(Cross posting from my personal blog as well, doing my part to “get out the vote.”)

I’m very happy to say there are several Microsoft products nominated for this year’s Webware 100 Awards, including many of my favorite Windows Live products and services (details here).  Please take a look at all the categories and nominees and cast your votes.

Thanks,

Marcus, Windows Community Manager

The main Windows Live website refreshed today.  Check it out at windowslive.com/explore.  You’ll see the homepage graphic now rotates, and the third view is all about you, the members of our Windows community!

Can you find your picture in the graphic below?

Not only are your pictures featured, you’ll see posts from community members in the middle.  Plus you’ll see new places for your contributions through the site and on the Windows Vista Discover pages too.  It’s an exciting time to be a member of the Windows Community and share your tips and stories with millions of people all around the world.

Thanks again for all of you who are members of our community.  If you haven’t joined yet, just check out http://clubhouse.microsoft.com/join and we’ll be happy to welcome you aboard!

- Marcus, Windows Community Manager

With everything going on recently, it seems we could all use a few new ideas to save time and money.  I thought that would be a good new challenge all of us in the Windows Community.  What ways are you using Windows Live, Windows Vista, and/or Windows 7 to help you find more time, spend less money, or maybe even both?

If you’re a member of our community, you’ll see all the details on this challenge up on the Clubhouse Site, just click on Challenges.  If you’re not already a member of the community, we’d love to have you join us!  Just check out http://clubhouse.microsoft.com/join for more information. 

Let’s share our tips and stories and help others make the most of the minutes in the day and the cash we have.

- Marcus, Windows Community Manager

Since we launched the Clubhouse last month, you have all be creating a ton of great posts about Windows Vista and Windows Live.  I’m very happy to announce that we’ve now started displaying your contributions on the Windows Vista Discover pages.  Click on the four pages linked to from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/discover/default.aspx, or any of the tabs across the top.

Here’s an example featuring our very own X-Evolutionist, plus a few other familiar faces:

Here are some other people’s posts I’ve seen popping up:

Remember, we only display the posts that are highly rated by all of you, the members of the community.  For these pages, we’ve set the bar on posts with at least a 3-star rating.

I hope you’ll check out the Clubhouse and some of our challenges.  Now with these Windows Vista pages as a showcase for your best blog posts, we can help even more people learn from your expertise.

- Marcus, Windows Community Manager

The main Clubhouse site has been a little fussy about displaying community challenges lately, but we’ve got that fixed.  Please take a look on the Challenge Central page and see if any of these spark some ideas for you. 

We’re always keen to learn from what is shared by everyone in our community, and challenges are one of the ways we try to help start the sharing.  What other sorts of challenges would you like to see in the future about Windows Live, Windows Vista, or Windows 7?

Thanks and have a wonderful weekend,

Marcus, Windows Community Manager