. For all my digital photography and traveling to events - I plan to upload to Flickr. Quite a few amateur photographers use Flickr to show off their work. I'd like to do the same. I'd also like to share memories from traveling around as well. You can follow what I upload to Flickr by going to my Flickr page.

Make sure you keep your eye on the Windows Live Wire Blog too for information on Windows Live releases.

Nathan Weinberg over on InsideMicrosoft has spotted an interesting (and helpful) new Windows Sidebar Gadget on Windows Live Gallery: the Office Tips & Tricks Gadget.

The Office Tips & Tricks Gadget sits on your Sidebar or off on your desktop - displaying tips and tricks for Microsoft Office. This gadget is a great way for a user to learn new trips and tricks for Microsoft Office that makes their experience better. I learned how to delete a meeting in Outlook without notifying all the invitees just this evening thanks to the Gadget. Sweet.

Once a tip comes up on the Gadget, just click on it and the Gadget will expand out for you to read that tip or trick.

This Gadget was designed by Donavon West who was also responsible for creating our Windows Vista Countdown Gadget last November. He is also responsible for many other Gadgets which are on Windows Live Gallery. Donavon recently acquired the Windows Live Gallery plaque, is a Silver Partner on Windows Live Gallery, and is a 2008 Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (check out his profile). Congrats Donavon and awesome work!

Today, quite a few households have wireless networks that are unsecure - wide open for anyone to connect to. This could be a huge problem especially if PC's in that home are sharing important family files - like photos and documents - that shouldn't be seen by strangers. In Windows Live OneCare 2.0, a new feature is coming that will let users of Windows Live OneCare secure an unsecure wireless network in their home. I decided to give this new feature a try and share my experience.

Once I connected to the unsecure wireless network, I launched Windows Live OneCare and was alerted by Windows Live OneCare that I was on an unsecure wireless network and that it can help me to secure it.  I clicked "Turn-on" and started the process. Here is a video demo of me going through the process of securing an unsecure wireless network:

Video: Demo: OneCare Wireless Security

I'd like to take a few moments to elaborate on a few things from the video. First off: the router I used to test this was *not* connected to the Internet. Most users who will use this feature to secure their router will have it connected to the Internet. Once going through the wizard to secure the router with Windows Live OneCare - the user and any other PC's on the home network should be able to access the Internet just fine. There will be no issue securing a router connected to a WAN (WAN being your ISP for Internet access).

To secure your wireless network - you are required to connect via cable (Cat-5) - which is why I needed a Cat-5 cable in my video to proceed with the process of securing my router. This is important as this prevents anyone from connecting to your network wirelessly and using Windows Live OneCare to wipe your wireless networking settings with their own settings. This is what the OneCare Team calls the "proof of ownership" check.

In securing your router - it does not completely wipe out all your settings. The settings that Windows Live OneCare changes during the securing process are the SSID, enabling of WEP security, & setting of the WEP key. After Windows Live OneCare secures your router, you are given instructions on how to set up other PC's on your home network with the new settings Windows Live OneCare enabled on your router.

This is looking to be a very useful and interesting feature for home users who are unfamiliar (and maybe uncomfortable) getting onto their router and configuring it for secure wireless capabilities.

There is a wiki setup over on Channel 9 with informaton on this feature of Windows Live OneCare 2.0 worth checking out as well.

Today, Windows Live SkyDrive has received some updates to the service - including everyone now having 1GB of storage. That's double what was previously there. Along with increased storage, the SkyDrive Team has included a few more things worth taking note of:

RSS Feeds on Public Folders: Users can now subscribe to an RSS feed for their Public folders. This allows folks to keep track of each other's public files and stay up-to-date with what is uploaded. You can subscribe to our Windows Vista Team Blog's Public SkyDrive folder here.

See who uploaded a file: you can now check out and see who has uploaded specific files to your shared folders in SkyDrive.  I have quite a few shared folders which are shared out to large groups of friends - it is great to be able to see which files were uploaded by whom.

Add a contact directly within SkyDrive: you can now add a friend via Windows Live SkyDrive instead of having to go to Windows Live Messenger or Windows Live Hotmail.

Expect to see fixes and tweaks across the board. You'll also notice that the UI around to Windows Live header has also been tweaked to include easy access to Windows Live Spaces (such as your Friends List and Photos).

I've noticed a bunch of small things myself - such as the fact with this release they have added an icon for .XPS files (check out our Public folder to see).

For more information on the updates to Windows Live SkyDrive, be sure to check out their team blog here.

This evening, Xbox Live's Major Nelson revealed some tidbits on an upcoming update to Games for Windows - LIVE for the PC.

As you know, several games have launched under Games for Windows - LIVE that allow PC Games to tap into Xbox Live. Last May, I talked about my experience with Halo 2 for Windows Vista and a few months ago I also picked up Shadowrun. While Halo 2 for Windows Vista let me score achievements and add to my gamerscore - Shadowrun goes cross-platform by letting me play with gamers who are playing Shadowrun on their Xbox 360 consoles.

Like with Dashboard Updates to the Xbox 360, Microsoft can also update the Games for Windows - LIVE components within PC games such as Halo 2 for Windows Vista and Shadowrun that add functionality and bug fixes. Major Nelson highlights several changes coming with the 1.2 release:

• Support for offline Achievements (so you can add to your gamerscore when not connected to the internet).
• Ability to see if your friends are "joinable" in games.
• Additional UI features.

I look forward to seeing these improvements for the 1.2 release for Games for Windows - LIVE. Major Nelson says we can expect to see this update available sometime next month.

I get this question a lot from folks testing and using the Windows Live apps and services: How do I submit feedback?

There are several really good options users can use to submit feedback for Windows Live. I'm going to showcase those options here.

1. Windows Live - Send Feedback (feedback.live.com). Users can go to feedback.live.com and choose from the list of available Windows Live applications and services to leave feedback for. This site is open to *anyone*. Each team has a mechanism internally for taking in this feedback or suggestion as they continue their work. Once you click on a specific app or service - you will be directed to a feedback for to fill out.

2. Windows Live Product Team Blogs. Almost all the Windows Live apps and services have an official team blog you can visit to read the latest from their team about their product. This can also be a great place for leaving feedback. Many of these blogs allow for comments. You can leave feedback and suggestions through leaving a comment on their blog (all you need to do is log in with your Windows Live ID). How do you find all the team blogs? Simple. I have created a special page specifically for all the Microsoft Team Blogs that exist. You can see the list of Windows Live blogs here. The Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Mail teams even have a blog specifically set up for email support. You can also visit the new Windows Live Wire blog for all the Windows Live blogs as well.

These two options are available to anyone wanting to leave feedback on the Windows Live applications (such as Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail, and Windows Live Writer) or the Windows Live web services (such as Windows Live SkyDrive, Windows Live Hotmail, and Windows Live Spaces).  

Please take note: in leaving feedback either through feedback.live.com or a specific Windows Live product blog - try to be constructive in the feedback you leave. Saying "this product sucks" is not constructive feedback. Instead - try explaining why you feel the product or service is not working for you and what you think they could do to make it better. This kind of feedback will help the Windows Live teams plan and ship changes, enhancements, and features that will be the product or service better for everyone. Not to sound cliché but - you can make a difference.

In writing about the Windows Live apps and services here - both Nick and I try to relay as much feedback via our comments as possible to the specific Windows Live teams as well.

On top of releasing Windows Vista SP1 to a broad set of beta testers last week, the Windows Server Division also released Release Candidate 0 of Windows Server 2008. I used to work for a local ISP a few years ago and managed their Windows Server boxes running Windows Server 2003. I acquired skills in Active Directory management and IIS management - although very basic. I really wanted to try out the changes in IIS7 as well as changes coming to Active Directory in Windows Server 2008. I decided to fire up Windows Server 2008 RC0 in Virtual PC 2007.  

Windows Server 2008 in Virtual PC shows up on my home network as if it were an actual PC - with a real IP address and all.

I haven't gotten around to testing Windows Server 2008 RC0 as a domain controller just yet. It currently sits on my home network serving as a web server (when fired up in Virtual PC). I used IIS7 to configure the server for "standard web hosting" - testing out using Microsoft Expression Web to create web pages and automatically publish to the Windows Server 2008 web server. I also tested out FTP using the SmartFTP client (which looks like its Certified for Windows Vista too). Eventually I want to try setting up SharePoint and trying it out on IIS7.

While I don't manage any servers any longer - I do want to try and keep up with changes in Windows Server and of course do geeky "experiments" with new stuff. Virtual PC helps me do that - especially running on Windows Vista. I do a lot of testing this way. I have several Windows Vista Virtual Machines set up for testing so I don't have to mess up my main PC with all the betas I'm running. If you want to do a lot of testing but don't want to mess up your PC's - this is the way to go.

If you're interested in giving Windows Server 2008 RC0 a try, sign up for the Community Technology Preview.