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Showing posts from 2011

What are the Benefits of Windows Live ID Integration in Windows 8?

We all know that Windows 8 will come with lots of new features and enhancements and one of them is the built-in integration of Windows Live ID . You can check this new feature in the recently released Windows 8 Developer Preview build as well. Actually you can use your Windows Live email ID as your login account for Windows which provides many benefits to you. Microsoft has outlined these benefits in an official post at Building Windows 8 blog. According to Microsoft: Windows 8 will come with Windows Live ID integration which will provide the ability to log in to Windows (optionally) with a Windows Live ID that works across devices, apps, and services, allowing you a uniquely personal experience with Windows. Signing in with Windows Live ID allows you to: Associate the most commonly used Windows settings with your user account. Saved settings are available when you sign in to your account on any Windows 8 PC. Your PC will be set up just the way you are used ...

Themes, Skins, Icons and Wallpapers for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

If you are following this blog since long time, you might be aware of our exclusive themes, skins and wallpapers which we have released for Windows, Yahoo! Messenger, mobile phones and other software. We have released many themes for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and many of them have been featured at various popular websites including Microsoft.com. We have also released skins for mobile phones and Yahoo! Messenger. Long time back we also released 2 wallpapers to spice up your Desktop. Today in this topic, we are going to list all these themes, skins, wallpapers, icon packs, etc for your convenience so that you can check them in a single place and don't waste your time in searching for them in different sections. So without wasting time, lets take a look at all the free eye candy stuff: VistaVG Theme for Windows XP " VistaVG " theme is the first ever theme released by us. This theme was created for Windows XP users who wanted to make Windows XP lo...

Microsoft reveals its online upgrade experience for Windows 8.

Microsoft detailed a number of changes in its Windows 8 setup experience on Monday. Microsoft’s planning of Windows 8 involved looking closely at the setup experience on its next-generation operating system. “We wanted to hear from customers who chose not to upgrade to Windows 7 even though their PCs would run it,” explained Microsoft’s Christa St. Pierre in a blog post on Monday. The software giant commissioned a study of how people purchase their PCs to better understand why users chose not to upgrade their operating system and opted for new hardware instead. Microsoft found that many users wanted to upgrade but that the current experience was difficult. “Hearing that some customers think it is too difficult really highlights the fact that we have many different customer needs we need to fulfill with setup,” explained St. Pierre. Microsoft is addressing the setup process with Windows 8 in several ways. The biggest change is the user experience of upgrading Windows, however ...

Designing search for the Start screen, Chapter 3.

Designing Start search for dexterity. Designing for efficiency and dexterity is a core goal of the Start search feature team. As such, using the keyboard to launch apps, settings, and files from search is a very important part of the Start search experience. We also put a lot of thought into preserving existing keyboard patterns, which both average and advanced users have come to rely on, and have built muscle memory around. Our telemetry data shows that many users leverage the Start menu as a means of commanding Windows. They use specific key-combinations to efficiently launch apps. For example, pressing the WIN key, typing “calc”, and pressing ENTER launches Calculator. Many advanced users know that typing “cmd” and then CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER opens an elevated command, and that typing “notepad c:\mynotes” creates or opens a .txt file. If you watch the keyboard demonstration from the //build/ keynote , you will see many of these used. These keyboard patterns continue to wo...

Designing search for the Start screen, Chapter 2.

Searching settings. The settings search experience brings together all settings and Control Panel items across the system in one view. Settings search results are matched not only to the name of the Control Panel applet or task, but also to the various keywords that may describe it. We have also heard your frustration that shutdown is not available as a search result, and we will address this along with improvements to the Start user interface for shutdown (as a reminder, you can also just use the power button or close the lid). Figure 6: Full-screen settings search results Searching files. The number of files on PCs keeps increasing over time as users continue to acquire and create more documents, music, photos, and videos. Our goal, while redesigning the file search experience, was to make it seamless and complete so you can achieve your task of quickly finding a file without having to transition to Windows Explorer. In File search, you’ll also see search sugges...