Interesting article in today's San Jose Mercury News : Who has the right to decide how you're known on the Internet -- you, or the online service you're using? 'Nymwars' debate over online identity explodes By Mike Swift mswift@mercurynews.com Who has the right to decide how you're...

Love it. As noted in a prior post , Google doesn't believe I'm me: the troubles with "real" identities. This started in mid August. Today I found the following note from Google on my profile… "After reviewing your profile, we determined that the name provided violates the Google+ Names...

Wondering where to turn to contact Microsoft Customer Support? See my post on where to turn to contact Microsoft Customer Support . But if you're looking for support on Windows Phone, first visit the http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/howto/wp7/default.aspx , as I noted in my post with tips...

Wondering where to turn to contact Microsoft Customer Support? I've been asked this a couple of times today, so I thought I'd include a couple of helpful links: Microsoft KB 295539 : How and when to contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support To make sure you receive the appropriate support information...

As I noted earlier today, It's Time To Fall Back An Hour in the US and Canada as Daylight Saving Time Ends This Sunday . I know of several customers who use Apple iPhones in their Windows environments and of note is an issue in Apple’s iOS that impacted their European customers recently… http://www.zdnet...

Today I received an email from my old friend, Steve, who said that he was having an issue after he had installed and then uninstalled Google Chrome… and then found that his hyperlinks didn't work for various Office applications. Well, there's an app for that. Or at least a FixIt. I found that Google...

Next on my list customer and partner challenge or issue per day is FAST, which Microsoft acquired in April of 2008… FAST Search & Transfer, to be specific… "Today, Enterprise Search from Microsoft offers best-in-class technologies and cutting-edge innovations that fuel our vision of search:...

As I continue my five year mission (no, not really) on covering our current products ( my product support challenge of the day ), today, we're up to Fable: The Lost Chapters for the PC . Based on the best-selling award-winning Xbox title Fable , Fable: The Lost Chapters is available on Windows – for...

Next on my list customer and partner challenge or issue per day , today, it's about Engyro Product Connectors for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 and System Center Operations Manager 2007. What is Engyro you say? Engyro provides software solutions to integrate, consolidate, and simplify IT operations...

Continuing my effort to cover at least one customer and partner challenge or issue per day , today, it's about Duet for Microsoft Office and SAP . (Also, info is available on Duet here on our main website.) Duet is a solution from Microsoft and SAP that enables seamless access to SAP business processes...

Another interesting find in my effort to cover at least one customer and partner challenge or issue per day … Over the weekend I did a little spring cleaning and came across a number of old application floppies (yes, applications used to come distributed on floppy discs). One of the discs I came across...

From Daniel… timely in my effort to cover at least one customer and partner challenge or issue per day … "I read the news today… EBS2008 [Windows Essential Business Server] was discontinued… what are my options?" The news in question is from this post on the Essential Business Server blog …...

Today I continue the effort to cover at least one customer and partner challenge or issue per day … Turns out I wasn't far off in my estimate of current supported products. Thanks to Jared I have the current list of in-support products we have today, most noted on the Microsoft Lifecycle support Information...

Diane asks… "Will you answer questions on any Microsoft product? How long do you [I assume she means Microsoft] support the products?"  Sure, I'll try to provide answers and of resources available for the product line. This is not a replacement for our support system for products that...

On today's WSJ.com in Mossberg's Mailbox from Nov. 18, 2009 on the allthingsd.com/ site (the blog where venerable technology columnist Walt Mossberg answers readers' questions) Mr. Mossberg answers several reader questions, including one on Microsoft Office 2003 and Windows 7.  This must be a popular...

Here are answers to some common questions about upgrading to Windows 7 from our Windows 7 frequently asked questions page. (And if you need more information and guidance on installing and reinstalling Windows 7, check out this page on the Windows 7 site .) What's the difference between the upgrade and...

As I posted on Twitter, the SharePoint team has posted important information about SharePoint Server 2007 Service Pack 2 for customers on their team blog : Attention: Important Information on Service Pack 2 We take product quality seriously and make every effort to avoid and resolve issues that adversely...

This week the Windows 7 team posted on delivering a quality upgrade experience for Windows 7, noting that many people are running the Windows 7 Beta full time just as many of us do daily at Microsoft. And the team is encouraging users to revert to an earlier Windows Vista image on their PCs and perform...

First it was questions about whether or not we'd have to worry about the coming Leap Second , then today after our power came back on, customer questions about the Zune 30. As we have a couple of Zune 30s in our home going strong, I was surprised to see a post on the Zune Insider blog WRT the 30 GB Zune...

As I posted earlier, the new Microsoft Answers beta kicked off this week.  And it looks like folks are noticing the new site, as noted in the this Washington Post article from Rick Broida of PC World.  Broida noted the new site "aims to clear up Vista's mysteries--and invites you to do...

A new site has hit Microsoft.com, in support of our customers: the new community on the Microsoft Answers Site , Microsoft’s first consumer-focused support community. Chris Kilbourn (the Lead Site Manager for TechNet) posted today about the launch... "A few times in my career, I've been lucky enough...

As you may know from previous posts, we have both Macs and Windows PCs at home ( think that we even have some CPM and Unix lurking around somewhere).  One benefit is that I get to be the IT administrator for both, although the family uses Windows Vista exclusively.  As such, I was a bit mystified...

I wanted to share a very frustrating story with you that happened to me last weekend, one that I shared with Dell's customer advocate folks. You may've read my post on the poor customer experience at my neighbouhood Best Buy (the good, the bad... you get the picture). I was in search of a new laptop...

Patrick Marshall has a weekly column in the The Seattle Times where he answers reader questions "about everything from recovering deleted files to the pros and cons of handheld technology." Today he has a column in which he responded to a reader having difficulty installing Windows XP Service Pack 3...

Once again, I received the following question on support... "I just installed Service Pack 3 for [Windows] XP. Where's the best place to look online for support on Microsoft products?" (thanks, Shawn and Paul) For Technical Support on Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), please visit the SP3 support site...