While Microsoft’s attempts to streamline and simplify the Windows 7 user interface are arguably the number one focus for this new Windows version, personalization isn’t far behind. According to the software giant, a huge percentage of Windows users customize their PC desktop with a picture, using either a personal photo or something that they’ve downloaded from the Web. And users are clamoring for more ways in which to customize the PC experience and make it their own. In Windows 7, Microsoft offers two key desktop customization features that address these needs: Styles and desktop slide shows.

Full Article – http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/ff_styles.asp

Via the suggestion box, Dominic Self asks why screen resolution is a global setting rather than a per-user setting. Well, first of all, it’s not even a global setting. It’s a session setting.

That it’s not a global setting is not readily apparent most of the time since only Windows Terminal Server is set up to support multiple simultaneous interactive sessions. On Windows Terminal Server, you specify the properties of the virtual monitor you wish to connect with, including resolution, and the server accommodates your wishes. Well, up to a point. I mean if you ask for a 1,000,000×1,000,000 pixel screen, the server is probably going to say “As if!” (The Remote Desktop Connection feature found in, for example, Windows Vista Ultimate is basically the same thing, but on a smaller scale.)

Full Article -  http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2009/01/19/9339091.aspx

Via the suggestion box, Dominic Self asks why screen resolution is a global setting rather than a per-user setting. Well, first of all, it’s not even a global setting. It’s a session setting.

That it’s not a global setting is not readily apparent most of the time since only Windows Terminal Server is set up to support multiple simultaneous interactive sessions. On Windows Terminal Server, you specify the properties of the virtual monitor you wish to connect with, including resolution, and the server accommodates your wishes. Well, up to a point. I mean if you ask for a 1,000,000×1,000,000 pixel screen, the server is probably going to say “As if!” (The Remote Desktop Connection feature found in, for example, Windows Vista Ultimate is basically the same thing, but on a smaller scale.)

Full Article -  http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2009/01/19/9339091.aspx

lease take a look at this “not-yet-complete” listing of IE8 Group Policies.  Keep in mind that this is a work-in-progress as IE8 is still in beta and content within the XLS file could (and probably will) change without notice.  Something that I really like about the XLS is that I can sort the policies by the minimum version of Internet Explorer required to use the policy:

Please download the attachment and review the contents.  If you see anything that doesn’t look correct, please add your feedback to the blog and we’ll take a look!

Regards,

The IE Support Team

Filed under: Group Policy

Attachment(s): IE8 Group Policy Settings.xlsx

We’re busy going through tons of telemetry from the many people that have downloaded and installed the Windows 7 beta around the world. We’re super excited to see the excitement around kicking the tires. Since most folks on the beta are well-versed in the hardware they use and very tuned into the choices they make, we’ve received a few questions about the Windows Experience Index (WEI) in Windows 7 and how that has been changed and improved in Windows 7 to take into account new hardware available for each of the major classes in the metric. In this post Michael Fortin returns to dive into the engineering details of the WEI.

The WEI was introduced in Windows Vista to provide one means across PCs to measure the relative performance of key hardware components. Like any index or benchmark, it is best used as a relative measure and should not be used to compare one measure to another. Unlike many other measures, the WEI merely measures the relative capability of components. The WEI only runs for a short time and does not measure the interactions of components under a software load, but rather characteristics or your hardware. As such it does not (nor cannot) measure how a system will perform under the your own usage scenarios. Thus the WEI does not measure performance of a system, but merely the relative hardware capabilities when running Windows 7.

Full Article – http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/01/19/engineering-the-windows-7-windows-experience-index.aspx

We’re busy going through tons of telemetry from the many people that have downloaded and installed the Windows 7 beta around the world. We’re super excited to see the excitement around kicking the tires. Since most folks on the beta are well-versed in the hardware they use and very tuned into the choices they make, we’ve received a few questions about the Windows Experience Index (WEI) in Windows 7 and how that has been changed and improved in Windows 7 to take into account new hardware available for each of the major classes in the metric. In this post Michael Fortin returns to dive into the engineering details of the WEI.

The WEI was introduced in Windows Vista to provide one means across PCs to measure the relative performance of key hardware components. Like any index or benchmark, it is best used as a relative measure and should not be used to compare one measure to another. Unlike many other measures, the WEI merely measures the relative capability of components. The WEI only runs for a short time and does not measure the interactions of components under a software load, but rather characteristics or your hardware. As such it does not (nor cannot) measure how a system will perform under the your own usage scenarios. Thus the WEI does not measure performance of a system, but merely the relative hardware capabilities when running Windows 7.

Full Article – http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/01/19/engineering-the-windows-7-windows-experience-index.aspx

A new technology, still in its infancy, could revolutionize data storage devices, merging optical and magnetic technologies. A discovery made in 2006 by Dr. Daniel Stanciu and Dr. Frederick Hansteen that uses light to change the polarity of a magnet is being researched and worked on by physicists around the world. Called all-optical magnetization reversal, it could be applied to storage drives that are more reliable than current devices yet are thousands of times faster. The idea involves using a short laser pulse of about 40 femtoseconds in order to switch a magnet’s polarity and therefore write data.

Full Article -  http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/01/15/laser.hard.drives.coming/

Many of you will have several WLIDs, and want to sign into Messenger with more than one of them. Until now you had to seek refuge in a patch or add-on to be able to do so. Not anymore! Microsoft’s John Weisenfeld just shared a little trick with me to enable this, which I’m going to share with you.

The trick involves registry editing, so please follow these steps very carefully:

1. Start regedit (admin)
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Live
3. Right click Messenger and create a new DWORD called MultipleInstances And set it to 1

Full Article – http://liveside.net/main/archive/2008/12/17/how-to-enable-polygamy-in-windows-live-messenger.aspx

To create a new GPO from scratch using PowerShell cmdlets:

1. Open an elevated PowerShell console session  (1-2 clicks)

2. Command: Import-Module grouppolicy (typing)

3. Command: New-GPO “Sales GPO” (typing)

(optional: add parameter –starter “Security Starter”)

       Total: 1-2 clicks, 2 lines of typing

Full Article – http://blogs.technet.com/grouppolicy/archive/2009/01/14/introduction-to-windows-powershell-cmdlets-in-windows-7.aspx

Over the past several months, Windows Live Calendar has been in beta. We’ve been experimenting with features, listening to your feedback, and polishing up the service. Now the calendar is ready for everyone and we’re excited to roll it out in more than 45 languages. Here are some of the new features you’ll see.

Expandable weeks let you see more events
Most people look at their calendars in the month view, but until now the grid could only display a limited number of events. Now, you can stay in the month view yet choose to see all of the events in a day by expanding one week at a time. Just select “Show More” in the top right of the calendar grid to always show all of your events or click the “# more…” link to expand just one week.

Full Article – http://mailcall.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!CC9301187A51FE33!49770.entry

Commerce Server 2009 (formerly known as Commerce Server 2007 code name “Mojave”) delivers the ability to increase your business reach by making it possible to sell via multiple channels using an out-of-the-box shopping site, SharePoint Commerce Services, and the Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation. The new out-of-the-box shopping site leverages SharePoint Commerce Services, which provides a gallery of ASP.NET 3.5 Web Parts, a comprehensive e-commerce shopping feature-set, and technology integration between Commerce Server and SharePoint technologies. The Multi-Channel Commerce Foundation provides a new unified, extensible run-time programming model for Commerce Server, including new run-time e-commerce capabilities.

Full Article – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b7eeda01-5cba-4945-a44e-a6f5e3eed0b0&DisplayLang=en

The Windows SDK team is proud to announce that the Beta release of the Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 is now live for you to install. The Windows SDK provides documentation, samples, header files, libraries, and tools designed to help you develop Windows applications using native (Win32®) and/or managed (.NET Framework) technologies. 

Availability:

The Windows SDK is available as an ISO.

Platforms:

This SDK release supports Windows 7 Beta,  Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta,  Windows Server 2008, .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1, and Windows Vista SP1. It’s compatible with Visual Studio 2008 SP1, including Visual Studio Express Editions.

Highlights:

Here’s a small sampling of what’s in this Beta SDK.

• New Windows 7 Developer Guide and Quality cookbook
• Samples – Nearly 250 samples added and refreshed during Beta
• Headers/libraries – Over 100 new headers and libraries added to the SDK
• Tools – 7 new tools added to SDK during Beta
• The Windows 7 SDK headers, libs, and tools that can integrate with VS2008 when both the SDK and VS2008 are installed
• Visual Studio 2008 SP1 C++ command line compiler toolset and matching CRT

Learn More:

Stayed tuned to the Windows SDK blog as well as the Windows SDK MSDN Developer Center over the coming weeks for more information about the Windows SDK.  As always, please look over the Release Notes for a description of known issues before you install the SDK.

We spent the day today (Jan 13) on campus, talking to some of the people who have helped to bring you Wave 3.  In quite a coincidence, one of them was Omar Shahine, who we spoke to last fall when POP3 access was announced.  We’ll bring you more from Omar coming up, but we wanted to get this bit out on POP3 now while the news is fresh.  Funnily enough, Omar doesn’t actually work on POP, although he has been working on Hotmail, and more recently on some of the social networking aspects of Windows Live, specifically People and Profiles.  We just happened to catch him, twice, right when there were POP announcements.

Full Article – http://www.liveside.net/interview/archive/2009/01/13/hotmail-pop3-access-on-the-way-omar-shahine-explains.aspx

It’s great to see Windows 7 Beta finally released to the world! We’re very proud of what has been accomplished over the last months; in many ways, it sets a new quality bar for a beta operating system release. Building on top of the Windows Vista foundation, Windows 7 adds a great deal of polish and refinement to both the user interface and the underlying architecture, while at the same time introducing many new features and improvements that support new hardware, give power users and casual users alike better tools to manage their digital lives, and enable new classes of application experience.

Full Article – http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2009/01/12/the-bumper-list-of-windows-7-secrets.aspx

While Microsoft neglected to reveal details about any forthcoming revisions to Windows Home Server at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2009 this week, the company does have a number of interesting WHS developments to discuss. Key among these are the new HP MediaSmart Servers (see my review) and a few important new OEM partners, including Shuttle and VIA in the US. Here are some shots of the new 2009 Windows Home Server devices from these and other companies.

Full Article – http://www.winsupersite.com/server/whs_hw_2009.asp