Author Archives: snehal

About snehal

I am a computer engineer from Mumbai who is curious to learn new stuff that i come across and is an ardent Microsoft follower.Also I do love playing games in my free time

Microsoft Discusses App Monitoring on Windows App Store

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Microsoft is leaving no stone unturned and doing all within its reach to increase the number of Windows 8 applications on the App store. To achieve this Microsoft has introduced Analytics Reports for monitoring the performance of your app on the App store. In its latest post on the Windows Store blog site, authored by Antoine Leblond of Microsoft, discussed the ways in which Metro app developers will be able to monitor the performance and sale of their apps.

Once your app has been published on the app store, you will be able to view its performance in the form of data such as the total number of downloads since its been published and ratings given to the app.This data is updated every 24-36 hours which makes sure you get up-to-date information.You will see a dialog as shown below:

On clicking the Reports link at the bottom right corner of the dialog shown above it will open up the app summary page that summarizes the key data-points for that app. The App summary page is designed by Microsoft to provide you a quick overview of how your app has been doing over the last 30 days. The app summary page shows you download trends, ratings breakdown, and quality overview for this app. Here’s an example:

The Listing views by referrer chart helps you track referral sources for your apps. It displays the top five sources from where users have landed on the app listing page.

The Usage report helps you understand the amount of time users are spending on your app per day and compare that against the average usage for the subcategory your app belongs to.

Analytics Reports have been designed to include a lot of reports that will allow you to not only refine and improve the sales and downloads of existing apps, but also to determine what types of apps to consider building next. Microsoft has also promised to keep on improving the analytics so that developers can better understand the trends and better market their apps.

Source: Microsoft

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Web Browsing Experience Detailed

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Today, Rob Mauceri, the group program manager for Internet Explorer, authored a post on Building Windows 8 blog describing the web browsing experience in Windows 8 Consumer Preview with Internet Explorer 10. In this post Rob explains how Microsoft has enhanced the user experience to suit the new metro style used in Windows 8.

The Metro style web browser

IE10’s user experience is exclusively built around all the Metro style design patterns which makes it to be fast and fluid for even the most intense everyday browsing. The interface and controls are designed to be there if and when required. Along-with this additional design improvements include: touch keyboard support for forms, integrated spell checking with AutoCorrect, finding text on the page, etc. The user experience follows Metro style patterns and conventions for personality, animations, and command activation and support for Windows 8 charms, snap, and more.

Navigation tiles are designed to help you find and navigate to sites immediately using the site’s icon and color while minimizing your typing. IE shows you frequently visited sites as well as sites that you’ve pinned to the Start screen. As you type in the address bar, the navigation tiles filter to show you sites from your history, favorites and even popular URLs. With Windows 8 roaming and connected accounts, your browsing history and favorites roam with you so that you can easily access recent webpages across all of your PCs.

Tabs: Browsing multiple web pages is core to any good web experience. The Metro style tab switcher appears when you swipe in from the bottom or top of the screen with touch, right-click with the mouse, or press Windows key+Z on the keyboard:

Connecting websites and apps in the Metro style

Snap makes it easy to use Windows 8 for more than one thing at a time. You can browse in IE10 and have side-by-side access to your mail, music, or any other application.

Charms provide a consistent way to perform common actions like searching and sharing in Windows 8. IE10 supports the Search, Share, Devices, and Settings charms.

With site pinning, you can personalize your Windows Start screen with the sites you use all the time. You can pin any website to the Start screen from IE10, so you have one place to access all the things you care about or need.

Protecting you from malicious web

IE10 offers the same industry leading security, privacy, and reliability features, building on IE9’s SmartScreen, XSS filtering, Application Reputation, InPrivate browsing, Tracking Protection, and hang detection and recovery. In addition, IE10 takes advantage of Windows 8 to provide “Enhanced Protected mode” for better isolation of website content in each tab.

Summary of changes from the Developer Preview

IE10 in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview brings a more full-featured Metro style experience to your browsing. Here are just some of the improvements to IE10 for fast and fluid browsing:

Full, independent composition enables responsive, fast and fluid behavior on real websites (including pages with fixed elements, nested scrolling regions, animations, and video)
Back and forward swipe navigation with preview
Double-tap to zoom in on content
Fast back and forward navigation controls for mouse
Mouse (CTRL+scroll wheel) and keyboard methods for quickly zooming in and out to mirror touch interactions
Automatic domain suggestions for faster navigation and less typing
Share charm support for URLs, snippets, images and selection with Mail and other apps
Search charm with visual search suggestions
Devices charm for printing, projecting, and playing video to external devices like TVs
Plug-in free support: notifications for sites requiring activeX
Background notifications for pinned sites and other tile improvements
Jumplists for pinned sites
InPrivate tabs that are easier to open
Clean up tabs command, which quickly closes all but current tab

We can expect more improvements by the time the operating system hits the final release in the last quarter.

Development Of Firefox For Windows 8 Metro UI Begins

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With the release of Microsoft’s Windows 8 Consumer Preview last month all of the major companies have are in a race to create new applications for the Consumer Preview. Amongst the big names, Mozilla has also promised a new and refined version of its famous web browser Firefox for the new OS, but had felt the need for some drastic measures to improve the web experience to suit the Metro Style UI.

Today, Mozilla programmer Brian Bondy revealed that the actual development work for Firefox on Windows 8 Metro has officially begun starting off this Monday. Brian continues by discussing some insights into what the team has already discovered while making the browser. Issue on hand is, a browser can only participate in Metro mode if it is the default browser. So if Firefox is not the default browser on a system, you can’t use it in Metro mode, a decision made by Microsoft.

He mentions that the primary goal of the development team is

Our first major goal is to get an experimental build of Fennec or Firefox running in Metro. This work is mainly being tracked in Bug 732518.

We have several smaller goals that we want to tackle next week:

Figure out how to make our own PRI files with our own resources.

Get a C++/XAML application working

Get our app launching through a delegate DLL instead of an EXE

Figure out how to interop XAML / DirectX.

Start to figure out how we will paint content to our DirectX surface with the graphics layer

Figure out how to implement other contracts

Look into native theme rendering

He concludes by saying that, it’s still early days for Firefox on Windows 8 and for faster development the team will need some constructive feedback from its users.

Windows 8 App Developers Blog Discusses Migration Of Apps On Consumer Preview

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With the release of Windows 8 Developer Preview back in September, Microsoft asked developers across the globe to start creating metro style apps for the new OS. With that, Microsoft also launched Windows 8 App Developers blog for all the information that was required to develop apps.

However,with the release of Consumer Preview, Microsoft made a considerable amount of changes, which certainly affected the apps which were build for Developer Preview. A new post on the Windows 8 Apps Developer blog sheds some light on this issue of migrating your apps which were build for Developer Preview to Consumer Preview. According to this post, by following some simple steps you can easily migrate your apps from Developer to Consumer Preview compatible.

John Sheehan, Partner Architect on the Windows Development team mentions these guidelines to follow:

Create a new project in Visual Studio and pick the template that most closely resembles the UI of your existing app.

If the new Item Templates support the contracts and features you need, like the File Picker contract or the Search contract, use them instead of trying to reuse your existing code.

After you reconstruct the basic elements of your UI using the new templates, migrate your visual and audio assets from your old project into your new one. Limit the additional code you bring into the project to just be the custom business logic that was at the heart of your app.

Finally, begin to stitch your new UI (structured with the new templates) to your visual and audio assets and to your back-end logic.

By following these steps, you’ll naturally incorporate many of the changes into your app’s code.

Lastly, he adds,

“This post is meant to get you started, but it only covers a small sample of the changes we’ve made to the development platform. As I suggested throughout the post take a look at //Build to Windows 8 Consumer Preview in the Dev Center to get detailed info on how to migrate your app to the Consumer Preview. “

Microsoft Office 15 Features Leaked

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According to a recent post on The Verge, details of Microsoft’s Technical Preview version of Office 15 have been revealed. The next-gen office suite has lots to offer, with a host of new and improved features in each of the core applications of Office 15. New features such as Touch and Reading Mode and also Weather Bar feature are incorporated in Outlook 15. Following are the improvements in the new Microsoft Office 15:

Word 15

In order to improve the reading experience in its word processor application, Microsoft has included a new Read Mode that removes distractions from the user interface, and provides for an easy reading experience with text that aligns automatically into columns to fit the screen. The Read Mode also works well with a Resume Reading function that automatically bookmarks the last position in a document.

Microsoft has also included two new features to Word 15— Object Zoom, Expand and Collapse. With Object Zoom users can zoom in on pictures and objects by simply double clicking on them, filling the screen with tables, charts, and images. Whereas, Expand and Collapse will allow user a one-click option to hide or reveal paragraphs under their headings.In addition to this, there is a Touch Mode feature for Word 15 which lets users scroll through documents with touch, also enlarging the ribbon along the way.

Excel 15

With Excel 15 again, Microsoft is planning to make it more efficient and convenient for the users who work with large data sets. With Quick Analysis Lens, users can quickly access ways to visually represent data, and with the use of recommended charts and Pivot Tables, visualize information based on data patterns. Another feature named Flash Fill, simplifies the reformatting and rearrangement of data in an Excel spreadsheet. Excel 15′s Touch Mode feature is designed to let users browse through charts, graphs, and tables on tablet devices just by their touch.

PowerPoint 15

In order to improve the standard of presentation in the corporate world, Microsoft is planning to give users the functionality to do so by making the aspect ratio of PowerPoint presentations 16:9 by default in PowerPoint 15. This will allow PowerPoint 15 users to create professional-looking designs and presentations.PowerPoint 15′s new touch mode features will also let presenters move through slides and presentations using a touch screen or tablet PC.

Outlook 15

With Outlook 15, Microsoft aims to bring in some new features to improve user experience. Thus, a new Peeks feature which lets users see their schedule, view details about people they’re emailing, and review tasks all within the same screen.Also, a new Weather Bar feature will allow users to check the weather before accepting meeting invites or planning new meetings.

OneNote 15

Image Credits[TheVerge]

In addition to preparing a Metro style version of OneNote for Windows 8 users,Microsoft is also bringing some new features to the desktop version of OneNote. Auto-updating file views let OneNote 15 users see content previews from embedded Excel and Visio files, including any updates made. Tables support in OneNote has been improved, allowing users to sort, add headers, and convert a OneNote table into an attached spreadsheet. The Touch Mode feature of OneNote 15 lets tablet users take advantage of their fingers and hands to move through pages and notes without a keyboard.

In totality a number of improvements and new features are incorporated in Office 15, and Microsoft is only at the beginning of testing some of these externally. However, Microsoft isn’t revealing any of the planned features for Office 15 just yet, but the features that have been detailed in this post are part of its key testing phase for the initial Technical Preview, which makes waiting for the beta to be released in summer worth while waiting.

Windows 8 App Development Discussed In Detail

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Recently, we mentioned in our post of Microsoft’s new Windows 8 app development blog site which included Windows 8 app development, after the release of Windows 8 Consumer Preview and how things have changed for app developers from the initial Windows 8 Developer Preview. Today, the app development blog has posted the second part of that discussion with even more information for app developers.

As was the first post,this too is a technical post and is mainly focused on programmers. Amongst many,One of the important topics discussed this time is tile and toast notifications for Metro apps. The blog states that the Windows 8 Consumer preview now lets app maker use the periodic tile notification API to tell Windows to poll your cloud service for tile content specific to your app. Also,to make it easier to work with tile and toast notifications Microsoft has introduced a notification template object model, which is a library that ships as part of the Windows SDK. The library adds constructors (and IntelliSense) for tile and toast notification templates.

The blog post also gives information for app developers who wish to make Metro apps via JavaScript. Microsoft says it has improved the performance of JavaScript IntelliSense in Windows 8 and has also improved the JavaScript debugging and diagnostic tools. Microsoft has also improved the binding of data by introducing C++Data Binding, which reduces the overhead of writing multiple interfaces.Other improvements mentioned in the blog include changing the HTML AppBar for easier use by developers and being able to create Metro style apps with a combination of programming languages in Visual Studio.

So if you haven’t already done so, download the Consumer Preview, install the new Visual Studio beta, grab some samples/docs from the Dev Center, and start building awesome apps.

Windows Phone SDK To Get Windows 8 Support Soon

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With the launch of Windows 8 Consumer Preview last week, Microsoft was able to satisfy many a people but not the developers of Windows Phone apps.The reason behind it being, the SDK for Windows Phone is currently not compatible with Windows 8. In a new post on the Windows Phone Developer blog site, Microsoft’s Larry Lieberman goes over the reasons why this is happening.

One issues deals with XNA Game Studio. Installing the Windows Phone SDK on Windows 8 will cause “the user receive error messages with regard to components of the XNA tool chain.” However, there is a workaround that has been made for this issue.

Another problem he mentions, is with the Windows Phone Emulator. Windows 8 cannot currently run the Windows Phone emulator, which will make it very difficult to debug your code. There are two issues in addition to the simple fact that the emulator does not run on Windows 8, having to do with specific emulator functionality.

Lieberman also talked about .NET 3.5 , “Capability.exe and slsvcutil.exe will not run on Win 8 unless you separately install .NET 3.5.”

However ,the good news is that Microsoft is working to fix all of these Windows 8 problems with the Windows Phone SDK. More information on the same will be published by the company in the coming week.

Windows 8 App Development Detailed

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With the release of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview this week, it seems this might be the right time to bring forth some new improvements in the Windows 8 app development scenario. According to a recent post by Microsoft’s Jake Sabulsky on the new app developers blog, Microsoft has brought about some new developments in the manner in which Metro style apps for Windows 8 will be developed. Hence, for those who happen to be interested in developing Metro apps for the Windows 8 operating system need to take a look at this post.

The blog post mentions several new additions for making Windows 8 apps. Amidst request from the developers who told Microsoft after the release of the Developer Preview that they wanted to render their apps quickly in DirectX while also making use of the Metro user interface. Sabulsky states that Microsoft has now added three new XAML types for supporting a large range of DirectX features. He states:

With the Consumer Preview, you can now smoothly integrate XAML and DirectX 11 in the same Metro style app to create a fast and fluid experience. For example, you can now create a DirectX game and use XAML to process input, create graphics for heads-up displays and menus, or bind to your app’s data model.

The blog post covers a number of other topics such as adding more improvements for Blend to make HTML apps for Windows 8 and adding support for a PlayReady Metro API for DRM features in apps. There’s also added support for debugging apps in the Consumer Preview version, including some new features for the Simulator such as adding 1024×768 resolution support, also in case of Windows Library for JavaScript (WinJS),where (among many improvements) Microsoft has simplified the navigation model.Inclusion of the the Windows 8 Animation Library, which is designed to take full advantage of independent animations to make it easier than ever to create a fast and fluid Metro style design.

Image Credits:Microsoft

Windows 8 Demoed On 82-inch Touch Screen

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Yesterday, Steven Sinofsky demoed the Windows 8 Consumer Preview build at the Mobile World Congress launch event. He showed off Windows 8′s features on an insanely huge 82 inch screen. Also the screen was fully touch supported for Windows 8′s Metro interface. AllThingsD.com reports that the technology behind the screen was made by Perceptive Pixel. For more information about that massive touch screen visit company’s web site.

Firstly, it uses the same kind of technology as that in phones, meaning the device is much more responsive than the typical computer touch screen. To add to that, the touch screen is capable of “an unlimited number of simultaneous touches, so that you can work independently or in a group setting.” The touchscreen is so sensitive “that even a tap from a fingernail registers”. The screen has been used by, among other companies, the CNN news network for their election coverage.

Perceptive Pixel offers up a number of other kinds of touch screen displays, including some “smaller” models that are 27 inches and 55 inches in size. However, there is no word on the pricing for the massive 82 inch model but its a sort of product which we better not ask price of ,simply because we possibly can’t afford it.

How to Install Windows 8 Consumer Preview on Virtual Box

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With the release of much awaited Windows 8 Consumer Preview, Microsoft finally showed it off at MWC in Barcelona yesterday, and there certainly is huge difference between the Developers Preview and the Consumers Preview. Microsoft had said that they’ve changed over 100,000 lines of code in the consumers preview and it certainly seems so. Well now that its finally out, I’m sure many of you can’t wait to get it installed and running on your computer.

You can follow these steps to successfully install the Windows 8 Consumer Preview:

1. First and foremost thing you need to do is to download a copy of the Consumer Preview – You’ll find the download links below:

Windows 8 Consumer Preview 32-bit (x86) (English)

Windows 8 Consumer Preview 64-bit (x64) (English)

2. We will be looking at how to install the Windows 8 Consumer Preview in a virtual box. It would be wise to install Windows 8 on a virtual box since, Windows 8 is still in its beta stage.You can download Virtualbox from here. You’ll see the following once you’ve installed it and started it up

3. The next step is to click on New up in the top left corner. Here you’ll enter in the name of your OS (Windows 8 Consumer Preview) and in the drop down menu below, do not select “Other Windows OS” – instead Windows 8 should be an option now, if not you probably need to update Virtual box. (If all else fails choose Windows 7)

4. Once you’ve completed this step, Virtual Box will ask you how much RAM you want to dedicate to Windows 8. The minimum requirements say you need 1GB, if possible go for 1.5GB but if you’ve plenty of RAM on your system don’t be afraid to give it more. The more the better.

5. You’ll then be asked to set up a new virtual hard drive. This is where Windows 8 will be installed. You’ll need to allocate at least 20GB for this to work, so set at least that for it.The next thing you’ll be asked is what kind of virtual hard drive you want. It doesn’t really make a difference which one you choose, but go for the VHD.

6. After you’ve done this you’ll be asked if you want the drive to be dynamic or a fixed size drive. A dynamic drive will only expand up to the max size you set it as you need it. A fixed drive on the other hand will be the max size you assigned to it i.e. 20GB as we set earlier.You’ll be asked to allocate the drive size after this.

7. Now once you’ve successfully completed the wizard, you’ll see that a new Windows 8 Consumer Preview machine has been added to virtual box. If you click on this and then select Start we can begin installing it.

8. Virtual box will ask you to select an ISO image to install Windows 8.You’ll select the one which we downloaded before.

9. Once you’ve located the ISO image then it’s a pretty straight forward process for installing Windows 8. Just remember to select a custom installation and not upgrade if you’re asked. Then you’ll choose the virtual hard drive that you created to install Windows 8 on.

10. And that’s really all there is too it! Once it’s all done you’ll have a working copy of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview running in a virtual box for you to play with!