Darren Straight's Blog

ICT Enthusiast and photographer.

By - Darren Straight

Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP Released

Microsoft Corp. today released to the public Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP, a significant milestone for music fans and the digital entertainment experience on Windows. This latest version of Windows Media Player offers consumers a test-drive of the breakthrough capabilities in Windows Media Player 11 for Windows Vista, including enhanced search and media management technologies, a visually

By - Darren Straight

Upload your videos to Soapbox on MSN Video and Win Prizes!

Just post a video on the Soapbox and you could win a digital camcorder and video editing software worth over $400 Just Post a Video Choose Upload Videos Enter your video title, descriptions, tag, category Browse your computer to choose a video Hit Upload Be fun. Be entertaining. Be serious. Be bizarre. Just Don’t be Ordinary! For more info check

By - Darren Straight

Vista Lanyard Competition!

James Senior a technical specialist for Microsoft in the UK has got hold of 10 high-quality Vista lanyards to give away which will allow you to be the most envied person around the office! But to be in with a chance of winning yourself one of these never-to-be-seen-again slices of technological history, you’re going to have to tell James: Q: How often do you wear a Lanyard? 

By - Darren Straight

Smartphone: Windows Mobile 6.0 Codenamed Crossbow!

You’ve seen the Pocket PC screenshots of Crossbow, the next iteration of the Windows Mobile operating system (OS), now check out the Smartphone version! It mirrors what we saw on the Pocket PC version with a new visual style, but also seems to feature Word Mobile, Excel Mobile and PowerPoint Mobile, potentially putting to bed the whole debate of whether Windows

By - Darren Straight

Pocket PC: Windows Mobile 6.0 Codenamed Crossbow!

Windows Mobile 5 is the current OS of choice for Windows Mobile users however the next iteration, codenamed Crossbow, has shown its face, check out the full Pocket PC homescreen shown below! It has a glossy title bar and soft keys and will feature Vista-esque folder icons etc. Pieter Knook, a Microsoft Sr. VP, has commented that Microsoft plan to

By - Darren Straight

Royale Noir: secret XP theme uncovered!

During Royale‘s development (the XP Media Center theme), the graphic artists also produced a black version of the skin, sans the overused glass effect. The result is an aesthetic black skin named Royale Noir, it even works with Office 2003. Since the skin was never released (or reached final adjustments) there are a few issues with it: some of the