With this build, you’re not going to see a lot of large feature changes.  What you will see, however, is even better - which is, simply put, an improved overall experience while using the product. 

We’ve spent the majority of the time since the last refresh focusing on making WLMd more stable and reliable.  These are the types of changes that our customers may not notice right off the bat.  But, weeks from now you’ll be sitting at your desk (using WLMd, of course) and it will suddenly hit you -

“WOW!”, you’ll say to yourself, “This build is WAY better than the last!  In fact, this one runs more smoothly than any build they’ve ever released!” 

With this latest refresh you’ll see a shortened first run experience, better integration between Windows Live Messenger and WLMd, updates to our interaction with the Search Box, and hundreds of other fixed issues across all of our features…

I also wanted to point out a new option under our Help menu in case you didn’t see it there last time.  As you may have noticed, you can now migrate your Windows Mail data on Vista to WLMd.  Give this a try, and let us know how it works for you.  If you have any trouble, please use the “Migration Failure” option under the Help menu.

Finally, thanks to everyone who’s been submitting issues to the product team through the Connect site!  Since we added this feature, we’ve seen a lot of great issues and suggestions come in.  Please keep it up!  We love to get this type of feedback from our customers… J

--tanja

Every day we get lots of feedback about WLMd in the form of issues, or as we like to call them – bugs. :-)  I’ve posted to the blog in the past about how important your feedback is to us – so I won’t repeat myself and sound like a broken record.  Just note that the statement is still very much true. J

To further prove my point - Microsoft has introduced a service that allows customers to submit and track issues on a product through a site called Microsoft Connect.  This site was used throughout the Beta for Windows Vista – so some of you may already be pretty familiar with it.  But, we’re happy to announce that now ALL of our Windows Live Mail desktop beta testers will be able to use it as well! 

So, what’s the big deal with this Connect site?  Don’t we already have ways of providing feedback?

Customers can participate in Microsoft Connect in lots of ways – but for our purposes, the most important use of this service is to give customers the ability to send in issues to the team about WLMd. 

But, it’s so much more than just being able to send an issue in, since you guys already have lots of ways to do that! 

Here are some of the other feedback actions you can take when you get started with the Connect site:

• Search for an issue.  You have the ability to search through ALL the issues that customers have submitted on our product through the Connect site.  This way you can see if someone else already submitted the issues you’re seeing before going through the steps to do it yourself.  You will also be able to see if the product team updated your issue in any way.
• Vote on an issue.  Say you search for an issue that you were experiencing and find that someone has already submitted it.  You think it’s a particularly painful problem and want to make sure the product team knows that.  Well, the Connect site provides you with the ability to Vote on any issue.  When the “Vote” numbers for go up, the product team can easily see which bugs are getting the most traffic.
• Validate an issue.  Again, if you search and find an issue, you can choose to validate it so the product team will know that the issue reproduces for multiple people.  This helps them understand how to reproduce the bug, especially if it involves different machine configurations or specific build versions.
• Share a workaround.  Finally, if you find an issue and know that there is a way to workaround the problem – then you can share that information with a group of people to help unblock others.

How do I get started?

It’s really simple to get started.  Here’s what you have to do!

1. Navigate to http://connect.microsoft.com
2. Click on Available Connections on the left side of the screen.
3. If the button in the upper right corner of the page says to 'Sign In', click it and log into your passport account.
4. Scroll down the page until you see “Windows Live Mail desktop - Public Beta” under the “Product” column.  It will be near the end of the page.
5. When you find it, click on the text that says “Apply”
6. If you are prompted, please review the “Terms of Use” and click “I Agree” (assuming you agree to the ToU).
7. If this passport account has never been part of the Connect system, you'll be prompted to provide some information regarding yourself. 
8. After you do that, just click “Register”!

Once you are registered – here’s how you can send in feedback:

1. Go to http://connect.microsoft.com
2. In the left side of the page, click on “My Participation”
3. In the list on that page, choose the one for “WLMd – Public Beta”
4. On the left side of the page, click on “Feedback”
5. There is a “Submit Feedback” button on this page – click on that, and follow the instructions to provide feedback.

That's it!  Pretty simple!

Ready to get started??  Hope so – because we’re ready to see the submissions come in!

Have fun – and happy bug filing! J