Yesterday, we announced a marketing collaboration with FOX that will showcase Windows 7 launching October 22^nd.

Windows 7 will be the exclusive sponsor of an upcoming TV show from Seth MacFarlane called Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show (working title) which will air Sunday November 8th at 8:30 p.m. (EST and PST). Seth is the creator of “Family Guy,” “American Dad” and “The Cleveland Show.” It with star both Seth and his “Family Guy” co-star Alex Borestein (she does the voice of “Lois” among many other characters in case you were wondering). The show will air “commercial-free” instead featuring unique Windows 7-branded programming that blends seamlessly into the show. Seth and Alex teamed up with us here at Microsoft, Universal McCann and Crispin, Porter + Bogusky to come up with Windows 7 branded integrations within the show.

To celebrate this awesome collaboration with FOX, the Windows Outreach Team will be doing a giveaway as part of their ongoing #WinWin7 Contest on Twitter for exclusive tickets to see the taping of Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show in Los Angeles this Friday starting at 3:30pm.

Watch the tweets from @MSWindows this afternoon to find out how to win. For #winwin7 contest rules, click here.

As a huge Family Guy fan, I’m stoked to see this collaboration air on TV on November 8^th. And to those who win tickets to watch the taping, I will be jealous.

Side tidbit – to fellow Star Trek fans out there: Did you know Seth McFarlane did a small stint on Star Trek: Enterprise?

On top of sponsoring Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show, we are also working together with FOX to reach out to more than 4.3 million college students on campuses across the United States. The 12 week tour will give students a chance to try Windows 7 as well as enjoy customized entertainment created by FOX Licensing and Merchandising such as customized “Family Guy” content. That’s rad ;-)

Back in July, Yochay blogged about the Code7 Contest on the Windows 7 for Developers Blog. The Code7 Contest is a worldwide contest recognizing developers building innovative and really cool applications for Windows 7. I wanted to give a quick update on the contest. We are now 5 days away from the close of the Code7 Contest.  Developers, hobbyists and students (age 18+), can upload their videos by October 10th to compete for prizes up to $17,777 at www.code7contest.com.

We’ve had over 4,000 registrants submit applications! We offer kits/training materials available to all registrants to help them build a great and creative Windows 7 application. We are racing toward the submission deadline of October 10th so if you’d like to compete, I strongly recommend you upload your video as soon as possible.

To enter, build an original, consumer-oriented client application that runs natively on Windows 7 (either MFC, Win32, WPF or Winforms) and addresses one or more of the following category topics:

• Simplify My Life
• More Media, More Places
• Gaming
• Work From Anywhere
• Safeguard Your Work
• Applications for a Better Tomorrow

If you want some ideas, you can check out current submissions uploaded by other contestants on the Code7 Gallery page here.

Submissions for the Code7 Contest end October 10th so whether you are a novice or expert – don’t wait until the last minute! Upload your video today at www.code7contest.com.

Since the first tweet went out on the #WinWin7 Twitter Contest, the Windows Outreach Team on Microsoft’s official Windows Twitter account @MSWindows has been busy giving away some great (and somewhat goofy) prizes to their followers. The best part, through, is that I hear that things are just heating up.

Here’s a recap of what they’ve given away in the #WinWin7 promotion so far:

• 7 piping hot pizzas delivered right to followers’ doors
• 7 pounds of candy to satisfy followers’ penchants for sugar
• $7.77 in shiny Andrew Jackson dollars and pennies
• 7 Microsoft keyboards and mice (PC mice, not live mice, that’d get messy)
• @WindowsGamer gave away some signed Warhammer art books
• 2 gaming keyboards from @WindowsGamer
• 7 sodas from the stash on Microsoft’s Redmond campus

There’s more to come and the prizes are only getting better (and somewhat goofier).

Starting today, they are making a push for 77,777 followers by Windows 7 GA (October 22nd). Starting at 42,777 followers, they will give out a copy of Windows 7 to one of their lucky followers. Starting there, they will continue to give away a copy of Windows 7 for every 2,000 followers (so, at 44,777 then 46,777 and on and on). For those good at math, the more people we get to join, the more chances you (as a follower) have of winning a copy of Windows 7. All followers of @MSWindows are eligible, so those who have been loyal followers since the beginning are still in the running. Winners will receive their copy of Windows 7 they won after the Oct. 22 launch date.

When the magical number of 77,777 is reached, the Windows Outreach Team has some great (and super-secret) prizes to hand out. If you’re not following @MSWindows on Twitter already, you should consider doing so as things look like they will get pretty interesting ;-)

For more on the Windows Outreach Team, read this blog post.

Almost two weeks ago, I blogged about a contest being put on by The WinVistaClub for finding the best Windows Vista website on the web. And yesterday the winners were officially announced!  

Winner: Tweaking with Vishal

The website Tweaking with Vishal took the crown by a landslide, capturing 32% of the 11, 520 votes. The website is definitely a Vista tour de force with hundreds, dare I say thousands of tips and tricks for customers.  

Congrats to Vishal and all of the finalists. We appreciate your hard work and dedication to spreading the word!

Rock the vote!

No, I'm not talking about race for President of the United States. I'm talking about the slightly less controversial contest currently in swing over at The WinVistaClub for choosing the BEST Windows Vista Website (besides this one!). The contest is designed to highlight community websites that offer extensive and interesting Windows Vista content.

Folks were able to submit what website they thought was the best Windows Vista Website. Then a panel of judges consisting of Steve Sinchak MVP of TweakVista.com , John Barnett MVP of VistaSupport.mvps.org, Steven Bink of Bink.nu, Kerry Brown MVP of VistaHelp.ca, Aryeh Goretsky MVP of Eset.com, James Stables of WindowsVistaMagazine.com, Emil Protalinski of Arstechnica.com, Barney Tormey of Neowin.net, and Anand Khanse of The WinVistaClub voted on the Top 10 Finalists for the Best Windows Vista Website. Now *you* get to choose THE Best Windows Vista out of the Top 10 Finalists. Here they are (in no particular order):

• MintyWhite Windows Guides
• Vista Revisited
• Windows Vista Update
• Windows Vista For Beginners
• Tweaking With Vishal
• MAXIMUMpcguides
• Windows Vista Forums
• The Road To Know Where
• Windows Vista Weblog
• Vista & XP Media Center Support Community

The criteria to win according to the Anand Khanse (aka happyandyk) is simple: Does the website have substantial original quality content of interest & use to a Windows Vista user?

Click here to Vote Now!

Voting is now live until 5:30 AM PST on September 11th. The Top 5 sites will go onto the next round and the winner and 2 runner ups will be announced around September 15th. 

I've read through each of these sites and can tell you that they definitely meet the bar, but I'm interested to know...which one is your favorite?  Or do you have a Windows Vista website that isn't listed that you think should be? Leave a comment and let me know! And don't forget to vote!

Mother's Day is fast approaching and what better way to show your Mom you care than to enter her in a photo contest!  While I'm still working to get my Mom to join the online community, we have a fun way you all can recognize your own Mom and help her learn how to share all those family photos on her PC with the family and friends! Portraits of Mom is a contest that lets you showcase Mom using Windows Live by either posting her picture to Windows Live Spaces or visiting one of our temporary retail locations to have her photo taken by a professional. Anyone who doesn't work at Microsoft can enter their Mom's photo into the contest for a chance to win awesome prizes.

Visit http://www.portraitsofmom.com/ and use Windows Live Photo Gallery to upload your favorite photo of your Mom. Show off your photo on your Windows Live Space, and tell your Mom she's featured along with all the great Moms on the site. Then get her friends and family to vote for her picture posted on http://www.portraitsofmom.com/. If you don't have Windows Live Photo Gallery, you can download it for free along with the rest of the Windows Live suite at http://get.live.com/.

If your Mom or members of your family are in New York or San Francisco over the next two weeks, take them to visit the Windows Live Portrait Studios, a temporary "photo studio" where they'll be treated to a professional portrait sitting. After a quick stylist make-over, she can include the family, a pet or friends in her personal portrait...and the best part is that it's all for free!  For location details, click here.

If you're in Seattle, bring your Mom to the Woodland Park Zoo on May 10 and 11 and get a free photo taken by our Quick Snaps team.  Just find the Quick Snaps team - who will be wearing lots of Windows gear- and they'll snap a photo of Mom and her family or friends.  She'll get a free copy of the photo on the spot, complete with instructions on how to sign up for a Windows Live ID and participate in the Portraits of Mom photo contest!

So come on, celebrate Mothers Day by showing your Mom some love!