After many years, Microsoft has renewed with the release of Windows 7 operating system. This new version offers some interesting changes that have been well taken by a large number of users that on the launch of Vista, has chosen to keep using their old XP. However, when its being thinking of version 8, many users are still using their old version, though they are looking for having one special tool, Windows 7´s bar.

Use Windows 7´s new bar in your old XP

As a consequence, Seven Transformation Pack has been created, it allows us to emulate Windows 7 environment; this way, we can have Windows 7´s bar: adding the programs and access them directly as previewing applications by just passing the mouse over them (ViGlance).

However, Seven Transformation Pack is not limited to Windows 7´s bar. It also enables to emulate all the aero environment that has this operating system as well as the initial screen.

In short, Seven Transformation Pack makes a total change to our desktop. Adding the new interface to the operating system, particularly its most important aspect as the aero and Windows 7´s bar.

Microsoft is encouraging its users to download Windows Live Messenger 2011 Beta

Microsoft recently announced the release of its Live Essentials 2011 products within Wave 4 framework. Although Windows Live Messenger’s new version could be downloaded for free already, the news is that Microsoft is now encouraging the users to adopt it in view of their favorable response.

Therefore, we may find that our Hotmail account starts to change with the inclusion of banners that encourage us to try Windows Live Messenger 2011 Beta version. In addition, we have the chance to download a badge that identifies us as users of the instant messaging client’s latest version and that we cannot download unless we have installed Windows Live Messenger 2011 previously.

This new version, as everybody knows, includes numerous changes that provide greater integration with social networks, especially with Facebook. It also makes the most of HD technologies that are currently available for videoconferences. On the other hand, Windows Live Messenger 2011 has been enhanced to be used in mobile phones.

Undoubtedly, Windows Live Messenger 2011, as all Wave 4, is a great example of Microsoft’s move towards getting its leadership back in the times of web 2.0 and social networks. This is why they are so eager to advertise it as soon as possible and recover lost ground.

Now we can chat with our Facebook contacts in Windows Live Messenger

Rumor had it that Windows Live Messenger 2010 version would be more integrated with other social networks, and it has been confirmed by Beta versions recently made available. The news is that now we’ll be able to use the application to chat with our Facebook contacts, which satisfies many users’ needs.

Whether we log in from the website or the application, with the new version we can use Windows Live Messenger as a Facebook client. Another characteristic is that if we have duplicated contacts in both accounts, they will be listed only once, so we will be able to choose through which protocol we want to contact him/her.

Thus, Microsoft, which plans on making the service available by the end of this year, takes action as regards the users’ requests for a greater integration between social networks.

The previous integration between Windows Live Messenger and Facebook and Hotmail’s improvements had got a good reception. By adding the possibility of chatting with our contacts from one single interface, Microsoft’s services will surely be back to the top of the users’ preferences list.

Internet Explorer 9’s preview is already available for download

Microsoft has finally released Internet Explorer 9’s preview and it is already available for download. This preview of the platform is mainly intended for web developers and designers to test the most popular browser in the world up to now.

With this preview of the new version, Microsoft wants to re-position its browser in the increasingly competitive market. After losing users worldwide, Internet Explorer 9 seeks to regain them with its new functionalities.

Internet Explorer 9’s preview is just an engine of the browser. It does not include the user interface nor the security options. As far as we can see, this new version enables us to test the improvements in the rendering engine. In Internet Explorer 9’s preview we can test the support for CSS, SVG2, HTML5 and XHTML parsing standards, video and audio tag, for speeding up audio and text.

Before downloading Internet Explorer 9’s preview, it is worth noting that it is only compatible with Vista and 7 operating systems and not with Windows XP.

In 2009 Internet Explorer had another significant lost on the browsers’ market

Ending 2009 it is possible to make a balance about the modifications of the popularity of the different browsers that were registered during this year. Although Internet Explorer is still on top of the statistics, its participation dropped once again.

Internet Explorer, who started the year with almost a 70% of the users, finishes closing with the 62.7%. This 7 points loss added to the almost 8 that had already lost during 2008, lets us state that if it continues that tendency, by the end of 2011, though it will remain as the most used browser, it will have lost half of the market. It’s important to point out that the use of the versions 6 and 7 of the Microsoft browser has considerably decreased. This can mean that a lot of users that abandoned the use of old versions didn’t update it for Internet Explorer 8.0, as the reduction on those it’s not compensated with an increase on the last one.

On the other hand, Mozilla Firefox is still positioned as the second favorite browser, closing the year with a 24.61% of the users. Although its growth wasn’t as spectacular as in 2008, in which it increased in its quarter its participation, it’s important to highlight that it keeps its tendency high.

It could be said that during 2008, the majority of users that Internet Explorer lost moved to Mozilla Firefox, in 2009 the decrease on the Microsoft browser can be attributed not only to Mozilla Firefox’s growth, but above it all, to Chrome’s. The browser lunched by Google closes the year with a participation of 4.63%. The number doesn’t seem so spectacular if you don’t take into account that its launch was just 16 months ago.

Other browsers with a remarkable participation on the market, like Safari and Opera, didn’t suffer many modifications. They kept a high tendency and together they represent the 7% option of the users.

To conclude it can be said that Internet Explorer is the only browser that loses users, and at the expense of which the other browsers like Mozilla Firefox or Chrome, and even Safari and Opera grow. If this situation persists, it won’t take any longer until the giant of the computing is dethroned.

Windows Media Player: the popular multimedia player from Microsoft

It is impossible to talk about multimedia players without making reference to the traditional Windows Media Player, an application that has become very popular between millions of users.

Despite the great variety of multimedia player the market offers nowadays, there are only few which can fulfill the user’s requirements. A good example of this is the player that Microsoft offers for its operating systems, Windows Media Player 11.

This software is very similar to the previous ones but offer new innovations and improvements. The classic menu of the software has been changed and now we can enable or disable it with just one click; like the task bar, which offer different new options such as: Now playing, Library, Copy from CD and Record and synchronize. In addition to this, the browser has also been improved, adding universal buttons like “previous” and “next”.

Regarding multimedia files, the software offers support for different formats and a central place to manage it, the “Library”. This has been designed to automatically group the albums by features as genre, artist, year, etc.; it also offers a new music searcher that allows finding any audio track that is in your computer by writing a key word; what´s more, it is able to create audio tracks lists, according to its maximum qualification, automatically.

This player also includes options for the images, videos and recorded TV that simplify their storage and search. In “Copying” and “Recording”, we will be able to rip and burn the tracks.

We have two options left to talk about, “Synchronize” the player with portable devices, and also accessing music stores. Regarding the first one, we can say that this is one of the greatest innovations of this version that stands out due to the support and compatibility that offers so that the exploration and managing of files that are in the player or iPod can be synchronized automatically.

The main disadvantage of this software is those consumes many resources and slow down its functionality. We will see this frequently if we add many elements to the Library. Another disadvantage is presents are the codec’s since it does not have many of them and we will need to download form the Internet frequently.

In spite of this, we are without a doubt before one of the most complete tools when reproducing audio and video files.

Yahoo switches to Bing search engine

What were initially juicy offers on behalf of Microsoft to acquire Yahoo! -though no deal was ever made- an agreement was finally reached between the two companies in order to fight the Google effect. Yahoo´s search engine steps asides and welcomes Microsoft´s own search engine: Bing, which will develop and offer publicity services, and of the other hand will provide content for Yahoo´s homepage.

The news was announced in a press conference by Yahoo!´s CEO Carol Bartz and Steve Ballmer from Microsoft, who stated their plan to compete with Google and benefit from the merge as well. In this way, their bet seems simple yet promising. They manage to seek a large-scale movement regarding web traffic, ads and services.

As for Yahoo!, this agreement outlines their homepage revamp strategy.

As some of you may recall, last week Yahoo! dropped its concept of content service providers, thus providing more useful services to Yahoo! users. For this reason, this alliance was made to provider Yahoo! users a more significant value- add feature, according to CEO Carol Bartz.

Microsoft in particular, provides Yahoo! with its own powerful search engine called Bing. MS improved and re-launch Bing over the years, managing to reach the third place in the search engine battle. Yahoo! Search will use Bing for 10 years now, and will manage ad sales (keeping 88% of the profit) and will also provide content for its portal.

Being a commercial-strategic merge, spokespersons of both companies made sure this agreement “offers an alternative to advertisers so they don´t feel obliged towards a company that dominates more than 70% of web searches”.

From the user viewpoint, the merger with Bing will bring an excellent choice when it comes to customizing Yahoo´s profiles and performing more accurate searches –without exiting the current page.

This is, without a doubt, a business strategy that will enables Microsoft and Yahoo! to join forces and stand up against Google´s dominating search and internet ads market.

Windows 7 to allow users to install Chrome, Firefox and Opera?

Though it may have seemed unlikely for some of us, Microsoft finally opens its doors and decided that users will be allowed to choose which web browser they want to install on Windows 7.

There were several cases battled between Microsoft and the European Union, stating that Microsoft was blocking its competitor out of the market through anti-competitive practices by including their own web browser and media player. However, it is of common knowledge that these attempts to stop Microsoft monopolization were futile since Internet Explorer is still the most used web browser today due to the fact that it´s bundle with Microsoft Windows.

Nonetheless, Internet Explorer reign may be over after a presentation held by the software giant in Brussels, enabling users to choose which web browser they want to install on Windows 7.

What Microsoft proposes, basically, is that users be allowed -through one of its set up wizard options- to choose their default browser, as well as disabling Internet Explorer completely. These will allows Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Apple Safari and even other less known browsers to enter the browser battle, but a battle fought mostly against Internet Explorer domination.

It´s quite obvious that Microsoft´s fine of €1.700 millions –imposed by the European Commission- would force them to change its business strategies.

After the announcement was made, the European executive informed in a press release that “The Commission embraces this proposal and will now investigate its practical efficiency when it comes to guaranteeing what consumers can opt for”.

It´s a matter of time until a resolution to the conflict be reached after endless years of dispute, whose outcome hopes to ultimately favor users.

The constant breakthrough of Windows Live Messenger feature has brought as a consequence the creation of new ways of communication, as well as the elimination of functions that becomes useless. This is the case of the version of Microsoft´s MSN Web Messenger that will no longer be available from June 30.

the demise of msn web messenger

For the last 5 years this web service from Microsoft users to use this Windows Live Messenger from a web browser -without requiring any sort of installation. However, all this changed when this popular messaging client started to merge with other Live services such as Windows Live Mail or Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit expanding its possibilities by adding new options and feature to communicate. These features could not be added to MSN Web Messenger and it soon became outdated compared to Windows Live Messenger.

This is the demise of MSN Web Messenger, the last web-related messaging product from Microsoft. We will see how Windows Live Messenger evolves and what new features will it include and which complements will be left aside to adapt to the new changes instant messaging demands.

What better way of communicating with your beloved relatives and friends than sending e-mails? In order to do this, the best and simple way to do so is by using an e-mail client capable of sending and receiving e-mails with great effectiveness and without too much inconvenient.Therefore, Outlook Express is the perfect easy-to-use e-mail client solution.

Outlook Express

Outlook Express is an email client, designed and developed by Microsoft. it comes along with Internet Explorer and stands as a lighter version of the other well known email client: Outlook (also from Microsoft). Also, with Outlook Express, you can import items, such as address book data, messages, and account settings from other programs, including other mail clients. Using the Outlook Express Import Wizard, you can easily import e-mail messages from a variety of popular Internet e-mail programs, such as Netscape Communicator and Eudora, as well as from Exchange Server and Outlook.

It includes several interesting features, such as simultaneous different email accounts and multiple IDs. Additionally, it supports HTML and address book and directories management. It is worth mentioning that this email client allows folders synchronization with no need of connection. Its interface is extremely accessible. Each time you start up Outlook Express, it automatically retrieves new e-mail messages and delivers them to your Inbox. And while Outlook Express is open, it periodically checks for new mail. It takes no more than a couple of mouse clicks to check your e-mail in any account—personal, Hotmail, work, and so on.

With Outlook Express we can access both POP3 and webmail email accounts (only for Yahoo! and Gmail. Hotmail and Windows Live Mail are still not available, same as for other email clients). Improved rules for incoming folder are another new release included in this version. With Outlook Express you can send your e-mail messages as soon as you write them, or you can compose a draft and return to it later to finish and send. And file size is just about the only limit on what you can enclose in a message—documents, pictures, even music and videos.

Regarding editing tools, Outlook Express allows far greater customization of emails, supporting styles, HTML, graphics and sound. This is very useful for corporate emails or simply for personalizing our emails. You can use multiple E-mail addresses, multiple accounts, and multiple identities in Outlook Express as well.

According to advanced users, this email has some security leaks (specifically, with preview feature). Therefore, Microsoft highly recommends its users to download and install the periodical updates of the software.

The application is not ambitious with regards to its features, but for average users and for email, it is useful.

Download Outlook Express