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http://ms-os.com/ NEWS.com.au <img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Windows Vista update plagued by glitches NEWS.com.au, Australia - 26 minutes ago On the official Windows Vista Team Blog, one user commented that the update used more memory than before. "Isn't a service pack suppose to fix issues? ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

One of our goals with Internet Explorer 8 was to improve the experience of managing add-ons by bringing more types of add-ons into the management experience, and to make that experience more usable. Originally introduced in Windows XP Service Pack 2, we’ve updated the management UI in a big way for IE8. Here’s a screen shot of the new UI: http://ieblog.members.winisp.net/images/addonsUI2.png A familiar interface… When you look at the Manage Add-ons UI, you’ll probably feel comfortable with it quickly – it looks a lot like a Windows File Explorer window or the Control Panel in Windows Vista. You choose a category of object types from the left to view that list on the right. Select any item in the list and the details pane at the bottom will display information about the selected add-on. Most changes you make in Manage Add-ons take effect immediately, although some (like disabling a toolbar or explorer bar) might still require you to restart Internet Explorer. … with lots of improvements over IE7 You can resize the window to fit your screen resolution and personal preference, and can choose custom columns, grouping, and sorting order. These preferences will be remembered the next time you open Manage Add-ons. Additionally: You can select multiple Add-ons from the list (CTRL+click or drag to multi-select) The list supports right-click context menu actions Details about add-ons can be copied to the Windows clipboard and into email, a document editor, or a spreadsheet so you can share the list with tech support (or friends or family) more easilyNo updates are required to existing controls to show up in this list Developers do not need to make changes to existing controls to continue to be managed in IE8. However, with the richer set of information and controls put in the hands of the user in IE8, control authors might wish to provide more detailed information with their controls. While the same set of information (such as publisher or version) is available in IE8 as was available in IE7, now it’s easier for users to view it. Add-ons without sufficient information (like an empty publisher name or version number) are often removed or disabled by users. Add-on developers should read this article and this blog post about ActiveX best practices for more information on how to properly develop IE add-ons. It’s easier to get information about installed add-ons and find new add-ons with IE8 More detailed information about installed add-ons is available at a glance with IE8. We’ve also added links to make it easy to accomplish common tasks: Find more add-ons with a single click. Just click “Find more add-ons…” Don’t know what an add-on does? Click “Search for this add-on via default search provider” and we’ll help you find information about it online via your current default search provider Want to know more about add-ons in general? Click “Learn more about add-ons” Clicking “More information” displays more detailed technical information about installed add-ons, including file names, versions, and other properties. You can even view or clear the list of websites that ActiveX controls are allowed to run on for per-site installed ActiveX controls Right-click any add-on to get easy access to common actions (like enable or disable)New types to manage In Internet Explorer 8, the list of add-ons you can manage has been expanded to include Explorer Bars, Search Providers, and Activities. Explorer Bars Explorer Bars are an extensibility type like toolbars that are supported by previous versions of Internet Explorer and IE8, but not listed in Manage Add-ons prior to IE8. With IE8 they are available so you have more control over what’s running in your browser. http://ieblog.members.winisp.net/images/ExplorerBar.png Search Providers In IE7 we added support for OpenSearch Search Providers, but they had their own, separate management window. We’ve kept the functionality of the management experience for Search Providers in IE8, but moved it here. IE8 helps you to quickly see what Search Providers are installed, which is your default, and where it is sending information when you submit a search. Additionally, you can change the order that Search Providers are listed (IE7 always sorted them alphabetically). http://ieblog.members.winisp.net/images/SearchProviders2.png Internet Explorer 8 continues to support the OpenSearch standard for Search Providers. You can read more about OpenSearch here. Activities Activities, which are new to IE8, are also managed from the Manage Add-ons window. Just like Search Providers, you can view, manage, and remove installed Activities, find new Activities, and learn more about Activities directly from this window. Managing Add-ons in No Add-ons Mode IE7 and IE8 support “No Add-ons Mode,” a troubleshooting mode. When you run IE this way, no 3rd party code runs, which allows you to do things like disable troublesome controls or repair Windows via Windows Update (which is why that control is allowed to run in this mode). You can start No Add-ons Mode in a few ways: Type iexplore –extoff in the Run box on the Start menu Click “Internet Explorer (No Add-ons)” under All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools Right-clicking the IE icon on the Start Menu (if IE is your default browser) and selecting “Browse Without Add-Ons”In IE7 you couldn’t run Manage Add-ons while in No Add-ons Mode, but in IE8, you can. In fact, if you click the information bar that appears when you’re running in No Add-ons Mode, it offers a quick and convenient access point to Manage Add-ons: http://ieblog.members.winisp.net/images/NoAddonsMode2.png Remember, No Add-ons Mode is designed for troubleshooting IE. It’s probably not the way you want to experience websites all the time, as a lot of important functionality is often provided via add-ons. To exit No Add-ons Mode, simply close that browser window. In Summary We designed the Manage Add-ons interface to be more comprehensive in the types of objects it manages and the types of actions you can take. I’m interested in hearing any questions and feedback about this new management experience. Just leave a comment in the blog and I’ll read it! Thanks! Christopher Vaughan Program Manager http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=8326704 More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> FAQ: How to get Vista SP1 Computerworld, MA - 33 minutes ago By Gregg Keizer March 20, 2008 (Computerworld) After refusing to let most users have Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) for weeks, Microsoft on Tuesday ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Vista SP1 Chokes On Widely Used Intel Chipset Drivers InformationWeek, NY - 14 minutes ago A user named "Zandor" said on the Vista team blog that his company successfully upgraded 614 computers to Vista SP1. "Great job Windows team," wrote Zandor. ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Very simply, I've got a Word document with a bunch of tables in. Each table has 2 columns (Name and Value respectivly), and I want to add a third column with one button in each cell. The buttons will be added manually. When a button is pressed it copies the contents of the cell to its left to the clipboard as a simple text string. Adding the buttons and putting stuff on the clipboard isn't hard, I just don't know how to get the button's current location in the Document and thus the table cell next to it. Thanks More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Reader's of Brian Harry's blog will be familiar with the "dogfooding statistics" he posts about related to how we use Team Foundation Server at Microsoft. Brian has blogged about our deployment topology, the number of teams using TFS, the sheer scale of the number of work items and check-ins, and so on. But a question which frequently comes up is related to how Microsoft uses Team Foundation Server to really drive business decisions. How do you know if you're on schedule? When will a feature be "done"? Where might additional resources be required? What are the latest roadblocks being faced across your teams? Answering these questions across a team of even ten people can be a challenge, let alone the hundreds or even thousands of people who work on*products of "Microsoft scale." I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Jeff Beehler who is the "Chief of Staff" for Visual Studio Team System. In addition to having a really cool title, Jeff is responsible for overall coordination of the teams who build Visual Studio Team System. Jeff has spent his career at Microsoft inventing better processes for managing large software projects, and he shared with us some of the ways he relies on Team Foundation Server every day to help him make project management decisions. Listen to the podcast(MP3) Listen to the podcast(WMA) Download the Video More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Blog: Apple Using iTunes Windows Updater to Push Safari The Mac Observer - 33 minutes ago ... like Safari, according to Joe Wilcox's Microsoft Watch blog. "Earlier today, Apple released the Safari 3.1 Web browser for Mac OS and Windows XP/Vista. ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

http://ms-os.com/ CrunchGear <img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Is your life better or worse with Windows Vista SP1? CrunchGear, NY - 7 minutes ago On the Windows Vista Team Blog, there are some comments to the effect that certain NVIDIA drivers have been mangled and overall system speed has gone down ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Vista SP1 downloaders bite back Register, UK - 32 minutes ago By Kelly Fiveash -> More by this author Windows Vista customers have been complaining about problems with installing Microsoft’s first service pack for the ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> My nightmare trying to upgrade to Vista SP1 Computerworld, MA - 35 minutes ago Next stop, the IDT Web, specifically the page on the site that offers updates on Windows Vista support. Finally, I figured, I'm getting close. ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Symantec, Windows users beset by Vista SP1 flaws ZDNet UK, UK - 5 minutes ago Microsoft released Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) to Windows Update on Tuesday. However, in the Vista team blog, Vista product manager Nick White wrote that ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Sean Shypula and Luis Villegas are*developers for Bungie (makers of Halo) that build the distributed asset processing system, a 180+ server farm that is used to*take*massive tasks, break them into pieces and process them in parallel. To give you an example of why this is needed, one of the tasks, Lightmap rendering, a technique used to pre-comput lighting/shadows to a Halo map before the map is loaded (to improve load times) can take over 24 hours across 100 machines! The server farm itself is programmable in that you can write C# code to handle any distributed task. You can see the slides from their talk at GDC here and a quick overview video shown at the end of their talk here. Listen to the podcast(MP3) Listen to the podcast(WMA) Download the Video Watch the Video More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

I was wondering why all Windows Mobile phones seem to be fully functional computers when I think many people will be very happy with "basic" smartphones. What I like the most about Windows Mobile phones*is the seamless integration with Outlook (all other phones I tried in the past would not synchronize very well and would screw up my*contacts, calendar,*and so on). What I mean is a phone that does: - basic phone functions with decent quality speakers - synchronize contacts seamlessly and allows to search contact from any field (also "company") - synchronize calendar and tasks with Outlook (read only would be fine, writing calendar entries with the tiny keyboard of my HTC is very painful) - Hotmail Live, Gmail, Yahoo mail available (so will need WiFi) - A decent calculator and currency converter - Has at least a handful of languages available for T9 in SMS (if you leave in Europe you will find yourself sending messages in more than one language very often). I am not saying more functional devices are useless, but this is what I am looking for and have never been able to find. More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

http://ms-os.com/ DailyTech <img alt="" height="1" width="1"> User reports of Windows Vist SP1 problems are varied, growing DailyTech, IL - 37 minutes ago Many users left pointed remarks about the various failures on Microsoft's Vista Team's blog. Some users remarked that the update destroyed the latest ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Vista SP1 causing numerous user problems The Tech Herald, IN - 4 minutes ago by Stevie Smith - Mar 20 2008, 14:07 The long-awaited arrival of Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) finally came to pass this Tuesday, with many a Windows Vista ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Vista SP1 collateral damage not as bad as I had expected ZDNet - 35 minutes ago On Tuesday Microsoft opened the door on Windows Vista SP1. This is a landmark occasion because it marks a transition from where only a select few have had ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Vista Service Pack 1 released Web User, UK - 24 minutes ago ... and postpone offering SP1 to those PCs until it has installed corrected drivers or other applicable updates," said Nick White on the Windows Vista blog. ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

I was looking at the new stuff in Safari, when I came across this little nugget. http://ms-os.com/Themes/AlmostGlass/images/icon-quote.gif Seifi.org wrote: Support for offline storage for Web applications in SQL databases.That means you can now store your databases locally on the client’smachine. Here’s some sample JavaScript to do the client side databases.Check out this demo that shows you how it works. database.executeSql("SELECT * FROM test", function(result1) { // do something with the results database.executeSql("DROP TABLE test", function(result2) { // do some more stuff alert("My second database query finished executing!"); }); }); I dunno ... looks like a train-wreck in the making to me ... * More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Death match: Windows Vista versus XP InfoWorld, CA - Mar 17, 2008 Point by point and blow by blow, we offer 10 reasons enterprises can skip Windows Vista and stick with XP By Randall C. Kennedy So there you are, ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Users Report Problems with Vista SP1 Laptop Logic, CA - 16 hours ago Users have also expressed problems on the official Microsoft Vista Blog - "I have installed Vista SP1 today, now I have no sound and my DVD drive doesn't ... InfoWorld's other XP and Vista stories InfoWorld all 2 news articles More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> SP1 horror stories filtering through Sky News, United Kingdom - 11 minutes ago The Official Windows Vista blog also has sob stories from other Vista users whose SP1 updates have not gone to plan. "I have installed Vista SP1 today, ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Test Center Guide to the Vista and XP Service Packs InfoWorld, CA - 15 minutes ago As I noted in my Enterprise Desktop blog, the vast majority of IT shops will be sticking with Windows XP for the foreseeable future, giving Service Pack 3 a ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

So you've installed SP1? And it hasn't hosed your machine? And you want that diskspace back? Oh! Open up a command prompt and run Vsp1cln.exe More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Last night I received an invite from microsoft connect to a new beta. Click click click, I accepted the invitation and agreed to the NDA, but did not fully read it (oups). Now, is there a way I can find the NDA and read it again? Am I allowed to mention just the name of this beta program? I could not find any info on the web and I am really curious to find out what it is while my status is marked as pending. More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Users Report Problems with Vista SP1 Laptop Logic, CA - 13 hours ago Users have also expressed problems on the official Microsoft Vista Blog - "I have installed Vista SP1 today, now I have no sound and my DVD drive doesn't ... The "Save XP" petition count update InfoWorld all 2 news articles More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds