Microsoft Mania

Microsoft’s Steven Lindsay posted a video a couple months ago showing his top five things you didn’t know you could do with your Media Center PC. Cool tidbits for people who want to get deeper into using a few more of the capabilities of Windows Media Center. Worth the viewing time.

Windows XP Media Center 2005 […]

Gnomie Justin Hall writes:
Hey Chris! Here are some features and improvements I would like to see in Windows 7.

Better driver support. I want to see no limits in what I can hook up to my computer and I don’t want to see error messages because of it.

One thing that bothered me with Vista was I […]

CinemaNow offers a variety of services now available through Windows Media Center:

Download-to-own: Hollywood movies, popular TV shows, and music videos are available for purchase, providing an unlimited viewing period on up to 3 devices. Download-to-own movies are priced from $9.99 to $19.99; TV shows and music videos are priced at $1.99. Download-to-Own movies are available […]

Microsoft Corp. today announced it will offer ad-funded cash rebates to customers who find and purchase their favorite products through a new program called Microsoft Live Search cashback. Key partners including eBay, Barnes & Noble.com, Overstock.com, Sears, Zappos.com, and WPP joined Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates at advance08, Microsoft’s annual advertising customer event, to announce their […]

To celebrate the consumer availability of new Extenders for Windows Media Center, the Windows Media Center team is today unveiling a Digital Home Makeover Contest. For one lucky winner, the makeover team will transform their disconnected digital lifestyle into a home entertainment dream with a prize package totaling up to $10,000.
The Digital Home Makeover […]

Vista SP1 is available (details in the document available at this link and Ed Bott did a great what-to-expect write-up and FAQ), so it’s time to head on over to Windows Update (it’s in your start menu) and grab it. Assuming it shows up in the available updates list, of course. Apparently there are certain […]

Gnomie Tim Malloroy (aka RedFlameOut) writes:
Hey Chris,
I wish I had more time to view and participate in your videos, however, work is killing me right now.
I came across an interesting issue with Windows Defender (which I use as an addition to anti-spyware rather than my only protection).
As part of my security procedures, I periodically make […]

Gnomie Elayne D. Cipolla writes:
Hello Chris, Just finished watching the video on Vista and MS’s “tell it to the hand” attitude toward its bread and butter… the consumer. Having just purchased a Toshiba Satellite laptop at the beginning of February and didn’t hear about the nightmare that is Vista until after I purchased this […]

Gnomie Chris Lang writes:
Hey Chris,
I’m a student at the University of Southampton in the UK and I just wanted to share a concern with you about what Microsoft seem to be doing with Exchange right now in relation to academic institutions and students:

Until Office 2007 came out, when you bought the Home/Student edition of Microsoft […]

Once I got out of automated mode, I woke up and realized that I often use Paste Special with unformatted text when working in MS Word. It became a habit like CTRL+V, CTRL+X, and CTRL+C. To do Paste Special without formatting, I clicked CTRL+V to paste, selected the Paste Special icon (smart tag) and selected […]

The toolbars can move around Outlook, dock or float. You can also change the shape of a floating toolbar and change the size of a docked toolbar. Move any toolbar by selecting the move handle (four dots on the far left side of a toolbar) and moving the toolbar to its new location. For docked […]

Sticking notes all around your monitor and desk? Clear the clutter and use Outlook’s Notes feature. Using Outlook’s Notes instead of sticky notes protects your information since it’s stored on your computer instead of out in the open for all to see. You can even categorize, print and organize these electronic notes.
Open the notes from […]

I’m editing an eBook that requires special formatting for every story. Naturally this was a good fit for a macro. The first macro did all the steps, but fumbled on the call outs. Better idea: create two macros with the second one covering the call outs. This worked like a charm… until I closed Word […]

The Mailbox Cleanup tool shows the size of your folders, archives older items and empties the Deleted Items folder. It doesn’t compact the folder. View Mailbox Cleanup by selecting Mailbox Cleanup from the Tools menu. The tool can do the following:

Display the size of your mailbox and folders.
Find items by age or size.
Run AutoArchive […]

Microsoft has been working to further its attraction to the average user, and since Windows XP, the company has made some fairly significant strides in this area. Overall, Xbox 360 and Media Center have made up for any shortcomings felt in the Vista universe at this point, I think.
Then today, I happened upon something that […]

Gnomie Fred Scharf writes:
Hello, Chris!
I was reading my CPU mag email and the caption “A Volume of Vista Vents” caught my eye. My office/organization is looking to upgrade eventually to Vista, myself and two other cohorts will be tasked to testing Vista Business and the Home Premium. Anyway, I was wondering if there are any […]

Even those who are excited about incorporating new technology into their daily tasks may wonder what Microsoft Excel training could possibly do for them. However, the tricks and tools taught in this training course reveal capabilities about Excel that most people never imagined. The greatest thing about learning the ins and outs of this powerful […]

More than 20 million licenses were sold in the opening month of general availability for the new operating system, as new tools and programs ease the transition for consumers.
Initial sales figures from Microsoft show its new operating system Windows Vista made a splash in its debut. In the first month of Windows Vista’s general availability, […]

Gnomie Graham Batchelor writes:
Chris… I have, I think, found a workaround to (an issue I was having with the Laser Mouse 8000 not cooperating with Vista), and I have passed it on to MS. It worked for me, and maybe, if you have time, you might want to try it to validate it…
You can use […]

Wilton of Tecnetico.com writes:
Hi, Chris!
Just wanted you to know that yesterday we shot an HD video of the moment in which Windows Vista was being sent to manufacturing and the actual disc manufacturing process at Microsoft’s facility in Humacao, a town at the east of Puerto Rico, which is where Tecnetico.com is based.
This factory is […]