Windows Vista Team Blog

At MIX07 this week I came across a cool new plug-in for IE7 called Me.dium that I thought you should know about.  It"s currently a Beta release but works just fine for me on IE7.  While at first blush it might look like an instant messaging competitor, Me.dium"s aim is different:  it"s designed to create connections between people viewing the same web site and uses collaborative filtering to suggest similar sites that might be of interest to its users.  Their database collects URLs you"ve visited and chosen to share, your most recently visited web pages, your friends list and any other profile information you choose to share in order to run this data through their algorithm and generate a list of other sites relevant to one you"re currently visiting, and consequently of potential interest to you.

 

The Me.dium folks, led by founder and inventor Robert Reich, had a session yesterday at this year"s MIX where he introduced their creation to the audience and demonstrated its value to the developers, designers and press in attendance.  He also announced Beta support for IE7 at the session; the product already supported FF 1.5 and 2.0 prior to this week.

In short, Me.dium demonstrates the fact that our actions and even thoughts are implicitly affected by those around us and in the meantime create a rich data set for predicting end-user behavior.  It"ll be interesting to see where it and other innovations of its ilk head in the future.

Today MIX07 kicks off at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas with the keynote by Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie and General Manager Scott Guthrie. You can continue to catch live, on-going coverage at the Visit MIX website.

Let me take a moment to quickly outline the many announcements that occurred today.

 

An updated Windows Live Dev website (dev.live.com) has launched and includes brand new controls for developers to tap into Windows Live Services when building mash-ups.  Those new controls include a Spaces Photo Control and updated Windows Live Contacts control.  The Windows Live Spaces control released allows third-party developers to integrate Windows Live Spaces functionality into their websites.  CNET has covered the Windows Live platform news coming out of MIX this week.

    

The Silverlight Team has several major and exciting announcements that have occurred this morning:

• An updated www.microsoft.com/silverlight website
• Silverlight 1.0 Beta plug-in for browsers is now available here
• A CTP  (Community Technology Preview) for Silverlight 1.1 was released, adding the .NET runtime
• The Silverlight community website, Silverlight.net, has launched.  This website showcases a number of places where you can have the full Silverlight experience, such as at 20th Century Fox"s Trailer Library (you"ll need the plug-in, of course).

Silverlight Streaming with Windows Live has launched in as an Alpha (i.e., pre-Beta) service.  You can upload your Silverlight projects to this hosted service to take advantage of 4GB of project storage "in the cloud."  The idea is to give developers and web designers a convenient place for them to host and stream their content, which they can then integrate into their browser services using Silverlight Streaming.

 

The Microsoft Expression Studio has been released as a suite consisting of Expression Design, Expression Web, Expression Blend and Expression Media.  Attendees of MIX07 were given a special commemorative edition of the Expression Studio suite.  You can dip your toes into incorporating Silverlight into your web creations using the preview version of Expression Blend 2.0 and the trial version of Expression Media Encoder.

This is just a brief overview of the announcements made today at MIX07, with more to come.

The Sliverlight crew has put together a Silverlight DreamScene that they call "Dusk" and are releasing at MIX07 this week, in both standard 4:3 and widescreen 16:9 aspect ratios.  The downloads are part of an updated Silverlight-enabled site that the team will be unveiling on Monday 30 April.

But, as Brandon points out in his post, you can get them ahead of everyone else.  He has a video of the download as well in case you want to preview it.

Keep your eyes right here on the blog for more MIX07 news ...

Over the last couple of months, we’ve been working on some Certified for Windows Vista demo videos, which I’ll be posting here over the coming weeks.  We shot the videos at my house to showcase a bunch of the Certified for Windows Vista and Works with Windows Vista devices and how they all work together and take advantage of some of the great new features in Windows Vista.  We shot the videos using Canon’s new high-def HV20, which is Certified for Windows Vista.

 

The video I’ve posted here is all about capturing digital memories, using the Canon PowerShot SD900 (which is also Certified for Windows Vista), and then showcasing some cool things that you can do with Windows Vista once you import your photos into Windows Photo Gallery.

 

[Go to the site to view embedded SoapBox video]

 

Also, we’re still running the sweepstakes, so go and enter to win thousands of dollars of Certified for Windows Vista products. Check back for future posts and more videos!

 

Click here for general information on the Windows Vista Logo Program.

 

You may have noticed a small change in the look of our blog today in the addition of "The Windows Experience" label to the header above the Windows Vista News section.  As you will surely surmise, today we"re launching a new sister blog to compliment the Windows Vista Team blog; and, of course, this new blog will be called The Windows Experience.  The new blog will be managed by my colleague Brandon LeBlanc and will document his use of Windows Vista in various scenarios (think hi-def video, photography, virtualization, networking, etc), using video and photos to convey his experiences as much as possible.

 

The aim of the two blogs is to jointly illustrate the what, why and how of Windows Vista while continuing to generate conversations about the product and respond to the questions and concerns of you, the community.  So not to worry, the existing Team blog"s reason for being and my role in it do change.

 

We"re excited about this new development and hope you will be, too.  Your comments are always welcome, so feel free to let us know what you think as we move forward (once we"ve got some material on the new blog, that is).  In the meantime, please join me in welcoming Brandon and head over to the new Windows Experience blog to check out his initial post.

Windows Longhorn Server Beta 3 has received sign-off from the LHS Team and is now available for download.  You can also get LHS Beta 3 from MSDN, Connect, and it might even be distributed at WinHEC -- stay tuned!

So why does this matter to you, a user of the Windows Vista client?  Well, if you use Windows Vista in a corporate environment, chances are your IT staff also employs Windows Server as well.  The new LHS has been designed to work hand-in-hand with Windows Vista, allowing new generations of applications and solutions to seamlessly integrate into existing server environments.

LHS shifts more of the processing to the client side of the equation, thus enhancing responsiveness throughout the system and allowing individual users (clients) greater span of control.  For example, LHS allows clients to render print jobs locally before sending them to print servers in order to reduce the load on the server and thereby increase its availability.  Also, server resources are cached locally on the client so that they are available even if the server is not, with those cached copies automatically updating when the client and server are reconnected.  Native IPv6 is also supported across all client and server services so as to create a more scalable and reliable network, with the re-written TCP/IP stack making network communication faster and more efficient.

Here"re a few examples of what the LHS UI looks like:

 

The LHS Team is very excited about this release and created a short video starring Server Program Management Director Iain McDonald and members of the dev team to celebrate.

Last month we posted an update to the Windows Vista Gadgets Competition on Code Project.  Now that the competition is complete, the team behind it would like to thank everyone who entered.  The goal of the contest was to deliver 20 quality Sidebar Gadgets; we surpassed our goal considerably with a total of 29 gadget entries.  The source code for the top 10 gadgets was downloaded by about 159,000 developers.

Join us in congratulating the winners, and give their gadgets a whirl and let us know what you think:

Soapbox Video Gadget

 

and

.NET Interop for Gadgets – A C# GMail Inbox Reader Example

An Honorable Mention was earned by A Virtual Earth slide show Gadget for Windows Vista.

This contest was certainly a success in encouraging developers to create interesting and quality Windows Vista Sidebar Gadgets.  Thanks to everyone who entered!

If you run Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate editions (why run anything other than Ultimate?), you may notice that Windows Update contains an update for Media Center on both 32- and 64-bit systems.  You can download the update directly from the Microsoft Windows Update Web site or from the Windows Download Center (x86 or x64).

I"m glad to see the arrival of the April 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista, as it resolves the following issues, some of which have annoyed me:

• The video may appear to freeze when the movie begins in some DVDs
• When you rotate a picture during a slide show in Windows Media Center, the wrong photo may be rotated
• The cover art for recorded TV movies may not appear in the DVD library view
• When you delete a picture in Windows Media Center, you may receive an error message
• When you try to play a DVD by using Autoplay, you may receive an error message

The update also provides the following improvements:

• Online Media support has been added for Windows Media Center on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate
• Video Playlist support has been added for Windows Media Center Extenders
• Improvements have been made to Online Media caching

There"s also another change that affects those of you using Windows Media Center Extenders.  Windows Media Center Extenders, such as the Microsoft Xbox 360, use network ports to communicate over the network to computers that are running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate.  This cumulative update contains updates to Media Center programs that may have been previously configured as "approved" or "allowed" by a third-party firewall.  If you use a third-party firewall, you may have to manually update your firewall to let the new versions of these programs access the ports.  If you do not perform these firewall updates, you may experience failures when you try to connect the Windows Media Center Extender to the Media Center computer.

On 31 May 2007, all Customer Preview Program (CPP) pre-release versions of Windows Vista will expire.  If you are running a pre-release version of Windows Vista (Beta 2, RC1 or RC2), you will begin to receive warning notifications about the upcoming expiration on 18 May.  To avoid work disruption and loss of data, we strongly recommend that customers running any of these pre-release versions of Windows Vista migrate their PCs to the final version of Windows Vista prior to 31 May.

For more information on migrating away from CPP versions, please go to http://www.windowsvista.com/preview.mspx.  We"ve included below a listing of frequently asked questions to help those of you still running a pre-release version of Windows Vista on your PCs to get started.

CPP Expiration FAQ

1. Can I install editions of Windows Vista other than Windows Vista Ultimate?

Yes, it is possible for you to install other editions (except for Windows Vista Enterprise) of Windows Vista (e.g., Windows Vista Home Premium).  To install a different edition, you will need to purchase the Upgrade version of that edition and perform a clean installation.  You must back up any data, as this process will overwrite all data that you have on your hard disk or on your installation partition.  The overwritten data will be lost and unrecoverable.

2. Are there any discounts available to Customer Preview Program participants?

There are no product discounts specifically for participants in the Customer Preview Program; however, because you are using a pre-release version of Windows Vista Ultimate, you can purchase and use the Upgrade version of Windows Vista.

3. What will happen to my data after the expiration date?

After 31 May 2007, customers who continue to use pre-release versions of Windows Vista will be able to log in for 2-hour sessions to retrieve data.  After 2 hours of use, the PC will automatically reboot without providing the opportunity to save data.  The opportunity to log in normally for these 2-hour sessions will be available only until 28 August 2007.  It is strongly recommended that PC users running any of these pre-release versions of Windows Vista migrate their PCs to the final version of Windows Vista or another operating system prior to 31 May.

4. What will happen to my PC after the expiration date?

After 31 May 2007, customers who continue to use pre-release versions of Windows Vista will be able to log in for 2-hour sessions to retrieve data.  After 2 hours of use, the PC will automatically reboot without providing the opportunity to save data.  The opportunity to log in normally for these 2-hour sessions will only be available until 28 August 2007.  It is strongly recommended that PC users running any of these pre-release versions of Windows Vista migrate their PCs to the final version of Windows Vista or another operating system prior to 31 May.

5.  Is there a breakdown of the upgrade options available to users of the various CPP pre-releases?

From/To	Windows Vista Ultimate RTM	Other editions  of Windows Vista RTM	Previous version of Windows
Windows Vista Beta 2	Clean install with Ultimate Upgrade	Clean install with Upgrade version of desired edition	Clean install with full version
Windows Vista RC1	In-place upgrade or clean install with Ultimate Upgrade	Clean install with Upgrade version of desired edition	Clean install with full version
Windows Vista RC2	Clean install with Ultimate Upgrade	Clean install with Upgrade version of desired edition	Clean install with full version

A clean install means your current version of Windows, including all of your files, settings, and programs, is automatically replaced.  You must back up any data as this process will overwrite any data that you have on your hard disk or on your installation partition.  The overwritten data will be lost and unrecoverable.

An in-place upgrade means you can install Windows Vista and keep your programs, files and settings from your current version of Windows.  It is still strongly recommended that you back up any data prior to initiating the upgrade.

6. Can I install Windows XP on my PC?

Yes, it is possible for you to install any operating system including Windows XP on your PC.  To install Windows XP on your PC, you will need the CDs of the full version of Windows XP or the original OEM CDs that came with your PC (if any).  You must back up any data as this process will overwrite any data that you have on your hard disk or on your installation partition.  The overwritten data will be lost and unrecoverable.

7. Can I "roll back" to Windows XP?

As was noted at the outset of the Customer Preview Program, you cannot roll back to the previous operating system installation -- you will either have to purchase and install the final released edition of Windows Vista or re-install a previous version of Windows.

Please, do yourself a favor and upgrade to any edition of the RTM version of Windows Vista before 31 May.

In a recent post, Internet Explorer Program Manager Chris Wilson talks about his team"s presence at the upcoming MIX07 and sets expectations for what his team will cover there.  [SPOILER ALERT]  The long and short of it is that his team isn"t yet prepared to discuss future plans.  "We"ve gathered input from customers for the next version of IE through formal research like user studies and surveys, and also at conferences, comments on the IE blog, and direct emails from you; we will continue to listen at MIX07," Chris writes.  Chris says the IE Team "will have more information to share about the next release in the future, but MIX07 is too early yet to discuss specifics."

Just as IE7 was a huge focus for MIX last year, the recent announcement of Silverlight will receive the lion"s share of attention at this year"s event (there are 16 sessions covering the topic to some degree).  Some of the other sessions planned are:

• Making Money With RSS with Walter VonKoch
• Thinking In CSS: How To Build Great Looking Websites with Molly Holzschlag
• How To Make AJAX Applications Scream On The Client with Cyra Richardson
• IE7: Past, Present and Future with Chris Wilson

If you"re planning to be at MIX07, the IE Team"s sessions are a great way for you to understand what they were thinking with IE7 and the challenges they looked to resolve.  Be sure to give them feedback and suggestions for their future work.  And of course, keep an eye on the IE blog for updates and news.