New Hotmail rolls out very slowly

Two weeks ago, Microsoft started rolling out the “Wave 4″ version of Windows Live Hotmail.

Like the other Windows Live Essentials “Wave 4″ versions, which entered beta last week, this new version promises several improvements over the 18-month-old “Wave 3.” Unlike the other Windows Live Essentials, Microsoft controls who gets the new version of Hotmail, and when they see it.

If you know many people using Hotmail, chances are good that some of them are working with the new version, while the majority are still plunking along with the same-old same-old. To make matters considerably more difficult for those of you who have to answer Hotmail questions, there’s no way you can knock on Microsoft’s door and ask to be put on the list for Wave 4. Depending on which Hotmail i.d. you use, you either run Wave 3 or Wave 4, and you’ll have to wait your turn to switch, like everybody else. Belonging to MSDN or TechNet doesn’t help one whit.

Yes, that means you’re flying blind while trying to answer questions for some Hotmail users. Might as well get used to it. With less than 1% of all Hotmail users converted to the new version at this moment, and the rollout progressing at a snail’s pace, there’s going to be a big between-the-versions blind spot. Microsoft’s Mike Shackwitz, writing on the Windows Live blog, advises that it’s going to take “several weeks” to get the new version of Hotmail rolled out to everyone.

That’s if everything goes according to plan.

The “elusive” Microsoft Office 2010 Starter Edition

Ed Bott of ZDNet blogs about the “elusive” Office Starter Edition 2010, which most people haven’t heard about. Microsoft has allowed OEMs to pre-install Office Starter Edition 2010 on brand new computers that have Windows 7.

This Starter edition of Office 2010 only comes with Excel and Word and comes with the programs basic features. However, the Starter edition does include some ads though the ads aren’t as bad as people may think they are.

Of course, if you want to remove the “ads” in the Starter edition or get advanced features of Excel & Word, you will have to purchase a full version of Microsoft Office 2010.

Fortunately, Office Starter 2010 never expires. You can use it as long as you own your computer.

New Windows Live Messenger has same old privacy problems

Why do I get the impression that some folks at Microsoft just don’t get it?

Case in point. I raked MS over the coals for the really stupid privacy busting “features” in Messenger/Hotmail. Microsoft’s PR agency hit me with a nastygram suggesting I re-evaluate my conclusions. I looked again, and came away sure as ever that I was right – there was no way to effectively keep Microsoft from “sharing” private information in truly remarkable ways.

You can read the details in my Windows Secrets article of April 22, and follow-up on the WS Lounge. (That Lounge post, by the way, has become the most-frequently-read post on the Lounge, ever, in the 15-year history of the Lounge.)

I’ve been playing with the beta of the new Windows Live Essentials, including Messenger 2011. And guess what? Microsoft zapped a whole bunch of privacy-sapping settings, made the interface easier to use – and completely missed the point that I brought up in that article.

I’ve posted updated information about the hole in my InfoWorld blog. I’m still trying to figure exactly how badly MS screwed up this time, and when I have the full details, I’ll run them in Windows Secrets Newsletter.

It’s like the whole thing went whooooooooosh right over the Windows Live folks’ heads.

UPDATE: The InfoWorld blog just got Slashdotted.

Office 2010’s Ribbon a definite improvement over Office 2007

I’ve had a chance to play with it for a few months, and I can say categorically that the Ribbon in Office 2010 is better than the one in Office 2007.

That’s called damning with faint praise.

Details on my InfoWorld blog.

June Black Tuesday patch clobbering SharePoint servers

Looks like MS10-039 is taking out a wide swath of Microsoft SharePoint Server systems.

It’s a complicated problem, with no simple solution. Compounding the problem is the fact that you can’t uninstall the security patch.

I have a more detailed look over on my InfoWorld blog.

Maybe Microsoft will fix it. Or maybe not. Amazing, eh?

Hotmail updates start rolling in

If your mother-in-law calls you in the middle of the night and wonders what in the Blue Blazes you did with her Hotmail program, be of good cheer. For the next two or three months, some people will get the new version of Hotmail every time they log on, while others get stuck with the same-old same-old.

What? You don’t yet have the new version? You’re left looking like a dodo when somebody asks you a techy question about Hotmail “Wave 4,” and you don’t have any idea how to handle it? Looks like you’ll have to live with it.

Microsoft has posted several hand-waving overviews and videos of the new Windows Live Hotmail, and reams of detailed analysis. Those don’t help one iota, of course, when Cousin Billy from Dubuque calls because he can’t figure out which button to push. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t have any way for you to raise your hand and volunteer to get in on the latest version.

You know that Hotmail’s huge: a billion inboxes, three billion messages a day, thousands of servers organized into more than a hundred logical clusters. When Microsoft upgrades Hotmail, it procedes one cluster at a time. (One cluster handles several million users.) Clusters are strictly set up as a load balancing mechanism for Microsoft – there’s no relationship between the age of your account, for example, and which cluster you use. That’s why your CEO might be running the latest version of Hotmail, while you’re still fiddling with the old fuddy duddies. The full rollourt should happen this summer, barring any calamitous problems.

Opinions about the new version of Hotmail run a dime a dozen, but the people I know who have seen it are somewhat impressed. Easier filtering of “gray mail” that’s unwanted but not really spam. Integrated use of Sky Drive (in some countries anyway), so when your real estate agent sends 50 five-megabyte photos in one message- or even 200 50 MB files – your Internet connection doesn’t fall over and play dead. Conversation view, more-or-less like Gmail. Hooks into Office Web Apps (US, Canada, UK and Ireland only for now). Worthwhile stuff.

Be forewarned, though, that the new, improved logon sequence immediately dumps you into Microsoft’s new, improved social networking goo. As the Inside Windows Live engineering blog puts it, “The moment you log into the new Hotmail, you can see … new email from friends and contacts, social network updates, shipping notices, appointments, and birthday reminders – along with a conveniently consolidated, privacy-protected stream of photos and updates from your closest friends on Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter, and over 70 other websites. The new Home page even lets you post comments directly to some of these sites and update your Facebook status.”

You’d think MS would let you simply log on and check your mail, but noooooo…

Problems with MS10-039

Reader GM wrote in with a big problem, that occurs if you’ve installed this month’s patch MS10-039 / KB 983444.

(Of course, you’ve been following along here, so you haven’t yet installed June’s Black Tuesday patches, right?)

Anyway, if you’re surfing the web and inexplicably getting the warning “Cannot connect to the configuration database” you may have been bitten.

See Microsoft’s solution on the TechNet site.

Microsoft hasn’t yet publicly acknowledged the problem, or pulled the patch, as best I can tell.

Grab a subscription to TechNet – the price just went down

Hard to believe, but MS just lowered the price on TechNet. For $199 the first year (and $149 in subsequent years) you can get full, absolutely authentic licenses to essentially all of Microsoft’s software. By becoming a member of TechNet, you can download software directly from Microsoft, use a key that you get directly from Microsoft – and you’ll automatically be signed up for beta and Release Candidate versions of new software.

The hitch? You can’t use the software in a production environment.

I just posted details on my InfoWorld Tech Watch blog.