The Most Difficult Blog Post I’ve Ever Written

After over twelve and a half years at Microsoft, I’ve decided to leave the company and start a new chapter in my personal and professional life.  I’m moving back to the Midwestern part of the US, nearer to our extended family, and taking a new job in product management for social media with a great company there.  Since my blog is all about Microsoft, I don’t think it’s right to get into too many details of my new life here, but as I ramp up a new blog in my new role I’ll come back and provide a link to it here.

As the title of this post suggests, this decision wasn’t an easy one.  Here is how I put it in my farewell mail to my colleagues here at Microsoft:

This is definitely a bittersweet decision for me.  To borrow a phrase from SteveB, “I love this company!”  I love our products and services.  I love the people at Microsoft.  I love our passion and drive.  I love our partners.  And I love our customers.  I honestly mean that and am not using the word love lightly.  Working as the community manager for Windows for the past year has given me new insight into just how wonderful our customers are and how much they are really cheering for us to succeed. 

I have all of you, the members of the Windows community, to thank for that last sentence.  You have helped me and many others at the company gain a new appreciation for just how passionate, supportive, and resourceful Windows customers can be.  At times, you’ve also been appropriately critical of us, providing the unvarnished feedback we both deserve and value.  I can’t tell you enough how much it’s meant to me to get to know all of you, learn from you, and share both the good and bad times with you.

It’s the sunset of one part of my life and the sunrise of another.  Thank you again for being part of the last part of my career at one of the best companies in the world.  Soon, I’ll no longer be “Marcus at Microsoft” but rather just “Marcus” — still proud to be part of the broad community of Windows enthusiasts and cheering on the company I love.

Best regards,

Marcus, Windows Community Manager

P.S.  My last official day at Microsoft will be November 16.  Look for announcements in the Clubhouse and on the Clubhouse Space for how things will transition to a new community manager.  If you or someone you know is interested in this role, please check out Marty’s blog post here.

Old School Social Networking

Remember back before we were all so connected on-line?  Before we sent so many tweets, e-mails, instant messages?  Before we updated our status on Windows Live, Facebook, and LinkedIn?  Back then, to be “social” meant actually socializing with people face-to-face.  In person.  Actually talking.

I think we’re seeing a resurgence of this old school, off-line, social interaction between people.  The more on-line technologies bring us together, the more many of us want to take the next step and actually meet some of these smart, fun, fascinating people we’ve found on places like Windows Live, Facebook, and Twitter.  It was this interest by a lot of people in our broader Windows Community that originally sparked the idea behind the local Windows 7 launch parties.

If you didn’t apply to host a launch party, or if you weren’t selected (we had way more applicants than we had capacity to support), we’ve just created another option for you.  It’s the Windows 7 Meetup site, and has everything you need to plan a gathering, invite your guest, and be a successful host.  We’re using some of the “new school, on-line” social tools like Facebook, Meetup, evite, twtvite, and Upcoming to help you with your event.

I hope you’ll use the opportunity of the Windows 7 launch to bring back some of this old school social networking!

– Marcus, Windows Community Manager

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, story, Windows 7, meetup

How Microsoft is Going Green

In keeping with our most recent Clubhouse challenge, I found a great little corner of http://www.microsoft.com that showcases all the different ways Microsoft is going green, both in terms of our products and some of the other things we’re doing as a company.  I’m proud to work at a company that is doing so much to help lessen our direct impact on the environment as well as help our customers hopefully do the same.

You can check out the main Microsoft and the Environment website at http://www.microsoft.com/environment/default.aspx, or click on the click on the graphic below to visit the Environment Spotlight section of the site above to check out the wide spectrum of work we’re doing.

I hope some of what we’re doing can inspire your own green efforts!  Please let me know what ways you’ve found to go green by leaving a comment below.

– Marcus, Windows Community Manager

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, story, Challenge-Green, Windows 7, hohm, energy, data centers, environment

Sorry Kermit, But It Can Be Easy Being Green

Do you all know Kermit the Frog?  Remember his famous song Bein’ Green?  In it Kermit lamented that it wasn’t that easy being green.  But that was before there was a whole new kind of green – what we now refer to as being more environmentally friendly and energy efficient.  That is actually not so hard, especially when it comes to using your PC.

Here are some ways I’ve tried to get greener with my PC use.  I hope you’ll find some of the tips helpful.

Power Settings & Peripherals

Get to know and love your power options settings inside Windows, shown below:

I have set mine to the Energy Star settings where my display turns off after 10 minutes, and my computer goes to sleep after 15 minutes.  I don’t ever totally turn my computer off since I use Windows Media Center to record television and I want my PC to wake up to do this.  I do, however, try to make sure that when I’m not actually using my computer, I turn off my peripherals (monitor, speakers, printer) so that they aren’t using any power, not even a “low-power” mode. 

E-Mail

What’s so green about e-mail?  Well, I use Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Mail to try to go as paperless as I can.  I try to get all of my bills electronically, and prefer to get product offers that way too instead of catalogs and physical mail.  It’s hard to unsubscribe from the snail mail version of some of these, but well worth your time if you can.  The ones I do get I make sure and put in the paper recycling bin and not the trash.

Downloads

The other green things I’ve been doing and really never thought of as green is downloading stuff.  Not just software, but also games (thanks, Xbox!), movies (thanks, Netflix!) and music (thanks, Zune!).  I know that a download takes energy that’s devoted to the server in some data center somewhere and the energy to keep the internet pipe from that data center to my house intact.  But my hypothesis is that downloading is greener than buying the actual thing and dealing with all the packaging that typically accompanies the product.  Not to mention the transportation and manufacturing of the product.  Does anyone know of any stats on how less environmentally impactful downloads are versus physical products?  If so, please leave me a comment.

Good luck as you try to get greener!  If you have your own green tips to share, please consider joining the Clubhouse where Windows enthusiasts share their blog entries.

– Marcus, Windows Community Manager

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, Windows 7, Hotmail, Mail, Windows Live, energy, downloads, e-mail, Challenge-Green, how-to

Host a Windows 7 Launch Party, Get Windows 7 Ultimate for FREE

I hope you’re all as excited as I am about the upcoming launch of Windows 7.  Here’s your chance to be a part of it!  You can apply now to host your very own Windows 7 launch party.  By hosting your own party, you can share your expertise directly with your friends and family.  Plus you get a free “Signature Edition” copy of Windows 7 Ultimate! 

I hope you’ll consider hosting a party.  If you end up doing one, please come back and leave me a comment on how it went!

– Marcus, Windows Community Manager

Bing Goes the Internet

I absolutely love this jingle for Bing:

Enjoy!

– Marcus, Windows Community Manager

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, story, bing

Windows 7 Reviewed by a 5 Year Old

Every week, I spend some time tweeting on our @MSWindows twitter account.  It’s a great way to let people know what’s going on with Windows, as well as hear back from folks about questions they have, cool things they’ve uncovered, or just how they feel.  Today, @CallTechAngel tweeted this to us and it’s so good I just had to blog about it.  Enjoy!

Is that Windows 7 ?!?!

 

– Marcus, Windows Community Manager

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, Windows 7, story, Challenge-Win7Treasure

Happy 10-Year Anniversary, Windows Live Messenger!

Today we’re celebrating ten years of Messenger.  What a decade it has been!  Check out more about the anniversary up on www.messengeris10.com.  I thought I’d share with you a few photos of the “Messenger buddies” we displayed on the Microsoft campus a few years ago.

 

View Full Album

To read more about what Messenger has done for me, check out my previous blog entry:  How Messenger Saved Christmas.

– Marcus, Windows Community Manager

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, story, messenger

What have you told us about Windows?

Image via CrunchBase

It’s happened to me, and I’m sure it’s happened to you.  You’re sitting at your PC and you think “I wish Windows did (or didn’t) do…”.

When you had that thought, I’m curious about what you did next?  Did you tweet your feedback?  Or did you blog about it?  Or perhaps you were using the Windows 7 beta and you clicked the Send Feedback link? 

If you did any of these things (or something else to share your feedback), please let me know by leaving a comment below.  One of the things I plan to work on in the months ahead is to make sure we’re doing a better job of listening to what customers are saying and making sure more people at Microsoft know what you’re all saying.

Thanks for your help and the feedback you have provided and hopefully will continue to provide!

– Marcus, Windows Community Manager

Blurring the Line Between PC and Web

One of the big things at Microsoft is our software-plus-services strategy.  The work being driven by our Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie is a key way we’re going to be thinking about the experience we all have when using our PC.  When we talk to customers today, they already see this as the next logical step in computing, and many people don’t even draw the distinction between what’s on their local PC and what they are doing on the web.  It is just one seamless experience (or at least it should be).

In the Windows group where I work, we’re seeing this software-plus-services strategy factoring into the work we do with the Windows operating system, Windows Live, and Windows Mobile.  I noticed this just the other day when I was exploring the desktop personalization options inside Windows 7 RC.  You’ll notice a little link (highlighted in this illustration):

Clicking on that link takes you to a great Personalize your PC page on the Windows website:

Now this might seem like a fairly small step in the broader world of software-plus-services.  It’s just a link after all.  But to me, it’s an important step.  One of the things people like to do most with their PC is personalize it.  The easier we can make it for anyone to do that personalization, the better off we all are.  The other thing I like about this is the possibilities for partners.  Imagine the ability to showcase themes and gadgets from Microsoft and our partners as part of this page, perhaps fitting in with seasons or events.   What better way to welcome autumn than a new slideshow theme and desktop gadget for the NFL Season? 

I’m not sure what all the future holds for software-plus-services in Windows, but that’s part of the excitement of it all!

What other great examples of software-plus-services have you seen?

– Marcus, Windows Community Manager

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, how-to, desktop, Windows 7, software-plus-services