During PDC, we announced the availability of a new version of the Windows API Code Pack (version 1.0.1). That same day, I had the pleasure of demo-ing how to use the API Code Pack to build great Windows 7 applications. If you missed the session (or weren't able to attend PDC), you can check out the video recording and grab the decks from session page - Developing with the Windows API Code Pack for Microsoft .NET Framework.
While Windows 7 is an awesome operating system that runs faster while consuming fewer resources than its predecessor, it also includes new exciting features and capabilities that both users and developers can enjoy. Taskbar, Sensor and Location platform, Libraries, Multitouch, new DirectX capabilities, and...
Vista News
All the latest Windows Vista and Tech news.
Yesterday was what is known as “Cyber Monday,” which is the first Monday after Black Friday every year and is one of the top online shopping days here in the United States. Cyber Monday is when people move to the Web to make purchases they missed in stores during Black Friday. And many online retailers offer hot deals similar to the in store deals seen on Black Friday. This year’s Cyber Monday was impressive - as of 1pm yesterday, sales for Cyber Monday were up 19.6% over last year according to Coremetrics. A lot of online shopping was done yesterday (I did some too)!
When shopping online, it is important to do so safely and privately. It would not be fun having to deal with stolen credit card details or identity theft instead of...
Microsoft is denying that the latest Patch Tuesday has resulted in some PCs locking up and displaying a Black Screen of Death (BSOD), calling the reports "inaccurate."
Full Story: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/12/microsoft-denies-blacksod-reports-after-windows-patches.ars
Seven more job postings were posted last month that mention Windows 8. From them, we can glean a few small tidibits about Windows 7's successor.
Full Story: Microsoft to switch internal focus to Windows 8 in July 2010
Users that have installed any pre-release versions of Windows Home Server Power Packs will need to take actions to prepare for Power Pack 3. The prerequisite for successful download and installation of Power Pack 3 is to be running the correct version of Windows Home Server with Power Pack 2. If you have a beta version or a release candidate version of a Power Pack installed, you must uninstall these preliminary versions before you install this final version of Power Pack 3.
First, you’ll need to Remote Desktop into your Windows Home Server. Below are the instructions on how to complete this step for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Step-By-Step Instructions on How to Access the Windows Home Server Administrator’s...
If you take a look back to the Top 10 Reasons to use Windows Home Server, you can see that I have gone over the majority of these points. In this post, I am going to share a little more about items 4 and 6: libraries and user accounts.
Windows Home Server’s integration with Windows 7 libraries is one of my personal favorite features. I have 4 computers at home that hold hundreds of pictures. I love being able to share my photos with friends and family, but unfortunately before Windows Home Server, I could never find what I was looking for! It would take me up to an hour to look through all 4 computers and all of the picture folders on each PC to find a specific set of photos.
With Windows Home Server as your media server, your...
Feeling literary? Creative? Or maybe just passionate for the latest generation of Windows Home Server devices hitting the market? Either way, here’s your chance to win a Home Server and host of other great prizes including Zune HD players and 1 TB hard drives to help expand your storage.
Through December 11th, Intel and Microsoft are co-sponsoring A Home Server Haiku contest. To enter, simply write a haiku about how a home server would help bring peace of mind to your life—or simply why you really want one. Your name will be entered in a contest to win one of three new home servers, one of ten Zune digital audio players, or one of ten 1TB hard drives.
If you’re like me, a handy English class refresher on Haikus can be found here...
The public betas for Office 2010, Project 2010, Visio 2010, and SharePoint Server 2010 have arrived. Download links inside.
Full Story: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/11/office-2010-beta-now-available.ars
The Microsoft Vulnerability Research (MSVR) team found and reported a vulnerability in Google Chrome Frame. The result is a new version that fixes the security flaw, among other issues.
Full Story: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/11/google-chrome-frame-patches-microsoft-reported-security-bug.ars
Last week, we announced the availability of the Facebook SDK for .NET developers. The SDK supports coding for both Silverlight and the Windows Platform (WPF, etc.). Yesterday, Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft's .NET Developer Platform, took the stage for his part of the Day 2 Keynote at PDC09 where he announced Silverlight 4.
During the keynote, Scott demonstrated an out-of-browser Silverlight 4 application called SilverFace. SilverFace was developed using the Facebook SDK we announced last week.
SilverFace lets you do all kinds of things on Facebook directly from your Windows desktop such as update your status, upload photos, view friend’s photos and videos, and much more. This application is meant to...
During Wednesday’s keynote, Brian Golgarb resented SilverFace, a Silverlight client application for Facebook. Beyond its amazing looks, SilverFace provides a full and complete desktop client application for Windows (and Mac). SilverFace is built on top of Silverlight 4 – also announced during the keynote. However, if you want a cool Facebook client application to work on from your Windows desktop today, your only real option is going with Fishbowl for Facebook Preview.
In today's world, the client’s experience is more important than ever before. Your application doesn’t just have to be fun and interesting; it has to be good looking, polished, and functional, providing a “natural” user experience that just works. As a developer, you...
The Windows Home Server Team is pleased to announce that Power Pack 3 will be available in all shipping languages (Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish) on November 24th, 2009. Power Pack 3 will be made available to existing users via Windows Update. Users need to have Windows Home Server with Power Pack 2 already installed on their home server. Power Pack 3 will automatically install as part of Windows Update if Automatic Updates is enabled on the home server.
As we’ve communicated in a past post, Power Pack 3 improves the Windows Home Server experience with Windows 7 and Windows Media Center by providing new features like: backup and restore of computers running Windows 7, Windows 7 Libraries...
An inaccurate quote has been floating around the Internet today about the design origins of Windows 7 and whether its look and feel was “borrowed” from Mac OS X. Unfortunately this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7. I hate to say this about one of our own, but his comments were inaccurate and uninformed. If you’re interested in learning more about the design of Windows 7, I suggest reading this AP story with Julie Larson-Green as well as these WSJ (membership required) and Fast Company articles. And here is one of many blog posts on the E7 blog discussing the design process of Windows 7.
More...
I am glad to announce that today we shipped a new version of the Windows API Code Pack – version 1.0.1. This is not a major version with a lot of new features, but rather a minor version focused on fixing bugs, improving performance, adding demos and few features updates (new wrappers…)
But before we dive into this new version of the Windows Code Pack let’s better understand what this Windows API Code Pack is all about.
Windows 7 offers new features like the taskbar, libraries, and the Sensor and Location platform, to name a few. These features enable new scenarios and create new opportunities for developers to make their applications shine on Windows 7. All these great features are exposed via the Win32 native API. Currently...