When I play a video or computer game, I often find myself getting really attached to the characters, especially the main character. I feel guilty for leading him astray when I get him in trouble and extra excited when I help him succeed. The makers of Chimpact are offering game enthusiasts of all...

One of the most common misconceptions about PCs is that the bigger the screen, the more items you’ll be able to pack on it. After all, bigger is better, right? Well, sort of. There’s a big difference between screen size and screen resolution, and that’s what Ryan and I are talking...

Everyone needs a new look from time to time. After all, you might not know Stefani Germanotta or Norma Baker, but I bet you know Lady Gaga and Marilyn Monroe. The same holds true for companies fighting for eyeballs in a world saturated with imagery. For reasons large and small, some of today’s...

Last Thursday, we announced the availability of the Windows 8 Release Preview . Over the last few weeks, I’ve been living with the Windows 8 Release Preview on all my devices – from my laptop, to a tablet, to my All-in-One PC at home, and my desktop PC here in my office at work. Windows 8 brings together...

I get a lot of email every day and not just from all the amazing people who read this blog. Instead, I get a lot of shopping site updates, some notes from my friends and occasionally a forwarded email from my mom. In case you were wondering who still receives chain mail pass-along, it’s me and it only...

After working professionally at McGraw-Hill as well as prior work in the telecommunications industry, Tanya Gordon relocated to southwest Iowa in conjunction with her husband’s job. She launched Mommy Goggles over 5 years ago, rising to prominence as a national Mom Blogger. In addition, Tanya happily...

Golnaz Alibeigi is a graduating senior at the University of California Irvine studying Film and Media Studies. She has been a member of Windows UCrew for 2 years and feels that it is one of the greatest opportunities she has ever had. Her job is to teach and inform her peers about the benefits of Windows...

I consider myself a casual gamer. I play a few PC games, mostly Games for Windows – LIVE titles, and of course Xbox. But this week I’ve been exposed to an interesting area of online gaming. Some of the more advanced gamers out there might find it sad that prior to this week, I had no idea there is such...

Today we’re happy to announce new versions of Movie Maker and Photo Gallery for Windows 7 and Windows 8. We’ve added a few new capabilities while also taking advantage of some advances in Windows 8. Movie Maker and Photo Gallery are two essential Windows applications hundreds of millions of people have...

Unless you were on Mars, living in a cave with your eyes shut and fingers in your ears , you know that yesterday was kind of a big day for the Windows Phone team . Along with the Phone team, we were there (as were our friends from Xbox , Microsoft Hardware and Office ), focusing on great holiday PCs...

An estimated 25 million cameras were sold in the US in 2010. Similarly, 81% of US homes own at least one digital camera . That means that roughly 100 million houses in the US already own a digital camera and almost ¼ of those people were buying a new camera. The long and the short of it is that there...

UPDATE 5/21: Find out more about this offer here at www.windows.com/freexbox . The school year is wrapping up for many but for those who are graduating high school - thoughts are already on the upcoming school year this fall and starting college. Starting college can be a big adjustment and we’d...

My name is Connor Lanman and I am not claiming I am the most interesting intern ever; and by no means am I working on routers for my 12 week summer internship at Microsoft. I am, however, working on a fairly unorthodox marketing project…sponsored by Microsoft. More on that in a minute. But you can imagine...

Greetings from Microsoft’s campus here in Redmond, WA. My name is Leigha Anderson and this is my first blog post on the Windows Experience Blog. Here Microsoft, I work on the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) Product Marketing Team where I look after anything relating to Small and Medium Business...

NVIDIA has announced a new addition to their GeForce GTX line of graphics cards – the GeForce GTX 460 . Like the rest of the GTX line (based on NVIDIA’s Fermi architecture), the GTX 460 supports DirectX 11. The GTX 460 will play DirectX 11 game titles at high resolution (1920x1200) and supports NVIDIA...

This week is dedicated to going green with your PC. We aren’t saying go out and buy a new PC made out of recycled materials but there are a few great ways you can make simple switches in your life using your PC. 1.) Check your power management settings. Windows makes it easy to save energy by automatically...

I’m heading to the Consumer Electronics Show this week talk with other moms and participate in a panel at MommyTech about how to create great mobile experiences. So what does it mean to be a mobile mom in today’s world? If you’re anything like me – a working mom with a busy family...

…as I said, “more to come”. You may have heard of the Double Rainbow Video . The guy who filmed this, Paul “Bear” Vasquez , lives in Yosemite and in the past month has gotten huge traffic for his ‘vivid’ reaction to that double rainbow. We hooked up with Bear to learn more about him & show him how...

Hi, I’m Jennifer, the site manager for the Windows Personalization Gallery . I maintain and update the gallery (as well as the rest of the Downloads section), and produce new personalization content. One of the main things I do is manage and create Windows 7 themes. My regular blog posts about the gallery...

SeniorNet , a leading technology educator for older adults, is celebrating its 25 th Anniversary. SeniorNet's  new initiative , "Helping Seniors Get Back to Work", will be announced at their 25th Anniversary celebration on Capitol Hill in Washington DC  on May 19th. The non-profit...

I’ve been blogging about the new features in Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011 such as Photo Fuse and facial recognition for quickly tagging people in your photos over the last couple months. You can download the new Photo Gallery, which is part of Windows Live Essentials 2011, by clicking here . Photo...

It’s been a long year. Just when the economy was starting to look perky job growth stalled in its non-Census tracks. Then summer, which we normally can’t wait to see, broke down the door and turned most of the country into a sweltering puddle of sweat—except Seattle, where it’s...

Do you have too much tech in your life? What is too much tech? My co-worker @Brandonleblanc thinks it might be impossible to have too many PCs or too many gadgets. Yet, I often wonder if I do in my life. Do I need 4GBs of RAM? What exactly is a GB of RAM anyway? If you happen to be like me and have a...

Well, Decibel Festival week is finally here and I want to give you the rundown on everything Windows-related. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, KEXP’s Darek Mazzone and fellow Windows DJ Dave Pezzner will be sharing their knowledge at the 7 th annual Decibel Conference (dB Conference). dB Conference...

The results of our Cannes video contest are in! We asked filmmakers from around the world to create a short film that showcases how a Windows 7 PC helps students stay on top of their studies and more. The ultimate prize? Over $21,000 in prizes, including a trip for 2 to the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival...