Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Windows Desktop Search 2.6.6 (KB926356)

Windows Desktop Search (WDS) helps you find virtually anything on your PC or your networked drives including e-mail messages, calendar appointments, documents, and more. Searching your computer is now as fast and easy as searching the Web. WDS 2.6.6 extends the value of desktop search by providing improvements in stability and in performance.

Note WDS 2.6.6 can be installed as a New Install or as an Upgrade from 02.06.xxxx. On an upgrade from 02.06.5000.5401, your index will not need to be rebuilt.

This download package includes the Update.exe, ADM File and Admin Guide. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.


download- http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=64660b3b-5e0d-4c66-accd-9bea8d6760cb&DisplayLang=en

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Windows Live OneCare (v1.5) and Windows Vista set to Launch Same Day (Plus Special Deal)

Windows Live OneCare Team Blog: Windows Live OneCare (v1.5) and Windows Vista set to Launch Same Day

As you may have heard, Microsoft announced some big news today – the Windows Vista has now been released to manufacturing and the general availability date is set for January 30, 2007! So what does this mean for Windows Live OneCare? Quite a bit. The next generation of Windows Live OneCare (v1.5) will launch globally the same day Windows Vista rolls out to the general public.

Because the new version of OneCare was designed with Windows Vista in mind, we think every homeowner and small business owner that purchases Windows Vista for their PC will like OneCare equally as much for its unified antivirus and antispyware filtering capabilities, and more backup options, not to mention the ongoing PC maintenance it provides.

Vista 32-bit and 64-bit RTM (all flavors) now up on MSDN and Connect!

As expected, all flavors of the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista RTM are now up on MSDN and Connect. Anyone with MSDN accounts or Connect Beta Testers should be able to get legitimate install keys for Vista starting today as well. Enjoy!

As a side note, the build number is still 6.0.6000.16386 (vista_rtm.061101-2205). I personally checked it myself.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Windows Live Mail desktop Updated

Build 1172 of Windows Live Mail desktop just went live on Ideas.Live.com. This is the first publically available update for WLMd in about a month and a half, so needless to say there have been a lot of improvements since the last build. Alright, let's just jump right into it.

New in this build
- Migration from Windows Mail in Vista (Bug fixes and more support.)
- Minimize to the System Tray (Apparently they have made some sort of update to this based on user feedback. Still not sure what was changed.)
- Windows Desktop Search 3.0 Integration (Pretty much self explanatory.)
- Improved Sorting
- Synchronization Improvements (Thank you!)
- Performance Updates (Obviously crucial to WLMd's success, although the last build was pretty tight as far as performance goes)
- Hundreds of bug fixes since the last build.

Go and grab the new build here.

Also:
Windows Live Mail desktop Team Blog post

Microsoft Windows Vista is now on MSDN & Connect

Initial reports are that this is different from the leaked version that has been available for about a week on all sorts of torrent sites, the hash is different:

en_windows_vista_x86_dvd_X12-34293.iso = b71e04564ca22e4d9928e59298eff87cf62b382b
LRMCFRE_EN_DVD.iso (BillGates) = b82590481755ba3420e7314bf82b8916a90963b5

This single download includes the following Windows Vista editions:
  • Windows Vista Business
  • Windows Vista Business N
  • Windows Vista Home Basic
  • Windows Vista Home Basic N
  • Windows Vista Home Premium
  • Windows Vista Starter
  • Windows Vista Ultimate
The product key used to install Windows Vista will determine which edition will be installed. The product keys used to install Windows Vista Business N, Windows Vista Home Basic N, and Windows Vista Starter are not currently available.

Also US testers may find an invitation to download any version of Vista final they choose (a product key is then supplied for the version specified) my source tells me that international users will start to see this appearing on their connect page within the next day or so. It's unclear if every tester will get a full version of their choice. We'll update this when Microsoft gets back to us.

View: MSDN or Connect (OS level subscriber account required for MSDN)

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Microsoft launches PowerShell


This week at Microsoft's TechEd IT forum Microsoft's Bob Mugilia introduced a host of new Microsoft technologies.
One of the major announcements was that of PowerShell 1.0, a new command-line shell and scripting tool which lets IT managers control their Windows systems.

Formerly called "Monad", PowerShell is the first major update to the Windows command line since Windows NT 3.5 back in 1995. PowerShell can do things such as navigate through SQL tables as if they were directories on a computer.

Office Live goes Live

Office Live, which goes live in the US on Nov 15, and simultaneously begins beta testing in the UK, France, Germany, and Japan, provides a powerful set of Web-based services to help you manage your valuable information and resources.

Offered in a three-tiered set of services, beginning with the free Office Live Basics, Office Live provides a single source for a number of website management tools for the very small business.

Office Live Basics is a collection of free services that provide a small business with the core requirements for establishing an online identity.

Services include:

a company domain name
a Web site with 500 MB of storage
advanced site reporting tools
25 company-branded e-mail accounts (each with 2 GB of storage) and instant messaging accounts
calendaring through Microsoft Office Live Mail
Site Designer
and the Microsoft Office Live ad manager Beta.
Office Live Essentials, offered at $19.95 per month, includes all the features of Office Live Basics

Services include:

an additional 1 GB of Web site storage,
50 company-branded e-mail, calendar and instant messaging accounts
Microsoft Office Live Business Contact Manager and
online Workspaces for 10 users with 500 MB of storage.
In addition, e-mail and appointments can be accessed offline with Microsoft Office Outlook® and Windows Mobile-powered phones.

Office Live Premium is $39.95 per month

Services include all the features of Office Live Basics and Office Live Essentials, and:

an additional 2 GB of Web site storage;
increased storage of 2 GB for the 50 company-branded e-mail, calendar and instant messaging accounts
an increased capacity for 20 additional users and 1 GB of storage for the Workspaces.
Office Live Premium also provides a set of Internet-based applications to help small-business owners streamline and automate management of their customers, projects and documents.

Here’s a list of Office Live resources and links:

Office Online
Office Live Home Page
Office Live beta Home Page
Office Live Blog
Chris Beiter’s Work Related Blog
Office Live Developer Guide
Office Live Accounting Express 2007 beta
Office Live Collaboration beta

And don’t forget to listen to our interview with Baris Cetinok of Office Live, recorded Nov. 10, 2006. A good overview of the new features of Office Live!

NEWS SOURCE: LIVESIDE.NET

Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! Unite to Support SiteMaps

Ken Moss, General Manager of Live Search,announced today that Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! will all support the site maps protocol , a simple, xml based way for web site owners to share information with search engines without having to rely on crawl algorithms. Ken describes the work Microsoft is doing:

We are 100% behind this protocol - this kind of collaboration will help improve the search experience for all of our customers, and we are working hard to release full support in 2007.

Ken points to site maps. org., which has some details on the protocol:

Site maps are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling. In its simplest form, a Site map is an XML file that lists URL for a site along with additional meta data about each URL (when it was last updated, how often it usually changes, and how important it is, relative to other URL in the site) so that search engines can more intelligently crawl the site.

Web crawlers usually discover pages from links within the site and from other sites. Site maps supplement this data to allow crawlers that support Site maps to pick up all URL in the Site map and learn about those URL s using the associated meta data. Using the Site map protocol does not guarantee that web pages are included in search engines, but provides hints for web crawlers to do a better job of crawling your site.