The PlaysForSure logo makes it easy to find digital media stores and devices that work together.
 Help get confidence and peace of mind. Windows Live OneCare is always on, working quietly in the background on your computer, helping protect your PC from viruses, spyware, hackers, and other unwanted intruders. It also goes beyond security, regularly backing up all your important files and automatically cleaning up and tuning up your PC to help keep it running at top speed. Your OneCare service* comes with: Antivirus
Antispyware
Two-Way Firewall
Performance Tune-ups
Backup and Restore
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... Or, purchase a full OneCare subscription: $49.95 covers up to 3 PCs for a year and includes free phone-based support |
To use 3D maps, just WIP > install Virtual Earth 3D (Beta).
While in 3D view, you can still get driving directions, local search, and traffic information—just like in 2D view.
Assets at Your Fingertips
Expression Media is a professional asset management tool to visually catalog and organize all your digital assets for effortless retrieval and presentation.
Presentation is Everything
Impress your audience with slide shows, videos, and Web galleries. When it’s time to deliver, Expression Media can export your assets in exactly the format and size your clients need, with dozens of professionally designed presentation templates. With Expression Media Encoder, you can convert and publish video to reach a broad, cross-platform audience.
When you've buried something in a file cabinet, tabbed files are a life saver. A quick glance at each tab lets you know what lies beneath it so you don't have to open every file. When I'm doing research online, I'm sort of insane with how many Web windows I'll have open. Nothing is more irritating that having a half dozen windows open and not knowing which one has the information I need. I waste a lot of time opening and closing windows.
IE7 eliminates this problem with a feature called Tabbed Browsing. It allows people like me to manage multiple Web sites from within one browsing window. Just like opening a paper file drawer to see a row of titled files, now I just glance at the tabs across the top of my IE7 window to see which window I need and I select it.
Tabbed browsing lets you manage multiple Web sites within one browser window.
Two sub-features in tabbed browsing are worth mentioning. The first is Quick Tabs, which gives you a thumbnail view of up to 20 open tabs at a single glance. If your comprehension is better with visuals, this is the tab feature you'll like best.
Quick Tabs let you view thumbnails of up to 20 open tabs at once.
The second is Tab Groups, which lets you organize multiple tabs into a single group and then save that group as a Favorite. This is basically an updated twist to the standard Favorites menu. Let's say you have saved all of your vendor Web sites into a vendor Tab Group in your Favorites menu. In the new Favorites Center (an addition to the old Favorites menu), a single click will open all the sites in the Tab group.
Remember the last time you tried to print a Web site page? Remember how annoying it was to see that half the information was cut off on the right or left margin?
That problem is gone with IE7. A default will shrink a Web page's text just enough to ensure the entire page prints properly. Plus, from within Print Preview, you can now adjust Web page margins, change the page layout, remove headers and footers, and increase or decrease the print space as desired.
Sure, this one saves me time. But it saves me money, too: no more wasted paper!
You can adjust margins, change the page layout, and more in IE7 Print Preview.
In IE7, if you look for the little Windows flag icon in the upper-right corner that sometimes waves endlessly as IE6 works away, you will never find it. That's because it's been removed to make room for the Instant Search Box. This handy new feature will save time, trust me. It allows you to choose a search provider from a drop-down list (MSN is the default search engine) and lets you add new providers to the list.
The new Toolbar Search Box makes searching the Web faster and easier.
No more opening new windows or sites when one search engine doesn't return a satisfactory search. Instead, you just select another provider from the menu and IE7 remembers the search term and transfers it to the new search engine you've chosen.
If you like to surf the Web for news or other changing information, this next IE7 enhancement will also save you a lot of time. Chances are that you've seen the little buttons such as, "Get your RSS feed now!" on your favorite news or sports Web site. If you don't use one of these feeds yet, you probably will at some point because it's becoming popular.
RSS feeds allow you to have personalized news, sports or shopping links, headlines, and summaries delivered directly to your desktop. You can subscribe to as many feeds as you wish, and then read them at your leisure all in one place without visiting individual Web sites.
Earlier versions of Internet Explorer didn't make it easy to use RSS feeds, but IE7 improvements let even mere mortals like me read the RSS feed directly in the browser. Instead of surfing individual Web sites for information, just scan the feed for stories that interest you.
When you're on a site in IE7, if the RSS Feed icon 
is illuminated, it means the site offers a feed. Click on the icon, and you can subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking the Add/Subscribe button 
.
RSS feeds are integrated into IE7.
Come back to the page later by opening your Favorites Center. Now you can read news when it arrives and click headline links to get the complete Web page.
Have a quick view of all of your RSS feeds.
Personally, I can see using RSS feeds now a lot more as I get used to them—and as more Web sites offer them. It's going to be a good way for those sites to push their information out to the masses, so don't say I didn't warn you that these feeds will become more and more prevalent. And hey, if it saves me time, I'm all for it.
Note to tech support If you're part of the technical team supporting a business, the Windows RSS Platform will be included as part of IE7 for Windows Vista and Windows XP. Once a feed is subscribed to in one application, that subscription and associated content will be made available for applications across the operating system.
One of the latest buzzwords on the Internet is "phishing." Anyone who has e-mail and uses the Internet is a potential victim, so listen up. Phishing occurs when an e-mail is sent falsely claiming to be an established, legitimate enterprise. You've probably gotten one of those e-mail messages already: It directs you to visit a Web site, often has an official logo, and asks you to update credit and other personal information.
The motive behind it? To trick you into visiting a bogus Web site that you think is authentic and scam you into releasing personal information that will be stolen and used for illegitimate purposes. The sender is sending bait to thousands, hoping a few fish take it. Hence, the term "phishing," a variation on the leisure sport.
In IE7, a new Phishing Filter consolidates the latest industry information about fraudulent Web sites several times an hour and warns you when you attempt to visit a potentially untrustworthy site. A security status bar at the top of the IE window pops up in yellow for potential problems, and in red if the Web site is a confirmed phishing destination. If the threat level is red, you will be automatically navigated away from that site.
Phishing Filter helps limit security problems.
This is primarily a good thing for individuals but businesses will benefit as well: Employees will be less likely to accidentally share business financial information with nefarious sources in the course of their job. With so many of us doing business online these days, it's a good bet that businesses are at high risk for phishing attacks. Busy employees could easily see one of these e-mail messages as a quick request from a vendor, for example, and poof! There goes your business information. If you upgrade to IE7 for no other reason, let this be the one.
Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP offers great new ways to store and enjoy all your music, video, pictures, and recorded TV. Play it, view it, and sync it to a portable device for enjoying on the go or even share with devices around your home—all from one place.
Breathe new life into your digital music experience.
Store and enjoy all of your music, video, pictures, and recorded TV.
Stay connected with your music, video, and pictures no matter where you are. Check out the new Media Sharing feature.
Visual Studio 2005
Microsoft continues its market leading innovation in developer productivity by delivering a productive, integrated, and extensible application platform and tools.
Take the Guided Tours to see how Visual Studio 2005:
There are many options for evaluating Visual Studio 2005, from the Express editions to Trial Editions to the online Hosted Experience.
Download Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions
The Express Editions are lightweight, easy to use, and easy to learn developer tools for hobbyists, enthusiasts, and students. Professional developers may want to evaluate the Visual Studio 2005 languages, including Visual Basic and Visual C#, using the Express Editions. Most professional features of the Integrated Development Environment are not present in the Express Editions, however. Download.
Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition 90-Day Trial
The 90-Day Trial Edition is for users who want to evaluate Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition. This is a time-limited, but fully functional, version of Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition. However, none of the Visual Studio 2005 Team System features are present. Order | Download (2.6 GB).
Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite 180-Day Trial
The 180-Day Trial Edition is a time-limited, but fully functional, version of Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite. The trial media kit includes a fully functional 180-day trial version of Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server. Order | Download (3.2 GB).
Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server 180-Day Trial
The 180-Day Trial Edition is a time-limited, but fully functional version of Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server. Order | Download (447 MB)
Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Agent
Currently we do not offer a trial edition of Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Agent. However, you can evaluate load testing functionality using the Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite Trial Editon (see above).
Visual Studio 2005 Online Hosted Experience
The Online Hosted Experience will help you evaluate Visual Studio 2005 without having to install anything on your local machine. It includes the MSDN Virtual Labs, a series of guided, hands-on labs which can be completed in under an hour. A fast Internet connection is required.
Visual Studio 2005 Virtual Images
MSDN Subscribers have access to a series of Virtual Images containing a fully functional installation of Windows Server 2003, SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite, and Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server. These Virtual Images are a benefit of your MSDN subscription and are available for download from the MSDN Subscriber download area. If you're not an MSDN Subscriber yet, learn more in our MSDN information center.
To use many of the new features available on vista, you will need a more powerful system than a basic XP system. Vista’s new glass (Aero) effects require a kicking video card. With the new graphic-intensive interface, programs in vista will need more hardware to run at current XP-speeds.
So to find out if you computer will run vista with all of its new eye-candy features enabled, you should visit the Windows Upgrade Adviser. This program will tell you which version of vista your current system will be able to run effectively. With vista coming out soon, check out your hardware first.
LG Electronics has already launched the Blu-ray version of its popular Super-Multi optical storage drive series. The new Blu-ray Disc Rewriter combines Blu-ray technology with all other optical disc formats such as DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM.
