I caught this via Steve Clayton (who caught it via Jeff Sandquist showing off his home) - Stardock has a really neat application called LogonStudio that allows you to change the background of your logon screen in Windows Vista. I absolutely love the space background.

LogonStudio is available as a free download and also allows you to create your own backgrounds as well as download logon backgrounds via Stardock's WinCustomize Gallery too. Folks who create their own backgrounds can submit them to the WinCustomize Gallery. Give it a try. Let me know what you think.

Two weeks ago my new Dell Vostro 1500 arrived. Dell's Vostro Notebook line-up is a relatively new line-up of laptops that cater to business users.  While I love the Tablet PC experience the HP tx1000 offers, I was in need for something a little more powerful. I'm the type of guy that likes to feel like I am taking my desktop PC with me when I travel.

After looking at the specs for the Vostro 1500, I decided to customize it for some added benefit. Here are the specs on my Vostro 1500:

• Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2GHz Processor
• Screen - 15.4 Widescreen XGA+ LCD TrueLife
• Memory - 2GB DDR2
• Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 256MB
• Storage - 160GB 7200RPM SATA Harddrive
• Media - 8x DVD-RW with double-layer DVD-R write capability
• Network - Intel 4965AGN Wireless-N Mini-card
• Integrated 2.0 Megapixel Webcam
• Mobile Broadband - Dell Wireless 5520 HSDPA 3.6 Mini-card (for AT&T)

With Windows Vista Ultimate (this laptop deserves nothing less), the Vostro 1500 has everything I need in a laptop and makes "going mobile" much easier. It has a Windows Experience Index of 4.6 with the lowest rating being Graphics. The rest of the scores are the highest I've seen on a laptop to-date.

For the first time, I am enjoying running at 802.11 N with the Vostro 1500. Right now as I wrote my post on the Vostro, I'm running at 130Mbps.Works absolutely amazing. My router, the D-Link DIR-625 RangeBooster N Router, supports 802.11 N but I've not had a device with 802.11 N wireless capabilities until now. The DIR-625 was part of D-Link's initial wave of devices that took advantage of and supported Windows Vista when Windows Vista launched last January.

After 2 weeks with the Vostro 1500, I'm really happy with my decision. I've still got more experiences to write about, such as using the Mobile Broadband wireless capability but I'll save that for another post. I've updated my What I Use page to reflect the Vostro 1500 - check it out.

Also: my new HP MediaSmart Server arrives this week. I plan on having a post up on rolling out Windows Home Server in my home by the end of the week. I look forward to getting the HP MediaSmart Server set up.

Images of the Dell Vostro 1500 were uploaded to my Flickr account using Windows Live Photo Gallery.Click here for the full set of photos of the Dell Vostro 1500.

Michael Wolf over on the Gamerscore Blog announced on Wednesday two new Games for Windows Live titles hitting store shelves this week: Crysis and Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. Crysis received a score of 98 out of 100 by PC Gamer and utilizes Windows Vista's DirectX 10 offering incredible graphics. And Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a Games for Windows - LIVE title supporting online game play for up to 8 players with free List Play for Silver users and, for Gold members, enhanced matchmaking and online multiplayer achievements.

Gears of War was also released as a Games for Windows - LIVE title earlier this month. The Games for Windows - LIVE update I posted about in October was released as well. Michael Wolf has some information on the update including some specifics about getting the update installed with Gears of War. I was able to install the Games for Windows - LIVE update flawlessly through Shadowrun. You can also download it and install it separately.

Remember, games under the Games for Windows brand offer easy installation, widescreen capability, native 64-bit support, and take advantage of Windows Vista's gaming features and technology (such as DirectX 10).

It is great Games for Windows expanding with new titles!

Yesterday was an exciting day for the Zune Team. Their new Zune devices - the Zune 4, Zune 8, and Zune 80 - hit store shelves and they launched a brand new version of Zune.net now with your very own Social Profile (your Zune Card). The Zune Team also launched a new version of the Zune software - completely re-done and much improved. There is quite a bit of reviews on both the new devices and Zune software all over the web today. I'd like to call out the reviews by Featured Community member Jason Dunn over at Zune Thoughts. He's got some fantastic videos up on the new devices and software worth checking out.

I'd like to share a few things myself on the Zune software, the Zune 8, and the Zune Social web service.

First off, yesterday I created a video demo of the Zune software designed to give you a quick overview of what the Zune software offers. I shot the video yesterday hoping to get it up yesterday so when I say "today" I really mean yesterday. Take a look at the video:

That was just a quick overview. The Zune software is about you and your collection of music, videos, and photos. The new software also now supports the ability to subscribe to podcasts as well. For folks who record TV shows with Windows Media Center on Windows Vista (such as myself), the Zune software is able to take those videos and put them on your Zune device. One thing I'd like to stress is that even if you don't own a Zune device, you can still download the Zune software to use with your music collection.  You really need to check out the Now Playing screen ;-)

In conjunction with the release of the new software, I went out and bought myself a Zune 8. The Zune 8 is the 8GB flash memory model. I was originally intending to buy a Zune 80 (the 80GB harddrive model) but I already own a brown Zune 30 and really wanted to try a smaller flash device.

I was amazed at how small the device is. And the new Zune Pad makes a huge different in navigating the device - by the touch of my finger. And the new glass screen makes watching videos and looking at pictures crystal clear on the device. Yes - the Zune 8 supports video (including my recorded Windows Media Center TV shows!).

To go with my Zune 8, I also picked up the Zune Dock. The new Zune Dock supports the new Zune devices (the Zune 4, 8, and 80) as well as the Zune 30. It comes with interchangeable "seats" for the devices. The Zune Dock also has video out capabilities.

It also comes with a power adapter. If my Zune 8 is plugged in to the wall to charge - if I've set up wireless syncing, my Zune 8 will automatically sync to my PC as I add music throughout the day.

The next thing I'd like to talk about is the new Zune Social features on Zune.net. When you login to Zune.net with your Windows Live ID that is your Zune/Xbox account - you now have a Zune Profile on Zune.net. This Zune Profile consists of your played music as well as your Friends List (same Friends you have from Xbox Live). You can also browse the Zune music catalog via Zune.net and send songs to your friends which will then show up under the "social" of the Zune software. This is becoming one of my most favorite features of the new Zune releases as not only can I share my music tastes with my friends, I can also see what my friends are listening. Because of this - I've discovered many new artists I've never heard before as well as rediscovered a few I've not heard in ages.

Feel free to check out my Zune Profile and my Zune Card here.

Music is very important to me and being able to play my music and mange my digital media in such a unique way, sync to a really cool device and then share my music listening habits with friends makes for an incredible experience.

Photos of the Zune and Zune Dock uploaded to Flickr using Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Today, Nick told you about some updates to the tools in the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) from Barcelona, Spain at TechEd IT Forum. I recently had a chance to give one of the components of MDOP - the Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) 6.0 - a try. DaRT is an excellent set of tools for IT Professionals to troubleshoot unresponsive PCs and removing viruses and malware off infected PCs in their environment. DaRT 6.0  also now has the ability for IT Professionals to conduct offline removal of malware and viruses from infected PCs.

The first thing I noticed when I started using DaRT is that it provides two options to the IT Professional: a way to analyze crash files from unresponsive PCs through the Crash Analysis Wizard, and a way to create a startup disc with the necessary tools in fixing an unresponsive PC that is unable to boot into Windows called ERD Commander.

I first took a look at the Crash Analysis Wizard.

The Crash Analysis Wizard allows an IT Professional to take a crash dump file (*.dmp files associated with a system crash) and analyze it and get important bits of information that could help figure out why a PC is crashing. I have an old .dmp file from a crash a long time ago I dug up to run through the Crash Analysis Wizard. The Crash Analysis Wizard requires the Microsoft Debugging Tools for Windows as a prerequisite so before proceeding in analyzing my .dmp file, I had to install that first. I was also able to specify any Symbol files I had as well. I had no Symbols to provide so I skipped to choosing the specific .dmp file I wanted to analyze.

Once I choose the .dmp files - I clicked next and the analysis commenced. The analysis finished in about a minute and brought up a new screen telling me what probably was the cause of the crash as well as when the crash originally occurred.

If I wanted, I could view the full details of the crash as well. The .dmp file I used for this was from June 20^th and was in fact due to a graphics driver issue. The graphics driver issue was corrected after updating to the latest video driver.

I then proceeded to check out ERD Commander.

ERD Commander lets you create a startup image. That startup image can then be burned to a CD in which you can boot off of that lets you repair PCs that do not function. I went through the process, via the ERD Commander Wizard, in creating my own startup disc. In creating a startup disc, I was required to provide a Windows Vista DVD to create the boot image.

After choosing the Windows Vista Ultimate DVD in my DVD Drive and choose next, the Wizard then told me it is about to extract the necessary files in creating a boot image and that it may take a few minutes. For me, it barely took a minute to extra the files. Once the extraction of the files is complete, the wizard then brought me to a new screen in which it gives me an offering of tools I can add to the startup disc.

I went ahead and choose all of the tools. You are given the choice of the following tools for your startup disc:

• Computer Management
• Crash Analyzer
• Disk Commander
• Disk Wipe
• Explorer
• File Restore
• Hotfix Uninstall
• Locksmith
• Registry Editor
• Solution Wizard
• Standalone System Sweeper
• System File Repair
• TCP/IP Configuration

In choosing all of the tools - I proceeded to the next step: providing any .inf files for any specific devices I would need to install drivers for (*.inf files are device driver files). At this point I didn't have any specific drivers I wanted to include on my startup disc as I was looking to create a generic disc. I was then asked to include any additional files, which I had none, and then create the disc. ERD Commander creates the startup disc image as an .iso file.

To my surprise, after the .iso image is done being created - ERD Commander asked me if I would like to then burn that .iso image to a CD. ERD Commander allows you to burn the disc directly. I was thinking I would have to use a third-party imaging burning tool to burn my startup disc image. This was a very cool surprise perk (a feature I think IT Pros will appreciate as well).

At the end of the Wizard, my startup disc was created as well as an .iso of the disc so I can re-burn the disc and create more if needed at a later date.

To test my new startup disc, I fired up Windows Vista in Virtual PC 2007 and booted off my new startup disc. When I did this, it went into System Recovery (WinRE) which is built into Windows Vista and DaRT runs on top of WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment). Matter a fact, WinRE has its own tools as well and DaRT works with them in helping the IT Pro diagnose what is wrong and recover a unresponsive PC.

I was then able to choose the tools offered in DaRT (which were the tools I chose above) and was able to scan the PC for malware and much more.

After experiencing DaRT first hand, I believe it is a must have for IT Professionals and offers a great set of tools in helping IT Professionals recovery crashed PCs in their environment. DaRT 6.0 (announced today as part of MDOP) offers IT Professionals the ability to run these tools on a BitLocker-encrypted drive as well. Customers can learn more about DaRT on Microsoft.com. 

Yesterday, along with the launch of the new Windows Live apps and services, Microsoft also commenced with the public beta of Windows Live Calendar. Denise Ho, Lead Program Manager for Windows Live Calendar, made the announcement off of the Windows Live Hotmail blog.

Windows Live Calendar is designed to make it easier to share your plans with friends and family. Using Windows Live Calendar, you can share your calendar out to people in your Windows Live Contacts. For those of them using Windows Live Calendar, they can accept an invite to view your shared calendar which will then appear in their account when they log in to Windows Live Calendar. For friends who don't have Windows Live ID's - you can send them a secret link to view your calendar without the need to sign in. You can read Denise's post mentioned above for the complete lowdown on what Windows Live Calendar offers.

But I'd like to call out a specific scenario that Windows Live Calendar supports - something I've adopted myself. Windows Live Calendar allows you to share out your calendar in .ics format. By doing this, it allows folks to then subscribe to their calendars in a calendar client on the PC - such as Windows Calendar in Windows Vista. Any event I add, or others add, to my calendars I've shared out - automatically get synced back to my PC in Windows Calendar. This also includes reminder schedules.

If I have a reminder for an event set for 1 day or 1 hour - Windows Calendar will get that and remind me (Windows Live Calendar leverages Windows Live Alerts as well for reminding users of events too).

I've created a video demo on showing how to set up and share out a calendar in Windows Live Calendar and subscribing to it in Windows Calendar in Windows Vista:

Video: Demo: Windows Live Calendar (BETA) #1

Sharing a calendar in Windows Live Calendar is really easy, and subscribing to it via Windows Calendar is just as easy.

Please take note: in order to take advantage of having reminders in Windows Calendar, be sure you have reminders checked for the calendar in Windows Calendar!

This scenario also works with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 in which once you share out the .ics file (same way shown above) of a specific calendar in Windows Live Calendar, you can then subscribe to it in Outlook 2007. This will work well for those at work using Outlook 2007 and wanting to keep track of personal events in Windows Live Calendar.

Give Windows Live Calendar a try. I'll be following up with this post with a few other posts on Windows Live Calendar in the near future.

This weekend, I decided to "evaluate" all my PC's on my home network. My main Desktop PC wasn't performing like I wanted it to and was running a combination of new and old hardware. I had a Test / Work PC running a combination of new and old hardware as well. My Test / Work PC was also running x64 which was something I wanted to move to on my main Desktop PC for quite some time now (I like being on the "bleeding edge"). So I decided to take the best parts of my main Desktop PC and my Test / Work PC and combine them together to create the "Ultimate" Desktop PC for myself. I was pretty satisfied with the results.

Here are the specs of what I ended up with:

• Processor - AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600
• Motherboard - ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe
• Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS
• Memory - 4GB
• Keyboard / Mouse - Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000
• Monitor - Dual 24-inch Dell UltraSharp 2407 Flat Panel Displays
• Storage: 160GB Maxtor Harddrive, 160GB Western Digital Harddrive, 320 Western Digital Harddrive

I am also now officially running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 which can now take full advantage of running with 4GB of RAM. And in case I want more RAM, my PC is ready to "bring it on". I've heard some amazing stories with the power of x64 from my friend (and Featured Community) Carlos Echenique from PlanetAMD6 and am happy to join the x64 "club".

Windows Vista ships with a great way for users to tell just how "good" their PC is - called the Windows Experience Index. Nick actually did an in-depth blog post on the Windows Experience Index which is worth taking a look at if you haven't already. Here is the Windows Experience Index for my new Desktop PC I built this weekend:

Based on this score, you can see where I would need to improve my PC to boost my Windows Experience Index score up. If I replaced my current AMD processor with a higher end model, I could easily make this PC have a Windows Experience Index a 5.6 or higher.

I really had fun putting the new PC together this weekend and now have a fantastically "Ultimate" Windows Vista PC.

I've also put together a new page on the Windows Experience Blog for all the hardware I use. This page details all the PCs I use, my printer, my mobile PC's and everything else. If you're interested in knowing just exactly what I've got set up, check it out.

What do you think of my new PC? What do you think it needs to be even better? I'd love to hear from you on adding to this Ultimate PC. And if you've got an Ultimate PC of your own - let me know the specs!