I have heard that with Windows 7 youhave theability to log on to Windows with your Live account on any computer around the world and have your savedpreferences load. For example you can log on to Windows and your Internet Explorer, Office and Windows setting and preferences would all be muchthe same. Right down to many of the smallest details. Language, program toolbar, desktop icons (except those that don't exist on that system), Office settings, Internet Explorer preferences and settings, program and windows layout etc. This way users can feel familiar with any system around the world.Any way if I am wrong this would be a great feature to have and a great way for it to work.

Well.. That's a Yes anda No... Windows - at least since XP - has had a feature known as "Remote Desktop" - which, if it's set up properly, would allow you to access your computer from pretty much anywhere - with a few caveats. One caveat would be that your computer needs to be setup so you can access it remotely. Plus your firewall needs to be setup to allow it. You may need to set up port forwarding on your router as well. Your system's security policy also needs to be setup to allow it. You would probably be best off having a broadband connection on both ends as well. Remote Desktop by way of dial-up would suck rotten eggs.Remote Desktop is actually a "lite" version of a feature known as Terminal Services - which has been around since Windows NT 4.0. And it's a of multi-user pcAnywhere tool that allows people to access systems remotely. The Remote Desktop utility in Windows XP and beyond only allows ONE connection to that computer at a time while Terminal Services can be configured to allow multiple users to simultaneously access to a server or even a server farm. At present, Windows 7 and Live still operate on the same locally stored profile model found in previous versions of Windows. In other words, your Windows 7 settings and configuration are stored on the local machine. They're not stored on the Windows Live servers. There's also a feature in known as a "Roaming Profile" which kind of works the way you suggest - but that would also be limited to a profile that's stored on a local server. This would be useful for a situation where if a computer should break down, a new system with a corporate image could be dropped into place with a minmum of fuss. The downside to Roaming Profiles is that they take forever to load and save - making for really, really long boot and shutdown times. I believe there was a law suit not too long ago where this issue was at the core of the suit. Something about overtime payments because it took like 45 minutes to boot/shut down. Not the most practical. So, while yes, it might be useful, it likely wouldn't be very practical - yet. When the entire Internet is running at warp speed and everyonehas a gigabit or faster connection, maybe.

What about if your preferences were stored on Windows Live servers and linked with your account and you could customize them.Perhaps you could log on to a Windows Livewebsite and selectsome options:Language.Internet Explorer (toolbars to show and hide, homepage, settings).WLM preferences (load at startup, display at start up, log on automaticallyetc.)Desktop Icons (ones to show if that software exists on that system).Windows layout (where the taskbar is, widgets, etc).Windows Explorer windows (how they function and appear).Office (what office apps show or hide, how they appear).An option to log on as admin or guest withWindows Live ID would be required.Just a few basic personalized things to make the user feel comfortable and "at home" on any system. Nothing too advanced that would require broadband. Just to make the appearance of the PC famaliar.Could be an interesting option, very useful for those who speak a foreign language perhaps.

Yes it would need broadband. Logging in and retrieving even a small amount of extra info, plus the language packs, plus the other stuff that may NOT be present on a computer would require a fairly fat pipe - that is, if you don't want to grow old and gray waiting for it to happen over dial-up. Scenario: You're from Germany and you don't speak much, if any English. You're visiting a friend in the middle of pretty much nowhere. All he has is a dial-up connection to the internet.You log in as sigfried456 @ hotmail.com. The computer dial's up, connects using the guy's credentials. It finds your log in info on live.com. Your friend doesn't have any language packs installed besides the default English. He also doesn't have recovery media or an install disk. The only option would be to download the German language pack and install it. So let's see what all that would entail - besides menus, you're going to need the German language help files. Then there's the language and help files for other apps - like Office that'll need to be downloaded.Since you want to make the guy feel at home, you're going to need his wallpaper. Except he doesn't use any of the default ones that come with Windows. He uses a 5.6 MB high def image of outer space. That'll need to be downloaded.Yep... So it'll take at least an hour at 33.6K to download all of that stuff plus whatever other customizations and settings are store...But hey, why stop there? Why not have access to your documents as well? Now, you've got to make sure that his older copy of Office 2003 can access your files (you've got Office 14). Problem! His copy of Office 2003 doesn't have the same features - the ribbon bar, for example - as yours. So about an hourand a halfafter you started logging in, Windows is ready to show a desktop.So much for a quick check of your email...! And so much for feeling "at home"...