Windows Vista

Fishbowl brings Facebook on your desktop

November 20, 2009 13:24 pm by Jal

Today’s technological scenario is all about integration and making every task simpler and every information easily accessible. Well, similar are the thoughts of UXLabs at Microsoft. They have created a very sleek Facebook client application that brings the complete Facebook experience right on your Windows desktop – Fishbowl.

Although in a ‘trial’ (beta) stage, Fishbowl offers some features that surely will excite Facebook power users. Apart from the seamless integration with Facebook, here are some of the plus points of Fishbowl:

» Fishbowl offers mini-mode which is more fun and less obtrusive.

» Smooth user interface and sleek navigation. It supports drag n’ drop pictures to publish them on Facebook. Furthermore, it can go full screen and play a slideshow of your albums.

Fishbowl - Photos

» You can update your status, view your friends’ albums, their updates, news-feeds and other notifications.

Fishbowl - status update

Fishbowl - navigation and notifications

» “Interest Level”, my favorite feature, helps you filter your stream anonymously in order to avoid boring updates from friends.

Fishbowl - interest level

» If you are a Windows 7 user, you can monitor your Facebook stream right from your taskbar using jumplists.

Fishbowl - Jumplists

If you want to give it a try then click the link below.

Download Fishbowl / 6.6mb

Microsoft Pivot: Bringing visual search to life

November 20, 2009 1:29 am by Jal

In PDC ‘09, Microsoft unveiled a prototype called Pivot, created by Microsoft Live Labs that claims to revolutionize the way we search the web by introducing a new dimension called ‘visual search’. Redmond company explains that Pivot lets users experience the web in a more subtle and ‘visual’ way, instead of series of pages.

Powerful, informative and fun – this is what Pivot is, in it’s classical sense. The introductory paragraph of the official Pivot website reads, “We tried to step back and design an interaction model that accommodates the complexity and scale of information rather than the traditional structure of the Web.”

Currently available to a handful of people, you can request for an invite in order to use Pivot. I was lucky enough to get an invite. Upon installation, I was represented with, what seemed like, a homepage:

Pivot can be used in two ways:

» As a regular browser to surf the web

» As a visual search tool to browse collections.

When used as a regular browser, Pivot is just a clone of Internet Explorer, only a bit less customizable. When it comes to rendering pages, it uses the same Trident layout engine used in IE.

The beauty of Pivot is in its ability to browse specially created collections which are infact massive information clusters. As of now, the Live Labs have offered sample Pivot collections to mingle with. Ofcourse users can create their own collections and share it with others. However, understanding the basic architecture and the three types of collections is a bit too nerdy. That is why, Microsoft has challenged developers to create custom collections based on existing web services.

Types of Pivot Collections:

Microsoft Pivot - Collections

Minimum requirements:

» Windows 7 / Windows Vista with ‘Aero’ enabled. (Pivot is not compatible with Windows XP and Windows Server Editions as of now.)

» Internet Explorer 8.

» .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

» 2-GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor.

» At least 256 MB of video memory.

Note: Pivot does not support Intel integrated video chipsets without additional acceleration hardware.

The road ahead…

Considering the strong foundation on which Pivot is built, one can expect it to be helpful in these scenarios:

» Create collections from data in existing online services.

» Use collections as a front end to desktop search.

» Display data sets from academical studies.

» To visualize stock market data.

» Using Pivot for personal photo galleries, or social networks.

Finally, here is a demonstration video of Microsoft Pivot in action.

Demo video:

Download Pivot / 28mb

Note: You are required to enter an installation code without which Pivot won’t install. You can either wait for your installation code or get one from me. I have 2 codes which are good for 19 more installations. Just leave a comment with your e-mail address and I shall give it to you.

100+ free games from Microsoft

November 13, 2009 5:28 am by Jal

Instead of exploring new things all the time, sometimes I dig into what I have already got and I always come up with something new. Very few of us might know that Microsoft also offers lots of free games to its users. ‘The Games’ section in Windows Vista and Windows 7 is often listed in the feature lists but rarely anyone plays the games offered. And if you have checked the link in the ‘Game providers’ subsection lately, then you will find that Microsoft now offers 100+ free games to its users. So if you think you’ve had enough of solitaire and minesweeper, I’d say you do the following:

Click Start > Games. In the ‘Game Providers’ subsection, click ‘More Games from Microsoft’.

Games by Microsoft

Alternatively, you can click here: Microsoft "Play Your Game"

And guess what, that’s it. Just click “Play Now” button to play your favorite games. You can also download trial versions of these games. Enjoy!

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Microsoft SyncToy 2.1 for Windows 7

November 11, 2009 1:39 am by Jal

Microsoft SyncToy needs no introduction. It is an excellent freeware utility that syncs files and folders and is mostly used for sharing multimedia and documents across computers and also used for backing up important data.

Microsoft has released its updated version, SyncToy 2.1, with some new features and improvements to meet the Windows 7 standards. The new SyncToy 2.1 has native 64bit support and is available for both (x86 and x64) architectures.

SyncToy 2.1’s help section enlists these new features:

» New Platform: SyncToy 2.1 uses the latest synchronization engine from Microsoft Sync Framework 2.0.

» Better Performance: File copy speed is significantly increased.

» Exclusion Filtering Based on Name: File exclusion based on name with exact or fuzzy matching.

» Improved Robustness: Instead of failing the whole synchronization session on an unknown single file error (including network issues), SyncToy 2.1 flags the error and continues with the remaining files.

Download Microsoft SyncToy 2.1 / 3.5mb

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Blogger Buddy – Gadget for bloggers

November 9, 2009 0:47 am by Jal

Blogger Buddy widget for Windows Vista and Windows 7

Blogging is amazing when it is unrestricted and hassle-free. And to make blogging a smooth experience, there are many desktop blog-publishing applications available but most of them are ‘typical’ softwares that you need to install. Some might require you to download a suite in order to get a simple blog-publishing application. Here is something for those who love blogging on Blogger and hate installing a blog-publishing software – Blogger Buddy.

Blogger Buddy is a Windows Vista/Windows 7 Gadget that lets you create new posts and publish them to your Blogger blog. It also lets you preview the content before you publish.

Although a mere 120kb download, this small utility has full fledged text editor where you’ll find everything you need.

Blogger Buddy widget for Windows Vista and Windows 7

Features of Blogger Buddy:

» Unlike a typical blog publishing software, Blogger Buddy is a Windows Vista/Windows 7 Gadget.

» Just 120KB download size and low on resources.

» Rich text editor.

» Post previews are available before publishing to Blogger blog.

So, if you are a Blogger user out there, I would recommend you to use thisgadget for posting to your blog just because it is too hassle-free and has a footprint of an ant.

Download Blogger Buddy / 120kb

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Display any file or folder in ‘My Computer’ window

November 7, 2009 23:15 pm by Jal

This is a very cool trick that saves time and doesn’t require any 3rd party software. If you want any folder or a file shortcut to be placed right in the ‘My Computer’ window, then you can do that by following these simple steps:

1) Make a shortcut of the file/folder (‘Right click’ > ‘Create shortcut’)

2) Place the shortcut in this folder:

C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts

Make sure you change <Username> to the user’s name of your computer.

Done! You have now placed a shortcut of your file/folder in the ‘My Computer’. I have tested this on Windows 7 and Windows Vista and it’s pretty neat.

[via HackTheUgly and TWC]

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Fix: Vista to 7 upgrade stuck at 62%

November 4, 2009 5:07 am by Jal

Recently many users all round the world have been facing this very strange issue where the updrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 stucks at 62%. Users complained that the upgrade just sits there at 62% no matter how long you wait.

However, Microsoft has quickly identified it as some issue with the Windows IPv6 helper service that stops responding during an update which causes it to get stuck at 62% and have come up with a solution.

Warning: Use this solution only if you are experiencing the exact problem. i.e. Upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 stucks specifically at 62%. Do not use this solution otherwise.

Solution:

Restart the computer and let your system automatically roll back to Windows Vista.

Click

, right-click Computer, and then click Properties.

In the window that opens, click the Advanced tab, and then click Environment Variables.

Click the New button.

Enter MIG_UPGRADE_IGNORE_PLUGINS into the Variable name field.

Enter this text: iphlpsvcmigplugin.dll into the ‘Variable value’ field.

Click OK thrice to close all open dialog boxes.

Re-launch Windows 7 Upgrade installer!

Thanks to Lee Mathews and Microsoft for providing the solution.

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