Scott Belluzzi and Sasha Ebrahimi presented at Students Involved with Technology along with my kids, nieces and my daughter’s best friend.  Students Involved with Technology is a yearly conference with presentations by students for students 3rd ...

I received the go ahead to purchase a "techie" gift from my wife this holiday, but decided a family techie gift might be just what we needed. This was before Lenovo's Horizon announcement , so we have the IdeaCenter A720 and a custom coffee table made...

So you took the plunge and you are running Windows 8. This could be on a brand new computer, a system you upgraded or on one of the great new form factors that become tablets or detach or have touch screens. Chances are that you'll still have access to...

ADVANCED TIP FOR THE TECHNICALLY INCLINED: Assuming you didn't jump right in like me and delete your recovery partition on a Windows RT device (haven't tested this on an OEM Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro machine - yet here's the official guidance - http...

Today I posted an advanced tip about deleting the recovery partition on Windows RT. The very first comment indicated readers were considering this without understanding the ramifications, so it’s back in editing mode… The fourth comment was...

WARNING: This is an advanced tip for users that understand the ramifications of deleting a recovery partition. If you have problems in the future and did not back up your recovery files, you will likely need to visit a Microsoft Store. I'm going to do...

Read an interesting article (and fortunately I haven't had need for this yet) on the recovery key location in SkyDrive. http://windows.microsoft.com/recoverykey or http://skydrive.com/recoverykey are links that will redirect you to the location in Skydrive...

This video is a great example of how to use PowerPoint (and just because you can use PowerPoint doesn't mean you should use PowerPoint). It's about 3 minutes in length - 1st minute shows a good presentation (but I DO NOT condone PowerPoint for this type...

I’m using Windows 8 on many different devices, but have a couple still running Windows 7 for one reason or another (main family computer has 3d and Media Center – haven’t upgraded it yet).  Here’s one thing I miss when I’m not in Windows 8 – multiple...

Today marks my 7th anniversary at Microsoft. 7 years ago I couldn't have even imagined where Microsoft was headed. Three versions of Windows and Office (and Server, SQL, etc.) later, the company has delivered on software + services and now has devices...

Taylor Mali has inspired 1,000 teachers through his poetry and 12 year quest. Although he reached the goal, it will be interesting to see how many more will be influenced through those 1,000 and his books, poetry and performances. My wife Eva just finished...

Last week at an event with Intel, we featured the Fujitsu Q702 which I assumed was preproduction because the new Windows 8 logo was featured on it. I was informed that it is a production unit today with Windows 7! Check it out here on Microsoft's OEM...

Today I was setting up a couple URL with the Microsoft Social Experience Platform (SXP) shortening service, aka.ms and in one search on Bing found out that my Microsoft alias, drey , is what you call a squirrel's nest. Instead of typing in blogs.technet...

I discovered this one by accident (thought I was pressing ALT + Print Screen) - in Windows 8 the Windows key + Print Screen takes a screen shot of the entire screen and creates a sequentially named file in the Pictures Library under a Screenshots folder...

Microsoft is marking it’s 30 years in hardware with the announcement of mice and keyboards designed for Windows 8.  Check out that announcement here .  The touch mouse will also have updated device software for Windows 8.  Besides Xbox...

We're almost there - Windows 8 will RTM in a couple of days! Once Windows 8 hits the RTM (or release to manufacturing) milestone, there will be a wave of presentations surrounding this milestone. I was reviewing the PowerPoint templates available to me...

I had someone ask today about advanced searches in Windows 8 and I can honestly say I hadn’t tried one yet.  Here is an example of what I would consider a simple search:  I know I have a file on my computer with “W7” in the title.  Press...

The Office Ribbon is a huge improvement, but on a touch screen what if these options are a little too close together? In Office 2013, there is a touch mode to give you a little extra real estate for you finger. from the customer quick access toolbar...

A few days ago I posted about using Metro applications.  The more time you spend in Windows 8 and in particular the Metro interface it becomes important that even applications that run on the desktop (or desktop mode) need to be able to grab your...

We have a great deck showcasing 8 things about Windows 8, but like many PowerPoint decks, it is designed to be given in a certain order.  Wouldn’t it be great if someone asks you about slide 3 – how Windows 8 connects you to the cloud to jump right...

I’ve been running Windows 8 for well over 6 months as my production operating system, but the funny thing is you wouldn’t normally notice unless you asked “where’s the Windows logo in the lower left hand corner?” and that is because I spend a lot of time...

Tablets are a fairly personal device – almost like your phone, but as many of us with a wife and/or kids know, what’s “mine” is sometimes shared with others.  The personal computers (especially the family all in one desktop) in our home are often...

One of my all time favorite Dilbert cartoons appeared on December 29, 1996 .  It started with “Dogbert’s Tech Support” and a call asking for assistance because a user had reached the edge of their mousepad (the advice includes rebooting without your...

I love my job – Friday I was introduced to the term Lorem Ipsum and not knowing what it meant I typed it into Bing. And then after reading a bit about it on Wikipedia – I discovered another Microsoft Word trick!  This is good enough to share with...

I watched the very first episode of Web Therapy on Showtime, but hadn't kept up with it. Last weekend when I watched the Season 2 premiere I noticed that Fiona Wallice was using Skype on her Mac to communicate with her patients (her new "modality" is...