As we have continued to release the latest updates to Windows Live, we’ve been getting a ton of great feedback from all of you. Most of you have said that you’re really enjoying the new updates and features. But we’ve also heard about some problems and received some questions, so we want to tell you about what we’re doing to fix the problems and give you some answers to your questions.
First of all, as we’ve been rolling out these updates, some of you have noticed issues with accessing the new services. Specifically for Profile, Photos, SkyDrive, Events, Spaces and Groups, some people have had to try multiple times to get to their services. We have identified this as a problem related to networking, and we are working hard to resolve it and make sure that all of you, around the world, have consistent access and can get in and enjoy the new services.
We have also heard about issues as you try to send network invitations to other users. There is an error that is currently affecting some users. We’re aware of the problem and are working on having it fixed soon.
As with any new service, there are bound to be some growing pains, but we sincerely apologize to anyone who is encountering problems, and we hope to have all of them resolved quickly.
A few questions and answers
Some of you have also asked a number of questions about where to find or how to do certain things. Here are some of the most common questions and our answers.
How do I customize who has access to different parts of my personal information?
You have a lot of control here and can be very specific on who gets access to what.
- Determine what information you want to share from the things you are doing on Windows Live by going to your Windows Live Profile, and then, under “What’s new,” click “Options” – or go straight to here: http://profile.live.com/WhatsNewWithYouSettings/
- You can also edit what personal profile information you share with whom on your profile by clicking “Edit profile details” as shown in the picture below. You can choose to share different pieces of information with everybody, nobody, just the people in your network, or specific individuals.
Where is my customized live.com page with all of my feeds?
The new http://home.live.com/ allows for a great deal of customization and you can add some feeds to this page through the “Add headlines” link. You can also rearrange the layout by clicking “Options” near the top-right, and then “Customize this page.” If you are looking for some of Microsoft’s other customized home pages, you can still find them at http://my.live.com/ and http://my.msn.com/
Why can’t I see updates from Twitter and Flixster immediately?
These updates are currently being delayed, but we are working with both companies to address the issue and you should expect to have real-time updates delivered to Windows Live shortly.
Why do I sometimes see “No Name” instead of a real name?
If you’re seeing “No Name”, it means that person hasn’t put a name into Windows Live. So we’d encourage you to get them to do so! It’s really easy and can be done from the same Profile details page mentioned above and located at http://profile.live.com/details/. We also had a temporary problem (now fixed!) during the early hours of this release that made some people appear as “no name” even when they had a name.
With that, I’ll sign off for now. Please keep sending us your feedback on what you’re enjoying, problems that you’re having, and any questions. We’ll keep responding as quickly as we can.
Thanks,
Dharmesh
well, I spent an interesting day transfering my, and my clients, slideshows and pictures over to flickr. Late in the afternoon their system went down, apparently under the strain of the mass migration from here. I went to the help forum, to find that a thread had already been started, and within 3 mins. there was a message from an engineer saying exactly what was wrong (a bit of less-than-robust javascript), what they were doing to mend it, and an estimated time (15-20 mins). The amazing thing then was that everybody hug around in the forum and chatted, until, 12 mins later, the engineer called by to say it was all fixed! What service, and what transparency. And how honest just to admit that they had screwed up a bit. No one minds mistakes, as long as they are owned up to and put right.So hey, Dharmesh, how about some of that honesty and transparency here. Why not just say sorry, put it right,and we can all be friends again
Okay, Dave. We get it. You don\’t like the changes.
What makes you think that?
I don\’t know, man. You tell me…
@ Joseph – I totally agree. Microsoft is trying to stay competitive with Facebook and the like. The new WL tools rock, and given time, I think they\’ll really catch on.@ The Hateful Mob – You\’re welcome to go somewhere else. After all, it\’s a free service, and there are plenty of others. I think you\’ll find that no other vendor provides everything that WL can do for you. Microsoft has invested millions to give you free email, storage, and social networking tools. I don\’t think they\’re going back to the old format. And if you\’re honestly confused by the changes to your WL services, it\’s time to pack up your computer and take it back to Best Buy. There\’s little hope for you anyway. Cheers!
Er, Greg, hav you actually trid DOING anything, rather than looking at the pretty colours and going WOW? A lideshow where you can\’t rearrange the pictures? I could do tat on windows 3.1
The new format stinks!!!! It looks like a big advertisement. I hate how emails are displayed. I want the old format back.
The fact is, live is losing huge amounts of functionallity, in return for a pale imitation of facebook. I have used live from the start to WORK, not play silly games. \’Networking\’ is for people without real friends
Actually, Live has the same functionality as before if not more. You just need to learn how to use the new services. One of my few complaints is that you can\’t add a custom RSS feed to the Headlines section of Home (seriously, WTF?).
How do I sort out photos then?Where have all the useful practial useful links on my homepage gone?Why is my homepage telling me that changes my girlfriend made to her site 4 months ago were done 45 mins ago? (Been 49 mins for 2 days now!)Why is no-ones hotmail working? I don\’t use hotmail, so why am I stuck with it on my homepage, admittedly, only telling me it\’s unable to do anything. The list goes on and on
Please let me view my calender on the new home page like you do with mail!
I think, Joseph, if you look, that you are in an extreeeeeemely small minority
Dave, reading the new blog post might help you with your Spaces contacts
Dang i cant arrange my pics in order anymore
how do I get back to the new live calendernancy
I do like the look of the new spaces – well done on that…** BUT ** you guys continue to ignore the Number 1 problem with spaces… SPAM!I have had a blog for a couple of years – and over past 12 months have been utterly bombarded with spam comments to the point where it\’s very difficult to locate legitimate comments.. Normally 10-20 spam comments are left in one hit – and this can sometimes occur several times a day…So yeah – CAPTCHA got hacked – I get that – but the big problem is that you still haven\’t implemented any decent way of bulk deleting (or bulk preventing) spam comments.The new ability to view comments by date (with associated delete button) is \’slightly\’ better – but still only shows a small handfull of comments. Most frustrating is the really slow – hit \’ok to confirm\’ + associated AJAX stuff that you need to go through for EACH and EVERY comment – and then waiting for the page reload each time is insanely cumbersome user experience.If you dont believe me – I noticed in this very post (and 200+ associated comments) – you got quite a few of the usual spam comments. How about someone from the Spaces Usability team try to delete these spam comments – and time just how long it takes to sift through the pages of comments and delete the offending ones. Then… just picture a scenario where the spam:realcomment ratio is up around 50:1 and you get an idea of how unusable this is.Some suggested action points you guys **REALLY* need to take (any of the following might solve 80% of the problems) : 1) Allow ability to \’blacklist\’ users – or at bare minimum \’delete all comments by user\’ button (normally a single account will leave 20-50 spam comments – often much more!)..2) Add a comments setting – \’dont allow urls/rich text to be placed in comment\’ – or at least have concept of \’trusted\’ users. (everyone else can only leave text only comments). This is similar setting to guestbook (but one that actually works).3) Add a decent comment browser (try emulating a webmail system for example – where you can see 50+ items at once and have checkboxes next to each one). I know you sortof have this concept going in the \’summary\’ view – but because you have to expand each comments group to find spam (again slow crappy AJAX) – and its not ordered by date of comment – its a very slow experience.4) Add comment moderation. (like every other blog system)5) Fix CAPTCHA – ok but if thats too hard – there must be some smarts that can be implemented to quickly detect/boot offenders (and auto bulk delete all comments they left on the system). It seems there\’s a handful of spam offenders causing a huge amount of grief… (you could easily do text matching to find these repeat offenders who are always advertising the same links).Anyhow – I\’ve invested huge amounts of time in spaces – brought in loads of traffic – and it\’s incredibly disappointing how you guys have let the spam problem ruin your system. (I won\’t even go into how bad an ad this is for Cloud/Azure etc – in terms of end users \’trusting\’ MS to appropriately manage/look after their online data – I\’m put off completely already by the spaces experience).My 2 cents anyhow.. (but know a lot of people who left spaces because of this very problem!).
It took me two days But I have figured it all out its growing on me time will tell ,have patience everyone , and yes it looks just like face book similiar set up
You don\’t get the point. If I wanted all that rubbish over my homepage, I\’d go to facebook, where they do it properly. The reason most people used live is that it WASN\’T like facebook. I don\’t need \’social networking\’, I\’ve got friends, and I talk to people in the street. Microsoft will never be able to take on the likes of facebook properly, left it too late. They would be better f keeping the (up to now) loyal user base they have, rather than driving us all off somewhere else. I have moved 107 people from live to flickr today, simply because they can give me no assurance when, or even if, the photo facillities will ever work properly again. And thats just me. Do you really think this is a step forward?
I you don\’t like the new look, then don\’t use Live. However, every service will ultimately move to some sort of social-network solution.
Just been reading the new blog. I love the bit about personal details, that they\’re not more public, they just SEEM more public because they\’re seen in a lot more places…….. A stroe of genius that one
QUOTE – you don\’t like the new look, then don\’t use Live. However, every service will ultimately move to some sort of social-network solutionNo it won\’t, social networking is allready slackening off, and will peak around the first third of next year. Read the papers.Also, seeing as you are in the minority here, sureley it would be better for you to go off to network city, and leave us all happily getting on with having a life
Dang I allready have a facebook i dont need a poor copy aswell. I dont think i like the updates.
I find the new look confusing especially when I want to send a new message not just a reply.
@Dave – Sorry to be a nitpicker here, but how can something be slackening off when it hasn\’ yet reached its peak? BTW, WL is alot more than just a social networking platform. The goal is to organize your digital life securely in the cloud (sync, file storage, photos, and someday soon, apps). Nobody else, not even Facebook or Google, offers all of that. And it\’s free. Microsoft deserves a lot of credit for that. And Joseph and I are definitely not in the minority.
@Greg – you know, sine wave? Shallowing towards it\’s peak? The numbers of people joining social networks is already only slightly higher than those leaving or remaining dormant. Trends show that almost everyone who wants to be involved is involved, and there really is no need for more capacity. I\’ve been around long enough to recognise a fad when I see one.
I was happy with the old e-mail system. can you I have it back?????
Do you really think that you would trust your \’cloud\’ experience to an organisation that can\’t even get an embedded slideshow together? Who think that it\’s ok for a large part of it\’s service to be unusable for, well, 48 hours so far, but probably weeks. I\’ve been an ardent user o live since the day it started, and I know it\’s been capable of great things in the past, it just seems to have lost it\’s way. My moving to flickr for photo\’s was actually recommended to me by a member of the live gallery development team, who told me the live photo system won\’t work properly for months, at least. Doesn\’t exactly inspire confidence does it. My \’digital life\’ (what a daft phrase, makes no sense) was allready well sorted, it\’s just that now a chunk of it has had to be moved elsewhere in order to function.I\’ve been accurately predicting microsofts ups and downs since 1995, and so far I\’ve been 100% correct. Blieve me, this is windows Neptune all over again.
You deleted my request to go back to the former e-mail —is that not possible??????
P.S if you don\’t think your in a minority, read the posts, and then look up what \’minority\’ means
PPS: I\’d wager there are far more satisfied users out there. When it\’s working for you, why bother being vocal? It\’s only the disgruntled few that grab their torches and pitchforks and rant about it, and those MS fanboys (myself included) who are so enamored with the services that they have to blog about their coolness. To be fair, I\’m writing this in IE8 Beta 2 on my Vista Ultimate Media Center with my Microsoft Wireless Keyboard listening to my WMA tunes that are synched via Live Mesh. Perhaps I\’m not the most objective voice about such matters.
Objective?BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Please, stop, I can\’t stand it! ROFLMAO! Was that supposed to impress someone?What, like you think the rest of us are using a computer made out of straw, and typing by candle light?
If THAT\’S who MS is aiming W Live at, then I\’m definitely in the wrong place!
@ Greg – Well, if we want to start flexing our biceps, I\’m writing this in my music studio before I go to bed, which runs a bank of 8 quad core PC\’s, with a total of 27tb of storage,so I know about these things, and I wouldn\’t let live near it with a bargepole. And before you ask, I\’m a great fan of Vista. It\’s just that, like live, they didn\’t listen to what people actually wanted, brought it out before it was properly out of beta, and screwed up big time. Since sp1 it\’s been a great operating system. I\’m more worried about windows 7, which, for a professional heavy duty user like me, looks almost unworkable. The whole concept of a working machine is being pushed aside to make a jolly kids toy. Your system may be very nice for playing music, but it sure as hell couldn\’t write or record it.I tried the ie8 beta , but gave up on it because it still won\’t read html properly, a problem described to me as a \’slight failing\’!Night all :-}
Excellent!
Just dammed excellent!
Overall i appreciate the hardwork spent on improving windows live. its little usable now.windows live ..is a visual feast.it looks beautiful now.I would have been happy if you guys would have used the full screen space , instead of leaving large margins on both left and right sidesHOME Page1. why doesnt home page content start the same as like profile\’s or photo\’s modules. home page content doesnt exactly start under the windows live logo.2. calender info – shown only for one calendar event. and i believe its not really useful , if you cant show more than one event there3. would like to see a small calendar feed there in the content block , like Mail feed4. search box on the windows live bar looks really good. i suggest you provide a up or down arrows for "search the web" , "search people" options instead of the current tab. when i am using a key board to type something in the search box i would like to use up/down arrows for selecting the searchoptions than the tab or mouse.Photos1. slideshow : its the best looking slide show .2. album cover pictures sizes should be little bigger. 3 .when album is opened , the picture size seems to be small . should have the choice like in Picasa ..to make it small/medium/bigger .4. when clicked on the individual picture, it takes to a differnet page , where one big picture and 3 small ones to navigate. would prefer prev / next options for the big picture than the next 3 small pictures shown5. one important thing , i wont be able to access my pictures any more from my work. you know why , skydrive.live.com is a blocked web site in my work. since you guys access my pictures from skydrive , they are blocking the site. so its a big letdown for me. rest of the comments later
@ Larry and Dave – I noticed the complete lack of any content on any of Larry\’s pages. His Space and Photos are public, but they\’re completely empty. That\’s pretty typical: someone criticizes a new product without really trying it out first. Why not put some content out there? You might make a couple o\’ friends on WL. And guys, I\’m not trying to "impress" anyone or "flex my biceps" for that matter. My earlier comment was meant tongue in cheek to that I\’m a bit of a Microsoft junkie, so I\’m obviously a little biased. Let\’s not get snippy and personal here, boys. BTW, Larry, nice poodle.
"I might make a couple o\’ friends"?? I actually HAVE friends, you know, people? The kind I can sit across from and have a cuppa with? Shake hands with? See their eyes and their smile when we talk? Know what I mean? No, maybe not.That you found nothing on those pages is no big find bud. I stated earlier that the only things you\’ll get of my info is my dog\’s pic and my first name. I don\’t put anything on the internet I don\’t want, or expect to be seen, especially on a site like this! Hell, I don\’t trust my bank to not get hacked, I\’m sure not going to trust any details about my life to a site like this, and anyone who does is asking for problems.I haven\’t criticized any part of this that I either haven\’t or don\’t use. It\’s good you weren\’t trying to impress anyone…………you didn\’t.By the bye, it\’s a Bichon Frise. I would have thought, as smart as you are, you\’d have seen that.
Are you able to change the website address for your profile? In the same way you can for GROUPS?PLUS – when you change the website for Groups can you change it agian or do you only get one chance? – If you do only get one chance, can we change this policy?
@ George – That\’s the policy with spaces, too. Once you\’ve set the custom URL, you\’re stuck with it. The only way to choose another is to delete and start over. Plus, your old custom URL won\’t be available to use again for another 60 days thereafter. Don\’t know if that\’s something they can change or not.@ Larry – If you\’re not vested in WL, then why are you wasting time criticizing it? And you\’re right…a Bichon Frise is a MUCH manlier dog. My bad.
What a complete idjit
wotcha larry
Morning Dave……….looks like just more of the same!
The point Larry is making is that the whole social networking bit was never a relavant part of live to most people before. I used my space to basically publicise a band I play with sometimes, but it was never meant for mass consumption, and I would never advertise my real website here.
I see you\’re having continued problems. I had gone through and turned off what I thought was all the cute little "sharing" settings last night, only to wake up this morning and find that after I unchecked "share my last name" the stupid thing is sharing my last name and I can\’t make it stop!
I do feel sorry for Greg. He really seems to believe that microsoft are doing all this for the good of mankind. I sort of want to shield him from the coing dissapointments.In realty, they are a profits driven company, not a charity. Having tried, and failed, to buy an existing networking company, they\’ve rushed all this through in a desperate attempt to stem a massive loss of advertising revenue. Because of the way things are now, if you got a hotmail address back in the 90\’s, or even just downloaded live gallery to sort your piccies out, you are now being touted round the advertising company\’s as part of their \’social networking userbase\’
Another thing, I do wish this stupid blog window could keep up with my typing speed. It\’s not even very fast!
I believe you\’ve nailed it! I hadn\’t thought about WHY this nonsense was happening, but now you\’ve mentioned it, of course, it\’s all about herding as many eyeballs as possible into a captive audience for advertising!And all I wanted was to keep my email address after leaving MSN, have it ad free, and be able to use the home page portal with rss feeds!Very perceptive.
Yes, Greg will be one of those who will actually feel betrayed when some really important and personal bit of info is blasted out to the whole world.Surprised like.
The best one so far………. I\’d quite like greg to comment on this one.I discovered this morning that all my private folders on my skydrive had been moved to my public folder. One of them contained a trial mix of a piece of music I\’ve one for a large international advertising company. This particular folder cannot be moved, deleted, or have it\’s permissions changed. However, it can be downloaded, which according to microsofts terms of use, automatically puts it in the public domain, quite blatantly removing all copyright from my client, who seem to be a bit upset with microsoft at the moment! So Greg, they will ensure the safety of my \’digital life\’ will they?
@ Dave & Larry – I\’m under no illusions why Microsoft (or any business, for that matter) is doing this. Every business is out to make money. With the exception of PBS or NPR, show me a service that\’s free to consumers that is NOT fueled by advertising.Guys, I\’m no doe-eyed newbie, so I\’d appreciate a little respect for my opinions. You seem to think that anyone who isn\’t upset with Microsoft for the WL changes is just an idiot or a bootlicker. I\’ve been actively using Microsoft products and services since the days of Windows 3.x and DOS. As a Microsoft and CompTIA-certified corporate instructor, I\’ve taught masses of professionals how to use Windows, Office, SQL Server, Visual Studio, and more. I\’ve been using Windows Live components for several years without any problems, including the changeover to wave 3.Look, I agree that Microsoft has stumbled in the past. However, their strategy has always been to enter late and then dominate. They let the other guys innovate and fail, then they take the lessons learned and improve on them. Or just acquire successful companies outright. My point is they\’re really trying to do something unique with Windows Live, and I think they\’ll succeed in the long run.Dave, with regard to your SkyDrive issue, I\’m not tech support, so I\’m afraid I don\’t know the answer. You seem to have a folder called HELP YOURSELF, so I would imaging anything in that folder is fair game for anyone who wants to download it. SkyDrive was never meant to be your own personal FTP or music-sharing service, and it\’s very likely that your permissions were just misconfigured. My advice would be to remove anything private from that folder and put elsewhere on SkyDrive. I hope this helps!
If you read what I said, the folders were NOT in the help yourself folder. They were put there by microsoft live during the changeover.I would love to move or delete the problem folder, but it won\’t move or delete, it just sits there.The \’help yourself\’ folder is there for public sharing, as encouraged by microsoft.The other folders are there for my private use, or to share with specific people, as encouraged by Microsoft.Clear enough, or do you need more detail
What Greg and quite a number of others don\’t seem to understand is that Microsoft has forced a change on everyone that only a few people want. Those of us who didn\’t want it, and frankly, didn\’t even see coming, feel as though we\’ve been hosed. We\’ve been shoved, like cattle, into something we would never have voluntarily joined, and the dammed thing doesn\’t even work right! Insisting that we\’re just unwashed clods because we don\’t appreciate what MS is trying to do for us isn\’t helping. We are not, nor do we wish to be, part of some mass movement to "network" and have the details of our lives shared with the general public, or for that matter many of our personal friends!MS completely screwed the pooch on this one, and instead of owning up to it, and making it right, they\’re pretending that we don\’t know what we\’re talking about, and if we would just be patient and work with them, why we\’ll come to love the whole thing. People like Greg aren\’t helping by trying to argue with us.MS should have made every single one of these modules "opt in", with clear and detailed instructions on what would or would not be shared and with whom as we opted in and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, should have made dammed sure that they worked as advertised BEFORE they put it out.They did not do those things. Some of us are angry. We are right to be angry. And we\’re going to stay that way until the boobs who forced this stuff on us fix it!
@ Larry – Sorry that the change took you by surprise. Microsoft sent me numerous email messages over the past 3 months to tell me what was in-store. I also frequently visit http://www.liveside.net, which has a wealth of news and information about what\’s happening on the WL front.With regard to the opt-in idea, online services just aren\’t like desktop programs. You don\’t have your own personal copy that\’s yours forever, and you can\’t expect the vendor to want to support legacy interfaces forever. When they decide to move forward, you have but two choices: come along for the ride or move on somewhere else.I appreciate and respect your concerns about the changes. But again, I have to think that there are just as many folks like myself, who really like the direction that WL is going. You\’re just not hearing from them, because they\’re satisfied. You\’re welcome to take your online life somewhere else, but don\’t stand in the way of progress, man.
And there is no point in saying that skydrive wasn\’t meant to be my personal ftp. That is exactly what it is meant to be. (quote} "A place to securely store, or share your own files" Also, if you take the time to look, you will see that most of the music is hosted on archive.org. The ones in the \’help yourself\’ folder are mainly works in progress, so that when friends ask \’what are you up to?\’ I can say \’Have a listen\’
This is probably going to come as a complete surprise to you pal, but I really don\’t give two whits about your "sorry", your "appreciation", your "respect", or any of the rest of your "feelings". What I DO care about is that the service I signed up for, and paying for, work as advertised and that it not divulge information that I do not want divulged. PeriodOpt in services are EXACTLY like desktop programs! I can choose to use whatever online service I like, or not, as I see fit! If that weren\’t the case then anytime one signed up with any service, all services would immediately be available to that person!Windows Live Hotmail Plus support is NOT available to all Windows live users, only to those who pay a subscription! You have to opt in!good grief……………. how dense can one be?
Well, they diddn\’t send me any emails at all, and liveside is hardly mainstream browsing fare.Opt-in services are remarkably easy to arrange. Everybody else does it.I don\’t think anyone would have minded a change in interface much, as long as the useful stuff was there, and what was there actually worked. And the much vaunted \’customisations\’ are a joke (select an oblect, you can move it up one. Select it again, you can move it down one.)If you look at the webtrends site, you will see the opposite is true, that rather than complaining, most people are just leaving
I see what you mean about the skydrive though. It was pretty stupid of me to trust them with anything important.
@Dave: Aw, you just like to complain, you don\’t appreciate "progress", and you DEFINITELY don\’t understand the finer points of programming software!And with all the work MS has put into these wonderful new features, why in the world would you need to customize it any more than it is?!?It\’s obvious that we don\’t know what we\’re talking about and rightfully should let our "betters" determine what\’s best for us.
@ Larry – Well, since we\’re dispensing with the pleasantries…you actually got suckered into PAYING for Hotmail? LOL. I could see the point of that several years ago, but I haven\’t talked with anyone who has paid for Hotmail in a looong time. Nowadays, you get most of the extra services (Outlook integration, etc.) through WL free. I can put up with a top banner ad, and now that\’s going to be removed from the free version, too. Boy, I\’ll bet you do feel like an idiot. My apologies.@ Dave – Fewer customizations are not necessarily a bad thing, especially where the UI is concerned. Look at the clusterf**k MySpace and Facebook have become. True, some folks will probably leave WL. Maybe it\’s time to thin the herd a bit.
There is a distinction between feeling an idiot and being mad. Try an online dictionary, I think you\’ll see what I mean. Twenty bucks a year for 10GB of mail storage, no ads, no expiration on my email address, and access to phone/chat support is not being "suckered" as far as I\’m concerned and, all things being equal, I would do the same again. But then, I\’ve been used to paying my way for fifty of my sixty years, so it doesn\’t seem unusual to me.You don\’t like what\’s available on myspace and facebook, yet you come to WL and cheer the attempt they\’re making to go the same route? "Boy, I\’ll bet you do feel like an idiot, my apologies!"Time to "thin the herd a bit" eh? Nice to see your true feelings show.
@Greg: It also occurs to me that your description of myspace and facebook very accurately describes how some of us feel about what\’s happening to WL.
Actually, I can\’t be bothered with the little twit anymore. He obviously knows next to nothing about real-world computing, or indeed, the real-world world for that matter. Anyone who describes themselves as a \’multimedia developer\’ must be hiding something in my book. (Probably writes irritating flash banner adverts or something.) The fact that he\’s trained to teach people how to construct a spreadsheet dosn\’t particularly impress me at all. I\’m sure his friends at microsoft are taking note of his efforts to drive away even more users.As for paying, I\’ve just started paying for the pro flickr photo service. Totally unlimited storage, full online editing, the best embeddable slideshow on the web, and all for 20p a week. (in the States, a good bit less than 50c.) So I guess that makes me a sucker as wellHe doesn\’t seem to realise that, as professional users, it\’s worth paying for quality and reliability. I deal with my proper email through my website, so it\’s not an issue for me (Can you believe that I\’m stupid enough to pay for for superfast, unristricted server space, when I can get a small chunk of low grade broadband, with lurid green and orange flash banners noisily flogging knocked of ipods in Chinese – for nothing? God, I must be realllly stoopid.)Before I finish, or die of boredom, I\’ll just make a couple of predictions1, live won\’t revert at once, got to keep face (quite understandable), but things will gradually revert, and within about 18 months, a lot of the new networking stuff will be quietly dropped in further \’improvements. The homepage will get it\’s missing bits back, and become more customisable very soon, \’cos thats an easy sop to give to the dissenters.2 If \’cloud computing\’ does happen, it won\’t be for ages, the general public will reject it, and Google, not microsoft, will dominate the market totally. (And god help us all!!!!)3 Social networking sites will be a niche market within 5 years, partly because…..4. as advertisers realise that internet advertising is almost totally innifectual, (believe me it\’s already happening!) more and more services will have to be paid for.5. At the end of his time, Greg will be buried with a small, but extremely tasteful statue of Bill Gates cluched to his bosom
Just one final thought though, Larry. I wonder if Greg realises that we\’ve developed a sort of real friendship, and we haven\’t had to join each others networks at all!(maybe we\’ll get banned!}Catch up with you on another thread
Dam it all man, you\’ve got me to laughing again!
Hold on, have to wipe that bit if spittum off the monitor!
No, I doubt very much if he understands at all how people actually "connect", but yes indeed I believe we have developed a kinship! At this point, I\’ve decided that getting banned by these twits wouldn\’t be a bad ending at all! More power to \’em!Further, I do agree with your predictions. Most of the time efforts to drive public preferences meet with failure. It\’s those who figure out what those preferences really are and fill the desires/needs who are successful. The general public has no need, desire or TIME for all this social networking nonsense. That\’s left mostly for young people who have way too much spare time on their hands, and don\’t have the money to pay for it. Hence, MS gives it away.Take care sir, and good luck in all your endeavors!!
How do I view how many people view my space?
I\’ve looked all over and can\’t find what I\’m looking for, so maybe help can be found here.I can\’t open my messages. I click on them and nothing happens. It\’s been like this for 3 days nowPLEASE help me.
@ Tawny – On your space, click Options > Statistics. Hope this helps!
I don\’t understand why the URL of your Profile/SkyDrive/Photo account is "cid-random number." I think it should be possible to choose it, like in Live Spaces, or, at least, to have the same used in your Live Space!
Look, your rearrangement of the furniture has meant that managing comments is much more cumbersome to access. Why, oh why, did you not provide "Recent comments" as a menu option under the "Options" drop-down menu on our Blog spaces? Then it would be only one click away instead of the drunkard\’s walk that it now is.Of course, listing actions such as "Statistics" (which you now do) and "Recent comments" under a menu called "Options" strikes me as a bit bizarre in any case (they are not "options" as such, but management reports), but then, when did life under Microsoft make much sense anyway?
I really cannot figure out what the windows live team is doing. Simple question: how can you share photo with others??? I simply cannot because it\’s a https:\\\\ address and requries people to have a Live account. I can put my photo on flickr/google picassa/etc. and paste the URL to wherever I like. But in Live ? No way!!! The "share photo" means you can only share after you log in —-OK, if Live has 90% share in the market, that\’s not a problem, that is a business strategy. But you don\’t have 90% share, and people could simply change to google. no big deal!!Second, what the @#$$ is "web activity"??? Why do we need to click "More actions" when we want to add a blog entry(man, this is a BLOG space, and you even cannot see an option to add a blog entry—are u crazy??) I don\’t care (and all users don\’t care) whatever your "New functions" could be. We just want to add a blog entry or photos.Don\’t argue with us! Web application is a totally "customer-driven" business. If your work dosn\’t work for use, it\’s then simply wrong. Do it! Change it!!!
Regarding "Most of you have said that you’re really enjoying the new updates and features." —- No, I have a lot of friends on Live space and no one says they are happy with the new desgin. The truth is, the UI SUCKS!!! Yes, the 25G is good, original photo downloading is good. But, who cares if you even cannot share the photo\’s URL??? Give me an example how you share a photo, OK??
It\’s easy, you go to flickr
Yes!!! The updates are finally out! Now all you have to do is combine all the Live Services so they work in Live Mesh. Anyways I think that was the purpose of Mesh. I don\’t know anymore because you guys have tools that do the samething. SkyDrive stores and shares files; Mesh does that. Foldershare (Live Sync) syncs files between computers; Mesh does that. If you guys combine all of the services then maybe your customers could access all of the services from their Mesh. This will come in handy if Office Live ever decides to release Office though the Cloud. Then files and folders could be stored on Mesh.Other then that, keep up the good work. The updates were a refresher!
Ok. every new changing seems good, gets harmonious with windows vista and windows live 2009.Our Windows Live Profile is looks like a facebook profile gradually.But I didn\’t like the new top design for windows live hotmail and spaces.I liked the windows live bar (every link and search entry were on it)The bar was seen more modern.and the new small man icon (default image) is awful!it is fat and looks silly!
Hello, i realy like the new live. I would like to be able to show my favorite contacts on the top in the list that shows my network. Do you know what the plans are for favorites.live.com and the favorites that you have added to skydrive? And what is the plan for my.live.com, will it be integrated in home.live.com?
I\’ve been slowly figuring out the new system and sharing the information with all of my friends. I have a couple of questions about getting things orgnaized. 1) Is there any way to leave little notes about the people in the network like we used to be able to do with the old "Friends list"? 2) If not, are you going to add that feature at some time in the future? We liked that. 3) I see in these blogs we can add a "banner" picture to our profile and the "home" page, but I can\’t even get the listed themes to appear on those pages. How do I get those to work?Can you reply in a message and post a blog with the answers? Thank you for your time.
In order to better compile comments, questions and, even more importantly, solutions people offer up, the following user groupshave been set up around the Windows Live properties:Skydrive: http://windowsliveskydriveusers.groups.live.com/Mail/Calendar/Contacts: http://windowslivemailusershelp.groups.live.com/Photos: http://windowslivephotosuserhel.groups.live.com/Profiles/Network: http://windowsliveprofileusersh.groups.live.com/It\’s important to note that these are not sanctioned or necessarily even participated in by Microsoft employees. They are a forum to enable users to help users.
Now THIS is funny! When I asked early on WHY most of these stupid, unwanted, (by most apparently), modules were not opt in, I was derided by some and told how that couldn\’t possibly work, (of COURSE it could).Well, well, well, wouldja lookie here at the post below by Joe. Go ahead, try it for yourself, click on one, I dare ya. No sir, it does NOT automagically sign you in like has happened with all these wonderful new Live modules, with all your personal and private information hung out for the world to see without you even knowing about it………….no sirree.You have to SIGN IN! That\’s RIGHT……..you got it! IT\’S OPT IN!
Ha ha ha…, indeed it\’s funny. But we must be proactive! try again. A success starts from a single step and continues for a thousand times…
the biggest challenge here, i think, is MSN live is just too slow, and it\’s not stable sometimes. Otherwise, there will be more people who would love use live, even though i have been using msn space for 3 years.
How should you know it is slow? coz experience of others tell differently, especially in Sabah, Malaysia.
I created a group for discussion and invited 20 members. One of the people I invited tried to accept and when she clicked accept, it replied to her that the group was not accepting invitations. How do I fix that? I am wondering if all my invitations are getting the same response as so far no one has joined my group.
Joe, I\’m Bob Piper, and I work on the Groups team at Microsoft. I\’d like to help you solve your group invitations issue. I have a feeling that the issue has to do with our group size limit for using Messenger (Instant Messaging), which is 20. If you invite 19 people to a group, and then someone tries to request to join the group, they will be told that the group is no longer accepting join requests. If you don\’t plan to use Messenger for Group conversations in IM, you can turn off that functionality in the Group Options page (look under Options–>Group Options in the upper right corner of the page), and then you are free to have up to 1000 members.
er, why????
I\’d like to know why all of a sudden my messenger keeps "not responding". Could be in the middle of a conversation or I don\’t get offline messages and neither does the other party after I\’ve typed and hit send. This is enough to send me over the edge sometimes. Do I have to go back to yahoo messenger or is this issue going to be fixed. Another thing is the fact that your blogging friends on your blog still don\’t come up in a separate window so you can read and click and be back to your own space. Instead you have to spend a minute working around the system to get back to where you were. You fixed this last time so why did you guys screw it up this time when you made changes. Why didn\’t you take the ones that worked well and left them and then messed everything else up? Another REALLY UNHAPPY LIVE SPACES BLOGGER. Thank you for all you have done, now see if you can fix it.
Where\’s My Favorites??? are they gone?
Hello!!I suppose that my password has been hacked and a friend of mine uses it now..So i can\’t login with the previous email i had..How can i recover my email and my password…Please answer…
This page seems perfectly and useful.I also want to improve and fixed with my space and I want find some examples from other user.even I hadn\’t pay money that ia why I had not an agree to using on my space.
In old MSN groups I had a screenname I used instead of my real name. I created a new group in Live Groups and for the first day I had my same screenname as in the old MSN Groups. There was a highligted line that said \’verify your ID\’ and when I clicked on it my real name has now popped up in ALL my Group posts on Live Groups and within my Live Spaces and Profile page. On none of these pages do I see the old option of \’changing your screenname\’ – not that I want to change it, I\’d like to find out where it went! Can someone help me?
Everytime i try and log in it says " we cant sign you in to windows live messenger" but yet i can go on my e-mail it also says below signing in to windows live messenger has failed becuase the service is temporarily unavailable. please try again later but its been like that for a full day since ive downloaded it. could some1 plz e-mail me at undead_cars@hotmail.com and tell me whats going on pleaseeeee ( is this happening to any1 eles right now ? "march 7th" )
Windows Live is porn:http://profile.live.com/Results.aspx?q=+Fisting results???Prohibited Uses:http://help.live.com/help.aspx?mkt=en-us&project=tou&querytype=keyword&query=coc#PUWINDOWS LIVE IS HYPOCRITEBut also have all pedophiles in your network.Stop Pedophiles in Windows Live.Don´t stop bloguers.Return http://mmadrigal.spaces.live.comhttp://lacomunidad.elpais.com/mmadrigal/2009/5/15/el-descontrol-las-redes-sociales-permite-incluso-se-hagahttp://solidaridadconmarcelinom.events.live.com/
Windows Live is porn:http://profile.live.com/Results.aspx?q=+Fisting results???Prohibited Uses:http://help.live.com/help.aspx?mkt=en-us&project=tou&querytype=keyword&query=coc#PUWINDOWS LIVE IS HYPOCRITEBut also have all pedophiles in your network.Stop Pedophiles in Windows Live.Don´t stop bloguers.Return http://mmadrigal.spaces.live.comhttp://lacomunidad.elpais.com/mmadrigal/2009/5/15/el-descontrol-las-redes-sociales-permite-incluso-se-hagahttp://solidaridadconmarcelinom.events.live.com/Stop Pedophiles in Windows Live. Don´t stop bloguers.Return http://mmadrigal.spaces.live.comhttp://lacomunidad.elpais.com/mmadrigal/2009/5/11/la-impunidad-con-que-actuan-pedofilos-las-redeshttp://solidaridadconmarcelinom.events.live.com/