Hi, Mike Nash here. I had the opportunity to deliver the Windows 7 keynote yesterday at the annual Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Global Summit here in Seattle. Every year we have the privilege of hosting over 1,400 members from our MVP community in a multi-day summit where we do deep drill downs on our products and get very direct feedback from them. This year the product and engineering groups hosted 700 sessions across 70 Microsoft technology areas, presenting over 140 sessions focused on Windows 7, IE8 and Windows Live expertise areas.

MVPs are independent technical experts and early adopters of Microsoft technologies who voluntarily share their knowledge and experiences in offline and online technical communities to help other technology users to solve problems, discover new capabilities and get the most from their technology investments.

Our MVP community as a whole, represents more than 90 countries, speaks 30 different languages, and covers more than 85 Microsoft technologies.

We have thousands of MVPs around the world, with hundreds who are specifically focused on the Windows Desktop Experience, Windows System and Performance, Internet Explorer, Digital Media, Media Center, Printing and Imaging, Tablet PC and more. We rely on them heavily to be our critics and infuse our conscience with how customers are experiencing the Windows client operating system while sharing insights into how we can continue to improve our products and most importantly the customer experience.

Our MVPs have been very engaged in testing and reviewing the Windows 7 Beta, since our first pre-release build was made available at PDC and our feature complete beta that was released at CES in January. MVPs have provided support by contributing to over 40,000 posts on the Windows 7 Beta Forum where technical enthusiasts can find answers to questions with MVP subject experts contributing to an 85+% answer rate during the beta timeframe. More importantly, MVPs are the one group that has an official feedback channel to file their bugs and input feedback directly to the product and engineering teams.

To date, our MVP community has provided great feedback from their voice of the customer perspective to help us deliver on the next milestone of Windows 7.

I want to say THANK YOU to ALL our MVPs for their hard work in helping us to fine tune Windows 7 and put the final fit and finish on the product as we march to our next milestone of a release candidate.

In closing, we had a bit of fun at the MVP Summit producing an “I’m a PC” MVP video with the keynote audience with myself and Steve Ballmer. Have a look.

MVP "I'm a PC" Video

- Mike

If you think Windows Vista had some of the best wallpapers with beautiful scenery from around the world, wait until see what is coming in Windows 7. Well, you don’t even have to wait, thanks to the recent leak of Windows 7 build 7048 a couple days ago, sites have dissected and now extracted some very gorgeous Desktop Wallpapers. Microsoft has focused more on making Windows 7 more culturally aware and fit the users personality more, a point made in the Windows 7 Reviewers Guide:

“Globally Relevant
People around the world use and enjoy Windows,
and all of them want to feel like Windows was made
for them—to reflect how they represent dates, their
local currency, and even their local culture. Windows 7
provides a locally relevant, culturally appropriate
experience for a broad range of geographies worldwide.

Culturally Relevant Desktop
Windows 7 has new desktop styles tailored to different
regions and languages, with special wallpapers, sounds,
and Aero Glass colors to provide a more locally relevant
experience. In addition, Internet Explorer favorites and RSS
feeds are pre-populated, making you feel right at home.”

Windows 7 Personalize your PC with Localized Themes

Windows 7 will not just stop at the disk when its released, users can create their own Slide show themes and download additional ones from Microsoft’s Windows 7 website here

Windows 7 Enthusiast Website, Windows 7 Center has a gallery up with some of the latest wallpapers included in build 7048, you can find that here

The Windows Live Mesh website has a great overview of the various features that's included in this powerful synchronization service. I haven’t gotten a chance to utilize the service yet, but I will soon, but for those who are curious about having immediate access to your personal information anytime, anywhere, any device, this is a good starting point.

Learn more here

Resources:

PCWorld: 5 Great Microsoft Web Services You Probably Don't Use

One thing that most parents worry these days is the content that children can access on the web. Internet-related risks have been an issue for some time now and today, they have become worse, making it entirely disturbing since we are all aware how much the Internet has evolved and enticed practically anyone of all ages to go online.

On that note, Panda Security, a world leader in IT security, today announced that it is encouraging consumers to participate in a nationwide study that surveys parents and educators to better understand the evolving online behaviors of children and their families, and guarantee their safety against Internet-related risks.

“Internet-related risks are clearly on the rise, and children are especially vulnerable,” said Carlos Zevallos, security evangelist, Panda Security U.S.A. “Panda Security is dedicated to children’s safety, and we are taking strides to foster partnerships, promote educational programs and develop solutions that will keep kids and their families safe in the wake of escalating cyber threats. The results of this study will help us better understand what children and their parents are aware of with regard to taking online safety precautions, and we’re looking forward to learning from and sharing the results.”

Panda Security has been conducting the survey through private channels until now, and it will be open to parents and educators through March 13, 2009. Participants will be given a free 30-day trial of Internet Security 2009 for their contributions.

Source

At first this Vista theme might seem a little too dark for some but I think it looks great. The nice background pattern together with the sleek sidebars and monitor gadget are so sharp. The one good thing about black is that it goes with any screen and still looks good.

Are you still using Windows XP? If you are then visit our FAQ page to download our XP Theme Patcher. If you’re using Windows Vista, you don’t need the Theme Patcher.

Title: Enigma VS
Author: Solarisphere
Download: Vista Enigma VS Theme