LiveSide - News blog : Vista

Windows Live Video Messages – new tech preview coming soon (sidebar gadget available for download now)

Chris — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:48:21 GMT

You kill one service, and another one springs up to take its place. The Windows Live Support and Feedback sites helpfully spilled the beans on Windows Live Video Messages, a new beta service that ties in with the LifeCam range of webcams.

As we mentioned in our recent post on the new upcoming LifeCams, the VX5500 and the LifeCam Show, the new devices are compatible with a a Windows Vista sidebar gadget. Turns out this gadget is part of the new Video Messages service, along with a to-be-released web portal.

The Video Messages service allows all webcam users to send video messages to friends and family, even if they are offline. The bonus is that if you are using a LifeCam, you can do this direct from your desktop using the sidebar gadget.

Thought the website says the tech preview is coming to the public on 9th September, if you say you’re a member of the press you get presented with the gadget download link immediately. Groovy. No 64-bit version we could find though I’m afraid. Warning, we tested this without LifeCams installed and the entire sidebar disappeared. Let us know if you have any luck though.

So, 1.5 years after the launch of Windows Vista, we finally have our first official Windows Live sidebar gadget, not counting the Live Search (Maps) ones of course. Looks like things are on the up!

Totally off-topic, we heard whisperings of a contractor developed Messenger sidebar gadget about a year ago. I wonder what rabbit-hole that disappeared down…

Via PP2

Microsoft releases public beta of Windows Search 4.0

Chris — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 06:25:51 GMT

Microsoft has just released a public beta of Windows Search 4.0, an update to the existing search technologies in Windows XP and Windows Vista. The knowledge base article lists the main updates as:

Support for the Encrypting File System (EFS)
Reduced affect on Microsoft Exchange when you index e-mail in online mode, and there is no local cache (.ost)
Support for indexing online delegate mailboxes
Support for client-to-client remote query to shared indexed locations (ie you can search other PCs running Windows Search 4.0)
Improved indexing performance
Faster previewer updates for Windows XP
Per-user Group Policy settings
Windows software updates for Watson errors
Support for the following new enterprise Group Policy objects:

While this is definitely an update aimed at the enterprise market, most probably removing some disincentives for adoption of Windows Vista too, there are some significant performance benefits to be had for consumers as well.

Installation on Vista took me just a few minutes, and after a reboot the first thing you'll notice is that nothing has changed. No new icon in the system tray, no splash screen on startup, nadda. You'll know something is different when you start a search from the taskbar, as results load significantly quicker. ~~Unfortunately I'm unable to search for music files at the moment, but hey that's why the beta tag is on.~~ If you have your personal folders (Documents/Music etc) mapped to another location, you’ll need to manually add it to the indexer via the Control Panel (thanks Brandon).

This technology is something we've spoken about before over a year ago when Steve Ballmer demoed it as Windows Live Search Center. (Quick recap, it was also called OneView and Casino). As Microsoft PR tell MJF, Windows Search 4 provides an "update to Windows search functionality, while Casino was a research project." It just happened to be a research project demoed at the Worldwide Partner Conference.

Download Windows Search 4.0 Preview

Yes, the Live Search and Live Search Traffic gadgets are gone: security concerns cited

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:35:00 GMT

We've received some tips and comments about the Live Search Traffic gadget for Vista being removed from Windows Live Gallery when it updated last week, and indeed it is gone, along with the Live Search gadget. In an email to Donavon West, who wrote both gadgets and also posts here on LiveSide, I asked about the missing gadgets. He replied, in part:

The traffic gadget AND the Live Search gadget were both pulled because of possible security concerns. I'm working on an article that will talk about these concerns.

Specifically if the case of the traffic gadget, it loads a script file from the Internet (the Virtual Earth API script). Doing so is now decreed my Microsoft as a no-no.

in loading scripts off of the Internet (as a sidebar gadget), a ner-do-well can interject malicious code via a MitM attack (man-in-the-middle). While this can be done on any plain ole webpage, doing so in the Sidebar can be exceptionally malicious as the code runs in the context of the logged in user and can do all sorts of evil things like delete files.

Microsoft has not contacted me about re-writing the gadget to alleviate this problem. Frankly, I'm not sure anything can be done about it (at least easily).

Donavon goes on to cite an MSDN article titled "Inspect Your Gadget" that offers guidelines on writing secure gadgets. Donavon has promised to update us when his article is published, in a week or two. But for now, the gadgets are gone from Gallery, and using the traffic gadget opens up at least the possibility of cross-site scripting attacks.

Hopefully these popular gadgets will return in a more secure form soon.

The most common Windows Live installation problems

Kip Kniskern — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:20:00 GMT

Thanks to Mess.be for spotting this - a Knowledge Base article on what to do if you can't get Windows Live apps to install. The article lists the most common problems:

•The system does not meet the minimum requirements for the Windows Live service.
•You are trying to install the selected Windows Live service while you are logged on to the computer as a user who does not have administrator permissions.
•You have an earlier version of the Windows Live service installed.
•A file that must be overwritten is being used by another program.
•Another software application blocked the installation of the Windows Live service.
•Your installation files are missing required components.

The KB article goes on to detail how to get around Vista's User Account Control quagmire, and in addition, the article provides a link to a zip file that will uninstall Windows Live services:

WL-Beta-remove.zip

..so that one could (hopefully not give up but) start all over again.

Commentary: While these problems seem fairly benign, typical of uninformed users, the existence of this KB article seems to acknowledge that users are having problems with the Windows Live Suite - which may actually cause more problems than it solves. Just ask the 64bit Vista users about that one. Yes we know that a fix is promised for the 64bit issues, but with apps like Windows Live Writer and now Windows Live Photo Gallery and its connection with Flickr, does it make sense to even give the appearance of forcing users to install what will surely be considered "bloatware"?

Live Maps traffic gadget for Windows Vista Sidebar available for download

Chris — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:20:00 GMT

After blogging about this nifty Windows Vista sidebar gadget a little while back, its now available for download on Windows Live Gallery. Even though the purpose of the gadget is pretty clear, Nathan Weinberg has a detailed post describing the in-and-outs. Dennis Cheung thinks that traffic is worse on Valentine's Day than other days, but with this Live Maps traffic gadget installed, you'll be ahead of the game.

Although this is an official gadget, it was created by Donavon West. Great work as usual and probably the first Windows Live gadget of many. If you have any feature suggestions for this gadget please leave them in the comments below.

Yahoo! gets into the Gadget game

Harrison Hoffman — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 01:55:00 GMT

Gadgets, one of my favorite Vista features, allow you to customize your Sidebar and desktop with anything from search boxes to a variety of system tools and games. Microsoft Gadgets, much like Apple's Dashboard widgets, can be developed by anyone, thus allowing for a wide range of customization.

Let the games begin. Now, Yahoo! has officially released their sleek "Yahoo! Search Gadget" for Windows Vista. They employed the help of interface design company The Skins Factory to develop it for them.

That being said, where is the official Live Search Gadget? Yahoo! has you guys beat on your own technology right now and they look good doing it! I was sure that an official one would have been available for the launch, so I'm hoping that it's not far behind. Maybe our own Donavon West wants to take a good crack at it, especially after the success of his Vista Countdown Gadget (which was, by the way, featured in Bill Gates' CES keynote).

I think that it's going to be very interesting to see what different people, websites, and companies do with the Gadget platform over the next few years since it has some incredible potential. Let's hope this is only the beginning.

Download the Gadget here

Vista: Launched

Harrison Hoffman — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 13:26:00 GMT

For those of you living under a rock, Windows Vista has been officially released as of today, January 30th. Bill Gates announced the launch of Vista at an event in New York City today, with the help of the band Angels and Airwaves. We're still waiting to see what kind of Windows Live integration we can expect in the lifespan of Vista aside from the obvious shortcuts to Live products.

I personally have been running the final build of Vista for a couple of months on my laptop, pretty much without incident. In my opinion, it is a big step up from XP and I would highly reccomend Vista to anyone who can run it on their machine.

Apparently, "The Wow Starts Now." Hopefully the "Wow" starts now for Windows Live too. Enjoy the launch day.

Grab the press release here.

Nemo surfaces! Windows Live for TV in the wild

Harrison Hoffman — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 14:33:00 GMT

Here's a little something to kick off our birthday celebration in style! Back in October, we reported on Project Nemo, a Windows Live product for Media Center being developed behind the closed doors of Redmond. Well now the little project has made its debut on Windows Live Ideas (for some reason you must be signed into ideas.live.com with a US Live ID for the link to work).

Ten points for each person you can identify in the shot.

That's right, Nemo is back with a new look and a new name. They're calling it exactly what you would expect, Windows Live for TV. Live TV is an additional program for Windows Media Center which will provide access to Spaces, Messenger, and Live Call, all wrapped up in a ten foot interface. Here's the feature list from Ideas:

• Browse millions of Spaces in rich 3D graphics with new Gallery views and full keyword search
• Find out what your friends have been doing and saying on Windows Live Spaces
• Have real-time text and voice conversations*
• Call your friends' mobile or landline telephones by signing up with Verizon Web Calling to make affordable domestic and international calls**
• Easily navigate with your mouse, keyboard or a TV remote (remote navigation requires Microsoft Media Center Remote and IR)
• Make free PC-to-PC calls to other Windows Live Messenger users.

*Both parties must have compatible webcams, microphones, and speakers
**Requires voice calling in Windows Live Messenger Client

This is how the team blog, In Orbit, defines the application:

"Windows Live for TV is an early beta 3D browser application that makes it easy to connect to your social network as well as friends and family from within Vista Media Center or IE7.0. You're be able to view the best of Windows Live Spaces and communicate with Friends and Family over Windows Live Messenger 8.1 with voice & text chat as well as make a phone call.

Media Center has brought the PC to heart of the home, adding Windows Live services to Media Center will make it easier to stay in touch with your social network. Our goal in creating Orbit is to bring social networking to a new form factor that is both intuitive and fun to use. We built the application in Windows Presentation Framework (.NET 3.0) and it will run within Vista Media Center or directly in Vista hosted IE7.0 browser."

For those of you out there who are hoping to use it on Windows XP Media Center, I think you are going to be out of luck. WL for TV will require a PC running Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate.

It's nice to see that this killer application is getting its chance to shine. You can sign up to test Windows Live for TV here. And so it begins...

Update
Just to be clear, the project is no longer being referred to as Nemo, the new codename is Orbit.

Update 2: Added a couple of shots of my own (Click to Enlarge)