I caught up with Deryl McCartney, Marketing Manager for the Windows Vista Logo Program, to get a general update on Certified for Windows Vista product as of today.

Just to re-cap: Certified for Windows Vista products are products that carry the above logo. This logo represents a group of applications and hardware that have gone through an extensive certification process that means they work great with Windows Vista. We want users who are looking for devices, applications, or PC components to easily be able to identify the ones that will give them the best experience in Windows Vista today. When I go into a store looking for something for my PCs I always "look for the logo".

As of April, we currently have over 5,000 products that are Certified for Windows Vista. Since last July, the amount of Certified for Windows Vista products has almost doubled!  As you can see - we've seen quite a bit of growth with new Certified for Windows Vista products entering the market.

Deryl is very excited about some of the new Certified for Windows Vista products hitting the market today and wanted me

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Your Windows Live ID is essentially your online identity for all of the Windows Live services, Xbox Live, Zune and other third party websites (such as Expedia.com) that utilize Windows Live ID. If you're using Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger, your Windows Live ID stores all your contacts and email messages. Your Windows Live ID is definitely something you don't want to have compromised and I've got several pointers - or best practices - in keeping your Windows Live ID safe.

Do not hand out your password! Don't give anyone your password to your Windows Live ID. Handing out your password to anyone is simply asking for trouble. Don't even give out your password to friends or family. I can't imagine a reason why they would need it. Just don't give out your Windows Live ID credentials at all.

Be careful giving your Windows Live credentials on non-Microsoft websites. There are some websites out there that will claim they "require" your Windows Live ID credentials for their service. Some sites use this tactic to gain access to your Windows Live ID.

Fact: Microsoft will only ask for your Windows Live ID credentials on login.live.com and nowhere

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Microsoft today has made available a new tool for photographers using Windows for their digital photos: Microsoft Pro Photo Tools V1. This application lets you quickly edit the metadata on digital photos you've shot with your camera - including RAW formats.

Microsoft Pro Photo Tools also allows photographers to use geotagging for their photos. Geotagging is the ability to "tag" something with location information - and in the case of photos the location of where your photo was taken. You can quickly add location data from a GPS device or Live Search Maps to a photo's metadata.

Download: Microsoft Pro Photo Tools V1 (x86)

I use Windows Live Photo Gallery to manage all my photos. I'd like to note that changes in any specific photo' s metadata using Microsoft Pro Photo Tools will be reflected of course in Windows Live Photo Gallery - including title and tags.

You'll see here I've added a title, description, and keywords (aka tags) in Microsoft Pro Photo Tools to one of my photos.

In Windows Live Photo Gallery, you can see the title and tags I've

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I'm relaying the following article on behalf of my colleague Shanen Boettcher, General Manager of Windows Product Management for the enterprise.  During Virtualization Briefing Day in January, Shanen posted to give you background on what we're doing to make it simpler and easier to introduce and get the most out of virtualization of Windows in enterprise environments. He's back again today with an update on virtualization, as well as other components that illustrate our commitment to improving the optimized desktop.

This week at the Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) in Las Vegas, we've talked about Microsoft's role in improving the optimized desktop and emphasized Microsoft's commitment to virtualization. I want to tell you about some news coming out of the show today, which includes details on the product roadmaps for specific tools within the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for Software Assurance.

The combination of MDOP and Windows Vista gives customers the tools they need to support more flexible work environments for their users, while making it easier and more efficient to manage and maintain their networks. This is the concept we refer to as the optimized desktop, and many of our customers have the tools to

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In Part 1 of my 4 part series of blog posts looking at the Origami Experience 2.0 software, I am going to talk about one of the most important new experiences in the new release: browsing the web directly in Origami Central. Origami Central, one of the three apps in the Origami Experience, has the built in capability to browse webpages just as you would in IE7. ActiveX controls work just fine in the browsing experience of Origami Central - as does Flash and Silverlight (demo video below!).

In Origami Central, the browsing experience is tied to the toolbar that auto-hides at the top of the window.

Because the toolbar auto-hides, I get a full screen web browsing experience and with a UMPC running at 1024x600 resolution without toolbars and other things taking up useful screen real-estate.

Just like in IE7, I can use the address bar in Origami Central to do web searches. But in Origami Central, when I type something in the address bar (a phrase or URL), it searches through the history of websites I have already visited. I typed in "windows" into the address

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The Windows Speech Team has announced the availability of Windows Speech Recognition Macros (WSRMacros) Technical Preview. The WSRMacros is a tool designed to extend the Windows Speech Recognition capabilities already in Windows Vista today using Macros. These Macros are triggered using spoken commands using Windows Speech Recognition in Windows Vista.

Download: Windows Speech Recognition Macros Technical Preview

These Macros can perform a single task or a series of tasks. These tasks can be very complex using custom JScript/VBScript actions or as simple as inserting your email address someplace.

You can send feedback on Windows Speech Recognition Macros to listen@microsoft.com. Your questions and comments will help make Windows Speech Recognition Macros even better!