Living the Microsoft Life: It’s a free life (part 2)
This series of posts, Living the Microsoft Life, are designed to show off some of the cool stuff from Microsoft that you can use in day-to-day life free, so that you can live a “Microsoft Life”. This was originally posted (by me) over on the Deakin MSP blog.
The list was so large and wordy I needed to split it into two parts! Part 1 was all about free software, this part (part 2) is about the free services and learning from Microsoft. This list doesn’t include every single one of Microsoft’s free services, but it is a fairly substantial list.
Then there are the free services…
Windows Live branded services
- Windows Live Home
Windows Live Home is a portal for your Live services, and a social network of sorts. Perhaps ’social network aggregator’ would be more accurate, as you’re able to add your ‘Web Activities’ such as any RSS feed, blogs, Flickr, Twitter, Daum, Flixtser, iLike, Pandora, Photobucket, StumbleUpon, TripIt, Wordpress and Yelp.
In turn you’ll be able to see a “stream of activities” (much like what Facebook or Twitter already do) for all your contacts as they add their “Web Activities”. This “What’s new with your network” stream also appears down the bottom of Windows Live Messenger.
- Windows Live Sync (formerly FolderShare)
Synchronise files between two or more computers (with Live Sync installed) over a network, or the internet easily. If you don’t want Live Mesh limitations (of 5gb) or don’t want to store it in the cloud, LiveSync could be for you.There are Windows and Mac OS X clients, and it integrates into Windows Live Photo Gallery to sync albums between computers. - Windows Live SkyDrive
(formerly Windows Live Folders)
25gb online storage, each file gets a unique url which you can share with anybody, or if you prefer, have it secured and private.Photos uploaded with Skydrive can be turned into galleries at Live Home - Windows Live Hotmail
5 GB of mail storage that grows when you need it. Email address can end with @hotmail.com (or localised versions such as @hotmail.co.uk, @hotmail.fr) or @live.com (again it can be localised to domains such as @live.ca, @live.co.uk, @live.fr or @live.com.au)POP3 access is slowly being turned on around the world, as of February (2009), United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, Australia, France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Italy, and the Netherland had access to it.Personally, I’m loving the new(ish) interface on Live Hotmail and prefer it over Gmail. That being said, for my uses I prefer the IMAP access which Gmail gives me, so I use that service.
- Windows Live Spaces
Live Spaces is a combination of blogging platform and social network. If you want to start blogging, and want a non-technical setup, and don’t have to worry aboutLive Spaces includes blogging, photos, lists, friends, and guestbook functionality.If you do setup Live Spaces, don’t forget to use Windows Live Writer!
- Live Mesh
Live Mesh is currently in beta, but with clients on the Web, Windows, OS X and Windows Mobile, Live Mesh is the easiest way to sync files between multiple devices, and without having to interact with the syncing process at all.5gb online storage for free, that’s can be synced between all your machines and devices without you having to lift a finger? Doesn’t get much better than that. - Windows Live Calendar
It’s a web-calendar – supports iCalendar, intergrates with Live Hotmail (and the desktop client, Windows Live Mail). Features daily, weekly, monthly, and agenda modes.It integrates with Windows Live Alerts too, allowing you to get calendar information (such as an upcoming event) pushed over email, SMS, or Live Messenger alerts. - Windows Live Admin Center
Want to use Live Hotmail, but instead of a “@live.com” or “@hotmail.com”, you’d prefer your own custom domain? Live Admin Center lets you create up to 500 email addresses (more if you meet certain requirements), free, with all the benefits of Live Hotmail (ie, growing mailbox, integrated calendar) on whatever domain you have.Setting it up isn’t overly complex…if you know how to change DNS/MX records (one MX record, and one DNS setting is all you need to get going)
Other services
- PhotoSynth
PhotoSynth is a way to take together photos taken of a similar location (or object), then stitch them together in 3D, and navigate around.It was also featured on an episode of CSI.
- Office Live Workspace EDIT:See the comments, Jeff from MSFT Office Live team points out
“… the web-app versions of Office have not been launched yet. ….you can save more files than just MSFT Office file formats- most file formats are accepted in your Workspace, except for file formats like .exe that can cause harm to your computer”
Office Live Workspace gives you 5gb online to store Office documents. There are plugins for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook to save/load directly from “the cloud” as well.
Office Live Workspace allows you to collaborate with others, see what they’re uploading, what they edited, etc. Or you can keep it all private.As part of Office Live Workspace, Office Web Applications are included, which are lightweight/cut down versions of Word, Powerpoint, Excel and Onenote.
(these screenshots are all “edit mode” screenshots, click for the larger screenshots) - Worldwide Telescope
WorldWide Telescope (WWT) enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world. Experience narrated guided tours from astronomers and educators featuring interesting places in the sky.This is part software and part service (no way is the client going to come with all those star maps, it’d be huge!), but entirely free. - Silverlight Streaming
If you have a large hi-def video you want to stream through Silverlight, chances are you’ll kill your web-hosts bandwidth allowance very quickly.The Silverlight Streaming service is in beta, but it gives you up to 10 GB of storage, and streaming is free up to 5 TB of aggregated bandwidth per user account per month.
…And then there is free learning!
- TechNet and MSDN Virtual Labs
MSDN for the coding labs, TechNet for the administrative (as in, Windows Server administration and the like) side of Microsoft products.Each lab is aimed to take 90minutes or less, and also comes with a (downloadable) Lab Manual.
- E-Learning Special Offers
Okay, maybe not free learning, but this site has promotional codes to get cheaper learning. - Office Self-Paced Training
Office 2003 and Office 2007 training courses with audio and text.
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