You probably have been reading the many thank you's from Clubhouse Awardees since last week, talking about their awards in seven special categories. Today is my chance to step up to the virtual podium and give a big thank you to the folks who made this possible. First of all, I must say thanks to the folks at Microsoft such as @marcusatmsft and fellow members of his team for creating such a great platform that allows real world users to share their experiences and feedback. Microsoft Clubhouse is not just a place to talk about Microsoft products and services, its a place where we can also learn and share our knowledge. I have seen first hand how discussing a product has helped to improve its functionality.

Microsoft Clubhouse Choice Awards - Best Technical Direction - August 2009 

Clubhouse has allowed me to know so many interesting people who have enlightened me with their vast knowledge of various Windows Live services and Microsoft products such as the new Windows 7. To be honored among a group of exceptionally talented folks is really special and I just would like to express my deep thanks and gratitude to everyone who voted for me. Just the nomination alone was truly a surprise. As fellow Clubhouse member Jamie Thomas noted, I too want to wish the community continued success and growth. There are so many of you out there I know who are ready to share your experiences too. So don't let it slip by, sign up and start talking about how you are using Windows Live and Windows. By the way, thanks for making this a great birthday. ;)

I look forward to sharing more of my experiences with you!

- Andre

Related:

Sandra (aka Technogran) - My Clubhouse Choice Awards Trophy.
Michael - Isn't she pretty...
Jamie - A massive thank you
Ali - Clubhouse Rising Star Award
Early Adopter:  Richard H.
Best Tip or Trick:  Vasudev

Resources:
Becoming A Clubhouse Member
Introducing the Microsoft Clubhouse Choice Awards

Received an email this evening from the Windows Live Hotmail team notifying me about changes coming this September to various products and services. Here is what they had to say:

Dear Windows Live Hotmail Customer,

You are receiving this note because you have used Microsoft Office Outlook, Outlook Express, or Entourage to view your Windows Live Hotmail®. Microsoft is changing the way these programs access Hotmail e-mail which will require you to take action.

To continue to receive e-mail from your Hotmail account, please select one of the alternative solutions below before September 1, 2009. After this day, new e-mail can only be delivered to your mail programs through the following alternative solutions.

If you use Microsoft Office Outlook to view Hotmail, you can download free Office Outlook Connector to continue accessing your Windows Live Hotmail within Outlook 2003 or 2007. If you're using Outlook 2002, you will need to change the settings on your program to access your Hotmail. Click here to learn more.

If you use Outlook Express to view Hotmail, you can choose to download free Windows Live Mail (recommended) or change the settings on your program to access your Hotmail within Outlook Express. Click here to learn more about your options.

If you use Entourage to view Hotmail, you can change the settings in your program to view your e-mail. Click here to learn more.

Don't know what you're using to view Hotmail? Have more questions? View the FAQ page or visit the Community Forum.

Why is this happening? Outlook, Outlook Express, and Entourage use a legacy communications method (known as the DAV protocol) to access Hotmail. Because the DAV protocol is not optimally suited for programs to access large inboxes such as Hotmail which now provides users ever-growing storage*, new alternatives have been built. Last year, customers asked us to postpone plans to retire the DAV protocol until more options were available. Now that these options (including the POP3 protocol) are available, we are ready to retire the DAV protocol.

Thank you for using Windows Live Hotmail.

Sincerely,
Your Windows Live Hotmail Team

If you fall into any of these categories of users who use the available resources to continue using Hotmail normally.

The MSN Soapbox Team confirmed today that they will be discontinuing its user generated video content service, here is what they had to say:

Attention Soapbox Users,

MSN will no longer offer Soapbox, the user generated video service within MSN Video, as of August 31, 2009. Beginning on July 29, you will no longer be able to upload videos to Soapbox. People who have uploaded videos to Soapbox will have until August 31, 2009 to download them. Please make sure you download your videos by this date if you would like to keep them. We will have a notice running in the Soapbox service to remind you to download your videos. It is our goal that you download and keep all of the videos you uploaded that are important to you. Online video is a key part of the MSN experience and we will continue to offer a rich experience on MSN Video. We will also continue to invest in delivering great customer experiences, while keeping a keen eye on our business objectives during this tough economic climate. Thank you for your support of MSN Video. More details and download instructions are available at: http://video.msn.com/shutdown.html

Thank you for using Soapbox.

The MSN Video Team

Microsoft launched MSN Soapbox in 2006. From my point of view, MSN Soapbox never caught on primarily because of the wildfire that was already set by rival YouTube, which really started the phenomenon itself and later ended being bought by Google. Other factors I believe included a more open platform that was not specifically tied to being invitation only or some form of upcoming technology (Flash vs Silverlight), it was all about the content for YouTube.

Back in February the Windows Live Team informed us about the move from MSN Calendar to its new home, Windows Live Calendar. Here is a new update about what's happening:

It's almost moving time! As you've already heard, we've been busy getting Windows Live Calendar ready for when we move all MSN Calendar customers over to the new and improved service.

Over the coming months, we'll be moving all existing MSN Calendar customers over to Windows Live Calendar. The move will be gradual, so not everyone will see their calendars change on the same day.

If you're just trying Windows Live Calendar for the first time, you may notice that while MSN Calendar already gave you easy scheduling of appointments, reminders, and calendar sharing, Windows Live Calendar gives you even more:

• Multiple calendars that can be individually colored and shared
• An easy way to subscribe to public (iCal) online calendars
• Drag-and-drop rescheduling of events
• Holiday calendars based on your location
• A birthday calendar that pulls dates from your Windows Live contact list
• A to-do list to help keep you organized (we'll move all of your MSN Calendar's tasks and notes into your new Windows Live to-do list)

Here's what you need to know for the move:

• If you only access your MSN Calendar through the web, we'll move all your stuff for you. You won't have to do anything.
• If you use Microsoft Office Outlook to view your calendar, make sure you're using the newest version of Outlook Connector. This will allow Outlook to connect directly to your Windows Live Calendar. To find out which version of Outlook Connector you're using, open Outlook, click Outlook Connector and then select About Outlook Connector. If the version number is 12.0.6414.1000 or greater, you're good to go. If not, you'll need to download and install the latest version.
• If you've published or shared any of your MSN Calendars, you'll need to update the "Share" settings to make your calendar public or send invites to share them again in Windows Live Calendar.

That's it - we'll do the rest.

See you on Windows Live Calendar!
Windows Live Calendar Team

Related:

Reminder: Windows Live Calendar is coming soon!
Introducing Calendar Badge for your Blog and Website

This is what I am seeing everyday when I log into Windows Live Messenger

I am imploring the Windows Live Team to do something about this obnoxious problem. Blocking and ignoring is counter productive. I cannot do this every time I log into Windows Live Messenger. Its frustrating sifting through good and spam. I am not denying that other Social Networks such as Facebook and My Space also face this issue, but not to this extent.

Previously

Windows Live Invitations – The Domain’s I block but keep getting invites from
To the Hotmail Team – your Junk Filter is not working
Windows Live: The Spam Issue – Its putting a damper on the Service
The Issue of Windows Live, Privacy and Spam
The Amount of Windows Live Invitation Spam is Unacceptable
CNET: Microsoft ranked fifth worst spam service ISP

The spam invites keep pouring in! I have put together a list of some of the Top Level Domains I keep getting Windows Live invites from, regardless I have blocked these Domain’s using Hotmail’s Blocked Senders setting, but its just not working. Here are some of the notorious domains I have blocked but still keep on getting spam from: @163.com, @example.com, @wang.com, @yahoo.cn, @msn.cn, @live.com.cn, @sina.com. Thats just the tip of the ice berg.

Some of the well known senders of Windows Live Invitation spam

The spam issue issue getting very frustrating. I can’t be going to my inbox every morning just to be spending most of my time trying to clear out spam and trying to tell who is not a spammer. The Blocked senders is obviously not working. If you have any tips about how to control this increasing problem with Windows Live, please feel free to share.

Previously

To the Hotmail Team – your Junk Filter is not working
Windows Live: The Spam Issue – Its putting a damper on the Service
The Issue of Windows Live, Privacy and Spam
The Amount of Windows Live Invitation Spam is Unacceptable
CNET: Microsoft ranked fifth worst spam service ISP

The Mail Call blog added a new functionality to Windows Live Calendar, the ability to embed your Calendar on your blog or website:

Do you have a calendar you’d like to share with the world?  With Windows Live Calendar, you can create a calendar badge to post on your blog or website. That way, anyone can see your calendar from any browser.

You can move forward and backward in time by clicking either a date or the month arrows.  The event list shows events starting from the highlighted day. It will show as many as will fit within the badge’s height. (My next blog post will show you how to adjust the size of your badge.)

You can learn how to setup your own Calendar badge here

The Windows Live Mesh website has a great overview of the various features that's included in this powerful synchronization service. I haven’t gotten a chance to utilize the service yet, but I will soon, but for those who are curious about having immediate access to your personal information anytime, anywhere, any device, this is a good starting point.

Learn more here

Resources:

PCWorld: 5 Great Microsoft Web Services You Probably Don't Use

From MSDN Kent Compton via NeoWin

What would you like changed/improved in Windows Live?

Most people feel it is too hard to give someone at Microsoft their feedback.  I know I felt that too when I was a non-Microsoft employee (and I still feel that way as a consumer of other company’s goods and services).  I believe this has changed for the better in recent years with the proliferation of blogs (which allow comments), Help | Send Feedback (for Windows Live products), etc.   Still, my goal as a product planner is to remove any interference/resistance between the great ideas our customers have and our ability as the product group to implement them. 

Invariably, after a company puts in place a feedback system there are a few people who say “why should I give my ideas to company x just so they can make money from them”.  They have a valid point, and for those people who have the inclination and talent to write software, maintain it, support it, globalize it, etc. I encourage them to get coding—the world needs more great software developers and applications.  However, the feedback we want as a product group is much more granular, think feature-level or simplifying the steps it takes to get x done, not ideas for an entirely new product.

If you have an idea that you think would make, for example, Windows Live Mail, work better for you please submit the idea to:

Read the entire article here

I am gathering my list at the moment. :)

Resources

Installing Windows Live Essentials

I can’t tell you how many times I have marked this type of email hitting my inbox since last year as junk:

“Window Live Hotmail! Warning! Verify Your Account Now To Avoid Closure”

I have marked it time and time again, yet I still see it appearing in my inbox, the Junk Filter heuristics needs to block this one seriously.

The email address alone should be the giveaway.

Here is Microsoft’s policy on disabling Hotmail accounts:

“If your account stays 'inactive' for over a period of 30 days, it will be permanently deleted. This delay is necessary to discourage users from engaging in fraudulent activity. Additionally, due to the limited number of names available, we may allow other users to sign up for and use your current e-mail name after your account has been permanently deleted.”

But, some thing needs to be done about this junk mail that’s been making the rounds and won’t go away no matter how many times it gets flagged as junk.

Was fiddling with my Windows Live Space when I discovered this new effect for viewing photos on your Windows Live Space. Any image clicked loads a photo viewer, this seems to be a feature applied through Windows Live Writer 2009 called ‘Enable Inline Photo Previewer’. Its pretty cool, check it out!

Its beginning to reach a point now I have to wonder, what is the Windows Live Team really doing about Spam on the Windows Live Network? As a heavy user of platform services such as Windows Messenger and Windows Live Spaces I am being bombarded daily by Windows Live Invitations and Comment Spam. Echoing Brandon LeBlanc's recent post about how this is unacceptable, I think it has gone on for too long now. I can’t be going to my inbox everyday to clear out Live Invitation Spam emails, decline Live Messenger network invitations and delete Live Space spam comments.

Windows Live Invitation spam above, comment spam Windows Live Spaces below.

The two above are examples of what I am constantly encountering across my blog. Its a hard decision to make at times to decline and report these persons as spam, because I am not sure if there is a genuine person who might want to communicate with me beyond my blog. I have made friendships through my Live Space with persons I find interesting and fun to chat with. But the current barrage of spam has really made that impossible. I really wish there was more I could do in terms of controlling this problem. My suggestion is, let me block certain regions of the world accessing my space. It sounds harsh, but I believe it would reduce the invitation spam and the comment spam on my Live Space, especially from China. As you can see in the invitation, the domain these invites are coming from is ‘live.cn’ while they are the same domains that generate a lot of comment spam on my Windows Live Space. As I type this, I have received another 3 useless spamming invitations, which leads me to the other topic.

Uh, who are you?

Here is another problem Brandon pointed out – the 'I don't know you, so why are you inviting me to your network' issue. Its really puzzling, if you want to communicate, just use my blog or my Profile Page.’ I don’t know if its the philosophy of other social networks such as My Space, Hi5 Networks or Facebook that individuals new to Windows Live Network are following by having the most friends as possible. Please, don’t bring it here, its what I have been trying to escape from the other services. If you add me to your Network or if I add you, its got to be for a reason, maybe I want interact with you and share interest. I don’t want to visit an empty profile like the one above. If you admire my blog and you just want to say ‘hi’ or ‘thank you’, you can use the Profile Page or leave a comment on one of my blog post.

Previously:

The Issue of Windows Live, Privacy and Spam

Related:

The Amount of Windows Live Invitation Spam is Unacceptable

Why must Windows Live Space choose some of the most inopportune times to not be working when I want to publish my work and go to bed? Take for instance, the following error message I kept receiving when I tried publishing the previous blog entry through the Live Space ‘Add Blog Post Entry’ form.

Obviously its not down, because I got you posted anyway…

I was able to work around this by publishing the entry directly from Windows Live Writer. I wanted to have the entry up on my Live Space as the first entry of the month since Live Writer 2009 does not support publishing future post for Live Spaces – how strange?

Just saw this via Richard (Windows Observer) on Twitter.

Hotmail now supports POP3. What is POP3? According to Wikipedia:

“The Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection. POP3 and IMAP4 (Internet Message Access Protocol) are the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval. Virtually all modern e-mail clients and servers support both.

POP3 has made earlier versions of the protocol, informally called POP1 and POP2, obsolete. In contemporary usage, the less precise term POP almost always means POP3 in the context of e-mail protocols.

The design of POP3 and its procedures supports end-users with intermittent connections (such as dial-up connections), allowing these users to retrieve e-mail when connected and then to view and manipulate the retrieved messages without needing to stay connected. Although most clients have an option to leave mail on server, e-mail clients using POP3 generally connect, retrieve all messages, store them on the user's PC as new messages, delete them from the server, and then disconnect. ”

The website Windows Mobile Cool provides details on how to set it up in your favorite email client here.

Previously:
Windows Live Hotmail – New Improvements!

Resources:
A Look at Windows Live Mail 2009

Just got the update in my inbox, Windows Live Calendar will be coming soon and the Windows Live Team would like you to start preparing for the transition.

Windows Live Calendar

Dear Calendar Customer,
You spoke and we listened! We took valuable feedback from customers like you and made the next generation of our online calendar even better, which some of you have already been using in its beta form. Windows Live™ Calendar is an easy-to-use online calendar that helps you keep in sync with the people and events you care about. Now out of beta, it has a new look and some improved features:

 

• Calendar sharing and to-do lists: Coordinate easily with family and friends by setting up shared calendars and to-do lists.
• Public calendar subscription: View automatic updates on your calendar when information from your public calendars changes. Subscribe to a concert, weather, sports, or other public calendar¹?. Windows Live Calendar will sync changes from that calendar to your calendar list.

So what do you need to start preparing for the move?

Please prepare for the move.
In preparation for the move, we'll need your help with one item. You may have added attachments (such as presentations, documents, and spreadsheets) to your calendar through Microsoft Outlook Connector or the MSN® Premium client; if you did, any attachments you added will not be copied to your new calendar.

Original calendar will be retired.
When we finish moving all your original calendar information to Windows Live Calendar, the original calendar will officially retire so we can focus on delivering a more feature rich Windows Live Calendar to you. Once your information has been moved, you will need to 're-share' your calendars with your family and friends in Windows Live Calendar.

Shared Windows Live Calendar in Microsoft Outlook

I have been playing with with Windows Live Calendar a bit last week, and looks really robust, the tight integration with Microsoft Outlook should help users become easily familiarized with the service. All you need to install is the Office Outlook Connector which is a part of the Windows Live Essentials Suite.

The Windows Live Space Team has updated the header area of Windows Live Space web pages based on feedback from users of the service.

Updated Windows Live Space Header (Click to enlarge)

The change introduces the Windows Live service links, such as Home, Profile, People Mail, Photos, More at the extreme top. What happens now is, it clashes with the second layer of links that are a part of the users space, ‘User profile, blog name, Photos, Blog, List and More.

This area of the Windows Live Space needs some serious work, I think the users personal Windows Live Links should become a blog part allowing the author to place it anywhere they desire on the page. Customize, Options, Help, could be more subtle too and consolidated into the Users account part on the header similar to Windows Live Hotmail.

I also don’t like Search Fields location and it has a lot  of limitations, you can’t search within the users Windows Live Space to make it easier to find blog post, although I could use the new Search Federation capabilities in Windows 7 to resolve that. I just think the Windows Live look and feel could be more cohesive.

Hey folks,

I am throwing a question out to the community. How can I get the full Windows Live Essentials BETA Refresh installer instead of the web installer? I have multiple PC's I would to install the suite on, but because I am on a slow connection, doing so would take a long time. Downloading the suite on a 1 MB connection is painful enough already.

The first Windows Live Essentials beta supported downloading of the entire suite, I was hoping this would continue as an optional trend.

Thanks
Andre

Update: My good friend Nicholas Rayner gave me the answer:

If you're after the full installer head to download.live.com, click download and when the download box appears, click cancel then on the page click Try Again. This worked for me yesterday :)

Thanks a million Nick! :)

Brandon Leblanc over at the Windows Experience blog announced the availability of the Windows Live Essentials Suite BETA Refresh.

Quote: “Today, we’ve released a refresh of the Windows Live Essentials Betas. You can download the updated suite at download.live.com. The Windows Live Essentials consist of Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Toolbar, and Family Safety.”

Read article here

As you know, I have been doing a series of articles on the new suite which not only contain applications, but rich services that allow you to share your photos, extend your personal identity and socialize in a powerful way with family and friends.

Resources:

Instant and Social Communication with Windows Live Messenger 9
Managing and Sharing Digital Memories using Windows Live Photo Gallery 2009

Microsoft started rolling out the red carpet for its new Windows Live Wave 3 products and services. Today I started getting invitations from friends to join their Network. But I have been plagued with the following bug:

Not a good start…for me.

The new http://home.live.com features a lot of social feature which is heavily emphasized by most of the services in this release. Its very similar to Facebooks user page where you see a aggregated list of fellow friend activity in your social network. Some of the nice features include Status, Personal Messages, some of the typical things you will find on Facebook. The nice thing is that there is a deep level of integration across Windows Live, for instance, your Windows Live Messenger 9 status and Personal Message is federated across services. Windows Live Spaces plays a critical role by providing a more healthy way of expressing yourself than the junk that tends to build up on other Social Networks over time. Seeing a blog post from a friend is better than the web apps and invitations that have taken over Facebook and its a lot cleaner and more attractive the eye. If you are moving from Facebook or plan on using Live Home, you will find other features such as events with available options for ignoring request and invitations. So a lot of the fundamentals have been worked out.

Performance remains an issue and stability is a concern. Right now, I am trying to join a couple friends network and I cannot because of this ‘error retrieving the content message’. Today I got a invitation from a new friend on Facebook, I clicked confirm and I was friends. This fiasco on Live, I have been clicking Save for approximately 30 minutes. I closed it out earlier, clicked back in the invitation again I received in my inbox and its still the same thing.

Invitations

Update:

Well, while typing this message, it finally confirmed the invitation. I guess all it took was a rant – LOL!

Invitations once accepted can be categorized in existing categories on your Windows Live Messenger contact list or your can add a new Category.

Overall, I like it, I think its better in the respect that its much cleaner thank Facebook. It provides useful tools that users who want to socialize will appreciate. The centralized management between your Live Space, your network of friends, messages and events make it more streamlined and productive. The issue is, will it catch on? The application craze on Facebook is no doubt a success and a lot of people are addicted to it, its hard to see them coming off that binge for this. Personally, I don’t want to see Windows Live Home turn out the same way. So, I will say its a good start, initially I have experienced some bugs as I write this post, but things are coming together and I am seeing why its a great platform. The fact that a Windows Live ID can provide access to so much in a well coordinated way, whether its communicating with contacts, sharing photos or delivering a message will be hit with folks who want a suite of interconnected experiences Windows Live provides.

Stay tuned for a more formal review soon.

Quote: Microsoft is listed fifth in the Top 10 list of the worst spam service ISPs compiled by Spamhaus.org.

Spammers are advertising links to sites that "peddle fake pharmacy products, porn, and Nigerian 419 scams" on Microsoft's Live.com and Livefilestore.com sites because they know that the Microsoft sites won't get blocked by antispam groups, writes Brian Krebs on his Security Fix Blog at the Washington Post.

Spamhaus has been alerting Microsoft to the problem for some time, but to no avail, Richard Cox, Spamhaus' chief information officer, told Krebs. Other security companies, including McAfee and Marshal, have also been warning about increases in spam and scams on Microsoft-hosted sites.

Read more here

I think I have said all I needed to say about this issue and the evidence is all over my Live Space to prove it.

http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E8E5CC039D51E3DB!20273.entry
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E8E5CC039D51E3DB!18809.entry
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E8E5CC039D51E3DB!20330.entry