The Electric Wand

Weekly tips from the "Tip o' the Week" email distribution inside of Microsoft.
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  • Blog Post: Dell's "anti-crapware" initiative doesn't go far enough

    EwanD
    My wife's small business has recently had a requirement to upgrade a couple of PCs, after 5 or 6 years. Since I am ultimately responsible for all their IT (and I am not proud of what they have - I cut all sorts of corners to make my life easy, but they don't know how lean it is) , I've always bought...
    on 10 Oct 2007

  • Blog Post: Tip o’ the Week #139 – Taskbar fun

    EwanD
    Windows 95 (aka “Chicago”) introduced us to the wonders of the Windows “Taskbar” as a way of managing open apps.  It was a response to people's increased ability and need to multitask in Windows, as previous versions of the OS provided no ready visual indication of how many windows were currently...
    on 28 Sep 2012

  • Blog Post: XP Mode in Windows 7 saved me money

    EwanD
    I've been running Windows 7 at home for a while now, and have been very pleased with it - on a decent spec machine (Quad core, 4Gb RAM, lots of SATA-II disk etc), it absolutely flies. As did Vista before it, if truth be told. When I got this machine, I had it set up to dual boot between Windows Vista...
    on 12 Oct 2009

  • Blog Post: Tip o' the Week #157 - Bing photos R Us

    EwanD
    Everybody loves the lovely photos that feature every day on Bing. Did you know the images can and do differ in disparate markets (eg PRC, USA and UK tend to have different images from each other )? You can set the flavour of Bing you’d like to see on http://www.bing.com/account/worldwide , so if you...
    on 1 Feb 2013

  • Blog Post: Tip o' the Week #104 - Windows 7's clock & date

    EwanD
    One of the neat little design touches of Windows 7 that changed as a result of usage analysis was the calendar that is shown when you click the clock on your system tray. User feedback taught product designers that in previous versions of Windows, users would often go into the " Date & Time Properties...
    on 16 Mar 2012

  • Blog Post: Tip o' the Week #52 - OneNote on 3 screens & a cloud

    EwanD
    After the first year of ToWs, let’s start the 2nd with a short celebration of a cool feature in OneNote – not revolutionary, but the kind of thing that makes one smile when encountering it – somebody really thought about how OneNote was likely being used. Try typing a sum – like 52x1045= (that’s the...
    on 5 Aug 2011

  • Blog Post: Sansa e280 - I took the plunge

    EwanD
    After my post last month about getting a new MP3 player, I went ahead and bought a Sansa e280 8Gb device from Amazon UK. In general I'm pretty pleased with it - battery life looks good, sound quality is good, it supports direct sync from Windows Media Player etc. There are a couple of grumbles though...
    on 30 Jan 2007

  • Blog Post: Seadragon begets Silverlight "Deep Zoom"

    EwanD
    There's a headline that might baffle... Seadragon Inc was a Seattle-based software company who had done a load of work on handling vast quantities of imagery and being able to manipulate the data in real-time, on-screen. Microsoft acquired Seadragon and has been beavering away behind the scenes to finesse...
    on 12 Mar 2008

  • Blog Post: Tip o' the Week #57 - Using Microsoft Tag on Windows Phone

    EwanD
    The “ Tag ” initiative has been around for a little while, in beta guise initially, then general release. The idea is that anyone can generate a 2D “barcode” that can could be a link to a website for more information, could be contact information, some plain text or even a “dialer”...
    on 12 Aug 2011

  • Blog Post: Vista Aero Glass - performance hit (or not)

    EwanD
    Just read an interesting analysis at http://firingsquad.com/hardware/windows_vista_aero_glass_performance/ where they tested a couple of different systems running Windows Vista with Aero Glass switched on and off. ( Windows Aero - if you're not aware of it by name - is the new user interface functionality...
    on 31 Jan 2007

  • Blog Post: Tip o' the Week #58 - Find your meeting, or your Windows Phone

    EwanD
    This week, a couple of smart tips concerning Windows Phone 7. Both revolve around finding something – in one case, how to find your phone if you’re not sure where you left it, and the other, how to remind yourself where you’re going. Dude, where’s my phone...? This tip uses the location services built...
    on 19 Aug 2011

  • Blog Post: Is Blu-ray really "all that"?

    EwanD
    I made the decision to wait until the HD-DVD/Blu-ray format war had been resolved before deciding to give the winner a try. In the interim, about 18 months ago I picked up a new DVD player for about £120, which had HDMI support, did a decent job of upscaling DVDs to higher definition, and (the real reason...
    on 5 Jan 2009

  • Blog Post: Tip o' the Week #128 - Train Tickets & Times on WP

    EwanD
    This week’s tip aims to shine a light on a selection of Windows Phone Apps dedicated to letting the train take the strain. There have been a slew of newly released apps which let you plan your journey, find information about stations and even buy your ticket in advance, ready to collect at a ticket machine...
    on 3 Aug 2012

  • Blog Post: Technology changes during the Blair era

    EwanD
    So Tony Blair stepped down as the UK's Prime Minister this week, just over 10 years since his ascendance to the position. Funnily enough, I got my "10 year" service award at Microsoft recently (a fetching crystal sculpture and a note from Bill 'n' Steve thanking me for the last decade's commitment) ...
    on 27 Jun 2007

  • Blog Post: Tip o’ the Week #69 – Keep your favourites and Office settings synchronised

    EwanD
    We covered using Windows Live Mesh to synchronise OneNote files between computers in ToW #52 , but overlooked one really simple but useful check-box capability – the ability to sync your IE favourites between PCs, and to sync your Office settings too. Jamie Burgess suggested this would be worth covering...
    on 23 Sep 2011