The new SDK for the Windows Live ID service lets you build a platform-neutral interface to enable users who log in using Live ID to be authenticated on your site. Microsoft uses Windows Live ID as the authentication mechanism for 380 million users on...

There is a known issue with the pre-release Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 that may prevent your sample or code from running. This will be fixed in a future release. In some cases, for VCBuild to run properly, vcprojectengine...

I’ve always wanted to go to Burning Man , the annual countercultural arts festival, but with both Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 screaming towards RTM I can’t possibly take time for a jaunt to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. Luckily, I can...

VS2008 Beta 2 is available for download. Beta 2 previews major improvements in VC++ Express for VS2008 , which Nikola Dudar discusses in his blog . With VC++ Express 2008 Beta 2 , you no longer asked to download the 1 GB Windows SDK in order to build...

How will VC++ evolve? How has the advent of managed code affected the evolutionary trajectory of VC++? What's the VC++ team up to these days, anyway? How much time are they spending innovating C++, the native language? Tune in and learn first-hand from...

A number of “How Do I” videos for native development are now available on MSDN. These videos are designed to help developers new to Visual C++ 2005 become more productive using the environment. You can download the videos in a wide variety of formats...

The VS Express Editions Beginner Developer Learning Center is a great place to point your kids and others interested in breaking into programming. My 12-year old and his friends find the bite-sized resources and How-To reference library (with 5-10 minute...

There’s a reason everyone’s sending you links to Photosynth . It presents the most astounding possibilities of any technology I’ve seen. Even playing with it myself I can’t believe it’s real. Using photos of frequently photographed places ( NASA Space...

Friends and family that know I work at Microsoft they often ask for computer advice. There’s a handy article on the Microsoft At Home site that give simple instructions for extending the range and the strength of your wireless network. This is the kind...

The Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 provides prerelease components designed to help you develop Windows applications using both native (Win32) and managed (.NET Framework) technologies, targeting the following Operating Systems...

Windows Live Folders has been re-branded Windows Live SkyDrive . Cool name, cool service. You get (free) 500 MB of password-protected (with Live ID) online file storage, available from any computer with Internet access. You create personal, shared, and...

I’m shopping for a new RSS reader and really appreciate Mashable’s review of all the RSS readers, tools, browser plugins, tips, hacks and directories available on the web (well, maybe not ALL of them, but almost). The list is sorted conveniently, and...

The Windows SDK has replaced the PSDK. The PSDK is no more. Here are the details. What’s the Windows SDK? The Windows SDK provides support for development using both the Win32/64 and the .NET Framework programming models, for both 32- and 64...

Have you seen the Windows SDK samples that demonstrate the use of the P2P Native APIs? The samples are installed by default to the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\V6.1\Samples\NetDs\PeerToPeer \Samples\NetDS\PeerToPeer folder (see a list below...

Lori Pearce, my own Product Unit Manager, was just interviewed on Channel 9 in a video I find both informative and inspiring. How does the Windows SDK Team build a product that supports development using both the Win32 and .NET Framework programming models...

Nibbles (beta), snack tutorials for hungry designers has some great Silverlight samples and clear, quick tutorials: Animations, Buttons Basics and Buttons Advanced. Nibbles is new ( they claim to be the first tutorial web site that is built 100% using...

A commercial satellite image appears to have captured China's new nuclear ballistic Jin-class (Type 094) attack sub recently and it's been published by Google Earth. According to the Strategic Security Blog , the new submarine was photographed by the...

The Windows Server 2008 documentation team is really cranking! If you’re wondering what Server 2008 can do, check out the step-by-step guides in the Windows Server 2008 Technical Library or get downloadable versions of the guides from the Microsoft Download...

The announcement came today that Microsoft will reduce the estimated retail price of Xbox 360 by $50 starting Aug. 8, to $349.99 for the model with a 20GB hard drive, wireless controller and Xbox 360 headset. If that’s still a bit too high, the entry...

Cool or couch potato? Matt Ivers has a step-by-step article on Coding4Fun titled Control Windows Media Center using a Windows Mobile 5 Device using Visual Basic or Visual C# Express Editions , Windows Media Center SDK 5.0 , and the Windows Mobile 5.0...

What's so satisfying about Cisco's viral marketing ad , watched 75,000 times on YouTube since posted in June? I guess we've all witnessed similar events in real life and it's just so darn predictable. More cringe marketing. It's working.

You’ve just downloaded your first Windows SDK and can’t wait to get started exploring the tools, samples and documents that you’ve heard about. But wait, how do you get to all those goodies? To access the different components in the SDK, click the Start...