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Photo Album: BIMCSdotNET Launch Event
2007-11-05 22:36:00
BIMCSdotNET Launch Event Event Host Madhat Yousufi welcomes the guests on the eve of BIMCSdotNET launch.Event starts with the recitation of verses from Quran by M. Ali.Event starts with the recitation of verses from Quran by M. Ali (1).Sumair Shaikh, MSP - Bahria University--Taimur Asad speaks on INETA, its user groups & their benefits.-Taimur Asad speaks on INETA, its user groups & their benefits (1).Right-Left: Syed Khusro Azmat, Capt. Ashfaq Agha, Sumair Shaikh, Arafat Tehseen, Umair Khan.More Photo s...
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Visual Studio 2008 to launch in November 2007
2007-11-05 20:41:00
Today, during the keynote address at Microsoft TechEd Developers 2007, S. ?Soma? Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft Corp., announced that Microsoft will release Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 by the end of November 2007. Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 enable developers at all levels to rapidly create connected applications that offer compelling user experiences for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, mobile devices and the Web. Soma also unveiled plans to open new opportunities for Visual Studio partners, as well as to deliver new tools and resources for developers, including a first Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the Microsoft Sync Framework and new capabilities for Popfly Explorer. ?The highly social and visual nature of the Web has fundamentally changed what users expect from all applications they interact with, regardless of whether it?s on a customer-facing Web site o...
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Microsoft SharedView Beta 2
2007-11-04 20:01:00
When you write for an organization that spans multiple time zones and often involves collaborative effort between two or more people, one of whom might be in California while another is in New York, the concept of a collaborative online workspace can be quite attractive. Read the copy on Microsoft 's SharedView web site, and it's clear Redmond is trying to attract the type of users who need multiple sets of eyeballs scanning the same document at the same time, but who are separated by a few hundred miles in any given direction. SharedView connects up to 15 people in different locations to collaborate on documents and get your point across by showing them what's on your screen. Share, review, and update documents with multiple people in real time.A Windows Live ID (Passport, Hotmail, or MSN) is required to start sessions, but not to join sessions. New in Beta 2: now even easier to use, with group chat and performance improvements! Hold more effective meetings and conference callsC...
More About: Office

You Make it You ? New Zune Ad
2007-11-03 21:45:00
This past week saw the launch of the new marketing campaign for the new Zune s heading our way November 13th. Cesar Menendez of the Zune Insider put the first TV commercial on Soapbox: This years Zune campaign slogan: You Make It You. Makes sense. Zune is about your music, your videos, your photos, and now even your podcasts. Last year was welcoming us to the "social" - this year is making it about you. I love it. However - I?m not loving the commercial. Something about it just doesn?t work. Sure, its really cool to watch but it seems disconnected from the music, the device - essentially what Zune is all about. How can someone not knowing what the Zune is watch this commercial and get what Zune is all about? Folks watch iPod and iPhone commercials and *get* them and know what the devices are about. I?m sure this is one commercial of many planned so I?m not worried. I am pretty damn excited for the new Zunes - specifically the Zune 80 for me. And I simply cannot wait for th...

Order Windows Home Server 120-Days Evaluation Kit!
2007-11-03 19:25:00
Can't wait to centralize and showcase your family's memories and media? Order the Windows Home Server 120-Day Evaluation Kit today. You're just a few clicks away from a new digital life. What will you receive? Windows Home Server Installation DVD Windows Home Server Connector CD Home Computer Restore CD Are you ready? This software is intended for evaluation purposes only. In order to preserve your existing data, you must backup prior to installation. The setup process for server installation will erase any existing data. To install the Windows Home Server 120-Day Evaluation Kit, you need: Computer with 1 GHz Pentium III (or equivalent) or faster processor 512 MB of RAM or more 70 GB or larger ATA, SATA, or SCSI hard drive as the primary hard drive and any number of additional hard drives of any size DVD drive?your home server must be capable of booting from this drive VGA or higher-resolution monitor for software installation Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compa...
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Microsoft format to become JPEG successor
2007-11-02 16:21:00
A new attempt to provide a higher-end sequel to the ubiquitous JPEG image standard is officially under way. The multiple countries participating in the Joint Photographic Experts Group, which created the JPEG standard, have approved an effort to make Microsoft 's HD Photo format a standard called JPEG XR, said Bill Crow, who has led Microsoft's HD Photo effort and who just took over the company's Microsoft Live Labs Seadragon imaging project. XR stands for "extended range," a reference to the format's ability to show a wider and finer range of tonal gradations and a richer color palette. "The country vote is done, and it passed," Crow said. "That means the International JPEG committee has decided to go ahead and create the standard. Now it's just a process of doing that work," a process that will begin later this month in a meeting in Kobe, Japan. The move is an important step in the transformation of the photo format from an in-house technology ...
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Windows Live Messenger 9.0
2007-10-31 17:20:00
Forget about Windows Live Messenger 8.1 and 8.5, Microsoft is cooking Windows Live Messenger 9.0. Currently, Windows Live Messenger 9.0 is in the very early stages of baking, but this does not mean that the Redmond company is not perfecting the receipt of its instant messaging client. Andrew Jenks, a Microsoft employee speaking at the Georgia Institute of Technology revealed that Windows Live Messenger 9.0 is planned for availability towards the end of 2008, but it could slip into 2009. LiveSide, quoting Ampcoder, focused on Jenks' announcement of a new Microsoft application programming interface designed to be joined at the hip with the 9.0 version of Windows Live Messenger. The API will permit third-party developers to build upon Windows Live Messenger 9.0, creating customized versions of the instant messaging client or even programs that take advantage of the features available. The details are scarce, but developers apparently will be able to access a technical preview of the ...

DirectX November 2007 redistributable released!
2007-10-30 18:42:00
The latest update, is now available for download.  Both the web release, and the redistributable package. Links:Microsoft Dire ctX® HomepageDownload DirectX® November 2007 Redistributable (64 MB) Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)
More About: Games , Released , November 2007

Some Leopard upgraders see 'blue screen of death'
2007-10-28 19:48:00
A significant number of Mac owners upgrading to Leopard on Friday reported that after installing the new operating system, their machines locked up, showing only an interminable -- and very Windows-like -- "blue screen of death." Easily the heaviest-trafficked thread on the Leopard support forums as of late Friday, "Installation appears stuck on a plain blue screen" told how after a successful Leopard install using the default "Upgrade" option and the required restart, some users' Macs refused to budge from the blue screen. Although many gave up after 30-60 minutes and rebooted, others were more patient and let their Macs be as long as six hours. "Hmmmm. I feel like a windoze user now," said Doug Mcilvain. I have re-installed and it has been sitting there with a blue screen for 4 1/2 hours." Almost everyone who added to the thread -- which included more than 200 messages and over 7,400 views by 10:30 p.m. Friday, Pacific time -- sele...
More About: Screen , Microsoft , Blue , Death

Halo 3 Gadget using Silverlight for Windows Sidebar
2007-10-27 20:57:00
I just found this awesome gadget for Xbox 360 & Halo 3 owners. Its been developed using Silverlight technology. Lets hope more and more developers start using Silverlight technology in gadget development. "HALO 3 is out and my Xbox is now getting the love it truly deserves.  Multiplayer mode in HALO is a lot of fun and even more fun when you can play with friends.  Thus, a perfect opportunity was born to create a useful sidebar gadget. I've recorded a demo on how the gadget works available on Channel 9 and you can download the gadget directly from my server,  although I will be posting it to the Gadget Gallery shortly. Just make sure that before you run the gadget you install Silverlight 1.0, otherwise the gadget will not work. My data source for Xbox Live information is coming from Duncan Mackenzie's REST service and the UI is done completely in Silverlight 1.0.  This turned out to be a really fun project and the Sidebar hosting environment was a great place for a Si...
More About: Windows , Halo 3

Linux Losing Market Share to Windows Server
2007-10-26 17:07:00
Linux growth in the U.S. x86 server market has, over the past six quarters, started to falter and reverse its positive course relative to Windows Server and the market as a whole. The annual rate at which Linux is growing in the x86 server space has fallen from around 53 percent in 2003, when Windows Server growth was in the mid-20 percent range, to a negative 4 percent growth in calendar year 2006, IDC Quarterly Server Tracker figures show. Over the same time period, Windows has continued to report positive annual growth, outpacing the total growth rate in the x86 market by more than 4 percent in 2006, indicating that Linux has actually lost market share to Windows Server over this time. The same holds true for worldwide Linux x86 server shipments, which dropped from the huge annual growth rate of about 45 percent is 2003 to growth of less than 10 percent in 2006, the IDC figures show. One of the biggest reasons for this is that the migrations from Unix to Linux have slowed dow...
More About: Linux , Market , Share

Facebook and Microsoft Expand Strategic Alliance
2007-10-25 19:39:00
Facebook and Microsoft Corp. today announced that the two companies would expand their advertising partnership and that Microsoft will take a $240 million equity stake in Facebook?s next round of financing at a $15 billion valuation. Under the expanded strategic alliance, Microsoft will be the exclusive third-party advertising platform partner for Facebook, and will begin to sell advertising for Facebook internationally in addition to the United States. ?We are pleased to take our Microsoft partnership to the next level,? said Owen Van Natta, Chief Revenue Officer, Facebook. ?We think this expanded relationship will allow Facebook to continue to innovate and grow as a technology leader and major player in social computing, as well as bring relevant advertising to nearly 50 million active users of Facebook.? ?Making this investment and expanding this partnership will position Microsoft and Facebook to better take advantage of advertising opportunities around the world, and is a grea...
More About: Facebook , Organizations , Alliance , Strategic

Microsoft ThinSight
2007-10-23 22:20:00
A computer screen that also acts as a two-handed touch interface and a crude infrared camera has been developed by researchers at Microsoft 's labs in the UK. Users can operate the display with both hands, in a similar manner to the display in the film Minority Report. But this screen can also recognize particular hand gestures as well as objects placed within a centimeter of its surface. "It can sense much more than fingers, and is essentially a low resolution scanner and camera," says lead researcher Shahram Izadi. The screen can even communicate wirelessly with other devices nearby using the same infrared technology it uses to see. The technology ? dubbed ThinSight ? was developed by adding an extra layer of electronics behind a normal laptop screen. This adds a couple of centimeters to the overall thickness, but completely transforms its abilities. The screen "sees" by using a grid of paired infrared sensors and transmitters that sit just behind the backl...
More About: Microsoft Research

Microsoft Launches New Xbox 360 Console for Families
2007-10-23 19:50:00
Just in time for holiday, Microsoft Corp. today released a new Xbox 360® console that delivers games and content to everyone in the family for an incredible value of $279.99 (U.S. estimated retail price)*. Available in stores beginning today, Xbox 360 Arcade console is the first Xbox 360 console to include five family-friendly games, a wireless controller, a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) connection to enable high-definition output if desired and 256 MB of memory useful for storing games and entertainment content. At $279.99, the Xbox 360 Arcade console will include five best-selling games: ?PAC-MAN Championship Edition? (NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.), ?Uno? (Carbonated Games), ?Luxor 2? (MumboJumbo), ?Boom Boom Rocket? (Electronic Arts Inc.) and ?Feeding Frenzy? (Sprout Games). ?As families gather together this holiday, it?s the perfect time to launch a new low-priced, high-value Xbox 360 that plays games, TV shows and music for everyone to enjoy,? said Jeff Bell, c...
More About: Console , Families

Download Windows Vista's Official theme song: "Wow is now!"
2007-10-22 21:57:00
Hear the Wow!When you experience the amazing, the incredible, the exhilarating, there is only one way to express it: "Wow". The Windows Vista song, "Wow is now!" sung by the famous indian singer Sunidhi Chauhan exclusively for the Windows Vista, captures this very spirit of exhilaration. Click here to listen to it now or right-click and choose "Save target as..." to save it on your system. The Wow doesn't end here. You can carry it on your mobile phone as well. Simply SMS "WOWR" to 8888 to have the special Windows Vista ringtone sent to your mobile. Experience the "Wow" with Windows Vista! Links:Microsoft's Feel the "Wow" website (Microsoft India)Download song "Wow is now!" (Size: 4.09 MB) Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)
More About: Song , Theme , Official

World in Conflict? - "Everybody wants to nuke the world!"
2007-10-21 21:24:00
World in Conflict to me is today's Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996). Sierra has really pulled off what was once did by Westwood Studios back in year 1996/97. After years of waiting, I finally got a RTS game which I can go on playing for hours and hours.. World in Conflict is a real-time tactical video game developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment for Windows and the Xbox 360. The game was released in North America on 18 September 2007, and was released on 20 September 2007  in Australia and New Zealand, and was released in Europe on the 21 September 2007, and will be released on October 31 2007 for Taiwan. World in Conflict presents a chillingly authentic Cold War scenario where the Berlin Wall never fell. Created by Cold War authority and best-selling author Larry Bond, the story begins in 1989 as the Soviets, fearing certain collapse, boldly advance into Europe. NATO responds in force only to be met on a second front -- a full-fledged invas...
More About: Games , World , The World , Nuke

The Microsoft Wow Blog! goes mobile
2007-10-20 21:19:00
Yes you read it right. You can now access your favorite blog(The Microsoft Wow Blog !) right from your mobile/cell phone. You can access the mobile version of this site from virtually any phone which has browsing capability. So now you can access this site anytime  anywhere on the go using this link: http://mobile.microsoftwow.net         Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)
More About: Mobile , General , Bile

Zune 30 donates 100% to breast cancer research!
2007-10-19 22:42:00
Ford and Microsoft are teaming up to donate 100% of all proceeds from the sales of a limited edition Pink Zune 30 towards the fight against breast cancer in observance of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. WIP707 This 30GB Zune has been specially customized for Warriors in Pink! The Zune digital media player is easy to use and easy to love. Store up to 7,500 songs, 25,000 pictures, or 100 hours of video in your 30 GB device. This product is a special edition and quantities are limited. Thanks to the generosity of Ford and Microsoft, 100% of the purchase price of this item goes to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Buy Zune 30 today and help victims of breast cancer! Links:Warriors in Pink - Powered by FordSusan G. KomenFordMicrosoft Zune Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)
More About: Research , Breast Cancer

Apple to release Vista soon - Who's the copycat now?
2007-10-18 23:33:00
Looking through the feature set of the latest Macintosh offering from Apple i.e. Mac OS X 10.5. . . lets see what does it offer new to the table?:  We've had tagging of applications downloaded from the Internet since like XP SP2 (attachment manager api).   We've had the ability to sign applications since like Windows 2000?  XP SP2 / Vista have application firewall capability, Vista supports volume encryption.  They finally get ASLR - which has been available in Vista since it shipped.  SMB packet signing is somehow worth calling out as a security feature of the OS?  Must have been running a little short of things to talk about.  One interesting thing is 'sandboxing' support . . . but of considerable note is the lack of 'Safari' as one of the applications that is sandboxed? Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows wrote a great article on why he thinks Leopard is not a new step in OS X growing lists of 10.x versions.. but just another Vista: "Sometimes I wonder how Apple CE...
More About: Release , Organizations , Copycat

Listas - All your lists in one place
2007-10-18 21:05:00
At Live Labs, we are always experimenting with new ideas that we think will be useful.  Today we are releasing our latest technology preview: Listas (http://listas.labs.live.com) Listas is a tool for the creation, management and sharing of lists, notes, favorites, and more. It allows you to quickly and easily edit lists, share them with others for reading or wiki-style editing, and discover the public lists of other users.  We encourage you to try using it for meeting notes, bookmarks, shopping lists, to plan a night out, or whatever other creative ways you can think of. In the Listas Community Section, you will find a number of highlights of the most popular and random items from around the community of public lists such as the most used tags, the hottest lists, and prolific contributors.   You can even add others? lists (or any RSS feed) to your own Listas so you are always up to date. You can even create lists from all the things you find on the web, like search results, wish...
More About: Lists , Microsoft Research , Place

Windows Live Wave 2 products enables support for linked IDs
2007-10-18 16:19:00
Microsoft has silently updated its Windows Live Account pages. They are now featuring the new Wave 2 look. In addition to the visual make-over the update brings a long requested and hinted at feature: Linked IDs.When you sign in to Windows Live Account the new option to link Windows Live IDs is presented right on the first screen. In order to link IDs you will need to click on the link, enter the password of the account you are currently logged in with and the ID and password of the account you want to link it with. That's all... continue at LiveSide.net Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)
More About: Products , Support

Windows Live Photo Gallery Updated, supports Flickr
2007-10-18 14:48:00
I just checked for new updates on my Windows Vista Ultimate system and found a new critical update for Windows Live Photo Gallery . This latest version updates version 2.0 to 2.2 and add's Flickr support much to the delight of Windows Live Photo Gallery users. Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

F# (F Sharp) - A Functional Programming Language
2007-10-18 11:44:00
Language features such as lambda expressions in C# and generics in .NET 2.0 have roots in functional languages, and LINQ is directly based on functional programming techniques. Through LINQ and Parallel FX, ideas from functional languages are helping us address some of the biggest challenges facing the industry today, from the impedance mismatch between data and objects to the challenges of the multi-core and parallel computing space. Several of these key technologies have started out as projects in Microsoft Research. One of the really promising current projects from MSR is the F# programming language, spearheaded by Don Syme. F# stems from the functional programming tradition (hence the ?F?) and has strong roots in the ML family of languages, though also draws from C#, LINQ and Haskell. F# is designed from the outset to be a first class citizen on .NET. This means that F# runs on the CLR, embraces object-oriented programming, and has features to ensure a smooth integration with t...
More About: Programming , Language , Sharp , Programming Language , Gram

Live Search for Windows Mobile -- Now with Speech Recognition!!
2007-10-17 21:45:00
The press release just went live. The web site is online. And the details are all spelled out. Here's what the press release has to say about Live Search : Live Search for Windows Mobile with voice input. The updated Live Search for Windows Mobile ® 5.0 and 6.0 will be available for download for free on Tuesday, Oct. 16, and now includes voice input (beta version), gas prices, and hours of operation for businesses. The service can also use Global Positioning System (GPS) data on GPS-enabled phones to provide location-aware local search for customers. Yeah, that's right. Instead of having to type out all those business listings and locations with your thumbs on your tiny phone keypads, now you can simply enter text into Live Search on your phone using speech recognition technologies developed right here at Microsoft!! If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a movie must be worth, what? A million words? OK ... Maybe not. But ... At any rate, you should check out this video (...

Release of .NET Compact Framework for Symbian imminent
2007-10-16 22:07:00
Symbian Smartphone Show starts next week (October 16-17, 2007) in London, EU, and while most announcements there will not be related to Windows Mobile, this one is! With .NET Compact Framework for Symbian that is being developed by Red Five Labs company from South Africa, it will be possible to run .NET applications for Windows Mobile also inside of Symbian phones. The compatibility level however is probably only .NET CF 1.1 or 1.0 (while current Windows Mobile has .NET CF 2.0 pre-installed in ROM) and unfortunately still no download is available... to prove that this whole software is not just a vaporware... Information fromn Red Five Labs follows. * * * * * Red Five Labs to announce the launch of the public beta program for Net60, the first-ever commercial .NET Compact Framework implementation for S60 devices Red Five Labs, is to announce the beta release of Net60, its ground breaking implementation of the .NET Compact Framework running on S60 3rd edition devices. Net60 enables ma...
More About: Symbian , Release , Ework

Safari for Windows Mobile to be available very soon
2007-10-16 18:17:00
Wake3 company from USA has ported WebKit web browsing engine to Windows Mobile . This is the same engine that Safari for Apple iPhone is using. In other words: ... very soon (the application is not ready for download yet, only video demonstration is available) also user of Windows Mobile will be able to enjoy FULL WEB BROWSING, including correct layout and Ajax suupport! WebKit is the world's best mobile web browser, used on Apple's iPhone and Nokia?s Series 60 handsets. Now it runs on Windows Mobile--brought to you by Wake3. Wake3 is a mobile application leader with over 40 years collective engineering expertise. Professional Services ? Specializing in Mobile and Embedded Custom application development Product management / Product marketing Webkit Mobile Ajax Windows Mobile PalmOS Linux BREW To learn more and to visit video with demonstration of WebKit-based browser (called "Wake3") visit www.wake3.com. Source: msmobiles.com Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wo...
More About: Bile

INNOVATION: Microsoft receives Patent for a new User Interface for Mobile D
2007-10-13 08:30:00
Just in time to my previous column if the Windows Mobile touchscreen interface is ready for single-hand use, the United States Patent and Trademark Office yesterday unveiled a patent which was given to Microsoft (Application Number: 11/765,684). Title of the patent: "Extensible Filtered Lists for Mobile Device User Interface" which is about systems and methods for providing an improved user interface for mobile devices (smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and the like are explicitly stated in the patent specification). Access to data and services from multiple software applications can be provided through a group or list of items. Each group or list can include multiple items, which can be associated with data or tasks from multiple applications. The set of groups of items can be both customizable and extensible to allow users to locate and utilize data and tasks relevant to the particular user. The set of item groups can provide users with a filtered view of c...
More About: Windows Mobile , Innovation

Windows Live Events goes live!
2007-10-12 21:18:00
Over the next few days, Microsoft will be rolling out a new service called Windows Live Events , which will be a customized version of Windows Live Spaces for organizing events and sharing memories among participants. (The link above may redirect to Windows Live Spaces for some people, as the roll-out of the service will be gradual across different geographies). Windows Live Spaces is, of course, Microsoft?s family-friendly answer to MySpace?and it?s not doing badly, drawing 100 million unique visitors and 2.5 billion page views a month, according to Microsoft. Windows Live Events is an attempt to carve out a specific niche for for Windows Live Spaces around events. It?s like Evite with a little social-networking fairy dust sprinkled on top. You can manage invitations and RSVPs for a party, wedding, or any other event by setting up an invite list and sending out a mass e-mail with a link back to your Windows Live Event site. All the event details are also available as an RSS feed, m...

Apache looses share to IIS again, never been so close
2007-10-12 21:10:00
In the October 2007 survey we received responses from 142,805,398 sites, an increase of 7.6 million sites since last month. This continues the strong gains seen last month, a rate of over 5% monthly growth, with MySpace, Microsoft Live.com, and Google's Blogger each gained over 1 million sites this month. Benefitting from the gains at MySpace and Microsoft Live, Microsoft-IIS now hosts over 50 million sites. Apache loses 2.8% share this month, partly through the strong growth at the major blogging systems, and partly due to 2.5 million domains on Apache expiring at trouble-free.net. Apache has around a 10% market share advantage over IIS now, which is the smallest gap between the two since IIS was launched in 1996. On the active sites measure which excludes templated sites, Apache gains 1 million sites this month, though this is eclipsed by growth of nearer 3 million for Microsoft-IIS. Read this report in full details with graphical analysis here. Taimur Asad (The Microsoft &q...
More About: Share , Server , Close

Windows Live SkyDrive doubles the storage to 1 GB!
2007-10-12 17:55:00
These past couple of months since our last release, we asked ourselves, ?What can we do to make SkyDrive even better?? The most obvious answer is something that our users have asked us to do: give out more storage. We?re excited to announce that we?re doubling everyone?s storage to 1 GB! Many users told us, ?Hey, we want to be notified when someone adds a file to a specific folder,? so we added RSS feeds to public folders. To subscribe to an RSS feed, go to the public folder that you?re interested in, and click on the orange RSS Feed icon at the top right of the page. Then, anytime that folder is updated, you?ll be notified. We love this feature because we get notified as soon as our friends upload new files to their folders. Another thing users told us is that it?s difficult to share a folder with people that aren?t in your address book. People said, ?We have to go to Hotmail or Messenger in order to add someone to our address books. Why can?t we just do it on SkyDrive itself?? ...
More About: Windows , Windows Live , Storage , Live