Welcome to my blog! Here you will find all of my articles and editorials that are syndicated to various sites. If you don’t know me, I’m a PC enthusiast, Microsoft MVP, Developer, Author and run a few sites.

Microsoft Office and other Windows Applications store all sorts of personal information when you save a file. Your name, computer name, company, date and time last edited are all examples of data included in a simple Word document file.

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Microsoft has released a new online store for its US based customers where they can buy just about every product Microsoft offers including hardware such as the Xbox 360.  The Microsoft Store also offers the largest online catalog of downloadable Microsoft software including Windows and Office.

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Microsoft Corp. today announced the next generation of Windows Live, an integrated set of online services that make it easier and more fun for consumers to communicate and share with the people they care about most. The new generation of Windows Live includes updated experiences for photo sharing, e-mail, instant messaging, as well as integration with multiple third-party sites.

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It turns out the Windows 7 M3 build 6801 has a hidden early version of the new taskbar that was demonstrated in the PDC keynote. Rafael over at WithinWindows has figured out a clever way to enable the new taskbar. By default, the new taskbar is hidden when the machine is not joined to a Microsoft domain. Rafael has released a program that bypasses that protection and allows the new taskbar to start up.

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For the last few days I have been evaluating Windows 7 on a Lenovo X300 review unit from Microsoft that was loaded with the PDC pre-beta build 6801. Overall, I am very impressed with the reliability, performance and refinement of Windows 7 at this stage of development. Microsoft has not yet even released a beta build and I’m planning on loading Windows 7 on my primary work laptop as soon as I get home.

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For the first time Microsoft shared publicly its Windows 7 vision and development progress at the Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles. So far Windows 7 is shaping up to be a very interesting release. The dev team is already way past the Milestone 3 build 6801 released to PDC attendees. Build 6933 was shown at the keynote and included a lot of interface changes including the new Taskbar and other refinements. For still being a pre-beta build, 6933 looks and feels more like a Windows Vista release candidate.

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Microsoft is working on web versions of its popular office suite that not only replicates the functionality of the desktop apps but also provides a synchronized approach bringing together the online and offline worlds.  Documents can be opened on different devices simultaneously in desktop apps and on the web. Changes made are synced to all devices that have the document open instantly.  Additionally, there is cross browser support including Firefox that Microsoft demoed in the PDC Keynote today

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Today at the Microsoft Developer Conference in Los Angeles Microsoft demoed the latest build of Windows 7. Different from the PDC Windows 7 build that will be given to attendees, a post Milestone 3 build was shown in the keynote that was more feature complete. In fact, the build demoed at the keynote was about 130 builds past the Milestone 3 build.

View our Windows 7 post M3 gallery for dozens of high-res screenshots

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Today during the PDC 2008 keynote Ray Ozzie announced Microsoft “new operating system for the cloud” called Windows Azure. Unlike a traditional Microsoft operating system Windows Azure is a services platform that is hosted by Microsoft in Microsoft data centers. Designed to help developers quickly design with Visual Studio integration and deploy web-based services efficiently by reducing up front technology purchases. In short, Windows Azure is a new way to develop and deploy web apps in an extremely scalable environment managed by Microsoft.

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On my flight from Chicago to Los Angeles for the PDC Conference I had an opportunity to use American Airlines new GoGo in flight internet access. After some ground connectivity issues that lasted about the first hour of the flight and thanks to a determined flight attendant that told me when it was fixed I was able to get connected without any problems. All I had to do is turn on Wifi and connect to gogoinflight that was being broadcast throughout the plane. After I was connected it was just as if I was at a hotel. My web session was redirected to a sign in page where I had to pay $12.95 for unlimited use for the duration of my flight.

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