Buy a Vista-capable PC today and get an upgrade when Vista hits the shelves in the new year. The manufacturers currently taking part in this offer are: Dell Fujitsu Lenovo HP Medion NEC Sony Toshiba (website not ready yet) From the looks of it they are...

The friendly chaps over at the Microsoft.com UK Partner site have provided me with space on their streaming server which means that you can watch the screencasts I've produced in glorious high quality rather than compressed on Soapbox . I've also gone...

The user experience is a high priority for Windows Vista, and part of that "experience" are the sounds that come with the operating system. It's incredible the amount of work that goes in to capturing that perfect sound to represent different events in...

This ones for the IT admins out there. When applying Group Policy Objects (GPOs) in active directory using WMI Filters, you can figure out whether a computer is running Vista or Longhorn Server by using the following queries: For Vista SELECT Version...

Talk about last minute, but the guys over on the Shell Team managed to get the problem with setting background images working properly and push a bug fix into the RTM code - looks like I need to download and install another build!!! Maybe I should just...

Be the envy of all your colleagues when you turn up to meetings with this fantastic Windows Vista Lanyard! It'll be the perfect way to keep your ID badge and/or ReadyBoost USB Pen handy wherever and whenever you need it! These lanyards are seriously sought...

The latest screencast insallment is on Vista deployment; to give it the proper name - Business Desktop Deployment (BDD). So what's behind the acronym? Well, BDD provides one solution with which businesses can plan, build and deploy Windows Vista to their...

Now in high definition (relative to Soapbox): Tablet Input Panel Screencast (9.2 MB WMV) Technorati tags: Vista , Screencast

I'm currently preparing a Bitlocker screencast for your viewing pleasure and recently noticed one of the side effects of applying Bitlocker on your drive. Well it's not really a side-effect it's just proof that it works! I was running another build on...

There have been lots of questions on UAC (User Access Control) coming in to me over the past couple of months, so I thought I would put together a FAQ on UAC: If I was to run all users as administrators, what is the difference with these two configurations...

Soapbox is great, but it does process videos when they upload and much of the quality is lost when this happnes. I've fed this problem back to the Soapbox team but in the meantime, I've had requests to post higher quality movies which I'm going to start...

I've been talking recently about the cool stuff you can do when developing applications on Windows Vista and if this has struck a chord with you, I'd recommend your next step is to check out the Innovate on portal for Vista. To assist you in developing...

Software vendors are already busy developing their range of next generation applications based upon beta versions of Vista so that they are ready to launch them at the same time as Vista. So what new stuff will you see with Vista based applications? Well...

The Office 2007 platform is nearly ready and as such, it would be rude not to show the developer community how to create new Office code that connects to existing business applications. In all the companies I've worked for tools like Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint...

I saw a post on Zune Insider that talked about the battery life of the Zune player and it got me thinking about how the numbers stack up against the competition. So I pointed IE7 over to Apple's iPod website and Creative's Zen website and took a look...

I know my team have been having some issues when running Live Meeting on Vista so I just wanted to post about this hotfix for the console that will allow you to view live meetings on Vista. The issue was that in some more locked-down IT environments the...

Developer Webcasts .NET 3.0 Series: Windows Presentation Foundation Overview Monday, October 23, 2006 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US & Canada) .NET 3.0 Series: Cardspace Overview Monday, October 30, 2006 10:00 AM Eastern Time (US & Canada) MSDN Webcast...

There's a week left to take advantage of the free technical support trial for small businesses in the UK. This entitles you to 45 days of free network, server configuration or software deployment support for you and your business. On an ongoing basis...

I've been wanting to post this screencast for a while now - because it shows off one of the killer features in Vista - Windows Meeting Space. Imagine the scenario; you've sat down for a coffee in your favourite caffeine outlet and you're meeting with...

Are your apps ready to take advantage of the Office 2007 System? If not then you need to get started, because the last thing you want is to be left behind. We've put together a website so that you can better understand the opportunity and leverage the...

The Sidebar in Vista is a dock for small, lightweight applications that provide useful information at the user's fingertips. There's a growing community creating all kinds of gadgets from Virtual Earth maps to eBay searches - all these are downloadable...

Exchange Server 2007 Virtual Labs These labs will walk you through administration in Exchange Server 2007 by exploring the Exchange Management Console and Shell, enforcing compliance and retention policies, and you'll see how mobile devices interact with...

Windows Vista introduces a number of new technologies , among them one called Windows ReadyDrive that works in conjunction with new hybrid hard drive technology to improve the performance of your PC. Windows ReadyDrive makes use of non-volatile flash...

Envisioning Session (Vista & Office 2007) Date: 1 st November Audience: Senior BDM / TDM Purpose: talk about opportunities technology brings to partners. Registration URL: Nov 1: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032313066&Culture...

Gadgets for the sidebar are coming out thick and fast - just check out the Windows Live Gallery where you can download gadgets for the SideBar in Vista or for your Windows Live Homepage. My latest find is the postage calculator for the Royal Mail in the...