win7launchparty

This is probably the first of its kind type of initiative by Microsoft that demands user interaction and makes them more enthusiastic and excited about whats to come.

All you have to do is Apply Online to host a Launch Party, choose a day from October 22nd to October 29th and if you are selected, you’ll not only receive a special Signature Edition of Windows 7 Ultimate but your very own Windows 7 Party Pack.

This initiative is only applicable to users living in the following countries. Australia, Italy, Canada, Japan, Mexico, France, Spain, Germany, USA, Hong Kong, UK, India.

This was announced at the same time that they are again holding their Dream-Build-Play competition. This is the 3rd year that they are holding the contest, which allows winners to get a cash prize and possibly even a publishing contract for Xbox Live. The contest starts this April, and winners will be announced this fall.

1. Nintendo Wii: 2,056,866 related items sold
2. Microsoft Xbox360: 1,297,903 related items sold
3. Sony PSP: 350,591 related items sold
4. iPod Touch: 281,361 related items sold
5. Nintendo Wii Fit: 266,584 related items sold
6. Apple iPhone 3G: 212,837 related items sold
7. BlackBerry Pearl: 207,688 related items sold
8. BlackBerry Curve: 193,788 related items sold
9. Sony Playstation 3: 103,333 related items sold
10. Guitar Hero III: 98,159 related items sold

Nothing all that surprising here—apparently people like to yack and sit around playing video games. If you’re interested in reading beyond the top 10, head on over to the link. [CrunchGear]

We’ve heard Microsoft make vague references for some time about a Zune-like experience involving non-Zune devices (Windows Mobile phones, Xboxen), and it looks like they may be making real moves in that direction. A recent job posting from Redmond for a “Software Development Engineer in Test” calls on someone who “dream[s] about having a mobile phone based entertainment experience powered by a unified entertainment service across devices such as Zune, Xbox and PC.” Someone, the ad reads, who will, “create a ‘Connected Entertainment’ experience, realized through the Zune service, that spans multiple devices such as Zune, Xbox, PC and Mobile phones.” Sure, it’s not exactly a bold-faced advertisement for a cross-platform Zune environment — but it’s pretty damn close.

[Thanks, Ryan]

“Steve Ballmer and Sir Howard Stringer are driving forces behind the continued growth of the consumer technology industry,”said CEA President/CEO Gary Shapiro. “Alan Mulally is a true visionary spurring technology innovation in the automotive market.”

More information regarding the CES event is available at the CES Web Site.

Much like other program launchers, it was designed to provide a more powerful alternative to native Windows Run but what makes Executor more unique is the extent to which it can be customized using various skins and settings.

All you have to do is use a hotkey to launch Executor and then fire-away a keyword. Any programs matching the keyword would show up in the list and you can launch the program instantly.

Executor event lets you open a link in your default browser by just typing it into the Executor command window. Much more that comes with Executor is the optional choice of hard-drive indexing which makes it easy for user to index specific files or folders or leave them undiscovered.

The keywords and hotkeys can be manually configured through the settings dialog.

Download Executor

Unlike Internet Explorer Beta 1, the new IE8 Beta 2 is focused more towards users than developers and brings a whole new set of extremely unique features for consumers and enterprises.

Microsoft has been trying hard to regain its lost dignity after other browsers like Firefox and Opera smashed Internet Explorer in terms of usability and features. As it seems, Internet Explorer 8 might be powerful enough to hold back and stay stable in the ever growing browser wars.

IE8 focuses on everyday browsing, safety and platform and introduces some amazing features such as Tab shortcuts, Accelerators and InPrivate Browsing. I will be covering the features in detail in an upcoming post.

IE8 Beta 2 can be downloaded using the link below. Currently it supports 32bit and 64bit editions of Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008.

http://www.microsoft.com/ie8

Unfortunately, Windows does not come pre-installed with any such application which allows user to download and manage various other softwares. However, QWinApt can do the same job for you on Windows that Synaptic does for Ubuntu users.

QWinApt is a package manager for Windows which allows for bulk downloading, installing and updating of a huge number of softwares.

It has got a user-friendly GUI just like that of Synaptic and the applications have been divided into categories for easy search and download. Mostly all softwares listed in QWinApt are free or open-source.

QWinApt can be downloaded from the link below. To install the app, download and extract all the zip archives from the featured downloads section on the right. Thanks Lee for sharing this great app.

http://code.google.com/p/qwinapt/

Hey, if Bill can give away tens of billions of dollars, the least we can do to celebrate his last day is to give away some Microsoft-powered stuff, right? Next up: a full, non-upgrade copy of Windows Vista Ultimate.

• Leave a comment below. Tell us about your favorite Microsoft-powered product. Or your favorite Apple product, too, since Bill totally bailed those guys out back in ‘97.
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.)
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you’ll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
• Winner will be chosen randomly. That winner will get a brand new full, non-upgrade copy of Windows Vista Ultimate. Approximate value is $200.
• Entries can be submitted until Sunday, June 29th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.