I am Microsoftie 4 ever (18+ years) working in Windows Services and Content team in the UK, my blog is mainly focused on the Windows family of products and trying to provide help pointers and resources for customers on our products.
You may have seen the post on the Windows Vista Team blog about a new download available to Windows Ultimate users called Tinker.
‘Microsoft ® Tinker (TM): Microsoft Tinker is a casual game that provides players with short puzzle game play sessions set in a warm, calming environment.’
So if you have Ultimate and you are wondering how to get it try this article
And if you would like to understand how to play the game a little, the 5 types of objects and strategies and tips try, Tinker: How to play
Not currently having an Ultimate I can’t try it myself !
Rob
Updated 25 Sept 2008 changed Tinkler to Tinker
How great is this latest Bot, from the MSR-MT team Windows Live Messenger translation bot now available!
Really easy to use and setup in a few seconds on Windows Live Messenger, and on your smartphone.
To get started just add mtbot@hotmail.com to your contacts, then start a conversation with TBOT ? to get a list of commands, and then for example enter 7 (for English to Italian translation), then type your message and you get a machine translated response such as
‘quanto freddo è il Bot in tensione di traduzione del messaggero delle finestre’
Update – just also added this to my Office Communicator and of course it works fine there too.
The ever wonderful Windows Vista Magazine has been running a recent set of articles on how to achieve a Windows Experience score of 5.9
The articles are great and well worth a read if you are looking to make sure your computers hardware and software is going to be capable of giving you the ultimate experience
Part 1: Focuses on memory and RAM
Part 2: Focuses on processing power
Part 3: Focuses on boosting your graphics
Part 4: Looks at increasing your hard disk speed
My nearly 2 year old Toshiba Tecra M7 comes in at a paltry 3.0, mainly due the graphics capability. If these where improved I could be up in the high 4s as the rest of the hardware is not to shabby.
One of my homepages for IE is http://uk.msn.com, and this morning when I launched my browser I was offered to try Viewer.
‘…a new way to explore MSN UK. It’s a trial using Microsoft’s new Silverlight technology, We hope you like it.’
http://viewer.uk.msn.com/
Kudos tot he team at MSN UK for doing something a little different, I am sure not everyone will like it, but on first glance I think it is pretty good. I am going to spend some time looking at it in more detail and posting feedback to http://msn-viewer.spaces.live.com/
Well worth looking at, even if it is just to grab some great images to go on your wallpaper. Also love the random options :)
Wallpapers from MSN – Beta
Using the tool, you can
If you would like to learn more about customising your desktop, themes, tips and tricks, start menu and the Windows Sidebar try this great article from the Windows Help and How-to site
Just a quick plug for an excellent new site on http://www.microsoft.com/uk about licensing and piracy aimed at home users.
The new site at http://www.microsoft.com/uk/licensing/homeuser/default.mspx is themed around ‘buying safely and activating’, and features:
Well worth a look if you have any questions on this topic.
We also have tons of content on Windows Help and How-to about activation, product registration and related topics such as :
Take the test over on the homepage of Microsoft.com/uk
I took it and am I am a ‘technical triumph’
Updated to say you will need the silverlight plugin installedto see the quiz
If like me you occasionally go into the Windows Task Manager, (usually as a result of some poor performance or to kill off some unresponsive program) and when you get there you get a screen that you really don’t know what to make of. So which process is doing what? and should I really kill it?
So recently I downloaded a little tool/utility from Uniblue - ProcessQuicklink from ProcessLibrary.com and I have found it incredibly useful as tool to help me find out what all those processes are, and what they do. To quote there web site
‘As many as 20 to 30 processes may be running invisibly, silently in the background on your PC. Some hog system resources, drastically slowing down your computer. Others are a threat to security and privacy. A few may be harmless.
The Windows Task Manager displays most of these processes but you have no information to learn and understand what is what.
Get the latest definitions and exhaustive advice on all the processes running on directly in the Windows Task Manager…’
Just thought I would share that, I am nothing more than a happy customer/user and have no connection whatsoever with Uniblue Systems.
Well according to the Windows Vista Club poll they are as follows
Tweaking With Vishal Windows Vista For Beginners Vista & XP Media Center Windows Vista Forums MintyWhite Windows Guides
There is going to be a final judgment for the overall title, but each site is one that I frequent and well worthy of a visit.
A while back I blogged about how you could Test drive Windows Vista Ultimate for free, well know you can also Test drive Microsoft Office 2007…(click the image to find out how)