Overnight Microsoft’s Eric Hautala put out the word that updates are scheduling for a pair of AT&T Windows Phone 7 devices – the Samsung Focus and LG Quantum.  The pair will be receiving both the February and March updates – yes, it only took until mid April.  According to Hautala “We’ve refreshed Where’s my phone update? to reflect the status changes to these models. We’re now working hard to expedite the delivery of these updates to you.”

Along with this good news comes some of the bad variety.  That bad news comes at the expense of HTC Surround users who will not be receiving these updates.  However, Hautala points out that the Surround will eventually receive the updates, they just aren’t ready yet.  “The updates we deliver contain a complex stew of software code. The content often includes not only our fixes and improvements but also software supplied by companies that make the phone itself and the chips inside it. One of these third-party software “packages” earmarked for the HTC Surround needs additional testing by both Microsoft and AT&T.”

This is good news, at least for Focus and Quantum users, and it’s not the end of the world for Surround users.  But, it’s hard to put a positive spin on updates that are now 2 months old.  Perhaps, now that this initial embarrassing fiasco is almost behind them, Microsoft has learned and we won’t see these sorts of delays with the next go-around of updates.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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XBMC, the Xbox Media Center, recently release version 10.1 “in order to address a bug that would cause a crash for Windows users when receiving an automatic update for the current skin.  Today they have announced that, since the the fix has been in use for a few weeks, they are now comfortable with releasing new skins.

If you are using XBMC, and are a Windows user, then make sure you are running version 10.1.  If you are then you can now access the latest skins including “Simplicity” and “Neon”.  They are also planning the release of a couple of more skins in the next few days.  You can also choose from any of the other skins that have previously been available.

XBMC has a highly “skinnable” interface meaning that it can look radically different based on which “skin” is used. Confluence is used by default, so this is what will greet you upon install. You may wish to change the look to something more flashy, more artwork-based, etc. It’s up to you. See the list below for a list of active working skins.

If you haven’t tried XBMC then head over t their site and browse the gallery of screenshots.  It’s a clean, simple, customizable alternative to Windows Media Center that can run on a Windows PC, as well as OSX, Linux, and Apple TV.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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Microsoft this week will be pushing a new update for Live Essentials 2011 via Windows Update.  Well, pushing isn’t really the word since the update will be optional, but it will available through the Update software in the Windows Control Panel.  The update is called QFE1 (quick fix engineering).  According to Microsoft the fix will cover the following:

• In Messenger, we fixed a couple of issues where in some cases you could not re-establish video calls or file sharing activities after losing your network connection. Also, sometimes your status messages and display picture were not synchronizing correctly between PCs, so you’d see a notification that changes made would not be seen on other computers. We also made various performance and stability improvements.
• In Photo Gallery, we made a design change so that geotagging no longer overwrites GPS coordinates in image files.
• We corrected various problems with language translation.

The update has actually been available for manual download since December 2, 2010, but is now being moved to Windows Update to make it more accessible to users.  The update is only a patch – not a full upgrade of Live Essentials.  It will, likely, require a reboot of your PC.  If you have installed the software since December 2nd then the patch was included with your version.

To see which version you can click the About button in Messenger or Photo Gallery.  If you have version 15.4.3502.0922 then you do not have the update.  If you have version 15.4.3508.1109.  If you don’t yet have the Essentials pack then you can get it from the Windows Live Essentials 2011 site.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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If you have encountered a problem while installing a Microsoft Office update, or soon after installing one, then you may want to read this.  The errors can take any of several approaches and have been touched on in Knowledge Base articles in the past.  This covers 3 different errors that result from a problem Office update.

• 0×80070646
• 646
• Error 1606 Could not access network location %APPDATA%

If you have had this problem with Windows then there is a fix available.  According to Microsoft these errors are generated by Windows Installer.  When you encounter these errors they most likely indicate that the Installer has encountered an incorrect registry value.

There is now a Microsoft Fix It available and also detailed instructions for users of Windows 7, Vista, and XP who want to manually handle the the fix.  Unless you are an advanced user I would recommend using the Fix It since the alternative involves editing registry keys which, if done incorrectly, can result in serious problems – including an unbootable PC.  To access the Fix It and these instructions you can check out Microsoft’s Knowledge Base KB2258121.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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Yesterday was Microsoft’s monthly Patch Tuesday and this time around a feature was actually removed.  But before your blood pressure starts to rise, let me add that this is a good thing.  The patch (KB967940) removes Autorun from Windows Vista, XP, and 2000, as well as Server 2003 and 2008.  This is for all removable storage devices except for CD’s and DVD’s.  This was already the default for Windows 7.

By doing this Microsoft has shut the door on a whole genre of worms and viruses that inserted files into the root directory of removable storage devices to facilitate their spread.

For more information you can read the Microsoft Security Advisory.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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Songbird 1.4.3 available HERE

Gmail Notifier 1.0.0.75 available HERE

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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SyncBackSE 5.8.7.23 available HERE

CCleaner 2.27.1070 avilable HERE

Vista Codec Package 5.5 available HERE

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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Firefox 3.5.6 has been released.  Get it HERE.

Also, WordPress 2.9, which is available HERE.

Alan

Alan is the owner and editor of Making Windows Easy. In addition to writing about technology he is also an avid distance runner and hiker. Read More

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