Windows 7 News

Microsoft have kicked off the Mix ‘10 event today with news about Windows Phone 7 including the unveiling of the new marketplace. Applications written for previous versions of Windows Mobile won’t be compatible with the new phones, and there are much stricter guidelines [for this read, rules] for developers this time around.  Clearly, Microsoft want to influence app developers the way Apple has to create a unified experience across all apps on the phone. The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace has everything you need to kick off with, credit card purchases, operator billing and ad-supported content.  There’s also a try-before you buy facility built in.  A simple way to purchase programs using just two clicks is an obvious attempt to make the new marketplace as accessible and easy to use as possible. In addition to this, Microsoft have also today released test versions of the app development software, which was widely reported to have been based on their Silverlight interactive plug-in.  Developers will already be able to get their apps together (did you like that, I’m quite proud of it!) and this will help the new phones to launch with a relatively full marketplace by the times the final launch comes around in Q4 2010. The marketplace will also be the central location for buying music and, I’m sure, a great many other things in the future.

The full story can be found on Windows 7 News

The Context menu is often overlooked by many users. This is a pity as it provides lots of quick ways to get on with the job. I am writing three articles about Context Menus.  In this, the first, I’ll explain what is a Context menu and tell you a little of the  History of the Context Menu and then show where you can access them. All it needs is a right-click and “ Hey presto !” and a context menu appears!  Tip! However if you have problems right-clicking with the Mouse select the object and press the Window Context key.

The full story can be found on Windows 7 News

If you are like me, you prefer to use one browser over the others. For me, that browser is Google Chrome. I use it for my daily work, but on occasion I will use Internet Explorer, especially if I have to enter a secure Microsoft Site. Other browsers just will not work well. But I have found that when I use other browsers, I start to look at my bookmarks to access different sites, only to find that they are not there. Moreover, the import operations that I’ve used when I’ve installed a new browser have not gone as well as I would like. But now there is a third-party program, Transmute, that will do the importing and exporting for you.

The full story can be found on Windows 7 News

In case you were not aware, online video is popular. The number of unique viewers from last month was up 10.5 percent from the previous year, but down slightly from the month before, according to Friday data from Nielsen. CNN, Microsoft, and AOL saw large gains, though YouTube, Yahoo, and Facebook were the top online brands ranked by unique viewers. Unique viewers were up from 127.6 million in February 2009 to 141 million in February 2010

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As security bulletins go, this March so far, Microsoft has only released a one security bulletin for Windows. But, a Security Release ISO Image was made available for download on March 9, 2010. The ISO image patch is made available to IT Admins who need to get the security patch without resorting to use the Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or through some other automated solution that will present the patch for delivery and installation. This ISO release image contains multiple language versions of MS10-016. This is a security update that MicroSoft has offered to Windows users through Windows Update on March 9, 2010. It is designed to contain a hole in Windows Movie Maker program.

The full story can be found on Windows 7 News

Poor, poor Bill Gates. The guy is now only the second richest person in the world. It’s a good thing he’s got the foundation to keep him busy, or else he might be taking this pretty hard. According to Forbes’s annual ranking, the new richest person in the world is Carlos Slim Helú, the CEO of Mexico’s Telmex, Telcel and América Móvil.

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Microsoft made quite a splash last year with its new Bing search engine. Though still a distant second, Bing, according to recent reports, is gaining on Google and watching Yahoo fade. How is Microsoft doing it?

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The Run command became accessible through the Start menu starting with Windows 95. It also became accessible with the shortcut key. (Windows key + R). The Run command is present in Windows Vista, but it no longer appears directly on the Start menu by default in Windows7.

The full story can be found on Windows 7 News

There’s almost a constant flow of rumors floating around the web as to when the next service pack from Microsoft will be released, not to mention what it might possibly include. We’ve heard news that it may include support for USB 3.0 and improved bluetooth support as well as several other things. However we have still been left in the dark over a release date for SP1 and we’ve also been wondering,  Does Windows 7 really need a Service Pack? Well according to some good old speculation from Malaysian Site TechARP.com and some “reliable sources” Microsoft will send out 7 SP1 by Q4 of 2010

The full story can be found on Windows 7 News

ComScore released its search engine traffic results for February, and once again, it’s good news for Microsoft–once again, at the expense of Yahoo. Bing is continuing its slow but steady crawl to number two, rising from 11.3 to 11.5 percent of the search market. Yahoo dropped from 17.0 to 16.8 percent from January to February. Google, meanwhile, managed a slight bump for the month of February, from 65.4 to 65.5 percent of the U.S. search market.

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