Windows Experience Blog : Beta

Sneak Peak at the Acer Aspire 1420P

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:50:25 GMT

Today is Day 2 of PDC09, and attendees were given a nice “treat.” During this morning’s keynote, Windows and Windows Live Division President Steven Sinofsky took the stage and announced that all attendees* of this year’s PDC will be given an Acer Aspire 1420P Convertible Tablet PC. This is being done to show our gratitude for the support we received by PDC attendees in the development process of Windows 7. This PC enables developers to leverage many of the unique Windows 7 capabilities including multitouch – which I will talk about further down in this post.

This laptop promotion is the result of a collaborative effort with Acer, whom we worked closely with to have these laptops ready for PDC. This PC is not yet available in the US (Acer has not yet announced pricing and availability for this PC) so that makes this “PDC Edition” of the laptop exclusive to PDC attendees.

The Aspire 1420P PDC Edition comes with the following specs:

Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Processor: Intel Celeron CPU SU2300 @ 1.2GHz
Memory: 2GB (Supports up to 8GB)
Display: 11.6” Widescreen |1366x768 Resolution
Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
Network: 10/100/1000 Ethernet | Intel Wi-Fi Link 1000 802.11b/g/Draft-N
Mobile Broadband: 3G
Storage: 250GB

For a more complete and detailed list of specs, click here.

The Aspire 1420P comes with 3 USB ports, 1 HDMI port for connecting to HDTVs and monitors, a VGA port, Ethernet port, and a headphone and microphone jack. The laptop features a unique design with a metallic textured design just above the keyboard and a metal hinge for converting the laptop into Tablet mode. Its design is essentially a small laptop with Tablet PC features. It’s slim, light, and has a small footprint – making it easy to carry around. This laptop features a CTRL+ALT+DEL button and a Flip 3D button. Also, the Aspire 1420P uses the Windows 7 Sensor and Location Platform to adjust the screen depending on which way you hold the PC (in Tablet mode). For example: if you’re holding it a landscape position, the screen will display in landscape for you. Vice versa if you hold it in a portrait position.

We worked with Acer to image the laptops with some great software – including the beta release of Office 2010.

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta
Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7
Windows Live Essentials
Windows Virtual PC with Windows XP Mode
Microsoft Security Essentials
Corel Paint it! touch

Because the Aspire 1420P supports Windows Touch, we’ve included the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 as well as Corel Paint it! touch.

Corel Paint it! touch allows you to use your fingers to draw and paint. You can also turn your photos into paintings too.

One application I’ve written about recently is Amazon’s Kindle for PC. Amazon has released Kindle for PC and it works great on this laptop. You can download the beta of Kindle for PC today here. You can use multitouch gestures to move from page to page on the Kindle book you are reading. You can also zoom in and out with ease. For more on the Kindle for PC app, check out my demo video here on this post. In Tablet mode, reading books with Kindle for PC is very nice.

The Aspire 1420P also sports Mobile Broadband. With Windows 7, using Mobile Broadband is easier than ever before. Windows 7 will automatically detect if a Mobile Broadband connection is available (after inserting your SIM card).

You can choose to connect to the Mobile Broadband connection where you will be required enter subscription details from your mobile carrier. No need to mess with 3^rd party Mobile Broadband connection utilities.

Not only can you use multitouch with the Aspire 1420P, you can also use it as a Tablet. The Aspire 1420P is perfect for writing down notes using Microsoft OneNote 2010 (my favorite Office app).

Overall, this PC will be great for all the developers attending PDC to experience many of Windows 7’s new features and to be able to develop with those features in mind.

* This promotion is for full-conference attendees who are onsite at PDC. It is not available to Microsoft attendees, members of the media, government employees, staff, speakers, crew, volunteers, day pass attendees, guests, or Workshop-only attendees.

Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 Announced, Adds Enhancements for Windows 7 PCs

Brandon LeBlanc — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:12:40 GMT

The Windows Home Server Team has announced today the beta of Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 (PP3). And if you’re running Windows 7, Windows Home Server PP3 comes with several new features designed to take advantage key Windows 7 features:

Full Image-based Backups of Windows 7 PCs. After the Windows Home Server Connector is installed on your Windows 7 PCs, Action Center should no longer display that your files are not being backed up.
Windows 7 Libraries Support. Music, Photos and Videos shared folders from your Windows Home Server will be added to Windows 7 Libraries. Content saved to these shared folders will be able to be quickly accessed through your Windows 7 Libraries. And any application, like Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center, will be able to access content saved on your Windows Home Server through Libraries as well.
Windows Search 4 is now included. With Windows Search 4, PP3 offers improved query search times, indexing times and reliability. Easy search through a Library in Windows 7 with files stored in multiple locations.
Windows Media Center Enhancements. Archive old recorded TV shows onto your Windows Home Server in a variety of formats. Use Console Quick View to see statistics about your Windows Home Server through Windows Media Center.

More in-depth information on these features – see their blog post on PP3.

The Windows Home Server Team does not yet have a final release date for PP3 however they are shooting to have PP3 available shortly before GA of Windows 7. If you’re running Windows Home Server and have several Windows 7 PCs – I encourage you to give PP3 a try and help the Windows Home Server Team make PP3 rock.

To beta test PP3, please sign up as a beta participant of the Windows Home Server program on Microsoft Connect. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll be able to download PP3.

Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 will be a free update to existing Windows Home Server users via Windows Update.

I’ll be installing PP3 on my HP MediaSmart Server EX470 either tonight or sometime over the weekend. I’m stoked about the Windows 7 integration!

Important Update Regarding Windows Live Movie Maker Beta

Brandon LeBlanc — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:14:10 GMT

Starting July 1st, 2009, when you launch Windows Live Movie Maker Beta you will be prompted to implement a software update which will extend the beta. You can download the software update here to continue to use the software without any interruption. If you choose not to install the software update, you will be unable to continue to use the Windows Live Movie Maker Beta.

The folks on the Windows Live Movie Maker Team are hard at work on “V1” which should be out sometime this year. For more information on the future of Windows Live Movie Maker, see this excellent blog post by Lead Program Manager Mike Torres from the Windows Live Team Blog.

I’m pretty excited for what they have in store for Windows Live Movie Maker!

Preparing for Windows 7 with the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

Brandon LeBlanc — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:45:17 GMT

When a new version of Windows is released, people either upgrade their existing PC or purchase a new PC with the latest version of Windows already pre-installed. For the people who want to upgrade their existing PC, they are often faced with the question of whether their PC can run the new Windows version or not. As we announced last week, Microsoft plans to offer a tool that can be used to determine if a PC is able to run Windows 7– Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.

A beta of Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor is now available to help people analyze their PC in preparation for a Windows 7 upgrade. Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor is a free tool that people can download as of today to help them determine if their PC is able to upgrade to and run Windows 7. The beta can be downloaded here (English only at this time).

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor examines a PC’s processor, memory, storage, and graphics capabilities, identifies known compatibility issues with installed software and devices and finally provides guidance on how to resolve those issues if possible. Please also note: as previously stated on the E7 blog, Windows XP users are required to do a clean install of the Windows 7 RC as well as the final product. Only PCs with Windows Vista can be upgraded to Windows 7.

After running Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor myself, the initial results of my scan can be seen in the below screenshot.

The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor measures a PC’s ability to upgrade to Windows 7 based on the following final system requirements for Windows 7:

1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1GB RAM (32-bit) / 2GB RAM (64-bit)
16GB available disk space (32-bit) / 20GB (64-bit)
DirectX® 9 graphics processor with WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) 1.0 or higher driver

In this screenshot, you can see how my PC has passed all the Windows 7 system requirements.

Before you run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta , be sure that you plug in any USB devices or other devices such as printers, external hard drives, or scanners that are regularly used with the PC you are evaluating. The screenshot below shows all the devices attached to my PC when I did the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor scan.

The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor is easy enough for any PC user to use in evaluating the ability of a PC to install and run Windows 7.

New Plug-ins Available for Windows Live Writer

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:22:25 GMT

3 new Plug-ins for Windows Live Writer were recently release that I think bloggers who live and breath in Windows Live Writer (such as myself) will appreciate. These plug-ins were created by the awesome Windows Live Writer Team here at Microsoft.

DiggThis – Add a “DiggThis” badge to your blog posts so your readers can quickly “digg” your blog posts. The plug-in offers several different “styles” of badges to choose from, as well as alignment options for where its placed on your blog. Download the plug-in here.

Twitter Notify: This plug-in will automatically “tweet” the title and link to your blog to your Twitter account when you publish a blog post. Download the plug-in here.

Flickr Upload: When you insert an inline image in a blog post in Windows Live Writer it also uploads that image to Flickr you when publish your post. Download the plug-in here.

You can download the latest version of Windows Live Writer in the new Windows Live Essentials suite today at download.live.com. Some of the new features include:

Insert and upload Windows Live photo albums
Insert and publish video to YouTube
Server-side tagging (support coming soon to WordPress.com and BlogEngine.NET)
Improved blog account setup

And there is more! You can read about what’s new in the latest Windows Live Writer release via the Windows Live Writer Team Blog.

Windows Live Writer is a must-have tool for bloggers.

Download the Windows Live Essentials Beta Refresh

Brandon LeBlanc — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:27:02 GMT

Today, we’ve released a refresh of the Windows Live Essentials Betas. You can download the updated suite at download.live.com. The Windows Live Essentials consist of Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Toolbar, and Family Safety.

We want to make sure we iron out all the kinks before removing the “beta” tags ;-)

Earlier this month, we rolled out the new Windows Live web services.

Upload Photos to Facebook with New Windows Live Photo Gallery Plug-in

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:18:24 GMT

Michael Palermiti, Program Manager on the Windows Live Digital Memories Experience Team (the awesome people responsible for Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Movie Maker), has posted about a new plug-in for Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta that allows you to upload photos directly to Facebook. Using LiveUpload to Facebook, users can configure multiple Facebook accounts to upload photos to in Windows Live Photo Gallery. Upload to Facebook supports the ability to upload photos to existing albums on Facebook or create new ones.

Download: LiveUpload to Facebook

What’s even better about the LiveUpload to Facebook plug-in is that it takes advantage of Windows Live Photo Gallery’s new People Tags feature. That means if you tag a person you are also friends with on Facebook – once you upload the photo to Facebook that tag will automatically appear on the published photo.

You can download the Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta, along with Betas for the rest of the Windows Live Essentials suite, at download.live.com today. The plug-in only works with the Beta.

For a list of other plug-ins for Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta – click here!

Stay on top of the Election with MSNBC News Beta in Windows Media Center

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:13:00 GMT

Under the TV + Movies menu in Windows Media Center, you may have noticed a new tile: MSNBC News Beta. The MSNBC News Beta tile will begin appearing in Windows Media Center for users in the United States and Canada running Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate. Users don’t need to download anything to enable MSNBC News Beta in Windows Media Center. MSNBC News Beta gives users quick access to the latest election news, top stories and weather all from one screen.

Directly within Windows Media Center, users can browse Editor Picks and Most Popular videos (which are selected by viewers). I discovered that when I click on a specific video, a “+” icon appears. When this “+” icon is clicked, it gets added to a custom news video playlist. There are quite a few videos to choose from which is nice.

I was able to quickly browser through a bunch of MSNBC’s Decision ’08 videos and add them to a custom news video playlist to watch all at once.

I was also able to browse other categories such as Business, Sports, and Entertainment which all have videos I can either watch as I go or add to a custom news video playlist. MSNBC News Beta also sports some pretty neat search functionality that lets me search for stories with specific keywords.

And the 5-day weather forecast (available for any ZIP code in the United States) is impressive too!

As a heavy Windows Media Center user myself, I for one will be using MSNBC News Beta to stay on top of not only the upcoming U.S. Election but all the latest news.

For more on MSNBC News Beta and Windows Media Center – click here!

Windows Live Calendar Gets To Do List & New UI

Brandon LeBlanc — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:23:00 GMT

As was announced yesterday - the Windows Live Calendar Beta was to be upgraded today starting at 3pm Pacific Time. And it seems the upgrade is almost complete as folks are beginning to take notice when they log in to Windows Live Calendar it looks different!

The Windows Live Calendar Team says the following changes will appear in the Windows Live Calendar Beta update tonight:

To Dos: Now you can manage personal and shared task lists with our new To Do functionality.
Design and Usability Enhancements: A lighter weight user interface allows your calendar data shine through. Lots more room for your calendar data!

Definitely check out the new To Do functionality. I've created a task for me as you can see here:

I've got a ton of tasks to be added!

And remember - you can sync your calendars to your PC with the Windows Live Mail Beta available at download.live.com.

Partners Take Advantage of IE8 Beta 2, New Languages Available

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:34:00 GMT

With the release of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 a few weeks ago, users were introduced to new features, such as Web Slices and Accelerators, as well as enhanced Search capabilities that make browsing the Web much easier. Users can now be exposed to specific bits of information they want quick access to - from the latest news to the latest weather to search for a new blue 8GB Zune. I'd like to take a moment to highlight just a few examples of partners who have taken advantage of IE8's capabilities in Beta 2.

Search:

New York Times Instant Search - By adding The New York Times as a Search Provider in IE8, users can search the latest headlines from The New York Times directly from IE8's inline search.

Web Slices:

Digg's Main Page Top 10 - Find the latest popular stories that have been "dug" on Digg with this Web Slice.

freenetMail - Let's subscribers check their freenetMail, or view meetings, tasks and birthdays.

And Me.dium offers several Search Providers, Web Slices, Accelerators and Add-ons for IE8 that users can enjoy - mixing browsing the Web with social networking! Click here to see Me.dium's offerings.

More and more new Web Slices, Accelerators, Search Providers, and Add-ons are getting added to the Internet Explorer Gallery all the time.

Today we are also releasing IE8 Beta 2 in 21 more languages in addition to what we released last month (English, Germany, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese). The additional languages are: Arabic, Chinese (Hong Kong), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

You can click here to download Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 today.

For more about Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, be sure to check out my comprehensive overview or this series of very cool IE8 videos that showcase many of the features available in IE8 Beta 2 today.

A Comprehensive Look at Internet Explorer Beta 2

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:29:00 GMT

Today, the Internet Explorer Team has made available Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 for all to download. You can read the IE Team's announcement of the new release and very important milestone here from IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch on the IEBlog.

Download: Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2

Also be sure to read this post from Program Manager Jane Maliouta on upgrading to IE8 Beta 2. It includes some very important information such as how to uninstall IE8 Beta 1 and more.

Internet Explorer 8 comes packed with new features designed to make browsing the web much easier and finding what you want much quicker. Matter of fact, based on my own experiences with IE8 these past few weeks, finding your "stuff" quicker is a very strong theme in IE8. I've discovered with IE8 that browsing the web is much more efficient. There are some brand new features in IE8 I'd like to call out, based on my own experiences that I think users will find very useful in browsing the web. I've found these features in IE8 so useful in fact that I am using IE8 Beta 2 on all my PCs. Keep in mind there are far too many new features and changes in IE8 for me to highlight in a single post. I'm only going to cover some of IE8's biggest new features and features I use the most.

First off: when you fire up IE8 you'll notice that the IE "chrome" has changed from the glossy metallic look to a softer light blue look with less gloss.

The most notable change to the UI in Internet Explorer 8 users will take notice of is the Favorites Bar. And this is one of the new features in IE8 I use the most. Essentially - the Favorites Bar is designed to help users highlight there most used Favorites and other information they want quick access to.

Side note on customization in IE8: Many readers of this blog have expressed to me unhappiness with the lack of customization in IE7. IE8 brings some changes that allow much more customization that I think users will be happy with. You can unlock the toolbars and drag the IE menu bar to a variety of places in IE8. You can also right click in IE8's menu and choose Customize where you can have the refresh and stop buttons moved to the front of the Address Bar. Those who also prefer not to have the Favorites Bar showing will be pleased to know you can turn it off (although I don't know why you would want to!).

The Favorites Bar is also a key component to another new feature in IE8: Web Slices. Web Slices are little "slices" of information within a website that can be subscribed to and added to the Favorites Bar. As information within these Web Slices update, they become bold in the Favorites Bar signifying new information is available within a specific Web Slice. When I visit a website that has a Web Slice, instead of the standard orange RSS icon I get a green Web Slice icon. I visited Digg (a favorite website of mine) with IE8 and noticed that they have a Web Slice available for top "dugg" topics.

I clicked on the green Web Slice icon and added the Digg Web Slice to my Favorites Bar. There, I can click on the Digg Web Slice to check out the current top dugg posts.

Digg is one of my favorite Web Slices along with the Facebook Web Slice. The Facebook Web Slice allows you to stay on top of your Facebook friend's Status Updates. I found this very useful.

TIP: You can resize the Web Slice "window" by grabbing the bottom right-hand corner.

You are able to add RSS feeds you subscribe to in IE8 to the Favorites Bar as well. To stay on top of all the tech news happening in the blogosphere - I am constantly watching Techmeme. By subscribing to Techmeme's RSS feed and adding it to my Favorites Bar in IE8 - it's easier for me to keep tabs on the latest geek news.

When I subscribed to the Techmeme RSS feed, all I had to do was make sure "Add to Favorites Bar" was checked and when I hit subscribe - it automatically appeared in my Favorites Bar. When the feed updates, just like with Web Slices the RSS feed will become bold.

IE8 introduces the Smart Address Bar designed to help you get to where you want to go on the web quicker. One of the most common tasks for users in web browsers is getting back to websites they use regularly. Much of my web browsing is essentially getting to websites I regularly visit and check. With the Smart Address Bar - getting back to these sites is much easier.

The Smart Address Bar matches what I type in the address bar with websites in History, Favorites, and RSS Feeds. It also features an Autocomplete Suggestion as well for whatever website I am trying to get to. I've found that IE8's Autocomplete Suggestion has been pretty spot on which is great. Mistyped entries can also be deleted by simply clicking the red X to the right of any entry. Autocomplete works across your history as well as your feeds. Domain Highlighting is also used in the Smart Address Bar in IE8. This allows me to quickly identify which domain I'm on. If I am on the Windows Vista Team Blog, the Smart Address Bar will show the URL for the site as http://www.windowsvistablog.com/. However, only windowsvistablog.com is highlighted. Believe it or not this is actually a security feature. Domain Highlighting is designed to aid users in identifying deceptive phishing websites. If a user suddenly discovers a domain highlighted that doesn't make sense and seems a little shady, they can proceed in reporting the site via IE8 as a phishing site.

The second most common thing I do in the web browser is web search. IE8 has some impressive enhancements to its inline search box that make search. When I search for something, I can quickly switch between multiple search providers by clicking the search provider icon.

With Live Search as a search provider (the default search provider on my PCs), when I typed in something I was looking for - Live Search offers me suggestions in real-time to help me find what I'm looking for. When searching the web via IE8's inline search box - it also searches your web history as well.

So what if you want to find something on a specific webpage you are on? IE8 is very accommodating with this scenario. Using the feature Find-on-Page (Ctrl + F), I can quickly get search results for something I am looking for on single page.

When I press Ctrl + F, the Find-on-Page Toolbar appears (under the tabs) and allows me to search the site. In the above screenshot, I searched the Featured Community website Windows-Now for the term "windows". As you can see, Find-on-Page highlights each instance of the term I am searching for and also counts the results. Find-on-Page found 20 results for the word "windows" on this specific page on Windows-Now.

Another way to find information within specific websites is to use Accelerators in IE8. In IE8 Beta 1 we called these "Activities" but in IE8 Beta 2 they are now called Accelerators. Accelerators appear in IE8 when you highlight text and right-click on the blue Accelerator icon. Here I highlighted the word "virtual machine" and used the Encarta Accelerator to find the definition of "virtual machine".

If I am visiting a website that has an address that I want to quickly map - I can use the Live Search Maps Accelerator to quickly map the address. Accelerators don't have to just come from Microsoft. 3rd parties can take full advantage of creating Accelerators and users can quickly add in IE8.

TIP: You can manage Accelerators, Search Providers, and Toolbars & Extensions all in one spot via IE8's updated Manage Add-ons Panel by going to Tools and then Manage Add-ons.

There are a few more things I'd like to call out in IE8 I think users will enjoy. Managing Tabs in IE8 is enhanced to accommodate getting to those websites you like to visit. For example, when I open a new tab in IE8, it allows me to re-open closed tabs. For me, many closed tabs were websites I often visit so it's nice to be able to simply open a new tab and quickly re-open a website I want to get to again.

The new tab screen also allows you to access Accelerators as well.

Another new thing with tabs is Tab Groups. I have a habit of right-clicking on hyperlinks and clicking "Open in New Tab". When I do this - a new tab is of course opened but the tab that I opened a new tab on as well as the new tab is colored. These Tab Groups allow me to keep track of groups of tabs that I am going between. I've found this incredibly useful in managing what I do in IE8.

Speaking of tabs, IE8 comes with a crash recovery feature for when a tab in IE8 crashes it is automatically reloaded and restored. The real beauty of this feature is that, unlike other browsers, IE8 does not need to restart in the event of a crash. You could be watching a video in one tab and if another tab crashes you won't miss a thing. It' crash recovery done right. Any information entered on the page such as a email you're writing in Windows Live Hotmail or a form you are filling out is automatically restored.

As many folks know by now, the Internet Explorer Team has focused on making IE8 standards compliant. IE8 passes the Acid2 Test and offers full support for the CSS 2.1 specification. These are just two of the many changes made in IE8 to support standards and interoperability. Because of these changes, users may notice some of their websites make not look correctly because they were designed for older browsers. IE8 comes with a feature called Compatibility View that lets users quickly switch from IE8's standards compliant layout engine to IE7's layout engine.

Unlike in Beta 1 of IE8, switching into Compatibility View doesn't require the restart of IE8. When you click on the Compatibility View button on a specific website - that website is refreshed in "compatibility mode". Compatibility View works on a per-website (domain) basis.

For more information on Compatibility Mode in IE8 Beta 2 - read this in-depth post from IE Lead Program Manager Scott Dickens.

UPDATE: Ed Bott just posted his comprehensive look at IE8 Beta 2. You can read his post here.

I am just touching the tip of the iceberg here with IE8 features. Expect more in-depth coverage from the folks working on these features in IE8 from the IE Team themselves over on the IEBlog in the coming weeks.

Congratulations to the IE Team for this excellent release!

Also take note of a brand new design for the IE Add-ons site launching for IE8 called the Internet Explorer Gallery at www.ieaddons.com.

The Internet Explorer Gallery allows you to find all kinds of neat Accelerators, Web Slices, and Search Providers. It's a great place to start after you get Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 installed!

New Microsoft Office Outlook Connector Beta Release with Calendar Sync

Brandon LeBlanc — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:40:00 GMT

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

The Windows Live Calendar Team has announced the availability of the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.1 Beta - which allows you to sync your calendars on Windows Live Calendar (calendar.live.com).

Download: Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.1 Beta

The Microsoft Office Outlook Connector is designed to sync your Windows Live Hotmail mailbox, Windows Live Contacts, and calendars in Windows Live Calendar to Microsoft Office 2007 (or 2003). The Microsoft Office Outlook Connector will work with any Windows Live Hotmail account - as well as Office Live accounts or Windows Live Custom Domain accounts (domains.live.com). Not only do I have a Windows Live Hotmail account - I also have a custom domain that uses Windows Live Hotmail as well.

When I installed the Microsoft Outlook Connector Beta - my calendars that I have in Windows Live Calendar appeared in Outlook 2007 under "My Calendars". I could check each calendar that I want to view (whether it be all or just 3 as you see in my screenshot). I can add and remove events and those changes are then synced back into Windows Live Calendar and then synced to any other machine running Outlook and the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector. Whether I am offline or online - I can always view my calendars which is really nice.

The current version of the Microsoft Office Outlook Connect 12.1 Beta is 12.0.6237.1003. To find out what version you are running choose "Outlook Connector" in Outlook's menu at the top and then choose "About Outlook Connector". You have to be running this version to get calendar sync with Windows Live Calendar. Previous versions of the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector will not sync your calendars.

I'm a little late posting on this - Sarah Perez over on ReadWriteWeb has an excellent post on the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector as well and definitely worth a read. Paul Thurrott (regarding the release of the new Outlook Connector Beta) says "this could be huge". The Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.1 Beta certainly creates a great experience with Windows Live by bringing together email, contacts, and calendaring all in one spot. I know for many people wanting such an experience for a while now - this *is* huge for them and very exciting to see.

The Windows Live Calendar Team also recently made an update to the Windows Live Calendar service introducing some awesome new enhancements such as iCal subscriptions and an automatic Birthday Calendar for all your Windows Live Contacts. Check out my post on last week's Windows Live Calendar update here.

Control Windows Media Center with New Windows SideShow BETA Gadgets

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 05:00:00 GMT

The Windows SideShow Team has announced the availability of 4 BETA Windows SideShow Gadgets that let you control Windows Media Center from a Windows Sideshow device. You can sign-up via Microsoft Connect to gain access to Beta Test these new Windows SideShow Gadgets:

http://connect.microsoft.com/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=2380&SiteID=312&InvitationID=GPB-79MM-RFJ2

I believe this link works 1 time per Windows Live ID (You must sign-in with your Windows Live ID to access Beta Programs on Microsoft Connect). You can submit feedback to the team working on these Gadgets on Microsoft Connect.

Here is the breakdown of the 4 Windows Media Center BETA Windows SideShow Gadgets and what they do:

Now Playing: View what is currently playing in Windows Media Center (includes playback controls)
Pictures + Video: Browse your Photos and Videos folders
Music: Browse your Music folder and play any song
TV: Look at what is on TV via the Windows Media Center Guide, Schedule Recordings, and View Recordings (in a Thumbnail view)

I downloaded and installed the Windows Media Center BETA Windows SideShow Gadgets on my Dell XPS 420 which has a built in Windows SideShow device on the top front of the system (the XPS MiniView). It's pretty slick to be able to control Windows Media Center from a Windows SideShow device. I'm quite fond of the Now Playing Gadget myself and the TV Gadget. I utilize Windows Media Center as my primary DVR for recording TV. If you have a Windows SideShow device - definitely give these Windows SideShow Gadgets a try!

NOTE: These 4 Windows Media Center Windows SideShow Gadgets *are* currently in BETA.

Speaking of Windows Media Center - join Patrick Norton from Tekzilla tomorrow Tuesday July 8^th for the 3^rd Webinar (of 4 webinars total) on the new Extender for Windows Media Center from HP - the HP MediaSmart Connect. Click here to register for the webinar.

Try Out and Help Test Windows Home Server Power Pack 1

Brandon LeBlanc — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:13:00 GMT

Today, the Windows Home Server Team has announced the availability of the Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 Release Candidate for download on Microsoft Connect. You can read Charlie Kindel's post announcing today's release on the Windows Home Server Team Blog.

Microsoft Connect: Windows Home Server

Power Pack 1 for Windows Home Server contains numerous bug fixes - including the data corruption issue - as well as many new enhancements to Windows Home Server many users will enjoy:

Support for PCs running Windows Vista x64 editions
Backup of Windows Home Server Shared Folders
Easier, enhanced remote access capabilities
Better energy efficiency
Improved performance
Chinese and Japanese versions

I'm currently running the Power Pack 1 Release Candidate on my HP MediaSmart Server and enjoying new functionality Power Pack 1 adds to my Windows Home Server. I recently added several harddrives putting my storage at 1.1TB. Having more storage allows me to utilize Folder Duplication for my Shared Folders. I also have 1 drive setup specifically for backups of my Shared Folders. I utilize my Shared Folders for quite a bit of data storage so I really appreciate having this functionality to ensure the data is safe (on top of Folder Duplication). Having more storage also lets me store my CompletePC Backups from my Windows Vista PCs on my Windows Home Server as well - but I will talk more about this in a later blog post. I am also enjoying the ability to backup my PCs to my Windows Home Server running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 with the Windows Home Server Connector that now runs on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista. On top of data storage and backups, I utilize my Windows Home Server for remote access when traveling as well.

Your testing of the Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 Release Candidate is very important to the Windows Home Server Team. They will not ship the final release of Power Pack 1 until the community validates their work in Power Pack 1.

Remember - Power Pack 1 is a Release Candidate and is not the final version - essentially it's a beta. If you choose to run the Release Candidate on your main Windows Home Server (aka your "production" Windows Home Server) you should make a backup of everything prior to installing the Power Pack 1 Release Candidate.

To leave feedback for the Windows Home Server Team - you can head on over to the public Windows Home Server Forums. Make sure you file any bugs you find with Power Pack 1 on Microsoft Connect.

Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 and Deep Zoom Composer Update

Brandon LeBlanc — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 02:04:00 GMT

As announced earlier this week during the Tech•Ed 2008 Keynote - Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 has been released. Tech•Ed 2008 for Developers is taking place in Orlando this week with Tech•Ed 2008 for IT Professionals starting next week. Check out the Virtual Press Room for Tech•Ed 2008 for the latest announcements.

On top of today's Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 release comes two new releases also worth taking note of: Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 CTP and an updated build of Deep Zoom Composer for Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 support.

Because of updates made in Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2, I needed to install the updated build of Deep Zoom Composer and re-publish my Space Needle Deep Zoom Collection to take full advantage of today's Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 release.

Download: Deep Zoom Composer June 2008 Release (Version 0.9.0.3)

Download: Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 CTP

With the new build of Deep Zoom Composer - I was able to choose between JPEG and PNG for the format of my photos within my Deep Zoom Collection. In my updated Space Needle Deep Zoom Collection I went with PNG. However, when you choose JPEG you can set the quality of the JPEG images which is really nice. Another new feature in the new Deep Zoom Composer is the ability to tag images within your Deep Zoom Collection. Apparently there is a way to add sorting by tags for Deep Zoom Collections but this process is fairly code-intensive and I'm not really sure just how to do that - yet.

Deep Zoom Collection*: Top of Space Needle in Seattle, WA (UPDATED)

* Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 is required to view Deep Zoom Collections. If you don't have Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 installed, it will ask you to install it to view the Deep Zoom Collection.

Using the Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 CTP release I was able to change some of the formatting of my Deep Zoom Collection such as changing the background and the size of the actual Deep Zoom area. Expression Blend 2.5 can open Deep Zoom Projects created by Deem Zoom Composer - allowing for more advanced control over the project.

I plan to have my second Deep Zoom Collection published shortly - and to be quite a bit bigger than my Space Needle Doom Zoom Collection.

Have you created a Doom Zoom Collection? Leave a comment with a link to your Deep Zoom Collection!

Not Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 related - but still Silverlight related - check out the trailer to the upcoming new X-Files move X-Files: I Want to Believe in Silverlight! Thanks Barack for the heads up.