We still have no official word on when Windows 8 will officially be released to the public, but more and more evidence appears to be pointing towards the last quarter of this year. The first wave of Intel based Tablets and Hybrids running Windows 8 are expected to hit stores by November of this year.

A source “familiar with the matter” told Cnet that Microsoft and their manufacturing partners are on a tight schedule, but November is when we should expect to start seeing these Windows 8 devices. Obviously manufacturers are reliant on Microsoft to get Windows 8 finished off in time so that they can start testing the final RTM version of it.

 ”Looking at what Windows is trying to achieve not only with a new OS, but a new OS that needs to run four to five architectures — three ARM, Intel, and AMD,”

We’ve also been told to not just expect a flurry of tablets, but that “more than 50 percent” of the designs will be hybrids which combine traditional laptops with tablets.

A mock up of HP's Windows 8 Tablet

A lot of these devices are expected to be running on Intel’s new “Clover Trail” Atom chip which is Intel’s first dual-core Atom designed chip based on its 32-nanometer process technology. It promises excellent performance coupled with excellent battery life.

Lenovo's IdeaPad Yoga Hybrid

Of course plenty of these devices, more so the hybrids are expected to be running on Intel’s higher performance Sandy Bridge processors.

So all of these devices are expected to start shipping in November. This would lead us to believe that Windows 8 itself wont be available until November either. If this is the case, Microsoft are cutting it pretty close to the Holiday Shopping Period.

Is November too late for Windows 8 and Windows 8 Hybrids/Tablets? And will you be buying a new Windows 8 machine?

Let us know in the comments below

Source:

Cnet

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Microsoft normally start a special promotional offer coming up to the release of their new operating system to try stop users from holding off on buying computers until its launched. Microsoft offered a free upgrade to Windows 7 for all Windows Vista users who purchased new machines that came running Windows Vista in the months leading up to the release of Windows 7.

While we are yet to hear of an official offer from Microsoft, PC World have received some information from their sources with regards to a similar promotional offer for Windows 8.

Apparently Microsoft will be offering anyone who purchases a Windows machine running Windows 7 a reduced price to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro. When customers make their purchase, they will receive special promotional coupons which will entitle them to Windows 8 Pro at a special price, but it won’t be for free.

The below image is apparently the promotional flyer that Microsoft have been sending around to their retailers and partners.

What makes me curious about this offer though is the fact that the upgrade is to Windows 8 Pro. Most users won’t actually have a need for Windows 8 Pro. It’s more aimed at businesses and tech enthusiasts with features like  includes encryption, virtualization, PC management and domain connectivity.

Surely it would make more sense for Microsoft to offer similar upgrades like they did with Windows 7. ie. Windows Vista Home Premium -> Windows 7 Home Premium etc.. It seems odd that they’re trying to get all Windows 7 users to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro even though many users will have no need for it.

Of course, this upgrade offer isn’t set in stone, and until we receive official word on it from Microsoft, we can’t be certain that it’s going to work like this.

Microsoft are expected to announce this upgrade offer around the 2nd of  June, along side the announcement of the Windows 8 Release Candidate. Microsoft will be aiming to make the most of the back to schools season with this offer because Windows 8 probably won’t be released until after this window.

It will be interesting to see what the offer is that Microsoft come up with.

What do you think it will be?

Let us know in the comments

Source:

PC World

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Microsoft a few days ago announced a name change for its Windows Live product series which we have covered here on Everything Microsoft. When you look at the new names for the products, you will notice that they have been simplified across the board.  Instead of logging in with your Windows Live ID or Passport, you know log in with your Microsoft account. This is just one of the examples, and I suggest you check out Robert’s article on the change for a full overview.

Yesterday evening Microsoft started to email Azure customers about another upcoming name change.

Dear Customer,

In the coming weeks, we will update the Windows Azure Service names that appear in the usage records you download. These are only name changes – your prices for Windows Azure are not impacted. The table below summarizes the changes:

It basically states that Microsoft will drop the Azure name from the product line, again simplifying the product line in the progress. For the majority of Azure products, you simply remove Windows Azure from the name to end up with the new name, and the same is true for AppFabric product names.

It is likely that this will be causing some confusion in the beginning. According to Microsoft, everything else product-related remains as is.

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There’s been a few quiet murmurs on the web recently that Microsoft could be offering their Xbox 360 console for a reduced price of $99. Well today it turns out that this is true. You can now pick up an Xbox 360 for $99 from Microsoft, however there is a few catches.

First off, in order to avail of this offer you have to sign up for a 2 year Xbox Live Gold Membership which works out at $14.99 a month which will mean that over the 2 years it will have cost you $460.

Still this isn’t a bad deal if you’re an avid Xbox Live Gamer and felt that you would be purchasing Xbox Live membership anyway. After all, you are saving nearly $200 on the price of the console itself.

Here’s the next catch however, the offer is only available on the 4GB model of the Xbox 360 which also has no hard drive, hence it has very limited storage.

However this does mean that Microsoft could be working this so that the next generation Xbox 720 (name not confirmed) is poised to be released once those 2 year contracts are coming to an end, if not before.

Finally, there’s one more little catch with this offer. It’s only available in Microsoft stores in the US.

Now you might not think that this is much of an issue, but Microsoft only have a  mere 21 stores across the US, 5 of them being in California. To see if there’s one near you have a look at this link

So as you can see, as with most offers, there’s always plenty of little snags but if you were thinking of getting an Xbox and planning on playing online a lot then this could be a great deal for you.

What do you think?

Is this the bargain of the century? Or a deal with too many catches for you?

Let us know in the comments

Microsoft Offers $99 Xbox 360 – If You Can Find One was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

We’ve heard rumours before that Microsoft were gearing up the ditch the Windows Live brand and integrate the suite directly into Windows 8. In a recent post over on the building Windows 8 blog Microsoft have announced just that.

When Microsoft originally launched the Windows Live suite of apps back in 2005, the aim was to have these apps separate from the operating system and they would be closely linked with the cloud as well as being regularly updated. However now Microsoft have changed tactics completely as they attempt to create a unified ecosystem to provide users with a seamless experience.

All of their Windows services will now be combined under a single Microsoft account. Currently with the Windows 8 consumer preview you log in with your Windows Live ID. From now on this shall be known as your Microsoft account. This is what you will use for accessing pretty much all your services including SkyDrive, Messenger and Hotmail.

By eradicating the Windows Live branding Microsoft are solving a couple of problems. First off nobody who wasn’t somewhat tech savvy had any idea what the Live brand was all about. Secondly Microsoft will be including all of these Live services in Windows 8. They’ll be built into it directly and be tightly linked with the cloud instead of the user having to download them as an additional extra.

Because all of your Windows services will be linked to this one Microsoft account, it means you’ll get a more unified experience from machine to machine. Once you log in with your Microsoft account into Windows 8, you’ll immediately be logged into these services too, regardless of what machine you use.

Here’s a chart of all the Windows Services:

This is certainly a big step for Microsoft, they’re making a leap into trying to create one big ecosystem in an attempt to make everything easier for the consumer, and I say it will make things much easier for their branding department!

What do you think of Microsoft dropping the Windows Live ID? Is it a good or a bad thing?

Let us know in the comments below

Source:

Building Windows 8

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Microsoft has given its cloud storage service a big update this week, which also conveniently coincides with Google releasing their own Google Drive cloud storage service. Microsoft improved and released new apps for the service and it’s now got apps available on Windows, Mac OS X, Windows Phone and iOS.

However, this update also means that new SkyDrive users will only be offered 7GB instead of the 25GB Microsoft were giving out.

But there still seems to be a way for users to upgrade to the 25GB account for free.

Just log into your SkyDrive account at http://skydrive.live.com/

Then click on Manage Storage down the bottom left. You should now see the screen below

All you have to do then is hit the Free Upgrade!  button and just like that you’ve earned yourself 25GB of free online storage, brilliant!

If you’ve been using SkyDrive for a while, and you’ve been storing more than 4GB, then your account has probably automatically upgraded you already.

This seems to work for anyone who already has a Windows Live account, I never logged into my SkyDrive account until today and it worked fine for me. However I’m not sure it will work if you try to create a new Windows Live ID, maybe someone can let us know in the comments?

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Microsoft today released their new SkyDrive app for Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 which finally competes head on with services like Mozy and Dropbox for online backup.  You can read Martin’s full writeup here, but as people will now be using this to create online backups of their files I thought I’d show you how to get the very best from it.

I always recommend, and indeed I always have recommended moving your personal files and folders away from Windows.  This means moving them to a different physical hard disk or partition.  The advantages of doing this is that if something goes wrong with Windows and you have to reformat your hard disk, you won’t lose all your files too.  You can move your user folders in Windows by following these simple steps…

1. Click your name in the top right of the Windows Vista / Windows 7 Start Menu
2. Select the user folders you want to move, I suggest Downloads, Favorites, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures and My Video
3. Right-click on the selected files and click Cut from the menu that appears
4. Move to the hard disk or partition where you want to store your files
5. Right-Click and select Paste

It’s slightly more complex with SkyDrive though as you may have a tremendous amount of files that you perhaps don’t want to store online, such as your music and video; don’t forget there’s still a limit of 2GB per file on upload and some videos might be larger than this and a maximum of 125GB online storage even if you pay for it.

I would suggest then creating two store folders for your user files and moving them away from Windows in two steps.  One folder for the files you just want to keep on your computer, and another folder for things you want to sync and backup in the cloud.  So you would end up with, for example D:\Files and D:\SkyDrive.  Alternatively you could create these within a sub-folder if you have other content on the disk.

Myself I am only backing up my Documents and Pictures folders to SkyDrive so these are in my new SkyDrive folder on a separate hard disk and the other user folders, Music, Video etc. are stored in the Files folder.

There is a good reason for this.  When you install SkyDrive it asks you what folder on your hard disk you want to use for the local storage of SkyDrive files.

By default, as you can see here it chooses your C:\Users folder but this isn’t keeping your files away from Windows.  So why does this matter?

This matters because in order to upload new and additional files to SkyDrive you drag and drop them into this folder on your hard disk and the SkyDrive sync software takes care of the rest.  If you have to wipe your Windows installation, you then have to wait for everything to sync back down from the cloud again before you get your files, as this will be your own local copy.

This is where you hit the Change button and you point the SkyDrive app at your new SkyDrive folder.  This already contains all the files you want to store and keep a backup of in the cloud, but they’re safe and away from your copy of Windows.  This would be the D:\SkyDrive folder we created earlier.  Remember if you have already installed SkyDrive you can uninstall and reinstall it to change the default store folder.

SkyDrive doesn’t mind that the files are here and will merrily sync the files in these folders up to the cloud and your new online backup.  I hope this helps you get the very best out of SkyDrive online backup.  This is a great new service and with the correct set-up you can be trouble-free for years.

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Microsoft has just released applications for its SkyDrive cloud hosting service that allow users to access and synchronize files with desktop and mobile applications. On the desktop, both a Windows and Macintosh version was released. Windows users need to know that SkyDrive for Windows supports Windows Vista and newer operating systems, and not Windows XP.

But there are additional changes that are important to all Skydrive users. Microsoft has for instance reduced the available storage for all SkyDrive users who were using less than 4 Gigabytes of the available 25 Gigabytes to 7 Gigabyte. Users who log into their account right now and access the new Manage Storage option there can increase the storage again to 25 Gigabyte of storage. Plus, they can subscribe to additional storage:

• 20 Gigabytes extra cost $10 per year
• 50 Gigabytes extra cost $25 per year
• 100 Gigabytes extra cost $50 per year

Microsoft accepts both credit card payments and payments via PayPal in some markets.

As far as the Windows app goes, it works similar to the Dropbox service. Windows users need to install the app on their system and link their account to it by entering their Windows Live username and password. Once linked, a SkyDrive folder is created under the user folder of the operating system. The folder is automatically available in the Favorites listing in Windows Explorer, and all files and folders currently hosted on SkyDrive will be synced with the system.

It is unfortunately not possible to change the location of that folder on the system, for instance by moving it to a different drive if the user folder drive has not that much space left.

Windows users also need to take note that SkyDrive is automatically enabling a feature that is making available all of the PC’s files on the Skydrive website. While protected with an additional security code that is send to the account’s email address, it is nevertheless something that users need to consider.

It also needs consideration that sharing options can only be modified on the SkyDrive website, and not on individual PCs. That is, other than unlinking a PC from the file synchronization.

SkyDrive users, both new and old, can download and install the available apps from the official website.

It is likely that this new release is in preparation of a tight integration of SkyDrive in Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 8. Have you tested the new apps and features yet? If so, what is your take on the new release?

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I think Microsoft’s recent earnings announcement even surprised them a little bit. While there’s been plenty of hype around the completely revamped Windows 8 OS, it looks like Windows 7 sales are still going strong for them.

Microsoft reported a stronger than expected set of earnings for the first quarter of this year, raking in an impressive $17.41B USD  in revenue and a net profit of $5.11B USD ($0.60 USD per share).  Revenue was up 6 percent from last year and easily beat analyst expectations. Profit is actually down 1 percent from last year but that’s mainly due to Microsoft’s increased spending.

Windows 7 sales were partly responsible for the increase in revenue. Even though Windows 7 is starting to near the end of its life cycle, sales for it rose to $4.62B USD,  which is an increase of  4 percent from last year. Windows 7 is the fastest selling operating system of all time and is currently on around 40 percent of PCs.

An excited Steve Ballmer

Sales for this quarter are only down $112 million than the fourth quarter of 2011, which is normally the strongest quarter due to an increase in sales for the holiday season.

So what drove this boost in Windows 7 sales? Well there was an 8 percent increase in Business Sales when compared to the same time last year while consumer sales remained flat.

It’s quite a feat that Windows 7 is still so successful nearly 3 years after it was released, it just goes to show how popular and operating system it is. It will be interesting to see how it holds up against Windows 8.

What do you think?

Will Windows 8 supersede Windows 7 as the fastest selling operating system of all time?

Let us know in the comments below

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Intel, being the major supplier of Windows chips will be pushing Windows 8 as hard as they possibly can, especially now that Windows 8 will support alternative ARM chips, offering manufacturers more choice than before. So it’s in their interest that manufacturers will be producing Windows 8 tablets that are actually worth buying.

They’ve released what they say will be the standard minimum specifications for Windows 8 tablets that are powered by Intel processors. These are some pretty high requirements and I reckon we could see a few tablets fall outside these specifications at the launch of Windows 8, but if they don’t all the better for the consumer

Starting off we can expect to see Intel’s dual-core Atom Z2760 “Clover Trail” chipset. This chip features a unique “burst mode” which can be used when occasional boosts of performance are required. It also features hyperthreading which allows the chip to act like a quad-core chip in some situations.

Intel say that there will be two form types:

Pure 10-inch tablets and 11-inch designs which are hybrids with physical keyboards.

Intel are looking for a minimum of 9 hours battery life and around 30 days standby time.

They also seem to be looking to compete big time with Apple’s iPad on weight. Tablets should way no more than 1.5lbs (iPad is around 1.48lbs) and thickness should not exceed 9mm (iPad 9.4mm)

3G/4G connectivity is also a must and is becoming pretty much a standard feature these days along with WiFi and NFC.

These are some pretty demanding requirements set out by Intel, but any tablet that can match these specifications will be easily on par with the iPad, if not better.

I wonder will Intel be enforcing these rules as strictly as they are with Ultrabooks. Intel have very strict guidelines that a laptop must meet for it to be classified as an Ultrabook.

All things considered, it looks like we are set to see a very exciting range of new devices launched alongside Windows 8 in the second half of this year. Better start saving now for some of those new gadgets!

What do you think? Will all Intel powered tablets live up to these specifications?

Let us know in the comments

Source:

Cnet

Intel’s Windows 8 Tablet Checklist Revealed was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

I published a post the other day which showed how Android users could try out the Windows 8 Metro UI on their Android tablets. Well today I’ve got a new post, this time it explores how Apple users will be able to try out Windows 8 on their iPads.

Of course there is already a few Windows based tablets on the market, but the iPad has outsold these by a large margin and is easily the most popular tablet at the moment. We are expecting to see a huge surge in Windows based tablets towards the end of this year when Windows 8 launches, but until then developers and users a like may want to try out Windows 8 on their iPad.

Thanks to a new app from Splashtop you will be able to get the full Windows 8 experience on your iPad. You can take advantage of all the Windows 8 gestures, apps, features and even sound.

There is one requirement though, you’ll have to have a PC running Windows 8 that you can stream to your iPad.

I suppose in a way, this is very like OnLive which allows you to stream a copy of Windows 7 from OnLive’s servers to your iPad.

This app is more aimed at developers than anyone else, it could be perfect if you’re currently developing an app for Windows 8 and you’re wondering how it will interact with touch gestures. Since the range of Windows tablets are fairly limited at the moment, chances are you may have an iPad hanging around that they could try it out on.

It’s pretty cool and it was nice of Apple to actually allow it in their app store. If you’re interested in trying it out head over to Splashtop to get yourself started.

It’s currently on special offer on the App Store for $24.99 (down from the original $49.99)

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Remember that Symbian OS? The one that Nokia so proudly stood by and made them the worlds top mobile phone manufacturer? The one that is now pretty much dead in the water when it comes to the smartphone wars? The one Nokia ditched in favour of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7?

Yes that one, well Microsoft just released Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Excel for the dying Symbian Belle OS.

In fairness Microsoft had promised to bring their popular productivity suite to the OS back in February when they made OneNote, Document Connection, Lync and PowerPoint Broadcast available to the OS via a software update.

In case you’re wondering if your device can support these programs, here’s the list of supported handsets:

The Nokia 701, Nokia 700, Nokia 603, Nokia E7, Nokia X7, Nokia C7, Nokia Oro, and Nokia C6-01

Office Mobile apps gives you quick access to your documents so that you can get more done while on the go, or when you’re not using your laptop. And because these apps were created by Microsoft, the functionalities are as close as possible – if not the same – to the Microsoft Office apps on your PC.

Of course, Microsoft have already made the Office Productivity Suite available on Windows Phone, but I guess it is nice for those users still on the Symbian Belle OS to have them as well. You’ll be able to open, edit and save documents just as you normally would, without the need to view them on a laptop or computer.

I’m sure it will come in handy for many, better late than never for a dying OS.

You’ll be able to download these apps using the Nokia Software Update tool on your smartphone.

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Windows Vista has been the pain in Microsoft’s side for several years now. Microsoft rushed to bring out Windows 7 to crush all the bad media attention that Windows Vista was receiving, and for the most part that has worked. But you still need to remember that Windows Vista had an install base of over 330 million people at one stage, and Microsoft is obliged to continue providing them with support.

Normally Microsoft provides 5 years of support, however in February they quietly announced that they were extending this to 10 years for Windows Vista and Windows 7. Windows Vista was due to lose all mainstream support tomorrow 10th April 2012.

However Microsoft will now be offering extended support right up until 11th April 2017 now. While Microsoft are still providing support, this is a special “extended” support period. This means that you will still continue to get security updates until April 2017, but going by Microsoft’s general support policy, you will be losing certain benefits. The 3 main things you will be losing out on are as follows:

• No-charge incident support
• Warranty claims
• Design changes and feature requests

Windows Vista Enters Its Final Days – Now Into Extended Support was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft have decided that they would like you to be presented with the new Metro Start Menu once you log onto Windows 8 instead of the traditional desktop that we’ve all become used to.

However, not everyone is happy being presented with this start menu and would prefer to be presented with the usual Windows desktop that we’ve become used to. This guide will show you just how you can configure Windows 8 to boot to the desktop instead of the Metro Start Menu.

Microsoft haven’t included any settings which allow you to easily do this, so this is what we’re going to have to do.

1. Create a shortcut that switches to the desktop
2. Schedule this shortcut to be activated as soon as Windows 8 logs on

Creating A Shortcut

You’ll need to start up Notepad and paste in the following code.
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=Explorer.exe,3

[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

Now you’ll have to save it as a .scf file and name it something like desktop.

You should then see a shortcut like the one below in whatever location you saved it. If you double click it you should be brought to your desktop. If it does, that means it’s working.

Using Task Scheduler

Now you’ll have to open up the Task Scheduler, a quick search will find it for you.

Now follow these steps. Click at point number 1 , then right click at number 2. Finally choose Create New Task.

Fill in a name for the task in the General Tab, then after that click on the Triggers Tab

Click on New and in the drop down menu on the Triggers tab, choose At Log On.

Once you’ve hit OK, click on the Actions Tab and then choose New.

This is where you are going to add the link to the shortcut that you created at the beginning of this guide. Simply hit Browse to locate it.

Finally once you’ve hit OK, go to the Conditions tab and uncheck the Start the task only if the computer is on AC power. Otherwise this won’t work if your laptop isn’t plugged in.

Hit OK to everything and you should be all done.

Now next time you log on, you’ll be brought straight to your desktop instead of the Start Menu.

How To Boot Straight To The Windows 8 Desktop was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft are still shifting plenty of copies of Windows 7 despite the fact that it’s starting to come towards the end of its life cycle. As you all know, Microsoft are hard at work finishing of Windows 8 but of course they still want to squeeze more life out of Windows 7. Microsoft are still selling Windows 7 for it’s original retail price, but I’ve spotted a bargain.

If you head over to Harris Technology, they’re selling the Windows 7 Family Pack for just $149. That pack includes 3 licenses for Windows 7 Home Premium. The catch? Well there is none, if you live in Australia that is.

From what I can see, Harris Technology don’t actually ship outside of Australia (Feel free to correct me) but regardless, this is a great deal for anyone in Australia looking to update to Windows 7. If you’re not too pushed about upgrading to Windows 8 just for the Metro UI, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t take advantage of this offer.

Microsoft’s suggested retail price for this package is $249 so you’re making a saving of $100 there.

You’ll want to be quick though, this offer is only available while stocks last, and there’s currently 185 copies left in stock at the time of writing, and once they’re gone, the deal’s over.

But as I said, it’s a great saving and well worth taking advantage of and it’s also cheaper than buying a single license of Windows 7.

Source:

Harris Technology

Get Windows 7 For Less Than $50 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Internet Explorer has been suffering badly over the last number of years and has lost an awful lot of market share to competitors such as Chrome and Firefox. However, it looks like the old dog is not going down without a fight and recorded nearly a percentage increase in the last month alone.

It seems that Internet Explorer 9 is beginning to win back IE fans who previously jumped ship for Chrome, Firefox and Safari who all recorded losses last month.

Internet Explorer added on 0.99 points to bring it up to 53.88 percent of the market, marking a six month high. Microsoft had boasted that IE9 was downloaded 2.35 million times or at 27 copies as second during the first 24hrs that it was made available.

All 4 other major browsers lost market share this month. Firefox dropped 0.37 points to 20.55 percent, a record low for the browser since October 2008. Safari dropped 0.17 points to 5.07 and Opera dropped down 0.09 points to a mere 1.62 percent.

But surprisingly Chrome, one of the fastest growing browsers also dropped (albeit a minor drop of 0.3) to 18.57 percent.

These statistics come from netmarketshare.com who have reported quite different results from Statcounter. StatCounter has claimed that Chrome’s market share has eclipsed Internet Explorer’s. However if you look into the finer details you will see why.

StatCounter measures market share based purely on pageviews. Since a recent update in Chrome means that it preloads web pages if it thinks you might view them, it is actually racking up pageviews that don’t exist. Also NetMarketshare weight their results to take into account different geographic regions and preferences which StatCounter doesn’t do.

So in theory Netmarketshare should give us a more accurate view of the current browser wars.

Internet Explorer Starting To Win Back Market Share was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Windows 8 has come with plenty of new graphical changes designed to help improve the users experience. The Metro UI for a start has completely changed the way Windows presents programs to the user. The lockscreen is a big improvement from previous versions. It’s got notifications built into it which make it quick and easy to see what’s going on.

In this guide I’m going to show you how you can customise your Windows 8 machine.

First off to access your personalization settings go to your Charms Bar, then Settings followed by More PC Settings

You’ll now find yourself at the Windows 8 Personalization settings

Lock Screen

The first thing we’re going to look at customising is the Lock Screen.

Here you’ll be able to change the picture used for your Lock Screen. You can choose from the ones already included in Windows 8, or you can browse your computer for a different image if you wish.

The other thing you can personalize is the new notifications that appear on your Lock Screen. All you have to do is click on each of the icons to choose which app you’d like to have displaying notifications on the start screen. It’s simple to add and remove them

Start Screen

The start screen is another section of your PC that you can customise. Here you can adjust the colour scheme by sliding the slider to the colour of your choice.

You can also choose from a variety of designs and patterns available in Windows 8.

Account Picture

It’s quick and easy to change your account picture. Just click on the Account Picture tab and you’ll be able to view your current account picture, browse for a new one or take one there and then with your webcam.

Themes

Of course you are still able to make use of the giant selection of Windows 7 themes that we have here but you can also take advantage of the growing collection of Windows 8 themes as well.

Remember these themes only apply to the desktop part of Windows 8 and have no effect on the Metro UI.

How To Personalize Windows 8 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Microsoft Pinpoint is a software and IT services division designed to help companies find the right software product for their needs. Most companies use their IT staff to get software products, but sometimes, those products don’t actually meet the technical guidelines or job specifications.

Microsoft Pinpoint

There are five categories in the assembly of software. Applications, Services, companies, product marketplaces, and a spotlight of how to effectively manage off-site workers.

Spotlight

There are over 8800 products listed in the Microsoft Pinpoint system. Many are from Microsoft but there are many others software products that are integrated with a Microsoft source product but refine and adjust it for new efficiencies. Here are some examples of products offered.

Growing Business

.
ChargeLogic

ChargeLogic is a PCI compliant credit card and electronic payment processing software for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. ChargeLogic enables users to process payments via credit, debit, EBT, and gift cards as well as checks.

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DefenseReady

Permuta Technologies provides enterprise business solutions tailored for organizations in the Department of Defense (DoD) using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. It helps organizations on the ground from the planning stage to deployment operations.

Secure Network

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IPM Project Management Software

IPM is a Project Management application designed specifically for organizations that run large projects but especially focused on Construction, Engineering and IP Infrastructure verticals.

Connect With Customers

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The Companies category

While many of the software listed above has a Microsoft aroma, there are over 26,000 companies listed and they are not associated with Microsoft. Here is where a company that needs software can get access to information about what a product will do for them.

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The categories in the Microsoft Pinpoint system include business need, competency Industry focus, and Average rating. Business needs involve technology and business operations. Competency is the area with products in communication, application integration, content management and more. Industry focus looks at different industries like agriculture, forestry, and fishing; or education, and financial services. Finally, there is a category of ratings from 1 to 4 stars. Here users can see what others are saying about the products.

Business Products

The Microsoft Pinpoint site has a lot of information for business consumers about Microsoft and non-Microsoft products. It pinpoints those products that can help a business make the right choice in what to buy and use.

Source: Microsoft

Microsoft Pinpoint – How to get Information about Other Products was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

If you are an open source user of database structures you are probably familiar with Hadoop. That is the cloud database framework that scales huge datasets over multiple clusters, distributed under the Apache v2 open source license. Well now Microsoft has incorporated the program into its server and cloud system technologies.

Users of Hadoop

Processing large amounts of data is the hallmark of Hadoop. One example is Twitter. They must process 12 terabytes of data on a daily basis, and so they use Hadoop to make the processing possible. For Twitter the problem is that they need to store more data per day than can reliably be written to a single hard drive, so it needs to store data on clusters. Twitter uses Cloudera’s Hadoop distribution to power its clusters.

hadoop

Klout is another enterprise that uses Hadoop, but  is moving to Microsoft. Dave Marianni of Klout said,”“I would rather go open source, that’s my first choice always.  But when it comes to open source, scalable analysis tools, they just don’t exist yet.” so instead Klout’s stack is switching to a service which can meet its analytical needs.  The data may be stored in Hadoop but it is hard to use effectively, so they are turning to Microsoft which can provide the data analysis needed.

Klout uses Hadoop for its data operations in Palms Hotel in Las Vegas and it processes one billion pieces of user data every day.

Hadoop-On-Klout

Cloud Data Source

Where Hadoop is making a big impact is in the area that it naturally falls into which is providing services for the cloud, and Microsoft is taking advantage of that. As the growth of Azure cloud services grows, so does the need to manage that data efficiently. Microsoft’s plan is to make Hadoop data accessible through Windows Azure cloud-based deployments, as well as enable it to be analyzed with the company’s Business Intelligence tools.

Since last October, Microsoft has been working with Hortonworks on building distributions of Hadoop for both Windows Server and Windows Azure. How soon that will be available to all is not clear, and there is some talk that it may be added as a server role as well.

HortonWorks

Source: ReadWriteCloud

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Recently the new iPad has attracted lots of attention because it has the highest pixel density of any screen out there on the market at the moment. The new retina display has been one of the major selling points of Apple’s products over the last few years. However having such high resolution displays does cause problems since most applications have not been designed with screens of this sort in mind.

Users have already noticed that there’s been a dramatic loss in quality of some apps which have not been optimised for these high resolution displays, it’s quite common to get pixelation which just ruins the experience.

However Microsoft have been planning for this with Windows 8 and say that it is “Retina Ready”. In a very long winded technical post over at Building Windows 8, Microsoft have gone to great lengths discussing the research and preparation that they’ve carried out with regards to screen resolution in Windows 8.

They’ve analysed the various different resolutions that they expect Windows 8 to be running on, and have found this “Goldilocks Zone” for three general classes of resolutions.

1. Standard
2. HD
3. Quad-XGA (2560×1440).

Inside this zone, text and UI elements won’t be blown up or shrunk down to crazy sizes caused by the resolution changes.

Microsoft have come up with the following

• In the first case (Standard), buttons and text will be shown with no scaling.
• In the second case (HD), they’ll be 140% normal size (i.e. elements 100 pixels wide will become 140),
• For the third case (Quad-XGA) they’ll be blown up by 180%.

There is an alternative solution which is known as “independent continual resize” and that would render every button and character the same size regardless of the size or resolution of the display. However the way that we currently store and render text means that this advanced solution just isn’t possible at this point in time. Perhaps in the future it will be possible but for now it isn’t practical.

As you can see from the screenshot above, the different resolutions can change the way the user will view an app dramatically, which is why it’s so tricky scaling and re-sizing programs for different displays.

Because of the increasing size of resolutions, it’s starting to make traditional UI features like drop down menus cumbersome and unpractical. They end up being far too small to use accurately with touch. That’s why Microsoft have brought in an array of touch gestures with Windows 8 to try alleviate this problem.

Microsoft talk in great detail about this issue and how they’ve worked hard developing good solutions for Windows 8 over on their blog, so if you’re interested in going into more technical details feel free to check it out.

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Hunger Games, the Movie, is slated for release on March 23. In a typical situation advertisers go all out in the first week to make their movie known to the public, where after that, the advertisement is word of mouth. If people like it they say so, and if they don’t they say that also.

But advertisement has been tricky for various reasons; cost for one, and then also the type of advertisement on display is another. On computer systems, most commercial advertisement has come with the use of Adobe Flash. Now Microsoft is making a change with HTML5.  In a collaboration, Microsoft and Lionsgate are hoping to lead the industry down a new path. They’re partnering on a site that uses HTML5 and other web standards, without plugins, to create an environment for Hunger Games .

Hunger Games in the Control Room

The HTML5 based site shows a fluid design, which is functional in a variety of browsers (I looked at it in Firefox) , but Microsoft says IE9 offers a better experience because of the work the company has done in the browser to use a computer’s hardware to make visuals on screen more dynamic.

Hunger Games

The Hunger Games site presents some hidden features for fans of the novel to discover as they wait for the movie. It also uses HTML video in unique ways, skewing the video to fit the circle of screens in the Control Room for example.

IE9 and MarketShare

Microsoft hopes to use the Hunger Games experience to convince users to go back to Internet Explorer. This is due to the fact that other browsers have taken a bite out of the market that Microsoft once held in the 90% range. Not so now. It is more in the 60% range, and dropping.

But the new HTML5 experience should point out to users that the browser is presenting new features that other browsers aren’t capturing yet.

Source: Geek Wire

Hunger Games – Microsoft’s New Ad Connection With HTML5 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

This probably doesn’t come as much as a surprise to many of us, we all knew well that Microsoft are looking to release Windows 8 towards the end of 2012. It also makes sense that they’d want to ship it in time for the holidays to get a some extra bang for their buck. Going on Bloomberg’s report, Microsoft are aiming to ship Windows 8 in October of this year.

According to their report, Microsoft are looking to wrap up work on Windows 8 this summer, with an army of Windows Tablets and other hardware devices shipping with the new OS in October. We’re also being told that both Intel and ARM devices will be hitting our shelves at release.

We’re being told that Microsoft are getting ready to hold an even in April for its industry partners. At this event they will outline release schedules as well as their marketing campaign for the new operating system.

This report pretty much confirms everything we had already been expecting, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Microsoft will want to get Windows 8 on the market as soon as possible. It has to if they want to prevent themselves losing much more ground to Apple.

A lot of Windows 8 success will come down to the range of hardware on offer at launch. There needs to be some killer devices launched with it to tempt people away from the iPad, but more importantly their cash.

Now who wants to place a bet on the release date?

I’m going for October 22nd… sound familiar?

Source:

Bloomberg

Microsoft Lining Up Windows 8 For October 2012 Release was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Thanks to the new Metro UI, Windows 8 is certainly heavily geared towards tablets and other touchscreen devices. The Metro UI may seem a little daunting at first because of the lack of visible controls and settings, but once you figure out the different swipes and gestures it becomes second nature to you. Suddenly it makes sense to swipe in from the left when you want to switch to a different app or pinch to zoom out.

Now this is all well and good for touchscreen users, but what about those of us who are still using a mouse and keyboard? The vast majority of Windows machines are all using this traditional set up. Many have criticised Microsoft’s implementation of the mouse and keyboard controls for the Metro UI, but I’ve actually got used to them fairly quick.

I do like the immersive full screen experience that you get with the Metro UI, and this can only be achieved by hiding the controls and settings that we’re used to seeing on screen.

So for those of you who are struggling to get to grips with the Metro UI using your mouse and keyboard, here’s how you can access the different menus and options.

Charm Bar

The Charm Bar in Windows 8 is pretty essential, in fact you can’t even shut down your computer without it! So you’ll have to find this at some stage. It’s also where you’ll find most of the important settings for your PC as well as different sharing options.

To access the Charm bar simply move your cursor to the top right of your screen and then down. Alternatively you can use the keyboard shortcut.

Windows + C

Don’t forget to check out our list of Windows 8 Keyboard Shortcuts

Start Button

People have been panicking at the lack of the start button in Windows 8. But don’t worry, it’s actually still there, and chances are you’ll discover it when you instinctively go to move your cursor down to where it used to be. All you have to do is move your mouse to the bottom left of the screen and you’ll find it. Alternatively just press the Windows key on your keyboard.

App Settings

Since the Metro Apps are all full screen, it’s not entirely obvious where you go to find the settings for them. However it’s quite simple. All you have to do is right click within the app and you’ll see the settings bar pop up from either the bottom or top of the screen.

Update: As correctly pointed out by the commentators, there is also more app settings if you go to the charm bar while within the app.

Switching Apps

Since there’s no taskbar in the Metro UI, it’s hard to tell which apps you actually have open at the moment. If you move your mouse to the top left of the screen however you’ll see the most recent app you used (Step 1 in the screenshot) and then if you move your cursor down the screen, you’ll see the other apps that you’ve opened (Step 2).

Clicking on one of these thumbnails will bring you to that app.

Semantic Zoom

Semantic Zoom is a cool little feature which allows you to zoom out and see all the apps on your start menu as normally you have to scroll across. To do this all you have to do is hold Ctrl and Scroll out at the same time.

Closing Apps

In theory, with Windows 8 you don’t actually have to close apps because it automatically pauses the apps in the background when you’re not using them to save on battery life and performance. However sometimes you may still want to close them, possibly to free up a bit of RAM. To do that, simply click and drag the app you want to close to the bottom of the screen.

Internet Explorer Tabs

You’ve probably noticed by now that Microsoft have a special version of Internet Explorer for the Metro UI. I was quite confused at first as to how I switch tabs and the likes, but it turns out it’s actually quite simple. Just right click towards the top of the browser window and you’ll find all the options and tabs.

Using Windows 8 With A Mouse And Keyboard was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Touchscreens these days are pretty much becoming part of nearly every device we own. In recent years the quality of touchscreens has increased dramatically but Microsoft’s Applied Sciences Group have shown that we are still a long way off from perfection.

In general today’s touchscreens have a latency of around 100ms. This doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but once you’ve looked at Microsoft’s video you’ll probably have formed a different opinion on the matter.

With that latency of 100ms it means that you’ll find that the screen is never completely up to speed with your finger movements. It’s always going to be 100ms behind what you’ve done. To be honest a lot of the time you probably won’t notice this because we’ve become quite used to it. But as demonstrated in the video below, if you’re drawing you’ll find that the screen is quite a bit behind the movements you’ve made.

The demo that Microsoft have put together shows the massive differences in performance between a touchscreen device with a latency of 100ms and that of one with just 1ms.

The performance differences are actually quite staggering and would really make for a much better and realistic user experience. There’s zero delay between the users input and the reaction of the display.

It’s quite revolutionary stuff this, and I’d love to see it being rolled out to all touchscreen devices as soon as possible. But obviously it isn’t quite that simple otherwise we’d already have it. I’m sure it costs a lot more to have a 1ms latency touchscreen and I’m not sure if it there’s enough demand from the mainstream consumer for this.

Sadly we might never see this sort of technology come to the market, but with a bit of luck we will. Microsoft have proven that it can be done, now it’s up to the hardware manufacturers to implement it.

Microsoft Cuts Touchscreens Lag To Just 1ms was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

There can be no denying that Windows 8 has brought a radical new change to Windows as we know it. The Metro UI is completely new to Windows, it does take some time to get used to. One Ex-Microsoft employee has decided to express his views about the new Metro UI and Windows 8 as a whole. And he doesn’t like it.

The former employee has launched a website called “Fixing Windows 8” (at the time of writing this the website appears to be down) where he outlines various different suggestions that Microsoft could do the improve the user experience. The former employee is Mike Bibik who is a user interface designer.

Like a lot of people, Mike is pretty annoyed by the lack of a start button in Windows 8. His biggest gripe however seems to be with the new Metro UI and how it all seems to be based around touch ,with mouse and keyboard controls thrown in as an after thought.

During the MWC keynote, Microsoft made it very clear that Windows 8 will work fantastically if you are using touch, mouse or keyboard, Unfortunately, that’s not entirely true.

Mikes main concerns are as follows:

• New users won’t have a clue how to navigate through the interface as so many choices are hidden from view. You’ll need to know the various gestures to open up settings, the charms menu and other options. Also the lack of the start button will have users confused as to where they can find a master list of apps on their machine.
• Because of the new Metro apps and how they function, they don’t have window controls like minimize and exit which will confuse users. They may not be aware of the fact that Windows 8 will pause apps and that they do not have to close them
• Because the charms menu is hidden from view until the user goes looking for it, it makes it very difficult to perform basic options like searching within apps or powering off your device unless you know where to look.

I can agree with him on some of these points, but not entirely. I think that novice users, who are used to using a traditional desktop like Windows 7 will have trouble getting to terms with the lack of a start button and the hidden charm and settings controls. But power users and even intermediate Windows users should not have any problems getting to grips with the new controls very quickly.

You can be sure that Microsoft will have a very comprehensive walk through of the new features when users power up a Windows 8 machine for the first time. I can imagine that there will also be an extensive marketing campaign to inform users of how different Windows 8 is compared to previous Windows OS’s.

Mike say’s that he’s not trying to be negative, he just wants to be informative and offer his opinion for alternative solutions. These include

• Combining the desktop task bar with the new Start screen
• Combining Charms and the master apps list into a single menu
• Adding a dedicated Charms bar to the bottom of the screen
• Reinstating a Start button on the desktop

Windows 8 is a big change, there’s no denying that, but there is an increasing number of people starting to be won over by it. I for one was a little sceptical at first, but after using it for a while now with just a mouse and keyboard, I’ve actually become quite used to all the gestures. I think what freaks most people out is the fact that you can’t see any on screen options until you actual perform a gesture by moving to the corners etc.. but it doesn’t take too long until that becomes second nature.

What do you think?

Do you agree with what Chris has to say?

Let us know in the comments

Ex – Microsoft Employee Wants To Fix Windows 8 was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

During the past year, Microsoft Kinect has seen the technology go from gamers to uses in science and education. Now Microsoft has revealed a new use for Kinect. Its latest version of Kinect technology is the Beamatron.

Beamatron

Beamatron is an example of the technology vision that not too long ago would fall under the rubric of science fiction. Here the trend they are pursing blends the physical world with the virtual world. It’s augmented reality concept that combines a projector and Kinect sensor on a pan tilt moving head,  perhaps the kind you may find in a nightclub.

The setup utilizes KinectFusion to build a 3D model of a space and enables projected graphics to react in physically appropriate ways. Here is the science fiction part. Several years ago Tom Cruise made a movie, “Minority Report” where he would pull up a screen to get information about an event. The screen was in the middle of the room, it was not connected to a wall, or had a physical presence. It was a virtual screen. Now, Microsoft explores that vision.

In one actual example, a virtual car was driven around the floor of the room bumping into actual obstacles and running over real ramps. But nothing was hit. The moving head of the projector means the image can be displayed almost anywhere in a room while the depth camera enables the correct projection relative to physical surfaces.

The Holoflector

The holoflector, another display technology shows different ways to present images that will make movie graphics and special effects possible without all of the underlying software to create them.

Microsoft Research - Beamatron

This new display technologies show that the future of movies, TV, and other image producing devices will change. How business units or artwork users work with them will depend on what the devices are able to do. But in the end it could foster a new era of display innovation that we haven’t seen if over 70 years when the TV became a home device.

Source: Microsoft

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Windows 7 is well known for being more energy efficient than previous Windows OS’s, but it was never really designed to run on smartphones. However that hasn’t stopped ambitious Chinese manufacturer ITG from bringing a Windows 7 powered smartphone to the market. The company had originally planned to release the device in January, but they’ve only got around to revealing a working demo to the public this week.

While you may laugh at the idea of Windows 7 running on a phone, bear in mind that this device does have some pretty good specifications. It has to after all to run a full desktop OS. The device is 17.5mm-thick and packs a large 4.3-inch 800 x 480 LCD made by Sharp. You’ll get an Intel Atom Z5xx series processor up to 2GHz, up to 2GB of RAM and up to 112GB of SSD storage. It’s also equipped with a microSD slot as well as a HDMI Micro socket which doubles up to handle audio, video, data and charging.

Granted it’s not the slimmest of phones, nor the prettiest but it is rocking the full Windows 7 OS. And from reviews apparently it’s able to run Windows 7 quite smoothly, with performance comparable to that of a netbook. Most of the phone is made out of a smooth solid magnesium alloy giving it a quality feel. On the back interestingly enough there’s a small little LCD for showing the statuses of the phone, such as caller numbers, new messages and text messages. Inside it’s packing a massive 11.1Wh battery which is twice the size of the batteries you’d normally find on smartphones these days. ITG is yet to confirm what the final weight of the device will be, but you can be pretty certain that it will be heavy….

Now ITG claim that this device will have incredible battery life of 18 hours, and as great as this sounds, unfortunately it’s not entirely true. This phone is actually able to operate without even booting Windows 7. All the calls and messages can be managed by separate circuitry and that small LCD on the back. However if you want to tap in numbers or write new messages you’ll actually have to boot into Windows 7. But if you’re going to be running Windows 7 all day, don’t expect to see much more than 4 hours from this device.

ITG have developed their own xpPhone application to let you manage your calls and texts from within Windows 7 since it doesn’t have native applications to support this.

Of course, this being a smartphone, it’s going to be tricky using Windows 7 on such a small screen since Windows 7 is not optimised for touchscreen devices. Also the price is something you may want to consider before making a purchase. When the device eventually launches in a month or so, prices will range between ¥7,000 ($1,110) and ¥12,000 ($1,900), depending on what specifications you want.

It’s a shame really that ITG didn’t have Windows 8 to work with and launch on this device because I’m certain that it would work a lot better since Windows 8 is optimised for touchscreen devices.

I’m sure that we’ll see them bring out a Windows 8 powered device once the OS has been brought to the market. But for now, if you’re looking to buy one, you’ll have to stick with Windows 7.

So would you be interested in a Windows 7 powered smartphone?

Let us know in the comments

Source:

Engadget

xpPhone 2 – A Windows 7 Powered Smartphone was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

While Microsoft has recently cut prices on Windows Azure Storage, Microsoft also intends to add a government Cloud offering to its Office 365 line-up of services.

A new option is now available called BPOS-F (Federal). It is compatible with its Office 365 predecessor known as the Business Productivity Online (BPOS) suite.

Office 365 and The BPOS-F Bundle

This bundle hosts SharePoint, Exchange, and Communications Server. But what also makes it a special service it the lock down part. Microsoft has made it a highly secure venture. Microsoft has restricted access to special individuals. There are biometric access controls to gain physical access. The individuals gaining access must be in compliance with International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), a US State Department agency. The individuals must be citizens of the United States who have undergone rigorous background checks, including fingerprinting.

The new Business Productivity Online Suite Federal is optimized to meet the security, privacy and compliance needs of U.S. federal government agencies. In addition, new capabilities and certifications will continue to add more expectations in cloud security and privacy. Part of this is includes two-factor authentication, enhanced encryption and the attainment of Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) certification, an important requirement for government information technology.

Microsoft offers a wide variety of cloud computing solutions. They can be in the area of infrastructure to applications for organizations and individuals. The Microsoft government cloud services are interoperable and have options that enable the delivery of solutions in response to changing business needs and at the same time taking advantage of existing IT investments, like software and familiar applications.

The existing venture has been a success as 48 of the 50 U.S. states have chosen the Microsoft Online Services for offerings because the are built from the ground up with enterprise-grade security and privacy in mind.

With the new Office 365 bundle in Azure, government services will have a reliable and secure system to work with.

Source: ZDnet

Azure and Office 365 for Government Operations was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

First off I apologise for being slightly late with the collection of Calendar Wallpapers for March this month. With the release of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview we’ve all been very busy covering it and keeping up to date with the various developments.

Anyway this month Smashing Magazine have got 20 new brilliant wallpapers for March. The wallpapers naturally revolve around Spring and there’s even a few references to St.Patricks day which is next weekend.

Every month Smashing Magazine put together a great selection of these various wallpapers from users all around the world. They have all these wallpapers which you can see below available to download on their website. They’ve got a wide selection of resolutions and they also offer versions of the wallpapers without the calendar if you don’t want to have the dates of the month on them.

Be sure to head over there if you want to download the wallpapers as they also credit all the brilliant authors who submitted these wallpapers.

[Show as slideshow]

123►

Source:

Smashing Magazine

March 2012 Smashing Magazine Calendar Wallpapers was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Over the past few months we’ve been covering OnLive, a great app that allows you to stream a full Windows 7 desktop to your iPad so that you can use it as well as Microsoft Office applications on your device. It’s been widely covered since it essentially allows you to have Windows 7 on Apple’s very locked down iPad. However it looks like OnLive may be running into some trouble over licensing agreements with Microsoft.

Microsoft recently published a blog post about volume licensing in which they make particular reference to OnLive and how they believe that it’s in breach of their licensing agreements.

Companies are allowed to offer some ”desktop-like functionality” to users via remote hosting, however hosting Windows 7 itself and Office through an actual Windows 7 installation is excluded from this agreement. If OnLive wanted to continue with this setup, Microsoft are saying that the end user needs to hold a license with Microsoft for the relevant software that they are using on the remote hardware. Basically if you’re using OnLive, you’ll have to have a license for Windows 7 and Office if you’re using it.

At the moment OnLive’s services do not seem to meet these license requirements at all and Microsoft have said that they are “committed to seeing this issue is resolved”.

Some inquiries about these scenarios have been raised as a result of recent media coverage related to OnLive’s Desktop and Desktop Plus services. Additionally, the analyst firm Gartner raised questions regarding the compliance of these services last week. We are actively engaged with OnLive with the hope of bringing them into a properly licensed scenario, and we are committed to seeing this issue is resolved.

OnLive has proved quite popular recently, especially for businesses. They currently give 2 GB of cloud storage and full access to Microsoft Office and other apps as well as Windows 7. There’s also a Plus version with full flash support and faster Internet speeds that costs $4.99 per month. The premium version – OnLine Desktop Pro costs $10 per month and adds even more features to OnLive Desktop Plus.

OnLive will be surely missed if Microsoft put their license agreement into effect and prevent them from offering the service unless users have the correct licences. They might still be able to retain the service, but the price for the end user would go way up.

It will be interesting to see how this develops

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Windows 8 has been greeted with mixed opinions by many people, some hate the new Metro UI, other’s love it. But there’s also a lot of people who are starting to be won over slowly but surely (Our very own Mike Halsey for one). Dell along with the other OEM’s have certainly recognised the potential that Windows 8 holds, and I feel that it will do particularly well on tablets when consumers mess around with the Metro UI.

Dell also reckon that Windows 8 powered tablets will have the edge over competitors like the iPad because they will support the likes of Microsoft Office as well as the ability to connect to secure corporate networks. All while retaining full Windows functionality that they are all familiar with.

Dell’s CEO Michael Dell was speaking with Bloomberg about how there is growing demand for a tablet that runs Windows to compete with the iPad. He said that they are hard at work developing business friendly tablets that will go on sale the “exact same day” that Windows 8 will hit the market. (Unfortunately he was careful enough not to let a release date slip, then again he probably knows as much as us)

Apple have certainly been making ground into the business sector with the iPad over recent years and this is normally where Microsoft excels. Luckily for them there was no new stand out feature in the latest iPad so it gives Microsoft a chance to finally fight back and get some proper tablets on the market to compete with Apple.

Dell are looking to “lead the market” with Windows 8 powered tablets. It’s certainly going to be a tough battle, and Dell will have to come out with some seriously good devices, but it is possible.

Dell Working On A Windows 8 Tablet For Business was posted on Everything Microsoft - Latest Microsoft News, Guides, Reviews & Themes. If you are not reading this content in an email newsletter, it is being used without permission.

Kinect is being used for education purposes. This is a surprise given that When Microsoft Corp. launched Kinect worldwide in 2010, it’s intended market was the gaming crew. And it became the controller-free gaming and entertainment system became a phenomenon overnight. The odd thing is that it didn’t take long for the gaming system to branch out and attract different types of users.

Kinect in the Classroom as Education Hardware

Kinect brought together a variety of different of hobbyists and academics to take advantage of the Kinect for Windows SDK to develop new educational applications and teachers to bring existing Kinect games into their classrooms to supplement their curricula.

Teachers are always having to compete for the attention of students. There is the lack of interest in subject matter, there are the forces of growing up, there are personal forces that distract the attention of students. So it has become a welcome sight when there is technology that can help teachers reach students.

With Kinect educators are enhancing traditional lessons plans, special education, physical education, school communications and collaboration, and after-school programs with immersive full-body experiences that help students get engaged in learning, stay on task, and inspire creativity and camaraderie with peers.

200 Kinect Classroom Activities

geographic challenge

If someone can help change the classroom into a more viable learning center, that would be a big accomplishment. That is what Kinect can do. It can to transform ordinary classroom lessons into learning experiences. Education experts have at this time produced more than 200 ready-to-use classroom activities, that align with Common Core State Standards. Microsoft has made it easy to implement Kinect because it works with the existing audio-visual equipment that schools already own such as televisions, projectors and white-board systems. So working with Kinect is fast and easy.

The benefits of active learning are such that students see their classroom time as one where they are busy and not bored.

Microsoft even has a variety of stories that show how teachers use Kinect in the classroom.

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It will never be possible to simplify productivity software as complex as Microsoft Office down to a Metro UI level, which is why it has been reported that the Office team at Microsoft aren’t keen to release a metro version.  However a new leaked series of screenshots published on The Verge seem to show that some Metro visual elements have indeed made the move from Windows.

This new cleaner interface is probably what we would expect but Microsoft have long worked to make Office easier to use and to make documents and features within it easier to find.

It is actually quite difficult to improve on Microsoft Office and this is a problem the company has faced for some years now.  For many people versions such as Office XP offered every feature they needed and many more consider Office 2003 to be the definitive version.  This being the last version before the introduction of the Ribbon interface in Office 2007.

The Ribbon still exists in Office 15 and is the one interface element that could port successfully to Windows 8′s new Metro UI.  In fact this blogger has been left wondering why it isn’t there already?  This alone could make for a reasonable version of Office for Metro.

With Office 15 Microsoft’s focus has been on productivity and helping people to get things done.  This is a much better approach then working on features.  As I mentioned earlier most people only use a tiny proportion of Office features and many people are content to use the stripped-down free Office 2010 Starter that ships with new Windows PCs or even the free Office web apps.  The ARM version of Windows 8 will also come with free desktop versions of Microsoft Office, though how usable they will be remains to be seen given the history Windows 7 has on tablets.

A public beta of Office 15, which does still not have a formal name, is expected to be released in the summer with a final version due at the end of the year or early next.

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After installing Windows 8 onto a tablet, laptop or desktop PC for the first time, new users will be greeted with a jarring change to what they are normally used to seeing on a Microsoft OS. For tech people, like ourselves, who follow this stuff all year round, Windows 8 is simply an evolution from the original developer preview we saw last September, but for those who have never seen the new Start screen, this is going to be a major change for them. What I believe people will come to find is that Microsoft differentiates itself in their new metro-style UI and people, I believe, will love it once they get used to its nuances.

But for all of the Start screens great functionality, customization and fluidity, the thing that I believe will separate Windows 8 from iOS on the iPad and every other iOS copycat out there, is the apps. Metro apps are just so much better than whats offered on any other platform, and yes, I am including iOS. Don’t believe me? Try out the USA Today app for Windows 8 or even the MSNBC.com app that changes the background wallpaper depending on which panorama screen you are currently viewing. These apps are beautiful, people, and will only get that much better as Microsoft continues to flesh out the OS and developers continue to learn to take advantage of the SDK and its tools.

As we’ve learned from Apple’s iOS and the Android mobile platforms, the success of these things lies mostly in the availability of quality applications. Every operating system worth anything browses the web, has wallpaper, email access and a settings panel, but where each one stands out is in their app store. Is it a coincidence that while Android on the phone has taken off, Android on the tablet is as stagnate as WebOS? I believe this is because Google has mostly ignored their tablet app selection, choosing in many cases to run blown-up versions of the phone apps on tablets instead.

And it’s not all about the number of apps either, although that does have some weight. Quality apps are what people crave. Users want to know that their favorite service has an app on their platform of choice and that it’s usable and makes sense to them. I think the simplicity of the metro-style and the ease and ability for dev’s to make powerful, full-featured apps will be the game-changer for Microsoft’s new version of Windows, both on tablets and on normal PCs. As we head deeper into 2012, most people will be following how Microsoft molds and shapes their new OS and I’ll certainly be watching too, but the first thing that I do everyday when I boot up Windows 8 on my desktop is check the app store for new apps and I think many other users do too.

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Microsoft have made a very bold move with Windows 8, not only giving us a completely new Metro UI, but also removing the traditional start button that’s become central to every Windows OS to date. Some people love it, others hate it. Personally I sort of like the fact that the new start menu is the Metro Start Screen and I think people will come to like it.

But of course, there’s always going to be people who just don’t like change. So I’ve discovered a way for you guys that will let you get back the start menu button.

Stardock who have a plethora of Windows modification tools have come up with a new one – Start8

Start8 will bring back the famous Windows start menu, albeit a new and improved one. First off, it re-inserts the familiar Windows 7 Orb in the far-left corner. Then it adds in a Metro Style start menu, which retains the brilliant search functionality. Also by right clicking on the Start Orb you’ll also have the option to Shut Down or Run.

•  Adds a “Start” menu to the Windows 8 taskbar
• - Enables quick access and searching of your installed applications
• - Adds Run… option via right-click menu
• - Adds Shutdown… option via right-click menu
• - Choose a custom Start button image

So maybe you guys want this feature, maybe you don’t. Either way follow the download link below if you want to download Start8 and try it out.

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Microsoft has been dabbling in the flight simulator genre since before Windows. In fact, Microsoft’s Flight Simulator series is the longest running software franchise by Microsoft, according to Wikipedia.

Microsoft recently felt the need to reboot their Flight Simulator game and previously announced the replacement as the new Microsoft Flight. The game has been completed and is currently available to download for the PC for free. Premium content including new aircraft and destinations are available to purchase in-game. You can find the download available at the Microsoft Flight website here.

The system requirements are as follows:

Minimum Hardware:

• CPU: Dual Core 2.0 GHz
• GPU: 256 MB card capable of shader 3.0 (DX 9.0c compliant)
• HD: 10 GB hard drive space
• OS : WinXP SP3 or newer
• RAM: 2.0GB

Recommended Hardware:

• CPU: Dual Core 3.0 GHz
• GPU: 1024 MB ATI Radeon HD 5670 or 1024 MB NVIDIA GEFORCE 9800 GT or equivalent
• HD: 30 GB hard drive space
• OS : Win7 SP1 64-bit operating system
• RAM: 6.0GB

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Keyboard shortcuts are always central to any Windows power user and it’s incredible how much more productive and efficient you can become once you’ve got a good handle on them. After using keyboard shortcuts for a while they become second nature to you and you’ll find yourself using them without realising it.

With Windows 8, I think that keyboard shortcuts have become more important than ever because of the new Metro UI. The Metro UI as most of you should know by now is based primarily around touch. And while Microsoft have worked hard to make it friendly for users without desktops, there’s still a bit of a learning curve with it. Microsoft have added plenty of new keyboard shortcuts to Windows 8 to try and make it easier to navigate around the Metro UI.

I’ve got a list of them together for you below:

Now of course there’s a lot more keyboard shortcuts than that, the other ones are actually the same as Windows 7. You can have a look at our master list of Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts here

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Despite all of the recent attention to Windows 8, there have been other developments in the Microsoft product market. One that has made Microsoft happy is the attention to the Browser, IE9.

For starters, IE9 dominates both world-wide and also US market.

They continue to dominate the market for those PC’s running Windows 7.

Figures from MarketShare, a company that specializes in Market analysis recently showed where and how much mobile and the pc make up the market.

Here is the breakdown on the mobile market, which makes up only 7.2 percent of the computer market.

These figures show at the tablet/mobile level Internet Explorer is not making any kind of impact. Neither is Mango, Windows Phone 7.

The browser market would normally fall to Apple, with their iPhone and iPad, and that is what Safari shows. The Search engine environment is overwhelmingly dominated by Chrome and Bing makes only a slight appearance. But turning to the PC market, which makes up 92.5% of the computer market, the numbers look different.

Internet Explorer continues to dominate the browser market in the PC arena with Firefox in 2^nd place followed by Chrome and then Safari. And as everyone knows, so it is no surprise that the Windows OS overwhelms the PC market.

One of the interesting elements of this is the focus on diversification that Microsoft is pursing. For two decades Microsoft was content to be number 1 in the OS arena, with Office the happy step child. But now they are into a variety of areas, mobile, tablet, the Cloud, browsers, Xbox, embedded products, servers, and software development frameworks. A very quick lesson here is that if you don’t keep up with technological changes, you could end up like Blockbuster or Kodak. So as it is, Microsoft is in a position to maintain it’s dominant form for at least a decade.

Source: MarketShare

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I remember a remark by Steve Balmer shortly after Windows 2000 Professional came out. He said something to the effect that It was too bad that this product was going to replace the successful Windows NT product. In other words, you don’t kill a successful product. But that is what Microsoft did in 2000.  But recently, someone else said something like that, Samsung executive Hankii Yoon said at Mobile World Congress, “The best thing to survive in the market is to kill your products.” What this can mean for Microsoft, is that the successful introduction of a product can keep the company healthy in the long run.

Apparently, that is what must be done because computer products get old very quickly, and if you don’t replace them, then the market will leave you by the side of the road. So this brings up the case where Windows 8 may actually be in the right position to compete with the iPad. Here are some items that can make the case for the Windows 8 tablets arena.

Legacy compatibility

The ability to run older Windows applications (for x86 tablets, not ARM) is huge. A lot of users of the Windows tablet are comfortable with it because it runs older applications, like Microsoft Office.

Enterprise Engagement

Microsoft is making an effort to have one operating system for mobile phones, tablets, and PC’s. That’s a relief because compared to Android that has multiple variants, the Microsoft way can establish a unified system for corporate/personal users.

True keyboard/mouse compatibility

Another thing that stands out is that other tablets from Apple or Google, don’t do well with mouse or keyboard connectivity. The iPad doesn’t handle the mouse, and Android can but to a limited extent. However, Microsoft tablets can do the job well. Now with the newer OS and an engaging user interface, that can change users views.

Apps

Microsoft still has a ways to go to catch up to Apple or Google in this area, but in 2012, they could have their own app library that could compete with the others.

Windows 8, could be a salvation for Microsoft in both the mobile phone and the tablet market. At least it could offer Microsoft a better and alternative way to deal with those other competitors.

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Microsoft seems to be receiving a much-needed and much-deserved stock bump from its Windows 8 announcements and release yesterday in Barcelona. The new operating system from Microsoft is a bold bet and major transition for the company that many believed to be stagnant in the new touchscreen computing world. The current stock price for Microsoft is 32.29 and is expected to hit at least $36 very soon on the positive release of the first beta of Windows 8.

The new version of Microsoft Windows, Windows 8, is receiving very positive reviews from most tech journalists and blogs. More importantly, for Microsoft, the build that was released to the public dubbed “Consumer Preview” is very stable and looks to be nearly complete with some minor tweaking and bug fixes certainly yet to come. This means that Microsoft could conceivably have a Windows 8 release in mid-2012, beating most estimates.

Microsoft expects Windows 8 to beat even the incredible sales of the current-generation OS, Windows 7, which has sold approximately 550 million licenses to date.

Source: Forbes

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For some unknown reason Microsoft decided not to do a live webcast for their event yesterday when they unveiled the Windows 8 consumer preview. Microsoft normally have a live webcast so if you weren’t lucky enough to be at the keynote in Barcelona yesterday you had to rely on the tech news sites live blogging from the event.

But just in case you were hiding under a rock for the last 24hrs and you haven’t actually heard about everything that happened at the keynote yesterday, you can now go and watch it for yourself online.

Microsoft have now posted a video of the whole keynote over at their news center. The 90 minute long keynote is there available to stream or download (at 688mb).

Microsoft have also posted a few demo clips of specific sections of the keynote which are much shorter. Much handier if you only want to look at a certain part of the keynote. They cover topics such as

• Announcement of the consumer preview
• The new start screen
• Using a mouse and keyboard
• New hardware

They also link to a further 3 videos on YouTube which includes a flashy introduction for Windows 8 as well as a longer more detailed demo of Windows 8. I’ve embedded them both below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aebfjzdLxJA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDYQmQ-phX8

Source:

Microsoft News Room

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So the Windows 8 Consumer Preview is finally upon us! Microsoft finally got around to showing it off at MWC in Barcelona today, and already I can see a big difference between the Developers Preview and the Consumers Preview. Microsoft have said that they’ve changed over 100,000 lines of code in the consumers preview. I’m sure most of you can’t wait to get the Windows 8 Consume Preview installed and running on your computer. Microsoft have really tried to make the new Metro UI a lot more mouse and keyboard friendly, it’s certainly a lot more polished than the original developers preview

Now how do we go about installing the Windows 8 Consumer Preview? Follow these steps to find out

1. First thing you need to do is grab yourself a copy of the Consumer Preview – You’ll find the download links below

Windows 8 Consumer Preview 64-bit (x64) (English)

Download

Windows 8 Consumer Preview 32-bit (x86) (English)

Download

2. This method I’m going to show you is how to install the Windows 8 Consumer Preview in a virtual box. This is handy if you don’t want to actually install Windows 8 as your main OS, after all it is still only in it’s Beta stage. You’ll need to download Virtualbox from here. You’ll see the following once you’ve installed it and started it up

3. The next step is to click on New up in the top left corner. Here you’ll enter in the name of your OS (Windows 8 Consumer Preview) and in the drop down menu below, do not select “Other Windows OS” – instead Windows 8 should be an option now, if not you probably need to update Virtual box. (If all else fails choose Windows 7)

4. Once you’ve completed this step, Virtual Box will ask you how much RAM you want to dedicate to Windows 8. The minimum requirements say you need 1GB, I went for 1.5GB but if you’ve plenty of RAM on your system don’t be afraid to give it more. The more the better.

5. You’ll then be asked to set up a new virtual hard drive. This is where Windows 8 will be installed. You’ll need to allocate at least 20GB for this to work, so set at least that for it.

The next thing you’ll be asked is what kind of virtual hard drive you want. It doesn’t really make a difference which one you choose, but I went for the VHD.

6. After you’ve done this you’ll be asked if you want the drive to be dynamic or a fixed size drive. A dynamic drive will only expand up to the max size you set it as you need it. A fixed drive on the other hand will be the max size you assigned it. ie. 20GB in my case. It’s really a matter of choice this one, though they do say fixed drives are slightly quicker sometimes. You’ll be asked to allocate the drive size after this.

7. Now once you’ve successfully completed the wizard, you’ll see that a new Windows 8 Consumer Preview machine has been added to virtual box. If you click on this and then select Start we can begin installing it.

8. Virtual box will ask you to select an ISO image to install Windows 8 with (remember you downloaded that at the beginning right?)

9. Once you’ve located the ISO image then it’s a pretty straight forward process for installing Windows 8. Just remember to select a custom installation and not upgrade if you’re asked. Then you’ll choose the virtual hard drive that you created to install Windows 8 on.

10. And that’s really all there is too it! Once it’s all done you’ll have a working copy of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview running in a virtual box for you to play with!

Enjoy

(There is a few fine tuning options within Virtual Box such as dedicating video memory and the likes that you can mess around with to improve to performance of Windows 8, I’ll cover these options another time in the near future)#

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Guess what! With the official unveiling of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview less than an hour away, Win8China have leaked all the new wallpapers and lockscreens in the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 to us. I know I covered a story yesterday on this, but we didn’t have as many wallpapers then.

Chances are you will all be able to see these wallpapers for yourself later on today when you Download Windows 8, ,but here’s a teaser to what you’ll see.

Here’s the gallery of lockscreens

[Show as slideshow]

And Here’s the gallery of Wallpapers

[Show as slideshow]

12►

You can download all the Lockscreens and Wallpapers from the link below

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Wallpapers and Lockscreens

Download

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There’s not long to go now, in about 24 hours time, Microsoft will be officially unveiling the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 in Barcelona tomorrow. Microsoft have interestingly decided to reveal Windows 8 at the Mobile World Congress which is currently under way there. This really goes to show Microsoft’s dedication to pushing out Windows 8 to portable devices like tablets instead of the traditional PC set up.

I know that we will all be able to get our hands on the consumer preview pretty soon, but there’s been a few leaks popping up on the web recently from people who’ve managed to get their hands on it sooner than others. Apparently the Consumer Preview has been uploaded to Microsoft’s servers over the last few days.

I’m sure we will probably find that there is plenty of wallpapers that will be available in the consumer preview.

Another interesting screenshot I came across is of the icon for the hard drive. As you can see below, it appears to have the new Windows 8 Logo on top of the hard drive icon. My reckoning is that Microsoft will display the Windows 8 logo on the drive which has the actual Windows 8 OS installed on it, I can’t see them placing this logo on all the drives connected to your computer if you have more than one.

Well there’s just a few teasers for you now to get you in the mood for the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Hopefully from tomorrow you will get to see a lot more screenshots as well as be able to install the Consumer Preview yourself.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview 64-bit (x64) (English)

Download

Windows 8 Consumer Preview 32-bit (x86) (English)

Download

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We’ve gathered a fairly extensive collection of Windows 7 Themes here at Windows7News over the last number of years (check out the gallery), and even though the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 is right around the corner, I’m still going to keep bringing you even more brilliant Windows 7 themes.

So today I’ve got an international collection of themes for you. This collection is composed of the majestic landscapes of Germany, Japan and Australia. You can indulge in the rural, peaceful German landscape as you travel through mountain forges and gaze at the sunset. Or watch the sun rise and set over Japan as some of the world’s busiest cities wake up. Then afterwards you can take it easy as you look at rustic images of the greener parts of Australia as well as it’s extensive shoreline.

Without further ado, here are your 5 themes. And remember if you only want the wallpapers to follow this guide

German Landscape Theme

German Landscapes Theme

Download

Germany: Mountains to Sea Theme

Germany Mountains to Sea Theme

Download

Dusk and Dawn in Japan Theme

Dusk and Dawn in Japan

Download

Australian Landscapes Theme

Australian Landscapes Theme

Download

Australian Shores Theme

Australian Shores Theme

Download

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The “Live” brand name has been running throughout Windows for quite some time now, but it looks like Microsoft are getting ready to remove the branding from Windows as it attempts to unify it’s software across the board.

Currently the Live name covers many products such as Messenger, Photos, Mail and more. However in Windows 8 these services are going to be bundled applications with a native Metro UI look as well as simpler names. Mail will replace Windows Live Mail, Photos will replace Windows Live Photo Gallery and so on. The new apps will be tightly integrated into Windows and still retain all the cross functionality that we’ve seen to date. They will all now be unified by one single “Microsoft Account” to make things easier to manage.

A similar story has been happening with Microsoft’s Zune branding as of late as well. While Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7 owe much of their characteristics to Zune, Microsoft is quietly putting that brand to bed. Zune is now going to be replaced by Xbox Live as the main entertainment centre for Windows 8. Microsoft are still going to be retaining to Live name here as the Xbox Live branding has become a very strong image for Microsoft’s entertainment division.

One product which we haven’t really heard too much about is Windows Live Messenger. A few people reckon that Microsoft are going to look at integrating that it Skype and incorporate that into Windows instead of having a stand alone Live Messenger program which pretty much does the exact same thing that Skype does.

This is a big branding shake up for Microsoft, probably the biggest they’ve ever done, and while I’m sure it’s going to be quite tricky to get it done properly, I say the vast majority of people will be glad that Microsoft is unifying everything under a single brand. It just makes things easier for everyone involved.

What do you think of this big branding shake up?

Let us know in the comments.

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Windows Phone 7 is slowly getting more market share. Nokia, the Finland based manufacturer, entered into a strategic partnership with Microsoft last year, and Microsoft should be happy with the results so far.

This good news comes from the research firm, Strategy Analytics, which announced that fourth-quarter shipments of Windows Phone 7-based devices were up 36 percent compared with the third quarter, and reaching the hall mark of a total production of 2.7 million units. For its part, since November,  Nokia, took the top spot among vendors, securing 33 percent market share on 900,000 units sold.

In fact, some recent events show this to be the case. Microsoft launched the “Smoked by Windows Phone” campaign showing that its mobile phone device did better in 88% of the challenges compared to the iPhone and Android. Then there is the ability to get up to date information for Windows Phone 7 with MSN Mobile. Again showing that there are more opportunities for users to get and keep information that other mobile devices cannot offer. And to put icing on the cake, the New York Times posted an article raving about the features of the Windows Phone 7 device.

All of this shows that the Windows Phone 7 is not an odd-man out device for Microsoft. At this point though, Nokia has been looking at the European and Asian Market, and not so much at the US or Latin American market.

This can change, because while selling 900,000 units in one quarter is impressive, it is not enough to make a dent. For its part, HTC, the previous top seller of Windows 7 Phone, is now number two.

Source: CNET

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If you are using more than one Microsoft product you may also have multiple accounts. Say, a Windows Phone account, one for Windows Live, one Xbox 360 account and maybe even a Zune account. And even if you are using the same log in information for these accounts, you until now had no option to manage those accounts in a central location.

That’s exactly what Microsoft wants to change with the launch of Microsoft Your Account, a new version of the Billing Account Management portal. The service supports several popular Microsoft services, including Xbox 360, Windows Phone, Windows Live and Microsoft Office.

The service allows Microsoft account owners to view their purchases and subscriptions from Microsoft online services, edit their payment options, and update their account information online.

Once you sign in to Microsoft Your Account you are presented with a list of your recent transactions. This includes for instance games purchased on Xbox Live. From there you can switch to the transactions menu to filter transactions by month, currency or payment option.

The subscriptions menu lists all active subscriptions under the account, with options to manage them or to view their history.

The profile menu displays profile information like the user’s name, email address or address. These can be edited right here.

Payment options finally can be used to add new payment options to the system. This can be helpful for users who would like to switch a payment option for a service they use, for instance to a new credit card.

Microsoft notes that not everything is yet supported by Microsoft Your Account.

You can find below all the items not covered yet:

• Directed update: primary/secondary users.
• Renew few MSN subscriptions with HIP validation.
• Bundle purchases transaction history.
• Payout billable account management.
• Market support other than: USA, UK, France, Spain, Germany, Japan.

Probably the biggest restriction right now is the concentration on some markets only. Users who are not living in the US, UK, France, Spain, Germany or Japan cannot use the service right now.

Microsoft Your Account lacks management features that would make it a true centralized account management service. It is for instance not displaying information about free Microsoft products, or offering to manage them as well on the site. (via Within Windows)

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I know that Microsoft are set to finally unveil the consumer preview of Windows 8 in 5 days for us all to download, but as generally happens coming up to a release, a flood of screenshots have been leaked. These screenshots are of the new Windows store and are apparently taken from the Build 8250 which we reckon is the consumer preview which we should get our hands on next week.

Unfortunately all the screenshots are in Chinese but the main point of them is to show the layout of the Windows Store as well as some of the apps and games that will be available on it.

SkyDrive is quite prominent in these screenshots which looks set to be Microsoft’s rival to iCloud and interestingly enough there also seems to be a section for Xbox Live games too.

Have a look at the screenshots below to see from yourself. As you can tell from the watermark, they came from PCBeta.com

It will be interesting to see if these screenshots actually match up with the official release of the Windows Store next week.

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