The UsefulTechnology Blog : Cool

The End: this blog leaps over to Windows Live Spaces

Allister_Frost — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 11:00:00 GMT

I've decided to move my blog to a new home on Windows Live Spaces. I hope you'll move with me.

My new blog URL is http://usefultechnologyblog.spaces.live.com/.

To subscribe to the new RSS feed, simply click this link: http://usefultechnologyblog.spaces.live.com/feed.rss.

Thanks for being with me on TechNet. See you on the other side.

Windows Vista RTMs!

Allister_Frost — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 21:58:00 GMT

Jim Allchin has just announced to the world's press that Windows Vista is now complete and has been released to manufacturing. Let the fun begin! More details here.

Windows Media Player 11 - final release at last

Allister_Frost — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 10:09:00 GMT

Way back in May we released the Beta of Windows Media Player 11. Finally, after exhaustive testing and refinement, we released the final build earlier this week. You can download it now, for free, from here. If you're running Windows XP and have ears, this is a must-have application.

Brainfart with Vista

Allister_Frost — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 09:37:00 GMT

By our standards it's quite subtle, but there's no doubting that Windows Vista is behind this new site at http://www.clearification.com/. If you don't know Demitri Martin (i.e. you are one of the 95% of human beings living outside of the USA) you may not recognise the voice. But you may still enjoy the humor (i.e. humour).

Internet Explorer 7 is launched

Allister_Frost — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 11:40:00 GMT

The world's most popular browser just got better. Internet Explorer 7 was released just hours ago. You can get it from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx.

Screen capture the easy way

Allister_Frost — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 20:17:00 GMT

I'm often asked what tools I use to make screengrabs to include in my blog. I used to use the Snipping Tool which is part of the Tablet PC Experience Pack for Windows XP. So you can imagine my disappointment when, after upgrading to Windows Vista, I discovered that the Experience Pack would not install.

Thankfully the answer (as is often the case) lay in the Search bar under the new Start menu. Simply typing 'snip' showed me that there's a snipping tool built right into Windows Vista allowing me to take and mess around with screengrabs to my heart's content!

Windows Live OneCare beta - free to 18 countries

Allister_Frost — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 16:26:00 GMT

Hurrah! At last, Windows Live OneCare 1.5 is now available for free download in 18 countries around the globe. Despite having a dangerous name for anyone with lazy pronunciation, OneCare is finally out of the blocks on its journey towards global availability.

What is it? "All-in-one PC care for people who have other things to think about" according to the site. And it is. I've been testing this on various computers for some time and have been very impressed to date. Give it a whirl from this site.

Windows Media Player 11 Beta is out

Allister_Frost — Thu, 18 May 2006 03:01:00 GMT

If you use your computer to store or listen to music you're going to love the new Windows Media Player 11 Beta that was released in the last few hours. Searching through my music collection using album art instead of text transforms the experience and the integration with online music stores is very cool. I also like the reverse sync feature which allows you to automatically upload files like photos, videos or simply music from a portable device. I first saw this release in the development labs a year ago and have been wanting to use it ever since. On first experience the wait has been well worth it.

Get it from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/11/default.aspx.