Filed under: Internet, Windows, Microsoft, Social Software, Windows x64
Live Messenger turns 10, MS uses extras download to pimp IE8 and Bing
by Lee Mathews Jul 23rd 2009
To celebrate, Microsoft has put together a free download containing emoticons, winks, backgrounds, and other Messenger extras. To see whether or not this was postable, I downloaded both Live Messenger and the pack and installed them.
When you click the download button for the "FREE Gift Pack," you'll not only get the extras, you'll also get a pop-up advertisement pushing IE8. When you start installing the pack, you'll get another poke in the ribs asking you to download the new browser.
And you'll also be prompted to change your homepage to MSN and your default search provider to Bing. Unlike the recent IE8 installer change, this time the options are checked by default. Maybe you really can't teach an old dog new tricks.
On top of all this, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of content in the pack. So what's the real goal here? To say "thank you" to 10 years of use and 330 million users, or to capitalize on the opportunity to wrangle some more browser and search share?
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
