Windows Experience Blog : Release

Zune 3.0 Has Arrived, Blue Zune 8 Unboxed!

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:58:00 GMT

As was announced last week - the Zune Team rolled out their Zune 3.0 release today consisting of updated Software and Firmware which is now available for all to enjoy at the updated Zune.net website. Click here to go directly to the Zune 3.0 software download page. Once you download and install the Zune 3.0 software, your Zune device once it's connected will be offered new firmware. You can now enjoy new features such as Channels, Personal Picks, Mix View, Buy from FM and more. Oh and the new Now Playing screen is pretty slick too! Also hitting store shelves as we speak are 2 new Zune devices: the Zune 16 and Zune 120. And the Zune 8 is now available in shiny blue-on-silver. As readers of the blog are aware, I've expressed keen interest in picking up a Blue Zune 8. And I did! To celebrate today's Zune 3.0 release I figured I'd post some unboxing shots of the new blue Zune 8.

The Box

Opening the Zune 8 Box

Unboxed

The BLUE Zune 8

I also did some shots comparing the Blue Zune 8 with a Black Zune 8 and a Zune 80. Take a look:

Zumerama does an unboxing of a Zune 16 and Paul Thurrott unboxes the Zune 120. Jason Dunn from Zune Thoughts also discusses his recent trip to Zune Headquarters in Redmond which is also worth a read.

The Zune 16 is available in stores in all black however today it was announced that people can order different colored Zune 16's exclusively via Zune Originals. Zune Originals will offer the Zune 16 in blue, red, pink and green as an online exclusive only. New artwork will also be hitting Zune Originals as well!

To help users utilize the new wireless functionality in their Zune devices - the Zune Team is also announcing today that it is working with high-speed Internet access provider Wayport Inc. to offer Zune users free wireless access to the Zune Marketplace from more than 9,800 participating McDonald's restaurants across the United States.

I'm always looking to discover new music. Add me as a friend on the Zune Social and let me know of some new music I should try out.

Windows Live OneCare 2.5 Now Available

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:37:00 GMT

Windows Live OneCare 2.5 is now available and I've got some information for both new and existing Windows Live OneCare subscribers regarding the Windows Live OneCare 2.5 release I'd like to share.

Beginning last week (July 1st to be exact) - existing Windows Live OneCare users (paid subscribers) began automatically receiving Windows Live OneCare 2.5. The Windows Live OneCare website also began offering Windows Live OneCare 2.5 for new users as well. If you are a Windows Live OneCare subscriber and have not yet been automatically updated, you can either wait until the update occurs or download the new version from the Windows Live OneCare website.

NOTE: If you choose not to wait for the automatic update to occur and want to go ahead and "manually" update yourself via downloading the new version off the Windows Live OneCare website - you will need to uninstall the previous version first before Windows Live OneCare 2.5 will install. I had not been automatically upgraded so I chose to install manually on 1 of my PCs but the others were automatically updated soon after.

So what's new with Windows Live OneCare 2.5? As I stated previously, the Windows Live OneCare 2.5 release is mainly an "under-the-hood" release. That means all the improvements take place behind-the-scenes so you will not notice any major new features or changes to the overall UI. Windows Live OneCare 2.5 is an incremental release that highlights Microsoft's ongoing commitment to improving Windows Live OneCare for paying subscribers.

However, Windows Live OneCare 2.5 does bring some changes worth taking note of. Windows Live OneCare is now available in 3 new markets: Brazil, India and Hong Kong. Also, if you are using the Online Photo Backup feature in Windows Live OneCare, you will be pleased to see that online storage capacity has been increased from 10GB to 50GB! Online Photo Backup is an added benefit to Windows Live OneCare users where they can pay $50 a year (on top of their existing Windows Live OneCare subscription) to have their digital photos automatically backed up to the "cloud".

As a Windows Live OneCare user myself, I enjoy seeing updates to Windows Live OneCare even if they aren't major updates. The priority for me is simply keeping my PC protected.

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.