Neowin reports that Windows Live Essential 2011 Beta 2 is available now. I am downloading the suite and will report on the updates after I have tested it for a while. If you want the bits, go here and download the full installer.
Enjoy!
Popularity: 2% [?]
After a long period of no posting to my blog I return with an installment in the 7 Windows 7 Tips series.
Like a lot of you I recently installed Windows Live Essentials Beta (Wave 4). After the upgrade I had serious problems logging on to Live Messenger, which provided me with the following error message at every attempt;
Searching around in forums and knowledge base articles came up with a lot of possible solutions – none that worked for me. I then went into the Microsoft Management Console to check out which services were enabled by default or not and found the culprit. So if you are experiencing the abovementioned error message try the following:
You should now be able to log into Windows Live Messenger again.
When you click on the Windows Explorer icon in your taskbar you are by default taken to the Libraries folder. If you want to change this behaviour you can do it by following these steps;
One of the really handy new features of Windows 7 is the ability to search not only your own computer, but also designated websites from within Windows Explorer. In order to do this you need a so-called Search Connector for the sites you want to search. There are many ready-made Search Connectors available out on the internet, for instance Long Zhengs Flickr-search connector which can be found here. If you want to make your own connector, say to be able to search a favorite website or blog, like AboKevin.com (;-D) you can easily make your own in a few steps:
1. Open up Notepad
2. Copy the following text and paste it into Notepad as is
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<OpenSearchDescription xmlns=”<a href=”http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/”">http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/”</a> xmlns:ms-ose=”<a href=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/”">http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/”</a>>
<ShortName>AboKevin</ShortName>
<Description>Search Abokevins Blog using Windows 7 Federated Search</Description>
<Url type=”application/rss+xml” template=”<a href=”http://api.bing.com/rss.aspx?source=web&query={searchTerms}”>http://api.bing.com/rss.aspx?source=web&query={searchTerms}</a> site:abokevin.com&web.count=50″/>
<Url type=”text/html” template=”<a href=”http://www.bing.com/search?q={searchTerms}+site:abokevin.com“/></OpenSearchDescription>
3. If you want to change to another website of your choosing change the text in bold;
4. When done editing your text click save. In the save dialog make sure you do the following;
5. Find your Search Connector in the folder you saved it to and double click it – You will be asked if you want to install the Search Connector – click Yes and you are done
6. Open up Windows Explorer and you will find your Search Connector under Favorites in the left pane – click and enter a search term and… voila!
One minor annoyance in Windows 7 compared to previous versions of Windows is the fact that when you run Windows Live Messenger it will no longer default to the notification area. It is very easy to fix this, although you will loose some functionality.
When you mouse over icons of running applications in the taskbar you will get a thumbnail preview of said application. If you think that it takes too long for this preview to show up an easy registry hack can make it appear faster.
Note: I advice that you create a restore point before editing the registry, and editing it is done on your own responsibility
1. Start your Registry Editor by entering regedit in the Start orbs search bar
2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse.
3. Double-click MouseHoverTime and set the value to something lower than the default 400. I recommend trying 150. Click OK
4. Close the registry editor. You now have to either log off or restart your computer for the new settings to go into effect.
When you drag and drop files and folders from one location to another Windows sometimes copies the files and sometimes moves them depending on the location of source and destination. Simply said as long as Windows sees that the source and destination location is on the same partition/hard drive it moves the file/folder and as long as they are on separate partitions/hard drives it copies them. But what if you want something else to happen? How do you move a file from one location to the other without having to right-click – select cut – move to new location – right-click and select paste?
There is actually several ways to go about this:
Force a copy while performing drag and drop: Hold down CTRL while dragging and dropping will force a copy operation regardless of source/destination location.
Force a move while performing drag and drop: Hold down SHIFT while dragging and dropping will force a move operation regardless of source/destination location.
Force creation of a shortcut while performing drag and drop: Hold down both CTRL and SHIFT while dragging and dropping will force the creation of a shortcut regardless of source/destination location.
And the best of them all:
If you drag and drop with a right-click instead of the normal left-click you will be presented with the following choices when you release the mouse in the new location:
Brilliant!
The last tip is really a software recommendation. I have been running the Live Essentials beta for a while now, and I highly recommend it. The package includes updated versions of Windows Live Photo Gallery, one of the best free applications for managing your photo collection, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Sync – updated with most of the technology behind the previous Live Mesh service – a brilliant tool for keeping files and folders synced between 2 or more PCs, Windows Live Mail, Windows Movie Maker and Live Family Safety as well as an updated Bing bar for Internet Explorer. You can select which ones of the programs you want through the installer which you will find on this page. Go ahead – this one is a no-brainer. Good luck!
Windows Live Writer Beta
Windows Live Mail Beta
Windows Live Messenger Beta
Windows Live Movie Maker Beta
Windows Live Sync Beta
So – there you have my 7 Windows 7 tips for this time. Your comments, suggestions and general feedback is most welcome!
Popularity: 13% [?]
Although the weather has been quite nice lately, today it is raining outside. Which of course makes me miss Lebanon and the Middle East even more. To alleviate my pain(or aggregate – depends on how you see it) , I put together a theme pack with a few of my Lebanon pictures. Some from Beirut, more from Ebel es Saqi and Blate in the south. Take a look, grab it if you want, and feedback is welcome in the comments underneath.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Microsoft has released a beta version of a new tool called Microsoft Fix it Center. This tool provides one single point you can go to in order to run several different troubleshooters to solve the different issues you are having with your computer. Although currently in beta it already provides a multitude of automatic troubleshooters to you. If you are having problems not addressed by the tool, you can report your issue through the tools online center and hopefully Microsoft will follow up on it. The tool looks promising, especially for those of us that falls into the category of being the family and friends it-guy! Just make sure you have this installed on their machines – and you can easily guide them through its use.
Head over to Microsoft Fix it Center Online’s website and download the software.
When running the installer you will be greeted with this window;
After the installation finishes you will be asked to set it up and personalize it for your computer
Based on your hardware and software it will suggest additional troubleshooters it can download
In my case it found the two you see suggested in this screenshot
You are then requested to create and account at Microsoft Fix it Center Online
You can use your Windows Live ID for this
Microsoft then asks for your permission to share some information about your system with the online service
After having completed that step you have finished installing Microsoft Fix it Center on your computer
When running the program for the first time you are greeted by the following pop-up
Running the troubleshooters is easy. You just pick the one that most resembles your problem and click on the Run button
In this screenshot I have run the Performance troubleshooter and are asked whether I want the tool to apply fixes automatically or just present them for me so that I can select which ones to apply.
After diagnosing the machine you are then presented with the result of the diagnosis (I chose to select which fixes to apply in this instance)
After I ran the System Configuration tool I was then asked whether this fixed my problem or not.
After I submitted my response I was then taken to the Microsoft Fix it Center Online service where I could see a summary of the problems and fixes for my machine.
It is really too early to tell how useful this will be. It definitely looks promising and especially easy for the average user to utilize. I will be using it going forward, as well as install on it all the machines I might be asked to support (ie all of my immediate family). When I will be asked to fix a problem this tool will be my first stop in the troubleshooting and fixing process. Hopefully it will deliver on its promise and make my day easier.
For now: I recommend you try it out. Having real world experience in using it? Let me know in the comments section underneath.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Today I found a brilliant tool for learning the new ribbon interface by sheer chance. I was visiting the official Office site and noticed an ad for a social game that would help you master the ribbon; Ribbon Hero.
In Microsoft Office Labs own words;
Ribbon Hero is a game for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel 2007 and 2010, designed to help you boost your Office skills and knowledge. Play games (aka "challenges"), score points, and compete with your friends while improving your productivity with Office. As a concept test, this add-in is not supported, but is an opportunity for you to try out an idea we are working on and let us know what you think. For additional challenges and the opportunity to earn more points, download Office 2010 Beta.
Microsoft Office Labs have made some videos on the product that can be found on their product page. I recommend giving them a look. (Tried to embed one of them here – no success…)
I downloaded the game, which is an add-in (COM) for Word, PowerPoint and Excel (2007 and 2010) and installed it. Using it adds some time to opening each application but not too much. After installing it there is an added button in the top right corner of the Home tab in the Ribbon of all three applications.
The Word Ribbon Hero button
The Excel Ribbon Hero button
The PowerPoint Ribbon Hero button
You can connect the game with Facebook and thus compete with your friends and co-workers that also have installed the game.
In use you will see that as you utilize different ribbon tools in your writing and editing your points in the Ribbon Hero button accumulate. You will get more points for more difficult tasks than you would for lets say changing selected text into bold. All fine and dandy, but the tool really gets interesting when you click on the Ribbon Hero button and enter the so-called challenge mode. In Word you are greeted by this screen;
Here you can see your Word achievements, and where you have gotten them, as well as play new challenges in order to get more points. This part of the game is also the most interesting to me as it is here that you can actually learn new things. So lets go ahead and play the challenge shown in the screenshot above;
The task at hand is written in bold red letters, and there is a before and after screenshot underneath showing what it is you should try to achieve. In case you have no clue how to do this you can hit the Hint! button in the right pane and be presented with the solution – if you do this you will of course get fewer points than you would have if you achieved it all on your own. The faster you do things also gains you more points. To me – the whole points thing is not that interesting – what I like is the way I am led through a process where I can learn something new on how Word, Excel and PowerPoint works.
In the task above I selected all the text and hit the Clear formatting button on the Home tab which gave me the following feedback;
By connecting Ribbon Hero with Facebook through Facebook Connect I am able to publish my results on my Facebook page as well as challenge friends that also use this add-in.
Although it has only been available for a couple of months, and are still in the development face, I have no problem in recommending Ribbon Hero for everyone using either Office 2007 or Office 2010. Go grab your copy here. And to you guys at Office Labs; I want this for my Outlook 2010 as well!
Popularity: 7% [?]
