Community developer blogs

Allister Frost

Recent Posts

• The End: this blog leaps over to Windows Live Spaces

  Posted: 16 Nov 2006 at 08:00 by Allister_Frost

  I've decided to move my blog to a new home on Windows Live Spaces. I hope you'll move with me. My new blog URL is http://usefultechnologyblog.spaces.live.com/. To subscribe to the new RSS feed, simply click this link: http://usefultechnologyblog.spaces.live.com/feed.rss. Thanks for being with me on

• UsefulGuides: Finding that well-loved feature in Microsoft Office 2007

  Posted: 10 Nov 2006 at 13:01 by Allister_Frost

  There's no question about it, there's a bit of a learning curve before you get familiar with the new ribbon menu layout in the 2007 Microsoft Office system. And the learning curve will be steeper the more familiar you are with previous versions. If you count yourself as an advanced user, expect to f

• UsefulOffer: IntelliGolf Eagle now free with HP iPAQ 6915

  Posted: 09 Nov 2006 at 15:58 by Allister_Frost

  HP did a good job of hiding this offer on their website ;-) Head over to www.hp.com/uk/intelligolf and you may just spot that you can claim a free copy of IntelliGolf Eagle edition (the tippety-topmost-bestest version) if you own a UK-bought HP iPAQ 6915. The iPAQ 6915 is one of the sleeke

• Windows Vista RTMs!

  Posted: 08 Nov 2006 at 18:58 by Allister_Frost

  Jim Allchin has just announced to the world's press that Windows Vista is now complete and has been released to manufacturing. Let the fun begin! More details here.

• 3D Mapping in Windows Live Local

  Posted: 07 Nov 2006 at 08:42 by Allister_Frost

  Head over to http://local.live.com/ to check out the new 3D capability of this mapping service. Very nice! After you've installed the 3D application (a one-off download) try some of these keyboard shortcuts: Double-click a point on the map to move to that location. Press CTRL and drag the map l

• The Official Windows Vista Preview Magazine

  Posted: 06 Nov 2006 at 10:43 by Allister_Frost

  Phew! I'm delighted to report that the Windows Vista Preview magazine (an official joint venture between Microsoft and Future Publishing) is now on sale in the UK in all good* newsagents. Get your copy now for the paltry sum of £4.99. The Preview Magazine is a one-off special edition that shows off

• Windows Media Player 11 - final release at last

  Posted: 01 Nov 2006 at 08:09 by Allister_Frost

  Way back in May we released the Beta of Windows Media Player 11. Finally, after exhaustive testing and refinement, we released the final build earlier this week. You can download it now, for free, from here. If you're running Windows XP and have ears, this is a must-have application.

• That Windows Vista Packaging

  Posted: 31 Oct 2006 at 08:12 by Allister_Frost

  Here's the clever bit about the new packaging. It opens like this: Very neat!

• Windows Vista and 2007 Office system packaging unveiled

  Posted: 31 Oct 2006 at 02:44 by Allister_Frost

  Oooh, it's shiny and new. Announcing the new packaging for Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system. I quite like it. Do you?  

• My Blogcasts on Soapbox

  Posted: 27 Oct 2006 at 12:36 by Allister_Frost

  I've been playing with the new Soapbox on MSN Video service. It's pretty cool. I never really got into YouTube but I can see how useful it will be to be able to restrict access to my videos on Soapbox based on my existing Windows Live Messenger contact lists. I've uploaded 5 of my Outlook 2003 blogc

• Bring YourSELF to Work

  Posted: 24 Oct 2006 at 13:47 by Allister_Frost

  Yes, it's true: tomorrow is Bring YourSELF to Work Day 2006. In case you're feeling confused because you bring yourself to work most days anyway, take note of that clever capitalisation of the letters S, E, L and F. As the campaign leader says: Nothing should be simpler than being yourself at work a

• Brainfart with Vista

  Posted: 24 Oct 2006 at 07:37 by Allister_Frost

  By our standards it's quite subtle, but there's no doubting that Windows Vista is behind this new site at http://www.clearification.com/. If you don't know Demitri Martin (i.e. you are one of the 95% of human beings living outside of the USA) you may not recognise the voice. But you may still enjoy

• Securing that wireless network

  Posted: 23 Oct 2006 at 11:30 by Allister_Frost

  I stumbled across this helpful article from Connected Home that explains how to secure a wireless network: http://www.connectedhomemag.com/HomeControls/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=49176. The most important thing here is to enable WPA (or WPA2 if you have new hardware). Without this sort of enc

• The Joy of Finding Big Things in Outlook 2007

  Posted: 22 Oct 2006 at 20:42 by Allister_Frost

  My former boss, Bruce Lynn, asked me this weekend how he could locate all the large (>200kb) entries in his Outlook calendar so he could delete them to free up some space in his mailstore. He couldn't figure out how to do this but knew it must be easy. If you find your mailstore is running s

• Voluminous Venti

  Posted: 22 Oct 2006 at 14:37 by Allister_Frost

  Sunday, sitting in Starbucks. Note to self: a venti-sized mug of coffee is too large to drink comfortably without a catheter.

• Windows Live Insider Club

  Posted: 19 Oct 2006 at 14:52 by Allister_Frost

  Confused by all this new Windows Live stuff? Yeah, me too. There's a lot of new gadgetry to get our heads around. I discovered an interesting new site at www.insiderclub.co.uk that aims to shed some light on the matter. Those talking bodies are a bit freaky - anyone who says '"click me" is just pla

• Internet Explorer 7 is launched

  Posted: 19 Oct 2006 at 09:40 by Allister_Frost

  The world's most popular browser just got better. Internet Explorer 7 was released just hours ago. You can get it from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx.  

• Windows Vista Tipfest

  Posted: 13 Oct 2006 at 11:39 by Allister_Frost

  Ah, I love the smell of a tip in the morning! I'm in New York for Digital Life and to meet up with some of my colleagues from around the world. It's Friday 13th, I'm jetlagged and I've just run out of coffee. But all is well because I've just discovered a useful tips & tricks site for Windows V

• Add some hyperlink action to your emails

  Posted: 13 Oct 2006 at 00:14 by Allister_Frost

  Bloggers know how important it is to include relevant hyperlinks in their posts. They can come in pretty handy in emails too. Instead of pasting a lengthy and ugly URL into an email you can add a hyperlink to any part of your email text. So, instead of this: The UsefulTechnology blog (http://blogs.t

• Screen capture the easy way

  Posted: 12 Oct 2006 at 18:17 by Allister_Frost

  I'm often asked what tools I use to make screengrabs to include in my blog. I used to use the Snipping Tool which is part of the Tablet PC Experience Pack for Windows XP. So you can imagine my disappointment when, after upgrading to Windows Vista, I discovered that the Experience Pack would not ins