Rock the vote! No, I'm not talking about race for President of the United States. I'm talking about the slightly less controversial contest currently in swing over at The WinVistaClub for choosing the BEST Windows Vista Website (besides this one!). The contest is designed to highlight community websites...

Tonight, the updates for May 2007 showed up in Windows Update. You can read about this month's updates here . My experience receiving updates this evening really impressed me and I felt it was important to highlight that here. I absolutely love how they improved Windows Update with Windows Vista. The...

Installing the Silverlight 1.0 Beta plug-in on Windows Vista is really easy. Here is a video of me installing the plug-in on my desktop PC earlier today: Video: Installing the Silverlight Plugin on Windows Vista What is incredible about the installation experience is that when you install the plug...

For the last week, I had been using one of the photos I took on my recent trip around Washington State as my desktop wallpaper. It was an image I took in the Columbia River Gorge near an abandoned railroad track. I got down really close to the railroad track for a really interesting shot. I think it...

Our friends on the eHome Team (the folks responsible for Windows Media Center and other cool things) passed along that the Super Bowl ads are available in Windows Media Center through the Internet TV Beta - currently available to U.S. Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate users. ...

UPDATE: You can download the final released version of the Outlook Connector here or through Windows Live Essentials at download.live.com . The Windows Live Calendar Team has announced the availability of the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.1 Beta - which allows you to sync your calendars on...

This afternoon, Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch has announced the immediate availability of Internet Explorer 8 RC1. Internet Explorer 8 RC1 is available in 25 languages for Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server. You can download IE8 RC1 here:  http://www.microsoft.com...

Earlier this week, Apple released iTunes 8 which included some headaches for Windows Vista users (including myself) in the way of blue screens of death. My good friend Ed Bott dug into the situation and discovered what might be causing the issue - it appears to be a problem with a driver that is installed...

Updated list coming soon.

Robert McLaws is letting folks know the beta of Windows Easy Transfer Companion is available at Microsoft.com. You can download the beta here . The beta works on both Windows XP and Windows Vista and is designed to help you move your applications from Windows XP to Windows Vista when upgrading to a new...

In the last video , Esther told you all about how Instant Search makes her day-to-day life easier. Today, she's going to talk to you about Live Icons , which makes searching even faster by letting you see a preview of the files you're searching for. If you're a visual person you'll especially appreciate...

In Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 - users get some added customization benefits to the Internet Explorer layout I think folks will enjoy. To many folks, being able to customize the browser controls is very important. So I've got some customization tips for IE8 Beta 2 I'd like to share with you. If you...

You may have noticed a new blog has appeared under the menu of our site today. I’d like to welcome Paul Cooke, who is a Director here at Microsoft, to our site. Paul and his team will be running the Windows Security Blog – which is what you could consider the successor to the Windows Vista Security Blog...

I use about 2-3 different PCs throughout the week for work - including my laptop when I travel away from the office. In doing this - I have files scattered on multiple PCs. I'll go to one PC and find I need a file from another PC. So to make sure all my PCs are in-sync with all the important files I...

A few weeks ago, John Obeto published a very extensive review of HP's 2nd generation TouchSmart PC . The new HP TouchSmart PCs are a follow-up to the 1st generation HP TouchSmart PCs which were released in January of 2007. The 1st generation HP TouchSmart PC was one of the first consumer PCs that took...

Now that CES 2008 has officially ended, I wanted to take a moment to do a round-up and wrap up post on CES coverage both here and from others. Featured Community members did some coverage on their sites of CES this year. Josh Phillips from Windows Connected has Day 1 and Day 2 write-ups of his experience...

Today, Esther is going to show off the Previous Versions. This feature is part of the Shadow Copy feature in Windows Vista. This is a really helpful feature that has saved me numerous times! It essentially makes incremental back-ups of your work - so if you accidentally delete content, you can find it...

We're announcing quite a few new languages available of the Windows Search 4.0 Preview today. The following languages are available for download for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008: Arabic (Only for Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008) Brazilian Portuguese...

It occurred to me recently that managing my finances through my bank's online services was becoming a real pain. I decided to start using Microsoft Money 2007 to manage all my accounts. Instead of going down to my local Staples, I checked out Windows Marketplace to see whether they had the program -...

The Origami Experience 2.0 has been released for download on the Microsoft Download Center today! Download: Origami Experience 2.0 The Origami Experience 2.0 is designed for Ultra-Mobile PCs that run Windows Vista. To run the Origami Experience 2.0, a UMPC with the following specifications is recommended...

In New York City this week, Microsoft has invited over 200 members of the press to visit the Windows Consumer Experience Space at Peter White Studios. There, they will get hands on demos of scenarios that both Windows Vista and Windows Live together enable for consumers. The scenarios at the Windows...

Are you using your blog to talk about using Windows and Windows Live? Do you want to get your post showcased on Microsoft websites? You should join The Clubhouse . The Clubhouse is a place that brings together people using their blogs to help others how to use the best parts of Windows and Windows Live...

A couple of days ago, my old wireless desktop set (mouse and keyboard) had its receiver die on me. So I had to go out and grab another wireless desktop set for my PC. Microsoft offers some great wireless desktop sets but I decided to go with Logitech's Cordless Desktop S 510 . The Logitech Cordless...

Ever in need to search for a Certified for Windows Vista device? I've got the site just for you. A few weeks ago I needed to find some Certified for Windows Vista devices in a specific category: printers. I was directed by a friend to the Windows Vista Hardware Compatibility site where they offer a searchable...

A few weeks ago Tim Sneath, who is a Group Manager and Evangelist at Microsoft, posted about Family.Show which caught my eye. I decided to give it a try. Family.Show is a genealogy application built on the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) by a company called Vertigo . Family.Show is a very slick...