Windows Live gets upgrade
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We are born to be a Live... Microsoft is beta testing two new features of Windows Live - its effort at delivering software as a service over the web.â¦
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Microsoft is making a major push to get home and business customers to embrace the security-focused overhaul to its Windows XP computer operating system. But while most consumers are advised to upgrade to Service Pack 2, there are a few things to keep in mind. Personal Tech columnist  Edward C. Baig  addresses questions on the free SP2 upgrade.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft continues to test updates to its Windows Live online services, including a service launched last year that allows users to submit blog posts simultaneously to more than one blogging platform. A new beta of that service, called Windows Live Writer, is now available from an internal blog. Windows Live Writer is a tool to compose blog posts and publish them on some of the Web's most popular blogging platforms, such as Windows Live Spaces, Community Server, WordPress, and TypePad. Microsoft released the first test version of the service last August but hadn't updated the product since November 2006, according to the Liveside blog. An entry by Nick White, a Microsoft product manager, on the Windows Vista team blog lays out the new features in Windows Live Writer. It now has in-line spell checking, the ability to add categories and table editing, and easier image insertion, he said. The new Windows Live Writer beta is available in both English and Spanish in the U.S. as well as in English in India and the U.K. It also is available in Spain, Germany, Japan, China, and France. In addition to the Writer update, Microsoft also released new betas for its instant-messaging and Web-based mail services this week. Windows Live Messenger 8.5 is now in official beta, though users got an early look when the release was leaked in Spanish on the Messenger Adictos blog earlier this week. The beta includes a user interface designed to look more like the revamped Aero interface of Windows Vista. Users can find the beta on its Windows Live site. Windows Live Mail, the successor to Windows Mail that is included in Windows Vista and Outlook Express on Windows XP, also has a new beta release. The new version includes a new UI that is similar to other services in Windows Live and also allows users to sync to their Windows Live Hotmail accounts. Other features in the Windows Live Mail beta include offline mail, accounting aggregation for Windows Live Hotmail and other POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) and IMAP mail accounts, and RSSÂ feed aggregation. Improvements in the service include better photo-sharing and search features as well as more security, according to Microsoft. Windows Live Mail also will feature integration with other Windows Live services, including Windows Live Spaces. For the time being, the service will not include advertisements, the company said. However, many of the Windows Live services have been created by Microsoft to drive online advertising revenue, so many of them already include advertising or will in the future if they do not already. Microsoft revealed a new strategy to develop new online services in November 2005 and also unveiled the new Windows Live brand. Many of the services previously branded MSN are now called Windows Live. More information and a list of service can be found on the Windows Live home page.ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
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Microsoft's weekly patch dispatch includes an update for Windows Defender, which ships with the new operating system. By the Associated Press.
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Many computer users prefer to install their operating system "clean" by simply using their old Windows disc to verify they own a copy of the software. However, that appears to no longer be possible using an Upgrade version of Windows Vista.
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Blog: Updates includes both Windows and Mac versions of the popular media software.
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Upgrading your Windows Vista operating system to the Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate Refresh is complex and not necessarily for all Vista users, not yet. Take an in-depth excursion into the world of Vista upgrades.
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Microsoft revise a program that allows Windows Vista customers to upgrade from a basic version of its OS to one of the premium editions.
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update In order to get the next update of its Windows operating system out the door, Microsoft will delay some of the key improvements that had been planned.
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Here&#8217;s the Windows Live Local blog on the upgrades to Bird&#8217;s Eye.   Gary Price summarizes the upgrades:  What&#8217;s New? +  Improved Tools to Navigate  &#8220;Birds Eye&#8221; Imagery Using an &#8220;inset map.&#8221; (Much easier!) Also, kudos on the next new feature that also makes Birds Eye imagery more user friendly.  You can now drag to the end of [...]
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It may be missing a few features, but the OS will be worth the upgrade, Microsoft says.
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Blog: Today, Microsoft released a new version of their Windows Live Mobile Search application.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft is planning to add the ability to develop Windows Live applications to its Visual Studio toolkit as a way to build more of a developer base for its online services platform. The company is adding controls to Visual Studio 2008 that will allow developers to connect Windows Live services to new applications they're building, said Adam Sohn, a director in the Online Services Group at Microsoft. The company is currently testing the technology internally and may also include it in the current 2005 version of Visual Studio, but that is yet to be determined, he said. A public beta of the technology is expected in October or November, Sohn said. Details of the Windows Live toolkit first appeared online a public interview posted on the LiveSide blog with Angus Logan, a Microsoft technical program manager. Microsoft Monday confirmed that the interview was done at the Mix U.K. '07 conference last week. In the interview, Logan indicated that Microsoft would discuss the technology at the DevConnections conference in Las Vegas in early November. Windows Live is the brand name for set of Web-based services -- such as search, instant-messaging, e-mail, blogging, and photo-sharing -- Microsoft offers, but the company also considers Windows Live a development platform in the same way its Windows OS and Office applications are a platform, Sohn said. Microsoft has made APIs for those services available on its Windows Live developer site. Microsoft has been savvy over the years in leveraging its large developer base to bolster new technologies and help the company compete in areas where it does not have first-mover advantage, and the area of online services is no different. Microsoft is chasing Google for online advertising dollars and hopes to use Windows Live services to compete. Microsoft also charges $.025 per user per year for developers that use Windows Live services in applications that have more than 1 million unique users per month, Sohn said. Sohn said that while the business case for growing the developer base for the Windows Live platform is obviously important, Microsoft also hopes to encourage the development of cutting-edge Web applications to help the industry as a whole promote more interesting user experiences on the Web. "Over time if the industry is doing better, we're going to do better as well," he said.
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Primeval sludge is wriggling Microsoft's Live isn't, well, live - at least not in a "here it is with a full set of bells and whistles" sense. But it is here, as a proto-being, and the company wants developers to go and try it out, find out what it can do and, from there, get some ideas on what they might want to do with it.â¦
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Windows update doesn't play well with all applications, even Redmond's. Also: CNET Reviews on security work still to be done.
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Service Pack 2 for XP represents a sea change in Microsoft's security posture. Here's why you should ignore the naysayers and start planning your upgrade.
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New products include keyboards designed for use with Windows Vista and Windows Live online services.