Windows Experience Blog : Download

Internet Explorer 8 RC1 Now Available

Brandon LeBlanc — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:48:01 GMT

This afternoon, Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch has announced the immediate availability of Internet Explorer 8 RC1. Internet Explorer 8 RC1 is available in 25 languages for Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server. You can download IE8 RC1 here: http://www.microsoft.com/ie8. Here is what Dean says about IE8 today:

IE8 focused on how people really use the web. Consumers want a browser that makes the tasks they do every day faster and easier. The activities people spend their time on define real-world performance: navigating to websites, working with tabs, searching, keeping track of changing information (like traffic or an auction), and using the information from one site with another (as in getting a map). Everyone wants a trustworthy browser that keeps them in control and protects their safety. Developers want great developer tools, great interoperability, and a powerful platform that enables them to innovate. For some people, accessibility is crucial; for some organizations, policy, administration, and deployment are essential.

For more information on upgrading to RC1 – please see this post from Internet Explorer Program Manager Jane Maliouta. Jane provides an excellent and information-filled post on what you need to know to upgrade to RC1.

Internet Explorer 8 RC1 can only be installed on Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server. For more information on Internet Explorer 8 and Windows 7, please read this blog post.

Origami Experience 2.0 Released

Brandon LeBlanc — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 01:26:00 GMT

The Origami Experience 2.0 has been released for download on the Microsoft Download Center today!

Download: Origami Experience 2.0

The Origami Experience 2.0 is designed for Ultra-Mobile PCs that run Windows Vista. To run the Origami Experience 2.0, a UMPC with the following specifications is recommended:

Minimum 100 MB of available hard disk space
Minimum 1 GB of system memory
Touch panel display (required for Origami Picture Password)

The Origami Experience 2.0 requires the following software installed:

Windows Internet Explorer 7. Origami Experience 2.0 requires Internet Explorer 7 for its RSS platform.
Windows Media Player 11. Origami Central requires Windows Media Player 11 in order to manage and play media.
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. The calendar tile in Origami Now works only with Office Outlook 2007 Calendar. The mail tile in Origami Now works with Office Outlook 2007 Mail and Windows Mail.
The Windows update available here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932406 . This update is highly recommended if you use the mail tile in Origami Now with Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

I've been taking a closer look at the Origami Experience 2.0 software here on the Windows Experience Blog with a 4-part series of in-depth posts. You can check out Part 1 of the series here where I dive into the enhanced web browsing capabilities of Origami Experience 2.0 including new touch abilities for UMPCs that have Touch Panel Displays. And here in Part 2 I take a look at the new built in RSS feed-reading features. Coming soon - Part 3 will look at the Media features and Part 4 will take a look at Origami Now.

Windows Search 4.0 Released to Web

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:41:00 GMT

Not necessarily a "Windows Experience" (although it does improve the Windows Experience) - I'm making this post on behalf of the Windows Search Team. Oh and I am really excited for this release.

Today we released the final version of Windows Search 4.0 to Microsoft Download Center. Windows Search 4.0 updates search in Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Home Server. This release comes after a public Windows Search 4.0 Preview, which was a success thanks to great community participation - with around 300,000 downloads. Since the Preview was released, a number of quality improvements have been made to the product based on feedback provided by the community.

Download: Windows Search 4.0 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (x86)

Download: Windows Search 4.0 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (x64)

More download packages are available on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940157.

So, what's new in this release?

First and foremost: we've introduced some performance and reliability improvements. Queries are faster, as is indexing - how much faster depends on your machine and your data. Improved reliability means that system failures won't get in the way of the indexer and all of your data will be scanned and available for searches.

We've also extended remote index discovery, also known as PC-to-PC searches, which allows data to be searched quickly and efficiently across machines running Windows Search 4.0. This means that Windows Vista-to-Windows XP or Windows Vista-to-Windows Server 2008 queries are now possible.

Additionally, Windows Search 4.0 offers manageability improvements that IT Pros should take note of.

For starters, we have extended Group Policy to control more aspects of search functionality and made this control more granular with per-user policies. You can use Group Policy Objects to control how desktop search accesses remote resources - such as Microsoft Exchange Server resources or file shares - to manage network utilization.

Speaking of accessing Microsoft Exchange Server - if your organization selects not to use Microsoft Office Outlook in cached mode, you can set a Group Policy to index Exchange in online mode. Windows Search 4.0 will then index with minimal impact to the server. Our internal testing of this configuration shows significant decrease in the load on the server and the network as compared to Windows Desktop Search 3.01.

IT Pros can deploy a new link that will be added to the Instant Search UI of Windows Vista (or Windows Search UI on Windows XP) on client PCs and allow the query entered in the search box to access your company's search server, by opening the search UI of the server in your browser and executing the query in it. With this functionality, users get a single launch pad for all of their searches. For more information on how to add customized links into the instant Search UI, click here.

Based on a large amount of customer feedback, we have added support for indexing files encrypted with EFS. Users in an organization can now encrypt files and still be able to search their contents. When running on Windows Vista, they also can get an additional level of data protection by using BitLocker and storing their index on the protected drive.

Today, Windows Search 4.0 can be downloaded for installation (download links from Microsoft Download Center listed above). If you need Windows Search 4.0 deployed in a large organization, you can use System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or other infrastructure solutions.

In the future, we will make Windows Search 4.0 available on Windows Update as well. At that time you will be able to install Windows Search 4.0 off the update site directly or deploy it in your organization using WSUS.

Once Windows Search 4.0 becomes available on Windows Update various Windows users will experience the following:

Windows XP users will see it as an "optional" update, which requires users to select the update for installation.
Users running Windows Vista will see the update as "recommended." By default, recommended updates are installed automatically; however, users can prevent automatic installation of Windows Search 4.0. We will publicly post specific instructions prior to publishing Windows Search 4.0 on Windows Update.
On Windows Server 2008, the update will be applicable only if the File Server Role is enabled.

More on the improvements in Windows Search 4.0 can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940157.

Put Certified for Windows Vista on your desktop

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:35:00 GMT

Last week I posted an update on Certified from Windows Vista products in which at the end of the post I mentioned I had something else planned in regards to Certified for Windows Vista. Here at Microsoft in Redmond, the Windows Vista Logo Team made a poster that was put up around campus showcasing the Certified for Windows Vista logo. I thought the poster was really neat so I asked Deryl if he wouldn't mind if we released it as desktop wallpaper here for you to add Certified for Windows Vista to your desktop.

Below are links to download the Certified for Windows Vista wallpaper for your desktop (depending of course on your screen resolution) courtesy of Windows Live SkyDrive:

Enjoy the wallpaper!

For those not really interested in this wallpaper - you might check out another wallpaper of mine I released last month. I also hope to create some more wallpapers for you here in the coming months.