The real meaning of i’m

If you use Windows Live Messenger (MSN Messenger) or Microsoft Live Mail (Hotmail) to chat with your friends and family or send emails then you might have noticed that some will have a green color i’m symbol either infront of their display name or behind their display name.

Have you ever wondered on why they have this? Well here is the answer for that, When you have that particular symbol and start a conversation or send an email Microsoft shares a portion of their advertising revenue with some of the world’s most effective social cause organizations 🙂 (like UNICEF, Red Cross, National AIDS Fund, etc). Meaning the more you chat the more Microsoft gives!!! Isn’t this great?

How can you join and add this i’m symbol in your messenger or hotmail?

Download and Install Windows Live Messsenger, Sign in to the messenger, click on the i’m tab follow the instructions and choose your cause. Once you are done choosing then start chatting, the more you chat the more Microsoft gives.

Sign up for a Live mail or Hotmail account, Choose your cause and send as much emails as possible 🙂

For more information please visit http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Home/Default.aspx

Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth

If you are a creative person, if you love photography or if you are someone who loves to play around with new and latest technologies, then this i for you 🙂

“Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth” a tool which hellps you create a cinematic experience view or a 3D gaming view witth the normal pictures you click using your digital cameras. Youcan get this mind blowing view by associating a bunch of pictures of an object or a place or anything you shoot from different angles.

Its very easy to create a synth, to create a Photosynth all what you have to do is capture alot of pictures from different angles and visit

http://photosynth.net/

where you will have an option to create a Photosynth after you log in using a Windows Live ID. Once you log in there is a tiny software to download and install on your Windows XP or Windows Vista. It’s easy and funfilled..

You have some sample synths which are already created and you can experience them.

For more information on Microsoft Photosynth visit http://photosynth.net/

Microsoft Pinpoint

Microsoft is working on a new product named Microsoft Pinpoint and has released the beta version of it recently. This service which is a website helps Microsoft Certified companies to register in it with their company profiles, specialization, competencies, etc. By listing certified companies accordingly it will make others to find these certified organnizations accordingly to their needs. This site helps you to find the right experts, products and services.

To learn more about this new site please visit

http://pinpoint.microsoft.com/default.aspx

Domain Admins vs. Enterprise Admins

Many people have asked me this question on “What is the difference between an Enterprise Admin and a Domain Admin group in an Active Directory environment?” for an example the Enterprise Admin group have complete control of the entire forest (all the domains in the forest) where as the Domain Admins have access only to their specific domain.

The following table is an extract from TechNet

Group	Description	Default user rights
Domain Admins	Members of this group have full control of the domain. By default, this group is a member of the Administrators group on all domain controllers, all domain workstations, and all domain member servers at the time they are joined to the domain. By default, the Administrator account is a member of this group. Because the group has full control in the domain, add users with caution.	Access this computer from the network; Adjust memory quotas for a process; Back up files and directories; Bypass traverse checking; Change the system time; Create a pagefile; Debug programs; Enable computer and user accounts to be trusted for delegation; Force a shutdown from a remote system; Increase scheduling priority; Load and unload device drivers; Allow log on locally; Manage auditing and security log; Modify firmware environment values; Profile single process; Profile system performance; Remove computer from docking station; Restore files and directories; Shut down the system; Take ownership of files or other objects.
Enterprise Admins (only appears in the forest root domain)	Members of this group have full control of all domains in the forest. By default, this group is a member of the Administrators group on all domain controllers in the forest. By default, the Administrator account is a member of this group. Because this group has full control of the forest, add users with caution.	Access this computer from the network; Adjust memory quotas for a process; Back up files and directories; Bypass traverse checking; Change the system time; Create a pagefile; Debug programs; Enable computer and user accounts to be trusted for delegation; Force shutdown from a remote system; Increase scheduling priority; Load and unload device drivers; Allow log on locally; Manage auditing and security log; Modify firmware environment values; Profile single process; Profile system performance; Remove computer from docking station; Restore files and directories; Shut down the system; Take ownership of files or other objects.

Most of the IT guys misunderstands the roles of these user groups and their user rights in a domain environment and a forest environment. Now I hope you have a pretty clear picture on what members of these two groups can do.

 

 

Internet Explorer 8 Beta

If you bring the topic information technology then mostly it will be Microsoft the world’s biggest software company.

Microsoft released the beta version of its new Internet Browser “Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8)”. The first release or the Beta 1 of Internet Explorer 8 was in March 2008 and last week was the release of Beta 2.

Internet Explorer 8 has many new features comparing to its predecessor Internet Explorer 7 such as In Private Browsing where you can browse the internet without saving your history or cookies, Web Slices which help us to keep track of the web sites we like the most, Smart screen filter another security feature to help us prevent from malicious websites, search suggestions are to name a few of the enhanced features.

To get more information regarding Internet Explorer 8 and Download the IE 8 Beta 2, visit

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/worldwide-sites.aspx?icid=ie8_asdf123

I have been using Internet explorer 7 from its beta release and even though there were some hiccups (crashing unexpectedly) it turned out to be one of the finest web browsers I have used in my life. Now I have upgraded my web browser to IE 8 beta 2 and in fact I am composing this message through IE 8, I am very much thrilled like most of you’ll out there to use this new mind blowing browser but Microsoft has not yet announced the final release date, so until then lets enjoy using the Beta 2 of IE 8.