Windows Phone is the best mobile operating system available today. I have a Samsung Focus (running the Windows Phone Mango beta), an iPad, and the HP TouchPad. I have carried Androids, iPhones, and Blackberries and the Windows Phone is my system of choice.

I’m not talking about the old-school Windows Mobile 6.x phones that grew into a fragmented mess.  I’m talking about the written from scratch Windows Phone 7 that was released in 2010. Even with a horrible marketing effort from Microsoft, people who use it start to understand that its usefulness comes from its integration and simplicity. Just ask Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert. Or check out this article from Ziff-Davis last week on the stability of Windows Phone.

Step out of the Reality Distortion Field and you will realize that “other” companies create quality products. In fact, Windows Phone is the best thing to come out of Microsoft in years. (Although some would argue for Kinect.) The ease of use combined with stability and rich feature set makes for a truly remarkable product. I’m running on a Focus (which is a somewhat older WP device) and it is the smoothest, most responsive system I have.  I like my tablets but the Windows Phone operating system is smoother, more responsive, and less quirky. There won’t be a “Windows Phone Tablet” because Windows 8 (yes, the desktop version of Windows) will run on mobile platforms including phones and tablets.  It’s a shame there won’t be a WP Tablet because the hub concept would work perfectly on this form factor.  I’m sure there is a WP Tablet somewhere in a Microsoft lab, but it will never see the light of day.

By the way, after I posted my list of HP TouchPad annoyances, HP stated they were reevaluating their tablet strategy. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen this time!

As great as Windows Phone may be, it is still a relatively new system and there is obvious room for improvement. Here are my top annoyances of Mango:

1. Customization is lacking. Yes, I know this goes against the Windows Phone simple is better theme, but I saw a silly app called “Phone 8” that showed how basic customization could be performed without taking away from the live tile experience. The app demonstrates concept themes that vary the level of opacity of the tiles and allows a background image to be visible.
2. What in the heck is Tap-by-Turn navigation? Yes, I know that turn-by-turn is available through various third-party apps. I’ve also heard the speculation that Microsoft could not include turn-by-turn due to some licensing restriction with NavTeq, but this needs to get worked out. Tap-by-turn may work technically but it is a horrible compromise.
3. Where is the “Find on page” option in IE9? It was there in the original version of Windows Phone with IE8 so why is it missing now?
4. Limited multitasking has been a part of Windows Phone from the beginning.  It was ‘limited’ since it only allowed for managed apps to run simultaneously. You could easily listen to music with the built-in Zune media player, take a phone call and browse the web. However, if you wanted to listen to music with another app, like Last.FM, your music would stop as soon as you navigated away from the app. With the Mango build Microsoft has created a cool new hybrid technique that sits between full-blown multitasking (like WebOS) and a most recently used list (like iOS). This has promise as a multitasking system that doesn’t kill your battery. My issue is with the user interface implementation. To switch between tasks you are presented with a card-like interface that is similar to WebOS users. In Mango, when you hold down the back key you will see the five most recent applications. However, there is no easy way to close the app from this card view or change the number of items in the list. This really seems half-baked.
5. Why why why is there no way to take a screenshot? I would love to show you the multitasking card view, but I cannot grab a screen capture. I heard someone speculate that this is to protect potential copyright violations. Whatever! Every other OS in the world (including Windows) has this ability.
6. No Citrix client. This might not mean much to you, but in a corporate environment this could be a huge deal and prevent Windows Phone from being adopted as a standard. The Citrix guys blame Microsoft for not giving them the proper hardware level access in the API. We’ll see if that changes now that the Mango API has just been released.
7. No Cisco-EAP WiFi client. File this under “special corporate uses”, but this one is biting me since we use CEAP as our WiFi authentication method at work.
8. No Cisco AnyConnect client. Not having CEAP wouldn’t be that big of a deal if I could simply VPN/SSL in. However, that’s not an option either.
9. Some major apps are still not available. There are over 30,000 apps in the catalog. That is a huge milestone that was reached very quickly. This is even more remarkable when you consider that most of these are high-quality apps. There is definitely a limit on the number of fart apps. So what’s missing? For me, I am looking for UrbanSpoon and the Starbucks pay app. I find it ridiculous that the UrbanSpoon app is missing.
10. There are no folders. Since there are so many apps, why is there no way to organize these on the phone?  You can pin your favorites to the home screen but there is no concept of folders (The same feature is lacking on HP’s WebOS and the first few generations of Apple’s iOS).  The compensating factor is the ability to search for an app, but I would still like to see some type of multilevel organization structure in the app list.
11. You cannot search the full index of the phone.  You can search for apps.  You can search for emails in the email client. You can search for contacts in People Hub. You cannot search in one place and return all results on the phone like you can using the “Just Type” feature in WebOS.  This is a “Bing Phone” so you would think this would be possible.
12. Cloudy cloud story.   What is the ultimate cloud strategy for this platform? From day 1 of Windows Phone, you could login to www.windowsphone.com and find or lock your lost phone.  You could also log into SkyDrive and see your photos.  But does everyone know that?  There is little evidence of this on the phone or on the Zune software.  Why isn’t Zune cloud enabled?  I would love to see my phone synced with Zune through the SkyDrive cloud. Or take it further, why do I need Zune?  Why can’t I have a folder on my desktop that syncs with Phone via the cloud?
13. FlickR integration should be part of Windows Phone like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I would like to browse the pictures hub and see FlickR albums listed as well.
14. Custom ringtones are a pain without a 3rd party app.  In traditional Microsoft style, they provided the guts and are waiting for a partner to build a usable implementation.  As it stands today, without an app, you can create a Windows Phone ringtone by setting the genre to “ringtone” using the Zune desktop software. This is a pain.
15. ActiveSync needs a private app store. Yes, as a corporate user I would love to have a private market place.  I think the natural place for this is on our ActiveSync server.
16. Why can’t I run Windows Phone apps in Windows? OK, this really isn’t a Windows Phone annoyance, but it is still annoying.  If WP apps are written in Silver Light, why can’t I run the apps as a gadget in Windows 7?  This would be huge and open up new doors for new types of apps and attract thousands of new app developers. Update:  This will now be possible in Windows 8.

Before I even used this tablet, I really liked idea of this device for several reasons:

• full multitasking (yes, REAL multitasking in a mobile architecture)
• inductive charging
• it’s not tied to any desktop software like iTunes
• it also includes Flash in the browser, but that is becoming less and less important as websites begin to convert to HTML5.

To level set, I have an iPad (1st Gen with the latest iOS) and a Windows Phone 7 (running the Mango beta) on a Samsung Focus. This note is not intended as an iPad Vs HP Touchpad vs Windows Phone showdown but undoubtedly there will be some comparisons made.

The HP TouchPad is nice, but…

Overall, the TouchPad is a REALLY GOOD entry to the tablet market.  I am really impressed when you consider that this tablet includes the first version of WebOS not running strictly on a phone (version 3.0.0). I keep hearing that an update is pending and some of my issues below will be addressed, but I haven’t seen anything yet. I would really like to see how the over-the-air update function performs.

After a week of use, I like this device.  Let me repeat that since I am about to list some annoyances:  I like the HP TouchPad.  However, it is obviously not a perfect device so here are the top items that I DO NOT LIKE:

1. HP made some questionable camera decisions. Where do I start with this annoyance? Let’s break this up into annoyance 1a and 1b.

1a. There is only a front camera. Why is there no rear facing camera? Don’t tell me “it doesn’t make sense” because HP included both cameras on their Slate 500. Even if HP decided it didn’t make sense, they should have included it anyway and let the developers and users decide how to utilize it.  I don’t expect people to walk around taking snapshots with a 10” tablet, but there are dozens of uses beyond snapshots.

• I can easily imagine a warehouse program that would use the camera to scan bar-codes. How can you take photos of large stock items with the screen facing away from you?
• Take Windows Phone’s Bing Vision as a great example why there needs to be a rear camera.  Bing Vision allows you to point the camera at a book cover and it will tell you all the details about the book and where to buy at the lowest price and download it from Kindle.
• Someone could also come up with a creative way to use both cameras as motion detecting security device.

If anything, you would think HP would want the feature just to say “me too” when compared to the iPad and the slew of Android devices.

1b. There is no camera app for the front facing app.  You read that correctly… In version 3.0.0 there is no way to take a photo with the TouchPad.

2. The browser is not good, bordering on bad. I’m not a fan of WebKit browsers in general, but this one is barely functional in some instances.  Since there aren’t that many apps available yet, the browser needs to be excellent — it’s not even close. You know when you go to Starbucks and you have to agree to the terms to use their AT&T wifi? Well, that language is all stacked on top of other sections and it is difficult to actually click the acceptance box. Try browsing through photos on facebook — it is a challenge to read all the comments for each photo. Try adjusting the volume in a YouTube video. The browser also scores the lowest of any modern browser on the ACID3 test.

3. The organization of apps and icons in WebOS is confusing.  It comes preloaded with two categories: APPS and DOWNLOADS. I still don’t know what the difference is. Worse yet, I cannot create my own folders to organize apps the way I want. On my iPad I created folders called “Reading” “Kids Games” “Music & Movies” and so on.  I would like to replicate this behavior on the TouchPad. This seems so basic and logical, but it took several updates to iOS and lots of begging before Apple finally added it.

4. Lack of quality apps hurts big time since this is what makes a tablet actually useful. Where’s Urban Spoon?  Where’s Netflix streaming? Windows Phone is up to “only” 25,000 apps but they reached that level faster than any other platform and they did it without a lot of junk type apps. I’m not impressed with a high number like the Android and Apple app stores since so many of their apps are pure junk.  How many fart apps are there in the Android App Store?HP could take a lesson from how Microsoft is courting app developers.

5. This is the newest, yet least fluid of any of the devices I own. My phone running the Mango beta is the smoothest, followed by the iPad, followed by the HP. The HP sometimes stutters as you navigate and browse. I hear the first update will address this issue, we’ll see.

6. Button clicking doesn’t always work. When I try to tap an on-screen button I see the little animated ripple on screen, but it doesn’t always activate the control. After several attempts, it usually kicks in.  After some reading, this seems to be systemic problem in WebOS phones as well. This is really annoying and needs to be fixed.

7.  I’ve come to like the swiping and throwing motions that are built into WebOS but they are not obvious at first to a new user like myself. Since this is a TRUE multitasking environment on a large screen (not on a phone) you would expect to see a close option or an “X” on each app. As computer users, this “X” is baked into our being.  Closing an app with the TouchPad is a two-step action to hit the home button to get to the task list, and then you throw the app away. Alternatively, you can swipe from the edge to the center to get the task list. Regardless, both actions require two steps.  It’s not bad, just different.

8. I guess the only way to switch between browser instances is to go to the task list? I don’t see a “tab” option anywhere. Once you get to the task list, the instances are generally stacked.  I still haven’t figured out how to get to the middle of the stack without closing every instance on top of it. Implementing something like IE’s QuickTabs or OSX’s Expose would be really helpful here.

9. The hardware itself is OK, but doesn’t feel as solid as the iPad. In fact, I had to replace my first TouchPad due to a defective case. Whereas the iPad has an alloy back, the TouchPad has a plastic case.  I was told the plastic is required for the inductive charging (but I don’t know for sure). Which, by the way, the Touchstone charger is really cool!  You can charge it in either orientation but if it is placed horizontally, it must be centered or it won’t charge.

10.  The Exhibition app doesn’t seem complete. Maybe I don’t understand this app but it is basically a display app (think screensaver) that scrolls through photos, displays your agenda, an animated clock, or any other “exhibition” app that someone creates.  When you set your preferences, you must click “start” and as expected it takes over your screen.  The problem is that if you select “clock” and “photos” it doesn’t rotate through these items as you would expect.  You must select a drop down to switch the display element.  If I have to do this, then why do I have to go through a set up process?  Here are my suggestions to improve exhibition:

1. Obvisouly, it should rotate through the items you selected in the setup without on-screen interaction.

2. There should be an option to auto start when placed on a charger or Touchstone. (Update:  Exhibition does auto start when placed on the Touchstone.  I’m not sure why it wasn’t but now it is.)

3. It should remember which Touchstone you are using and let you set preferences for each.  For example, my Touchstone at work would display my agenda and clock.  When placed on my home Touchstone, it would display photos.

4. Integrate alarms into the clock.  I can imagine a Touchstone by my bed that would replace my real alarm clock.

11. I want to use Bing everywhere. It’s good that Bing is the default map provider (I didn’t even see Google listed as an option), but why isn’t Bing available as one of the built-in web search providers? This is really inconsistent and a little confusing. This really needs to be tightened up by the HP guys. Perhaps they should give the user an option of all Bing or all Google in the settings. I am on a Google-free diet right now and this experiment is difficult with the TouchPad.

12. Minor hardware design issues may be limiting later. For example, the volume control should be two buttons vs a single rocker switch.  There should also be a usb port on the long side of the device for horizontal docking.

13. Changing the wallpaper requires a series of crazy steps.  Before you can change the wallpaper you need to realize that it can only be done from the “Screen and Lock” app under settings. That’s fine, but you also need to know that the image must exist in the “Wallpapers” folder on the device.  Once you understand these two items you can then browse photos with the “photos” app and click the “+” icon to copy images to the correct location then go set it with your “screen and lock” apps.  If that sounds confusing, it is because it takes TWO APPS to change your wallpaper. It’s too bad that you simply cannot long-click on any photo (in the web, in facebook, in the photos app, etc)  and set as wallpaper.  The good news here is that the TouchPad has integration into other services like Facebook.  When you browse with the photo app, you can see your FB photos as well.  This is a good implementation and similar to the way Windows Phone does with Facebook, Flickr, etc…

14. The power button does NOT turn the device off with a long hold like every other device in the world.  Yes, this function is needed.  You iPad owners know that an occasional reboot is required. You also need this for air travel. How do you turn this off anyway?

15. Inserting the text cursor into a precise place in the middle of a word takes several tries of tapping in the approximate area.  With iOS and WP7, you long tap the text area and get a very maneuverable cursor to drop EXACTLY where you want.  With WebOS it is probably quicker to erase and retype the entire word vs trying to do single character edits like this.

16. Why oh why doesn’t tapping the space bar twice insert a period?  I thought this was standard on every device.

17. There doesn’t seem to be a web service that allows you to locate, lock, wipe, loud ring, or display a message on a lost device.  I think every platform (even BlackBerry finally) has this type of service.

Old School File Selection:

This method is tried and true and has been around since at least Windows 3.0 in 1990.

• To select multiple files, hold down ctrl while clicking on the individual files you want.
• To select a large range, select the first file, then shift-click on the last file.  All files in-between will be automatically selected.
• You can combine the above two methods with ctrl-shift-click to select multiple ranges.

While the above method has been around forever, and is commonplace for most users, it can still require patience and dexterity.  It is also very easy to lose your selection by a wrong click of the mouse.  There is an easier method.

The easier method:

In Vista and newer, including Windows 7 and Windows 8, there is an option to use check boxes for multi selection.  For some reason, this cool feature is turned off by default, but it is simple to turn on:

1. In Windows Explorer, hit the ALT key one time to make the hidden menu bar appear.
2. Select Tools > Folder Options
3. Select the View tab
4. Scroll down and select the option named “Use check boxes to select items”
5. Hit OK

You will now have the option to select each file by simply placing a check to the left of each filename.  This can even be used in conjunction with the Old School method mentioned above.  Check out the samples below.

Apple’s Mac OS X was a game changer for many reasons.  First of all, it made Apple relevant again.  The days of Microsoft pumping money into Apple to simply have a competitor and Mac being a hobbyist platform were now behind Apple. Secondly, and most impactful, was the effect OS X had on Microsoft.  From a consumer’s point-of-view, Windows was headed down a boring path of features that only mattered in large corporate environments.   The success of OS X made Microsoft reevaluate their strategy that if you used Windows at work, then you would also use it home.  This was true in the 1990s, but not true in the mid 2000s.

Vista helped boost OS X sales. Win 7 only helps Microsoft.

The success of OS X was at a high-point during  the Windows Vista era. During this time, OS X reached a previously unfathomable 7% market share.  Vista, the much anticipated and long overdue upgrade to XP, disappointed many early adopters.  There were so many early disenchanted users that the operating system earned a horrid reputation from which Vista would never be able to recover.  Many of these users decided a change was in order and jumped to OS X. Obviously, this made Microsoft re-think many things and eventually recovered their desktop dominance with the release of Windows 7. (See my previous post how Microsoft took Windows from a Vista flop to a success with 7.) For the year ending 2010, the OS X worldwide market share dropped to 4.13% — that is a significant drop in the 1.5 years Windows 7 has been available.  The entire drop in market share cannot be attributed to Windows 7 alone because a good portion of the drop is from the iPad cannibalizing Mac sales.

Keep in mind that Apple is experiencing record revenues each quarter. When you consider that Mac sales are down, it’s clear that Apple doesn’t make extraordinary amounts of money from its desktop operating system. (Mobile and iTunes, that’s another amazing story.)

So what should Apple do with OS X and their desktop line of business?  I’m glad you asked, here’s my plan!

Step 1: Sell Macs Running Windows

Sell Macs with Windows pre-loaded. I mean Windows only, not a hokey dual boot with OS X and Windows. No, I’m not crazy. This is very simple.  I am not suggesting that Apple stop selling Macs with OS X, but they should give consumers a choice which system they want to buy (yes, I know consumer choice isn’t one of Apples business tenets). Windows is an open system so any hardware maker can create a device and write drivers – even competitors like Apple.  In fact, this is possible today through Apple’s Boot Camp utility. Think about this, inside that cool Mac case is standard hardware. They have used ATI & Nvidia for graphics drivers, Intel for the CPU and so on. These Windows drivers already exist!  I have met several people that buy Macs to dump OS X in order to run Windows 7.  I guess these people like the cool Apple hardware but refuse to give up the conveniences and compatibility of Windows.   Before the iPod saved Apple’s bacon, I had the theory that Boot Camp was a market test to see if people would be willing to run Windows (XP at the time) on a Mac.  The answer was and still is yes.

Step 2: Sell Macs Running iOS (and OS X too!)

I know that many Apple purists would not run Windows based purely on principle. For those people there would be two options:

1. Run iOS on entry and mid level  Macs
2. Run OS X for higher-end solutions

Again, you may think I am crazy, but OS X development has seemingly stalled and it appears that Apple is near the end of its innovation road. Recent additions like a Mac App Store and a going back in time animation for Time Machine don’t really count as innovative. These “features” actually make my point for me. iOS (Yes, Apple’s mobile platform) has significantly outsold OS X. Now that iOS has a primitive form of multitasking, it’s not a far reach to think it could power a full featured Mac with keyboard, monitor, USB ports, etc.  This would be an appealing upgrade to iPod and iPad devotees. You could even have a mobile phone in your Mac!

Of course iOS, in its current form, is limited and couldn’t handle the heavy-duty processing required for more intensive tasks like photo and video editing.  For these users, they could opt for a Mac running OS X just like today.

Step 3: Open Source OS X

If the majority of Macs now run Windows or iOS, Apple’s attention to OSX will further decline.  That would be a shame because Apple has done a ton of good work over the last 10 years with the operating system. (There’s actually more than 10 years of coding if you consider they didn’t start from scratch and recycled NeXT.) To ensure that OS X doesn’t become extinct (NeXT and OS/2 come to mind), OS X should become an open source project like Linux.  Can you imagine what the open source community could do for OS X? Excitement for Linux has fallen off year over year, but Open OSX would be a huge hit in the software community.  Just think, within months, you would be able to install OS X on a computer of choice – not just those made by Apple!

Conclusion

There you have it — Joey’s road map for Apple’s operating systems. Yes, I know you Apple fans think I have committed the ultimate sin, but let’s face it.  Apple has shifted itself from a software company to a gadget and media company.  in the process, many resources have been shifted from the OS X product group.  If this trend continues (and it looks like it will) OS X will continue to be an afterthought in the Apple portfolio. If Apple sold Macs pre-loaded with Windows then sells would increase making yet even more money for the company.

Overhaul The Microsoft EA

The biggest improvement Microsoft can make is to fix the Enterprise Agreement licensing model.  The world is changing and virtualization is here. More and more companies are finding ways to implement Windows without signing an EA. (IBM even has a program to help users called Liberate.)  My company opted to not renew our EA and saved a load of cash.  The downside is that we cannot use the Enterprise edition of Win 7 and as a result we are implementing Win 7 Pro.  While Pro is ok for most users in my org, we have some users who need encryption. – not just isolated encryption, but the centrally managed BitLocker that only comes with an EA.  I could deploy some isolated BitLocker islands, but this is not a good practice since keys are not managed.  We have a 3^rdparty solution, but if we could implement a mix of Pro/Enterprise and still use the centrally managed tools in AD then life would be much easier and the MS sales people would have a better story to tell.  Other great features that I cannot use are AppLocker and Med-V.  When looking at the cost of the EA, AppLocker and the other included items did not justify the cost.  That’s too bad since these are some great tools that are just collecting dust and could benefit organizations. I bet most people reading this don’t even know what AppLocker is! (See a few paragraphs down; perhaps MS should combine BitLocker with Security Essentials.)

Make Hyper-V More Complete for VDI

While Microsoft is doing well with server virtualization, the desktop Hyper-V product needs to mature.  The fundamentals to Hyper-V seem very solid. In fact, we stood up a Hyper-V VDI environment quicker and with better performance than we had with our VMWare VDI solution. The problem with Microsoft’s solution is the lack of tools.  Like most other products, MS builds the base components with an open architecture, but waits for partners like Quest and Citrix to make the solution manageable in large organizations. So, to stand up a nice VDI solution I need to work with multiple products from multiple vendors. How is that EASY?  They also need to keep maturing RemoteFX as a full featured VDI client. To enable true VDI, the old roaming profile feature needs to dusted off and updated.  While this was a good idea, implementation often wasn’t practical because of the amounts of data that neeed to be streamed.  This feature now seems relevant again, but needs to be integrated with could and VDI offerings.

Three-Tiered Virtualization Model

Speaking of virtualizing user profiles, why not take a radical shift and create three distinct virtual layers:

1. The OS
2. Applications
3. User profiles (or user state)

The latter two would be applicable for physical (non-virtualized) operating systems as well.  Imagine how much simpler administration would be if applications were virtualized with App-V and user profiles were virtualized with User-V (I just made that name up).  Not only could I easily login to any computer (or slate device) on the network, but app delivery gets easy, licensing gets easy, etc… There are a couple of problems with the scenario.  The amount of data being transferred for large profiles is one, but the other is how do I take virtual apps on the road without connectivity?  Regardless, this is a huge fundalmental shift in the way apps and users are managed today on the desktop, but this fits into Microsoft’s cloud vision.

Enhance MDT

The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT 2010) deployment method is LIGHT YEARS ahead of Ghosting type technologies. Instead of maintaining a gold reference machine and making sector based images from this, MDT configurations can be managed from any desktop.  You simply point MDT to your Windows media, applications, and drivers.  From here you build logic around these items (for example, ‘If IsLaptop then install VPN’), then generate your bootable image with all the logic.  This is easy, but the learning curve is STEEP and not for the non-technical.  MDT needs refinement in initial setup (too many separate parts), driver management, wireless config (can’t import wireless profiles), IE config (most settings must be controlled via GPO), and the user experience (no way to set a theme for default user).

Clean Up AD

Speaking of Active Directory, it needs to be cleaned up. AD has grown over the years and the number of individual policy objects is nearly incomprehensible.  As you walk through the objects, the functionality of certain items has changed and the descriptions don’t always agree and many times actually conflict with the setting.  Furthermore, there is no check/balance system so setting A may undo setting B, or the combination of settings X, Y, and Z could have detrimental effects to the end user.   At the very least, AD needs versioning control with the ability to un-tattoo managed computers.

Touch, Pen, & Voice Input

Touch is the big consumer focus for 2011. However, it has relevant uses in businesses as well. Yes, Windows 7 has multi-touch and handwriting recognition, but that’s as far as it goes.  Again, MS wants partners to extend this functionality to make it useful.  MS needs to build in a touch UI that control 100% of the operating system.  Is this what Mosh is all about?

The pen input method is over looked these days due to touch devices.  However, pen is very useful for taking notes in an app like OneNote or drawing diagrams. The ability for Win 7 to convert handwriting to text is unparalleled.  It does a good job even when you try to write sloppily. It even learns as you use it.  When writing in traditional apps such as Office, Windows presents you with a pop-up containing a single line to write text on.  When you pause writing or click “insert” it places the text in your document.  This is a huge area for improvement.  Writing on this single line can be awkward and unnatural.

Most people don’t know that you can control Windows with speech.  It’s been there for years. It’s good for functions like “select word” or “select paragraph” but it’s not intuitive to say “search for mexican restaurants in tulsa.”  Microsoft owns a product called TellMe that is built into Windows Phone 7 devices.  TellMe is fantastic.  This product needs to be integrated into the core of Windows 8.

Windows Security

Keep improving the security story. Windows 7 made huge strides in security – at least in what most people think of security (viruses, spyware, etc).  It is now considered the most secure desktop beating previous versions of Windows, Linux, and OSX. On top of that, while not part of Windows itself, the free Security Essentials is one of the best malware engines I have used.  However, it doesn’t rank in Garnet’s “completeness of vision” chart since it doesn’t offer a Mac OSX version, and there are no firewall, encryption, or other loss prevention (DLP) features.  Figure out a way to combine malware, encryption, and DLP with audit, and then the security story for Microsoft gets even better.  Of course, this all needs be deployable through MDT and managed through AD.

IE9, IE10, and Beyond

Microsoft is doing a surprisingly good job with Internet Explorer 9.  They need to keep up the good work and continue standards compliancy.  Most people don’t really care about 100% compliancy, but it is still a good story to tell.

Dump WMP for Zune

Currently, Microsoft offers two media experiences: Windows Media Player and Zune.While media is often viewed as consumer focused, it still plays an important role in corp worlds.  Microsoft needs to dump WMP and focus on the superior Zune desktop software. Zune is more modern with ties into other devices like Windows Phone and Xbox.  It also has hooks into streaming and cloud storage. Of course, MDT and AD integration are required. (Windows Media CENTER is actually a third built-in media experience, but it doesn’t have much use in the corporate space. Actually, Media Center is one of my favorite home apps, it could use some updating from Microsoft.  I have lots of ideas for that, but that’s another topic.)

The one really cool feature of WMP that Zune does not have is the “play to” feature.  When set up properly, you can select any media file and stream it to any device on your network.  This could be an Xbox, a hand held device, or even another computer.  It’s a really cool feature but set up is less than ideal.

Photo Gallery Needs to Grow Up

Speaking of Media, Live Photo Gallery (part of Live Essentials) is a great tool for managing and viewing images/videos. It has a built in compact version of SQL Server which makes handling, tagging, organizing, moving, etc thousands of photos easy. In fact, my wife uses it for her photo business in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  The problem is (once again) is that it is consumer focused.  There is no way to deploy parts of it with MDT. Furthermore, once the install is completed there is no method in AD to block the Live ID sign-in screen.  I don’t want all my users going out and creating Live IDs just to view photos.  I am NOT suggesting, MS include WLPG as part of Windows 8.  I like the idea of keeping it separate so it remains on its own development path.

Remote Support

The built-in remote support options work but are limited. While Dameware and Bomgar have built solid businesses for desktop support, MS could improve the built in offering to work more reliably over multiple LAN/WAN/Firewall segments.

Desktop Sharing

Building on remote support, I would like to see a user feature for easily and securely sharing desktop screens. Our graphics people would love the ability to share their screen as they are working on projects. We are currently implementing Microsoft Lync for web conferencing, but this is overkill for simple desktop sharing.

Corporate App Store/Marketplace

An internal App Store that allows end-users to install software would be a great idea! Early in 2010, a leaked MS document showed plans for a Windows 8 Marketplace/App store.  This is a great consumer feature (in fact, Apple took notice and created their own for OSX), but I do not want my 7,000 users buying Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja for their work computers.  The Marketplace needs the ability (through AD) to be redirected to an internal version. This could potentially reduce calls to the helpdesk for software installs.

What Else?

My time is running out, but I will re-visit this list again soon.  What other items would you like to see in Windows 8 that would benefit the corporate user?

I have gotten several emails about Windows 7 recently (and even a couple about Vista). Since I am in the middle of a large Win7 architectural and deployment project, I thought I would take time and jot down some thoughts and try to answer the emails in the progress. 

I don’t want to do a feature by feature comparison of Vista and Win 7, because there are hundreds of those available. I could spend the next three months writing about XP Mode(virtualization), multi-core performance improvements, TRIM support for solid state drives, the new task bar, and on and on.   Within Microsoft the company, they changed the way they managed code internally during Windows 7 development. While this won’t necessarily lead to better code, it did speed development time and allowed more time for quality assurance testing.  These are all great features and topics, but I want to take a consumer’s view of what happened between Vista and Win 7.

Windows 7 has been available for less than a year and it has already surpassed the market shares held by Apple’s OSX and Windows Vista.  There will always be those who follow OSX in a cult-like fashion, but it seems that Vista has become a distant memory to even the most ardent Microsoft supporters.  How is it that Microsoft can release an operating system that infuriated people then turn around and release a successor a couple of years later and have people claiming it is the best operating system ever?

What was so wrong with Vista?

From a consumer point of view, Vista was a train wreck when it was released  in 2006.  Specifically:

1. Bugs: Microsoft and their legion of followers cannot deny it, there were bugs. Vista was a re-write of the Windows client.  During the development process, there were numerous delays and feature cuts.  At one point early in the development process, Microsoft even stopped development completely to push XP SP2 out the door. Microsoft was feeling pressure to release this much anticipated operating system. With any re-write, especially on the magnitude of Windows, there will be bugs.  It is obvious this pressure forced Microsoft to release the bits before Vista was ready.  As a result, there were many more bugs than there should have been on release day.  I’m sure Microsoft was taking the “we’ll fix it later” approach just to say they shipped by a certain date.  Within weeks Microsoft began to publish reliability and performance patches.
2. Drivers: Like many things, the driver model changed from XP to Vista. As a result, all hardware drivers had to be rewritten. (This is the reason that some legacy devices won’t work with Vista/Win7) Even though there were several preview versions of Vista, hardware makers were not ready.  I saw a stat that claimed Nvidia video drivers were the number one cause of all Vista crashes — but I have no way to verify this.  This wasn’t just an Nvidia problem, they were just the most visible.
3. Hardware: The hardware requirements in Vista were dramatically higher than in XP. No longer would 512 MB of RAM be sufficient to run Windows.  Vista would require a minimum of 1 GB to operate, and 2 GB to operate proficiently.  The same leap in performance was also required for the processor.  Many early adopters were the first to buy Vista, but also the first to realize their XP-era computers could not handle the load.
4. Crapware = bloat:The scourge of crapware started in the XP days and reached a peak with Vista.  Mainstream computer manufacturers were adding their own utilities on top of the core operating system. Plus, they were offsetting the cost by allowing other vendors to place their apps and utilities on the system.  True, most of the craplets could be removed, but the problem was that if you ever needed to restore your computer to factory state, the DVD that shipped with your computer included all this junk.  Take for example my sister-in-laws Vista laptop.  This Dell laptop had decent specs with 3 GB of RAM and a solid CPU.  However, it took nearly five minutes for the laptop to boot to a usable state!  I got a hold of it and found media players, photo editors, printer monitors, wireless managers, and all kinds of unneeded garbage that she didn’t install.  Why would she need Dell’s wireless manager when the one built into Windows is clean and works very well?  After I removed the junk, it went from a five minute boot to under one minute!
5. Core Apps: Why did Vista include Windows Mail, Windows Photo Gallery, and Windows Movie Maker if they were also developing a new set of the same utilties called Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Photo Gallery, and Windows Live Movie Maker.  It wouldn’t have been so confusing had the new Live apps actually replaced the bundled apps.  Instead, when you installed the new apps, it left the old ones behind too. If you has JPG files set to open in Photo Gallery and PNG files set to open in LIVE Photo Gallery, it would get really confusing very quickly.

As a side note, there is a free utility called The Decrappifer which claims it will scan your system and remove all this junk.

Why didn’t Windows 7 suffer the same growing pains?

Fast forward to 2009 to the Windows 7 release.  Why didn’t the problems listed above impact 7 in the same way they did with Vista?

1. Bugs: Windows 7 was not a re-write.  In fact, you could even consider it Vista Version 2 — really.  Yes, MS made many improvements on the surface and under the hood, but the fact remains that most of Win 7 is, in fact, Vista. As a result, the opportunity to introduce new bugs went way down.
2. Drivers: Since Win 7 was not a complete re-write, the driver model did not change.  Even though most hardware makers updated drivers for Win 7, the Vista era drivers were sufficient in most cases.
3. Hardware: Once again, since Win 7 is really Vista Version 2, the hardware requirements did not go up.  So any Vista capable machine could run 7.  In fact, due to lots of work optimizing the operating system, you could actually run Win 7 on fewer hardware resources than Vista required!
4. Crapware: Yes, crapware still exists, but Microsoft has put limits on what can be installed.  In fact, they even limit the number of icons which can be “pinned” to the Windows 7 start menu.  With any new store-bought system, you should still examine what is installed and remove what you can. Dell or HP will try to sneak their wireless manager onto some systems. The Decrappifier works on Win 7 also!
5. Core Apps: Windows 7 did not include a photo library, movie maker, or mail client.  Instead, they directed you to a download of the new Live Essentials site.  This is much cleaner and allows the Live apps to be developed and released independently of the Windows Client. No longer will you have to wait for a Windows Service Pack to add functionality to the mail client.

The Truth About Vista.

It seems that the industry in general ignores this, but the truth is that Microsoft eventually fixed Vista and it became a good operating system.  Take this note I got from Robert R:

“Why are people telling me to upgrade to Windows 7 when Vista works perfectly for me? To me, Vista seems just as good as Windows  7.”

I wouldn’t say that Vista as good as Windows 7, but it definitelybecame good enough to run on a daily basis and to operate your business on. It took a few years to get to this point and many of the improvements were actually a result of the Win 7 development.

Even th0ugh there are many people using Vista (some liking it, some not) it has become the forgotten operating system and it is time to move on to Windows 7. In fact, there are already talks about what is going to be included in Windows 8! The damage is done.  Even those who have never used Vista, claim it is a horrid operating system.  Did you ever see those Microsoft Mojave commercials? The producers sat typical consumers down and asked them rate Vista.  Then, they unveil Mojave, Microsoft’s newest OS.  They then ask the same consumers to rate it.  The commercials show user rating Vista a 2 to 3, then Mojave anywhere from an 8 to 10.  Of course they drop the boom and inform them they are actually using Vista.  A little dramatic, but they were trying to overcome the stigma which the bad release caused.

Time to Move On

The point is, the damage is done and no clever marketing can undo it (well, maybe Apple’s marketing could). This is why Microsoft saw Windows 7 as such a ciritical release.  Even though this was really Vista Version 2, people saw it as much more and the results have been much much better for Microsoft, consumers and corporate users.

1. Assuming you’re running Windows 7, can you complete your system with free applications?

2. Building on question #1, can you run your computer — including the operating system — on 100% free software?

3. Now that Windows 7 has shot past Vista market share (in just six months), I’ll post a high-level review of what made this forgotten operating system such a sore subject for many people. (Update 9-8-10:  Here is that blog entry: http://www.bowlesonline.com/from-vista-to-windows-7-how-did-microsoft-fix-windows/)

3. I got an Apple ipad for work (yes, for work).  What are my thoughts?

~~~~

Rugged Laptops

One of the great things about my job is that I get to test new gear from time to time. Most of the time this usually consists of new computers that are just new iterations of existing models. On occasion, something interesting comes along. Dell has half-heartedly been in the specialty market of ruggedized computers for some time, but has recently gotten more serious with a new line of laptops. Although the market is small, it is primarily dominated by the Panasonic Toughbook line. Dell has expanded their Latitude line by releasing a semi-rugged model (Latitude ATG), a fully ruggedized model (XFR), and a rugged convertible multi-touch tablet (XT2 XFR).

While the tablet is the most interesting to me, I have my hands on the Latitude E6400 XFR. All these models fall within the Latitude line and have the same internal specs as the mainstream Latitudes. As was explained to me by my sales rep, these are Latitudes which have had the cases removed and new cases applied by hand. The ruggedization work is actually performed by a third party company called Augmentix. Building, tearing apart, and rebuilding seems inefficient to me, but what do I know? Building a rugged line on the existing Latitude platform is good news if your business already has an investment in the Latitude line. All of your images, peripherals, and docking stations should work without modification.

What is a Rugged Laptop?

The term “fully ruggedized” is confusing to some. The term does not imply 100% waterproof. The computer is meant to withstand dirty conditions, moisture and rain, salty fog, and some abuse but cannot be fully submerged.  Update:  My Dell rep told me today that the XFR can be fully submerged in the case of a drop but should be immediately retrieved. There are no exposed ports, the speakers are enclosed, even the heat vents, speakers, and webcam are covered. The XFR achieves an ingress rating against blowing dust and moisture of IP65 (if you know what that is).  To further clarify what rugged means, there is a battery of military spec tests. The results are impressive.

To further increase the durability, my eval arrived with a solid state diskdrive (SSD) to reduce the chance of mechanical failure. Dell utilizes an alloy casing called Ballistic Armor Protection System featuring PR481 which they claim has twice the impact resistance of traditional magnesium alloy. (I’m assuming this Ballistic Armor is a marketing term made up by Augmentix.) I have performed some minor drop tests but can’t bring myself to really test the durability. Dell claims the XFR is first in class to achieve the military’s MIL-STD-810F specification for a four foot drop on plywood over concrete. My test was a two foot drop on carpet over padding as I prayed.

You would think with all the covered ports, that heat would be a concern. According to Dell, the XFR meets military standard MIL-STD for temperature extremes. Heat dissipation is managed by their QuadCool thermal management system (See photos below for the QuadCool vent).

XFR Performance

The computer does not lack horsepower. This is one of the most responsive computers I have used in the business laptop class. I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit and it takes about 20 seconds from power-on to being in a usable state. Impressive. There does seem to be a refresh glitch with the Intel video driver from the Intel site.  I find myself having to minimize/restore various windows to force a refresh. There is also an Nvidia video option which probably does not suffer the same issues. (Update: I used Intel’s Auto Detect utility on http://www.intel.com/support/detect.htm and installed the latest video drivers. Refresh problem solved. This proves you should always update your drivers.)

I should note that this is not a Dell image with the typical bloat/crapware.  I installed Win 7 fresh from the installation DVD and added drivers from the Dell support site.  To further increase responsiveness, I am using Microsoft’s Security Essentials anti malware program and not a resource hogging program like Norton or McAfee.

Other XFR Observations

As I mentioned before all the ports are covered to prevent dust and moisture from entering the system. The port covers are opened by a two step motion by pressing and sliding the release.  These doors feel a bit awkward compared to the Panasonic Toughbook doors. The SD card slot is the most inaccessible. It is located behind the handle on the front of the unit.  Opening the cover and inserting the SD card involves some phalange gymnastics. Even getting a good photo (see the gallery below) of the SD slot was difficult. Other than that, the design seems well thought out. This model includes a VGA, Display port, modem, Ethernet, three USB, one USB/eSATA combo, PCMCIA, SD slot, fingerprint sensor, and one 1394 Firewire port. Like all other manufacturers, there is a swift move from serial interfaces. This laptop is no exception. The serial port is following the steps of the parallel port and the diskette drive.

The battery is small and based on the body design, I don’t think an extended capacity battery will fit. (Although there is a “battery slice” option available for extended power.) With Windows 7’s power management features, and the SSD, battery life has been very impressive so far.

An important note is that Dell will not release an 6410 XFR.  They are sticking with the 6400 and will most likely release an update with the 6420 product refresh.  Interestingly, there is a 6410 ATG.

Dell XFR Accessories & Serial Port Adapter

There are NUMEROUS accessories available for the XFR.  There is a shoulder strap that screws in brass screws near the built-in handle.  There is a “battery slice” which is a flat extra large capacity battery that screws onto the bottom of the laptop.  To solve the lack legacy ports, there are two legacy port extenders which attach onto the bottom of the unit with metal screws. There is an adapter with one serial (RS-232) and one parallel port, and the other comes with two serials. These serial adapters are big and rugged, but they secure to the bottom of the unit very tightly.

UL Certification

The Latitude E6400 XFR is UL1604 Class 1 / Div 2 certified, but the ATG is not.  I believe you can get the Panasonic certified also, but only in a touchscreen unit. Keep in mind that these devices are only certified when all port enclosures are closed and locked. The Latitude ATG is not certified at all and no device that I have found is Class 1 / Div 1.

Dell XFR vs Panasonic Toughbook

This note is not a Dell vs Panasonic comparison. However, it’s hard to not make some cursory observations. Compared to the Panasonic Toughbook (CF-30 & CF-31) the XFR is a modern device.  While Panasonic invented this niche, the Toughbooks have stuck to their original design and compared to today’s standards seem bulky and ugly. For example, even though the CF-31 is new, it still has a 4:3 aspect ration, while the Dell has a modern 16:9 screen.  Panasonic claims they are sticking with the original form so that existing users can leverage their docks and truck mounts.

Furthermore, Panasonic’s driver update model is odd. First of all, you need to register to download updates. Then, since they don’t update model numbers often, you need to know what “mark” your Toughbook is (roughly equivalent to the date it was produced).  Then, once you get logged in, you download driver updates in packages.  On the other hand, Dell treats driver updates like they would any other Latitude. You simply browse to support.dell.com, select your model, and download the driver you need.  Much simpler.

Dell Latitude XFR Photos

Here are some photos of the XFR. Sorry for the lack of professionalism, my wife sold her studio a few years ago so all I have now is my dining table.

• AdSense Manager – This plugin allows you place Google AdSense ads on your blog.  Using this plugin, I place one banner ad at the bottom of the page and as a widget on the right side.
• Akismet – REQUIRED plugin to kill spam.  Keep it updated and it will do an excellent job for you.
• Bookmarkify – This plugin places a footer on each article which allows you to share the post through email, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, StumbleUpon, and many many many other services.   There are other plugins which accomplish the same thing, but this is the one I started with and am familiar with.
• Enhanced WP-ContactForm – Allows you to create a CONTACT page with enhanced features referrers, spam protection, and allows the commenter to cc himself.
• Google XML Sitemaps– REQUIRED if you want search engines like Google, Bing, & Yahoo to index your site.  The sitemap is created automatically and is updated each time you create a new post. When the  sitemap is updated, the major search engines are notified automatically.  Very useful and efficient.
• IE6 No More – This is for the IT geek in me.  I’ve noticed on my blog and my wife’s photo site that there are still many people using Internet Explorer 6.  Do you realize IE6 was released in 2001?!? Many of the malicious attacks which are around today were not even conceivable when IE6 was developed. As a result IE6 is considered security Swiss cheese. Microsoft finally took the browser seriously in subsequent releases.This plugin places a banner at the top of each page for all IE6 users suggesting they upgrade to IE8 or another modern browser. I modified the plugin slightly for my use.
• Kontera ContentLink– The purpose of my blog is not to make money. However, I do have this plugin enabled to create paid links based on certain content.  I haven’t gotten a check yet.
• NextGEN Gallery– A REQUIRED plugin if you want to included photo galleries in your WordPress blogs.  Once you figure out the basics, this is extremely useful. This plugin is updated often.
• Official StatCounter Plugin– I use statcounter.com to track usage on all my sites.  This plugin automates the task of placing the invisible StatCounter code in your blog entries.
• Subscribe to Comments - This handy plugin allows your readers to subscribe to comments on your various posts.  I just added this one this week – I wish I would have thought to add it before.
• Random Image- While not a plugin, I use this script to rotate my header image.  With each new page load, this script displays a random image.

By the way, does anyone know what kind of tree this is?

Of course I recommend you proceed at your own risk.  Anytime you flash a device you could brick it.  Although, I have flashed my Tilt 2 dozens and dozens of times without issue. I recommend the NRG ROMs.  He keeps his ROMs updated and offers various flavors.

~~~~~

October 25, 2009: In last week’s post about my new AT&T Tilt 2, I asked the question if anyone knew how to remove the “Getting Started” item from the Windows Mobile, I mean Windows Phone 6.5 default menu.  There is no menu editor included with my phone (that I can find) so I was stuck with this useless item taking up real estate.  Well, I’ve had MANY hits on this blog entry but no one has posted an answer. After poking through the Windows Phone Marketplace I found a free app called the “Home Screen Customizer.”  This app is simple and does one thing – allows you to customize the home screen menu.  You can remove any item from the menu, but for some reason you can only add certain apps.  Additionally, you can easily rearrange the order of the items in the menu.

By the way, if you like the Autumn theme in the screen shots below, you can download for free in this post.

The following screen shots show the Windows Phone 6.5 menu before and after editing. You can clearly see the “Getting Started” item is present in one shot and missing in the next (ignore the time stamps).

Below is the interface of the Home Screen Customizer tool. It’s simple and does its intended job well. To remove an item simply tap the “X” – don’t worry you can add it back if needed. The red heart denotes which menu item is highlighted at load time.

After you customize the menu you can remove the app, or it is small enough to leave in-place. Thanks to these guys for creating this great free app. It is something I was looking for.

Of course I recommend you proceed at your own risk.  Anytime you flash a device you could brick it.  Although, I have flashed my Tilt 2 dozens and dozens of times without issue. I recommend the NRG ROMs.  He keeps his ROMs updated and offers various flavors.

By the way, this is what I carry now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m not a phone geek but on the other hand I don’t want a clunker phone. I want a good phone that will last a couple of years. After having an AT&T Tilt (made by HTC) for nearly three years I decided it was time for a new phone. This was a good phone that has seen several crashes on the ski slopes, a drop here or there, and most impressively my two young boys. Getting a new phone now is good timing since Windows Mobile 6.5, now known as Windows Phone 6.5, was just released. I compared several phones including the Pure and Tilt 2. (BTW, I’m stuck with AT&T since that’s the carrier my company has selected.) The two phones were comparable with slight differences:

• The Tilt 2 is a little larger than the pure.
• The Pure has a 5MB camera and the T2 has a 3.2.
•  The T2 has a very nice speaker phone, I’m not sure what the Pure has but it wasn’t obvious.
• The T2 has a physical keyboard, the Pure does not. This contributes somewhat to the larger size of the device, but they did a good job keeping the keyboard as thin as possible. This obviously makes the Tilt 2 thicker than the iPhone.
• The T2 seems to have a nicer screen than the Pure.

Although I don’t use the physical keyboard much anymore on the original Tilt, I went with the Tilt 2 over the other devices I considered. It felt good in my hands, the screen was one of the best I have seen, and believe it or not, I use the speaker phone.

So how does the new Tilt 2 compare to the original Tilt? It’s night and day:

• The old Tilt had Windows Mobile 6.0 or 6.1, the new one has Windows Phone 6.5 which is basically the same OS but with a much needed face lift.
• Included in 6.5 is a vastly improved mobile Internet Explorer.  I can’t even begin to describe the improvement here.
• The Tilt now feels like a brick in my hands compared to this sleek ergo device.
• The new Tilt has a radio. Haven’t tried it yet.
• The screen, as I mentioned before, is amazing on the T2. At the time, the Tilt screen was nice but we’ve come a long way.
•  The Tilt had no accelerometer so the only way to change the orientation was to slide the keyboard out or hit an onscreen button. The T2 does have an accelerometer but it is very underused with the bundled software. The bundled game Teeter does an excellent job demonstrating the capabilities.

I wasn’t sure I would like this phone at first, but after I removed some proprietary HTC/AT&T stuff I am thrilled with my decision. Namely, I removed the TouchFlo 3D and enabled the default 6.5 UI. The TouchFlo interface is nice looking and great programming but it’s not that efficient or useful. You can flick photos and emails all around, but it seems more for show and selling phones in the store than it does for actual use. The TouchFlo interface quickly becomes a nuisance and gets in the way. On the other hand, the native 6.5 UI is efficient and very natural to use.

Note: Even though Windows Phone 6.5 was officially released just last week (as of this writing on 10/21/09), there are already rumors and leaked builds of 6.5.1 (or 6.51).  I’m sure there will be an HTC upgrade in flash ROM format when this is officially released. HTC did this with the original Tilt providing a ROM upgrade from Windows Mobile 6.0 to 6.1.

Here are a couple of screen shots of the TouchFlo and the native Windows Phone 6.5 interfaces.  Both have a nice look in these screen shots, but you can’t get a sense of their usefulness until you get your hands on the device.

How to disable the HTC TouchFlo 3D interface:

Start > Settings > Today > Items. Now uncheck TouchFlo and check “Windows Default” – This will give you the new 6.5 UI. I really like this interface, it is very Zune and/or Windows Media Center like. (Don’t get me wrong, there is room for improvement in 6.5.1 and the complete rewrite of Windows Phone 7.) Alternatively, if you prefer the WindowsMobile 6.1 look, you can select your own items for the Today screen. However, I find the 6.5 interface very useful and efficient.

How do I remove my Microsoft Live or Hotmail account?

This isn’t exactly obvious, but if you set up a Live or Hotmailaccount and want to remove it, follow these steps: Start > Windows Live > Switch LiveAccounts This will remove all emails and account settings which you previously entered.

How to create your own Windows Phone 6.5 Theme:

I haven’t done this yet, but it looks simple. Simply go the site, select your phone, select your preferences, and if desired supply a background image. You’ll then get a link sent to your phone to install the theme: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/downloads/theme-generator.mspx

Remaining questions I am working on. Can you help?

• The phone came bundled with some software I can’t remove. Specifically, how do I remove Opera Mobile 9.5? I like Opera but I prefer to use 9.7. Skyfire is also a very good browser that supports Flash.
• How do I remove the “Getting Started” menu item? This problem is solved HERE!
• How do I add/remove any item in the Windows Phone 6.5 menu?
• Why is there a preinstalled YouTube app but no shortcut?  Most users will never find this app buried in the folder structure.

Additionally, the guest OS (XP in this case) runs on a virtual hard disk (VHD).  The VHD is actually a large, single file on your physical disk.  To the host system this is a single file, but to the guest OS, this looks like a physical disk.  From the host you can move this file around, back it up, delete it, etc… Keep in mind that if you delete this file, you are essentially deleting your guest operating system.

To get started, you need a virtualization engine such as Microsoft Virtual PC (also free).  Once VPC is installed, you need to download XP Mode (this is a large download since it is a full copy of XP SP3).  The setup is painless. The only info you will need to provide is an admin password for your XP instance. Obviously, you can customize all kinds of settings but the defaults are acceptable for running XP. If needed, you can go back later and adjust memory, disk size, etc.

Once the setup is complete you can do anything within the virtual instance of XP as you would do in any other OS. You can install applications, surf the web, change the wallpaper, etc…

In this image you can clearly see XP with IE6 running within Windows 7

So why would you want to run Windows within Windows? I can think of several scenarios in which you would need to run XP within Win7.

1. Keep in mind that Microsoft’s biggest competition for Windows 7 isn’t Linux or Mac OSX, it is XP itself.  Windows XP is everywhere in corporate America. Applications have been written to run on XP since 2001. Many of these apps will indeed run in Windows 7 but there are many that will not.  In a perfect world, the developers would go back and update the apps and provide free upgrades, but Microsoft realizes this isn’t going to happen. So, in order to hurdle the compatibility barrier, they decided to basically give corporations the ability to run the apps in XP within Windows 7.  Not exactly efficient, but a solution exists.
2. No matter how successful Windows 7 is, there will still be people running XP for years to come. Unfortunately, many of these people still run Internet Explorer 6. Web and app developers need a method to test their sites on this older technology. Instead of keeping an old PC around just to test their site on IE6, they can simply fire up XP Mode with IE6.
3. Since the guest OS is installed on its own virtual disk, you can use the virtual instance as a security sandbox for anything you wouldn’t want to do in your host system.  If something gets hosed, just delete the virtual disk and reinstall XP Mode.

Running XP in a virtualized environment is not new or groundbreaking. So what makes XP Mode different?  For one, you actually get a free licensed copy of XP (most virtualized copies of XP are boot-legged).  Secondly, unlike some virtualization engines, the experience is seamless. You can easily copy/paste between the host and guest systems and there is a single mouse which traverses all instances without synchronization. Next, and really cool, is the ability to add a shortcut to a virtualized application within XP to your Windows 7 start menu.  This is significant because it hides the XP OS and only exposes the application to the user.  This is referred to as publishing an application in XP Mode and is enabled by putting the application in the ”All Users” group in the virtualized XP start menu.

In this screenshot, you can see a link to Google Chrome which is installed in the XP virtual instance. Chrome is not installed on Windows 7 in this example.

..and here is Chrome running in XP Mode without XP being visible.  Keep in mind Chrome is really running in a virtualized instance of XP.

We haven’t had land-line service in our house for six years.  It just seemed like an unnecessary expense month after month when we both carried around cell phones.  Yes, I’m aware of the 911 argument but it has been a risk we were willing to take.  Things change, we had kids, and moved out of a dense neighborhood onto some land. Gentry, my wife, was concerned that 911 service would have a difficult time finding us via cell phone. Plus, our primary babysitter doesn’t have a mobile phone.  So, to ease all concerns, we bought the Magic Jack. I can honestly say… The Magic Jack works.
 

What is the MagicJack?

There are two components to the Magic Jack: 1. The device itself and 2. A yearly service component.  As far as I can determine the device has several purposes:

1. It is a USB storage device which, once plugged into your PC for the first time, automatically installs the MagicJack software.  (Updates are automatically applied as needed.)
2. It is a phone to USB converter. You can use any old touchtone phone.
3. It also serves as a licensing device.  The installed software won’t successfully start on your PC unless this is plugged in.  You can take the device form PC to PC with ease without breaking any license agreement.

There are a couple of service plans available. We signed up for a three year plan for just a few bucks per year.

How does the MagicJack work?

Just in case you didn’t know, it’s not relly magic. Once plugged into your computer, a program known as a softphone launches and connects to a remote PBX somewhere on the Internet. The cool thing is that all the magic is transparent to the user — all you see is an onscreen phone app.  This is no different than other softphones which are common in corporations.  One of the great things about a softphone is that you are not bound by your home.  You can take your laptop with you to a hotel or Starbucks and make/receive calls as if you were sitting at your desk. Unlike other softphone solutions, the MJ must be plugged directly into your computer so the software can validate your license.

A phone is NOT required – yes, that is correct.  You can plug the MagicJack in and use your built in speakers/mic as a speakerphone.  Alternatively, you can plug in a headset to another USB port or even a Bluetooth headset.  Again, a phone is not required as a long as the MJ is plugged in to a USB port.

Can I pick my own phone number with a MagicJack?

Yes, well, kinda… You select an area code and prefix and you are offered several number options to select from.  We picked an area code for an area in which we actually live, but I would assume you can pick any area code that is available.

Does MagicJack offer 911 serivce?

Yes, when you run through the initial setup you are required to supply a physical address where the MJ will be used.  In the event you make a 911 call, the emergency service will be dispatched to this address.  Keep in mind that if you make a 911 call from Starbucks or a hotel room, the dispatcher will still get your home address.  Oops!

Does MagicJack offer voice mail and other enhanced services?

Yes, these are all included.  In fact, when you get a voice mail it will send it via an attachment to your email address on file. Caller ID, Call Waiting, and 411 are also included.

Can you fax with a MagicJack?

Yes, you can send and receive faxes with an external fax machine.  What’s not as obvious is that you can also send/receive faxes using the same Windows PC that your MagicJack is plugged into.  It sounds hokey, but you need to run a phone cable from your fax/modem port to the MagicJack — yes you have a phone cable in two ports on the same computer.  From here, you would fax like you normally would from within Windows — just set up your fax as a new printer and “print” to it. So, you should be able to fax anything you can print including Microsoft Word docs, email, photos, drawings, whatever…

Will MagicJack run on Windows 7?

I have used our MagicJack on Windows XP, Vista, and Win 7 without any difficulty.  I did notice in XP, that while the jack was plugged in, there was an IP Telephony update listed in WindowsUpdate.  I installed this update and didn’t notice any difference good or bad. This was an “optional” update so those of you who have updates set to automatic might not get this one.

What are the drawbacks or disadvantages of using MagicJack?

This is a best effort service designed to run over residential broadband.  As a result, the voice quality is not equal to traditional phone service.  Additionally, MJ requires an active Internet connection and will not work if you lose access for any reason (including power loss).  Compare this to traditional phone service which gets its power from the TelCo central office and gives you a constant dial tone even if you lose power.

What’s the result?

I highly recommend MJ for personal use. Considering the price, it is very low risk. It is a great way to shave some money off your monthly utility bills. However, MJ does not offer any service level agreements (SLA) so it may not be a wise solution if you are running a business and require consistent voice quality.

Obviously you will need a series of photos from a single vantage point. You can have two photos up to as many as you like.
Here are some tips to remember when taking your photos:

• Make sure each photo in your series has a bit of overlap so the software will know where the stitching points are.  It is safer to have too much overlap than none at all.
• When taking the photos, try to keep your camera in the same position and at the same angle as you rotate. A tripod or monopod will help for larger shoots.
• If you have the know-how and a capable camera, set the exposure manually. Doing this will prevent different exposures on the various photos. If you don’t know what this means, then don’t worry about it – just shoot!

Let’s get started.
Open WLPG and find the photos you want to stitch together. Select these photos. As you can see in the screen shot below, I am using a series of seven photos from the interior of Boone Pickens Stadium. The photos were taken with a camera placed on my knee and span 180 degrees from end-zone to end-zone. (These are old photos from April, 2008 before construction was complete.)

 

From the menu, select MAKE > CREATE PANORAMIC PHOTO

This process could take a few seconds to a few minutes depending on how many photos you are trying to stitch together. After this process completes, you will be prompted to give your panorama a file type and name. This is the ONLY OPTION you have in the process.  The default file type is JPG which is sufficient for emailing, posting to Facebook, etc… However, if you wish to do serious editing or print this professionally you will need to save the image as a TIFF.  TIFF files are not compressed and are much larger than compressed JPG files. Typically, photo editing software gives you the option of how much compression to apply but for some reason it is a fixed level in this software. Remember, more compression equals more degradation of the original image.

That’s it!  Your image may have some strange edges as a result of the stiching processing compensating for the placement and angle of your camera. If you don’t like these edges then simply use WLPG or any other photo editor to crop it square.

What started as seven individual images from a camera balanced on my knee is now an end-zone to end-zone view of Boone Pickens Stadium.

Click here to see the panorama.

Tips:

• You can zoom in and out very quickly using the scroll wheel on your mouse.
• Use your arrow keys or mouse to navigate around.
• Since this is a 360, you can pan one direction continusoly as if you are spinning in a circle.

Way back in 2001-2002, Microsoft released a set of free utilities for XP called PowerToys. Theses were small, very useful programs. One of the best tools in the set was the Image Resizer. Once installed, you could right-click on any photo, click on Resize Image, then select one of the preset sizes or create a custom size. You could resize a single image or in batch within two quick clicks. Additionally, the utility would create copies of your images and not touch your originals. This was the perfect solution for posting photos to the web, sending emails, or any other time you didn’t need the full sized image out of the camera.

Fast forward to the Vista release in 2006, this functionality was not included in the box, and Microsoft didn’t produce new PowerToys. Now, there is an open source clone of the Image Resizer PowerToy that works on Vista and Windows 7. It is identical in nearly every way. If you run Vista or Win7 and need a simple way to resize images or photos check it out.  It doesn’t get easier or simpler than this:

Current “stable” release: http://www.codeplex.com/PhotoToysClone

Preview release of next version (I am using this without any issues): http://imageresizer.codeplex.com/releases/view/74953

Tip:  Resize multiple photos at once.

After you install this free program, perform the following steps:

1. Select the photos to resize*
2. Right-click on any of the selected photos
3. Select Resize Pictures
4. Select the size you want, then OK.  Within a few seconds you will have resized copies of your photos.

* Tip: How to select multiple files.

• To select ALL photos in a folder, hit CTRL-A on your keyboard.
• To select multiple individual photos, check out how to enable check boxes for file selection in Windows.

1. Highly Recommended: The most dramatic single UI change you can make is implementing the Royale Noir theme.  I don’t know the full story on this theme, but it was developed at Microsoft as an alternative to the default blue/olive Luna theme. For some reason it was not included with the original XP release or any subsequent edition or service pack. It is obviously the basis for the default look in Vista. I am using it now on my work laptop. You can download Royale Noir here – I’ve included a read me.txt file on where to copy the files. Here is more info on Royale Noir at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royale_Noir

2. Highly Recommended: Most people know about PowerToys. These are XP add-ins that have been around since 2001. These are free useful utilities developed at Microsoft that weren’t included in the base XP code.  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

a. You will want the alt-tab replacement. Although this is not as cool as Vista’s “Flip 3D” it is a definite improvement over XP’s out of the box alt-tab look. This PowerToy gives you a screenshot of the Window (verses a boring icon) as you alt-tab through your open windows.

b. Also consider Virtual Desktop Manager. This may not be a Vista specific tool, but it is useful if you have a need for multiple desktops. This utility allows you to switch among different desktops without having to login as a different user. You may have one desktop for work, for home, etc. Or you may have a specific desktop config for working on photos, one for gaming, etc…

3. Highly Recommended: Turn on Clear Type. This is a font smoothing technique that has been built into XP forever. I’m not sure why Microsoft didn’t turn it on by default. It dramatically improves the way fonts look on your screen. (This same option is also available and disabled by default in Windows Mobile.)  Display Properties > Appearance > Effects. 

4. Replace the old yellow XP balloons with new glass notifications. This guy has created a free simple balloon replacement meant to look more Vista like. The source code is also available if that interestes you. http://mpj.tomaatnet.nl/vista/glasstoasts.html

5. Convert the XP start menu to a Vista-like start menu with this free utility. This is a nice utility for freeware but it is a little sluggish on my system. http://www.vistastartmenu.com/index.html 

6. One really cool Vista feature is the live previews you get when you hover over a minimized item in the taskbar. Visual Task Tips is a free XP implementation of this. http://visualtasktips.com/  Again, it’s good for freeware but has room for improvement. For example, previews are not available for all minimized windows.

7. IE7 and QuickTabs. Don’t forget the QuickTabs (Ctrl-Q) feature that is built into IE7. If you have IE7 then you already have QuikTabs and didn’t know it. This allows you to quickly see all your IE tabs in a simple thumbnail layout. You can rearrange the thumbnails by dragging them around.

8. If all the above still doesn’t do what you are needing, there is a highly rated utility call Vista Inspirat which should do all the above (except for the PowerToys) in one install.  I have not used it myself, but it does look cool.  http://www.crystalxp.net/news/en181-vista-inspirat-ultimate-2-brico-pack.html

Obviously this does not turn XP into Vista and you don’t get all the new Vista features like window transparency, enhanced security, media center, a new graphics model, etc. These tools will give you a fresh look to an aging Windows XP.

These codes can only be used once, so if you are the first to read this then you are the lucky one. Check back every couple of days to see if I’ve posted more codes.  Don’t be a hog, if you don’t like the artists, then don’t use the code. Also, if there are multiple codes for the same song, then please only take one.

To use the codes, simply open iTunes, go to the store and click redeem. You should see the field to paste the code in.

Enjoy.

• Adele – “Chasing Pavements” Song: MAMAMPFJEMF7, XNWKHEAAYYX9, E4YYF3PME4EL, M3P7Y7JHF3W4, YXXTX9MH6E4L, TFYFXYA39NY9, 74WM9N99Y47K
• Duffy – “Mercy” Music Video: A4R4TR9E734P, 4EPYJ437W6MM, M39MAN4EHFNA, MPM6RRAHWFNT, 7RPFALFE9MKJ, EYN97JJEMX77, 774AYFAFMJ6F, RMMKLHKY6PE4
• Carly Simon – “So Many People To Love” Song: RMFJP4MK649H, A3KMNRYW9KEL, LA7FY3JX6M49, 9TR7HW949XL7, MRXET4THLY9T, TMN9LWJJWXWN, 44EHT3LT3JTH
• Hilary McRae – “Every Day” Music Video: THEWENKFP4JP, 9MW7F3NX3KKA
• Counting Crows – “Washington Square” Song: JE9WK7F6MEWT, W7R43R7HPMLX, WM6EFR3FFWWP, MLRFKL9FAP79, XFM6A64JL4X4, XKKRKFEJM7HH, XLLW7KMK9MFP, J3774667TRXT, N9J9P6WMRY7K, 9KX34KMPYYML

I was reluctant to advertise on these pages, but I thought I would give it a try and see what happened. Please note that I would never consider placing an ad on her main web site.

Anyway, check it out and let me know what you think. Do you think the ads are too obtrusive? While you’re there, feel free to click on an ad and put $.07 cents in my pocket. Or, if you’re feeling nice, click on the large footer ad and Google will generously give me $.12 or maybe even $.13! By the way, I tried the Google competitor “WidgetBucks” and got $.01 for my first click. I went back to Google — $.07 sounded like a fortune!

Here’s the first wedding to use the new ad-infested proof viewer.

Thoughts? Comments? Do you know of a better ad provider?

Should I backup my computer?
I’m surprised how often someone asks me if they should backup their PC. The answer is always YES! Think about this… Of the gazillion parts that comprise your PC, only two are mechanical: 1. The cooling fan, and 2. The harddrive. You can recover from a fan failure, but losing your hard drive is like being robbed. You may be able to recover all of your documents/photos/MP3 files, but chances are they are gone forever. As co-owner of Gentry Photography, we have a responsibility to our clients to make sure their images are protected. You can reshoot seniors, but since we specialize in weddings we have a policy that states wedding images cannot “live” on a single disk. After all, you cannot reshoot a wedding.

There are many free tools and methods for backups. In the old days, people would simply copy files to a backup disk. On the other extreme are large systems which copy data from servers, then use robotic arms to shuffle tapes around. We’ll shoot somewhere in the middle for home and SOHO users.

Get an external disk.
The easiest way to get started is to simply plug an external USB (or Firewire) drive into your PC. As I stated in an earlier post, I connect multiple drives to my home server, but the concept is the same. Don’t simply buy an external disk the same size as your internal drive thinking you will just keep an exact replica. Shoot for 3x-4x of your current drive capacity. Why so large? Regular backups are not simply for mirroring your disk, but you can use backups to offload data from your internal disk to keep it clean. You may also want to use your backup program to keep multiple copies of your data.

Keep this in mind. If you off-load data from your PC to an external disk, you are still at risk of the external disk crashing. For the photo biz, I actually have two scheduled jobs: 1. Backup the PC to external disk once per week. 2. Synchronize the backup disk with another disk once per week. This ensures that someone’s wedding images never exist on one disk at a time.

Select backup software.
Microsoft Windows includes a basic tool for performing backups and restores. In 2000/XP, Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup. With this tool, you can use the simple wizard interface to schedule backups of your PC or even selected folders. You can select your external drive as the backup drive if you have it mapped to a drive letter. Microsoft Backup places all files in a compressed BKF file. The BKF files make good use of compression if most of your files are documents, spreadsheets, etc… However, since many video and photo formats are already compressed, you won’t see much benefit from the BKF compression. I have not used the backup tool in Vista yet, so I’m not sure how it has changed – if at all. This is a good tool. As RonCo says, set it and forget it!

If you need more flexibility than what Microsoft Backup can give you, then check out 2BrightSparks SyncBack. This is the tool I use for personal and photo backups. This tool allows very flexible configurations. You can select whether to backup a folder, synchronize two drives, include/exclude files or folders, and practically any other option you can imagine Unlike Microsoft Backup, SyncBack does not compress files or group them into larger collections. Based on your settings, SyncBack simply copies the file structure from your PC to the backup drive. Be careful, in the rare event that you create a new file in a folder with the same name as an existing file on your backup drive, then you will have a file conflict and could lose data.

I like SyncBack because it allows me to access backed up files directly from the backup disk. (Remember, files are not grouped together based on backup job). However, this same feature is also one of its drawback for some enterprise users. The tools works great for me, but for larger installations, SyncBack needs the option to copy individual files as it does now, or as compressed groups like Microsoft Backup. Furthermore, SyncBack needs the ability to keep X versions of a file on the backup disk. In the corporate world, we use our large backup system to retain three versions of every file backed up. When a file is changed, the oldest version is simply deleted. There will always be three versions of this file. SyncBack could use this functionality

There is a new class of “cloud” type services that host your backups securely on the Internet. There are kinds of new features and pricing models available. One such serivce is Microsoft’s SkyDrive. Currently, they are giving users 5GB of free online storage. One benefit of hosted services is the ability to access your files from any Internet accessible computer, including your mobile devices. SkyDrive doesn’t have any automation tools that I am aware of.

There are several other tools for making backups and they all have similar features. The most important thing is not what tool you are using, but that you are performing scheduled backups. Let me know what tool/techniques you use to protect your data.