The new SkyDrive rocks…

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Thomas Maurer

Microsoft SkyDrive

Today Microsoft released some new SkyDrive Apps for Windows and Mac and alos offers 25GB of free online storage. I really love SkyDrive to keep my files in sync and access them everywhere. With the new apps the integration is much better, easier and 25GB of free storage is a fair deal.

Making personal cloud storage for Windows available anywhere, with the new SkyDrive

With the new Apps, SkyDrive is integrated in your operating system. If you need some online Storage, Cloud Sync or you are already using a service like Dropbox or GDrive you should have a closer look at Microsoft SkyDrive.

New features:

SkyDrive for the Windows desktop (preview available now). View and manage your personal SkyDrive directly from Windows Explorer on Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista with this new preview app available in 106 languages worldwide.
Fetching files through SkyDrive.com. Easily access, browse, and stream files from a remote PC running the preview app to just about anywhere by simply fetching them via SkyDrive.com.
SkyDrive storage updates. A new, more flexible approach to personal cloud storage that allows power users to get additional paid storage as their needs grow.
SkyDrive for other devices. We’ve updated the SkyDrive apps on Windows Phone and iOS devices, bringing better management features and sharing options to those devices. We’re also releasing a new preview client for Mac OS X Lion, letting you manage your SkyDrive right from the Finder.

Checkout more about SkyDrive

Windows Live error 8600108 when syncing Windows Live with Windows Phone

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Thomas Maurer

Yesterday morning I realized I did not get any mails over night so something must be wrong with the sync of my Windows Live/Hotmail account. After checking my Windows Live account under settings –> Email+accounts I could see the message “account is not up-to-date”. By tapping on the Windows Live account I got the following error message.

Windows Live Error 8600108

Windows Live error

Not updated
We're having a problem synchronizing with m.hotmail.com
Last tried [xx] seconds ago
Error code: 8600108

After searching the web for some time I found the solution, the problem only appeared when I was syncing E-Mail. After unchecking the E-Mail check box the sync worked fine, except the mail sync of course. Now after it seems that this had to be a problem with a email. I deleted the latest messages on live.com and check the checkbox for E-Mail in my Windows Live account on my phone again the sync worked fine again.

From support.microsoft.com:

This error can indicate a back-end mail server issue, which may be caused when Windows Live tries to sync an email with a large or problematic Word document such as an attachment. There could also be a temporary service outage.

More Information: Here

Cleanup Windows Live Contacts

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Thomas Maurer

Some of my friends now get Windows Phones and I think it is important to start right and get the best possible user experience.

Cleanup your Windows Live Account. All your Contacts are saved in the Cloud, using Windows Live, Google or Exchange. You can not save contacts on your phone or sync contacts between your Windows Phone and your PC without the “Cloud” as your middle man. I think the most people will not have Exchange Online account so I would recommend using a Windows Live account.

Now when you start your Windows Phone for the first time you login with your Windows Live account and this will sync all your Windows Live contacts to your phone. So you can make your life much easier if you have a clean contacts list.

Log-in to live.com and go to contacts.
Rename your contacts with their real names, this is important that Windows Live and the Windows Phone can merge accounts with other services like Facebook or Linkedin.
Add other services in your live.com account (Facebook and Linkedin for example)
Cleanup your Contact list. You can use a cleanup function:
This will merge Accounts and cleanup duplicates.
If you still have duplicate contacts you can combine them.

Use Hotmail as a Exchange Account on your iPhone

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Thomas Maurer

WindowsLiveHotmail

Hotmail or Windows Live do support ActiveSync for Mobile Devices like Windows Phone 7, iOS, Blackberry and so on. But it does not support Desktop Clients like Mac OS X Mail, iCal and Apple Address Book. For Windows Computers with Outlook I recommend using Microsoft Office Outlook Hotmail Connector.

So if you wanna setup your Hotmail account as an Exchange account instead of a POP3 account on your iPhone, thats how you do it.

Open Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendars and tab on “Add Account…”
Now you get a menu for adding accounts, here tab on Microsoft Exchange
Now add your Email address and account name (your account name is the same as your email address
Tab on next, you will get again the menu with the account data. Now add the Server m.hotmail.com
Now you can Sync Mail, Contacts and Calendars from your Hotmail Account with your iPhone

Time sync problems with Hyper-V Guests

Posted on March 23, 2010 by Thomas Maurer

If you have time sync problems with Hyper-V Guest Systems there is a simple solution for this.

Problems:

Time between Server and Active Directory Domain Controller is not correct
Can’t login because of this
Can’t add AD Users to local groups

Solution:

To solve this problem you have to disable Time Synchronization in the Hyper-V Integration Services for each guest. Then restart the Windows Time serviceon the guest. The guests will then correctly synchronize with a domain controller.