Darren Straight's Blog

ICT Enthusiast and photographer.

By - Darren Straight

University of Pennsylvania Adopts Windows Live @ edu

Just noticed a press release from The University of Pennsylvania, stating that they have partnered with Microsoft to adopt the Windows Live @ edu programme to enhance the communications platform it offers to many of its students So from the beginning of the fall semester, students in the School of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School will have the

By - Darren Straight

Omniture to Measure Impact of Microsoft’s i’m Initiative

Omniture, Inc. a leading provider of online business optimization software, yesterday announced it will work with Microsoft on its new Windows Live Messenger i’m Initiative. Every time a customer has a conversation using i’m, Microsoft shares a portion of the program’s advertising revenue with the participating i’m Initiative organization of his or her choice — creating a simple and effective way

By - Darren Straight

Windows Vista ‘Ease of Access’ Backdoor Logon

Follwing my recent post about removing or disabling the Ease of Access Icon, located in the lower left hand corner of the Windows Vista login screen. I just found an article titled “Windows Vista – Backdoor Logon” which exlains to you a method which you can use to exploit the ‘Ease of Access’ menu at the bottom of a regular Windows

By - Darren Straight

Disabling Ease of Access on the Windows Vista login screen

It looks like quite a few people out there (here, here and here) would like to know how to go about removing or disabling the Ease of Access Icon which is located in the lower left hand corner of the Windows Vista login screen as you first boot up to Windows Vista or when you lock the screen. Well it looks like a

By - Darren Straight

Windows Live Hotmail launches in Spain the 25th of April!

In a weeks time, the 25th of April to be exact, Microsoft will finally launch Windows Live Hotmail in Spain (España). This exact date of when Windows Live Hotmail will launch in Spain (España) comes from a recent press inviatation that was sent out. In it also states “actualmente hay más de 9 millones de cuentas activas de Hotmail en España.” which

By - Darren Straight

Windows Home Server CTP Broadly Released

Great news! Today the Microsoft Windows Home Server Team are broadly rolling out a new test build of Windows Home Server – a Community Technology Preview (CTP). The Windows Home Server CTP (build 06.00.1371) provides a wide range of code fixes, user interface improvements and feature enhancements, such as: A more complete and simplified “out of box” experience, including an easy, 7-step

By - Darren Straight

Microsoft Community Betas Services Released

In recent years, Microsoft has made major strides in building up its community outreach. The company has invited bloggers to special events and conferences, established a “Featured Communities” program, and even actively sought feedback from enthusiasts for Windows Vista. Now, The Microsoft.com Community Technologies Team  is taking that effort one step further by launching a series of beta Web sites

By - Darren Straight

Live Earth attracts 203,000 fans

Wow it looks like tickets for the UK leg of the Live Earth concerts in July are more than three times over-subscribed, with 203,000 people having registered for the 60,000 available! I myself haven’t received a text message yet confiming wether or not I’ve been successful in the ticket ballot for the chance to get two tickets, but hopefuly I should

By - Darren Straight

comScore Releases March 2007 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, has released its monthly qSearch analysis of activity across competitive search engines.  In March 2007, Google Sites captured 48.3 percent of the U.S. search market, gaining 0.2 share points from the previous month.  Yahoo! Sites maintained its second place ranking with 27.5 percent of U.S. searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (10.9 percent), Ask

By - Darren Straight

Future of Web Design 2007

The second day of The Future of Web Design 2007 conference is today and though unfortunately I am not there to enjoy it. My friend Robert Gale is and while there he has been kind enough to send me this photo of a Conference Water Bottle which is advertising Microsoft  Water… whoops I mean Microsoft Expression… Got to love Microsoft