AWS

Microsoft is cutting the name “Azure” out of the branding for its cloud services on its billing portal. Source: All About Microsoft

Revision Note: V1.0 (May 8, 2012): Advisory published. Summary: Microsoft is releasing a new set of ActiveX kill bits with this advisory. View this security bulletin

Severity Rating: Important Revision Note: V1.0 (May 8, 2012): Bulletin published. Summary: This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The vulnerability could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to a system and runs a specially crafted application. An attacker must have valid logon credentials and be able to log on locally to exploit this vulnerability. View this security bulletin

Severity Rating: Important Revision Note: V1.0 (May 8, 2012): Bulletin published. Summary: This security update resolves one publicly disclosed and one privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Windows. The more severe of these vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker logs on to a system and runs a specially crafted application. View this security bulletin

Severity Rating: Important Revision Note: V1.0 (May 8, 2012): Bulletin published. Summary: This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Office. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Visio file. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. View this security bulletin

Severity Rating: Important Revision Note: V1.0 (May 8, 2012): Bulletin published. Summary: This security update resolves one publicly disclosed and five privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Office file. An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the logged-on user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. View this security bulletin

Severity Rating: Critical Revision Note: V1.0 (May 8, 2012): Bulletin published. Summary: This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Office. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted RTF file. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. View this security bulletin

Why is Microsoft launching a $99 Xbox 360/Kinect/subscription bundle now? Here are a few theories. Source: All About Microsoft

Welcome to the site. Maybe a bug in the counter or the regex for links. I'll take a look.

We thought we would follow up the previous post with an FAQ which is based on the comments and discussions, so Bernardo put this together so things are in one place. Some of these might be introductory for some but since the comments covered a lot of topics, it seemed reasonable to start at the beginning. --Steven What are the codecs needed to play DVD? A codec is software that is used to compress or decompress a digital media file, such as a song or video. MPEG-2 is widely used as the format of digital television signals that are broadcast by terrestrial (over-the-air), cable, and direct broadcast satellite TV systems, and DVD Video. Dolby Digital is the widely used audio standard for terrestrial (ATSC, over-the-air), cable, direct broadcast satellite TV systems, and DVD Video. Dolby audio is also a mandatory format in Blu-ray. How has Windows handled DVD related decoder licensing prior to Windows 8? The issue surrounding the incremental costs of codecs to play DVDs isnt new to Windows. In Windows XP and Windows Vista we addressed it by offering specialized editions, such as Windows Media Center Edition, or codec add-ons to Windows Media Player. DVD playback was not included in Windows Vista Starter, Home Basic, Business, and Windows Vista Enterprise editions. OEMs (PC manufacturers) had the option to license Windows Vista Starter, Home Basic, and Business with DVD where we offered a version that includes the Dolby Digital codec to enable the OS to support DVD playback for a nominal price increase. In Windows 7, we decided to make these codecs available broadly in most editions, except Windows 7 Home Basic (available in some emerging markets) and Windows 7 Starter editions (available for netbooks and some emerging markets). That means royalties related to DVD playback in Windows 7 have been paid broadly, regardless of whether or not the PC has an optical drive. Based on sales and usage, we supplied codecs to a very large number of PCs that were not capable of playing DVDs or simply did not ever play DVDs. Who pays decoder royalties associated with DVD playback on PCs? Typically, media codecs are based on intellectual property (IP), often patents, held by consumer electronics consortiums or companies. The result is that entities who wish to sell products that include these codecs must pay royalties to the IP owners sometimes to a single entity (e.g. Dolby Laboratories), and often through a license agency (e.g. MPEG-LA) who administers licensing for a number of IP holders under specific terms. The rules surrounding who pays these royalties vary by licensing program. According to the MPEG-LA program, the company that ships the end product is responsible for paying. In the case of new PCs with Windows pre-installed, that would be the PC OEMs. The Dolby program for Windows 7 was defined based on an agreement between Dolby and Microsoft where Microsoft has paid Dolby directly for the rights to Dolby Technologies built in Windows 7. Royalties are also paid by ISVs that include those technologies in their applications, even if those applications are bundled on new systems. This means that in many cases the same royalties can be paid multiple times over for a single PC (Microsoft pays some, OEM pays some, ISV pays some). In Windows 8, we will continue to include some technologies licensed by MPEG-LA and Dolby that will be paid by OEMs, but only those that relate to online media consumption (e.g. MPEG-2 container for H.264, Dolby Digital Plus audio) and not those related optical media. The costs associated with those codecs are lower, but significant, compared to optical media playback. Also, Windows 8 apps will be able to use these technologies as part of the Windows 8 Media Foundation APIs at no additional cost, as long as they are not providing optical media and broadcast related functionality. How much does it cost the PC ecosystem to play DVDs? Playing DVDs generally require MPEG-2 video compression and Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio. Even though it is possible to use other formats, the majority of commercial DVDs are encoded using these formats. In order to decode these formats, the playback device needs to be licensed to use these decoders. MPEG-2 decoder costs $2.00 per unit under current MPEG-LA terms. Dolby license is an additional cost that varies by the technology licensed, the type of device, and unit volume. While not related to Windows, Blu Ray would be an additional cost on top of these. So when you add all this up and apply to all Windows PCs, it is an ongoing cost of hundreds of millions of dollars per year to the PC ecosystem, well over a billion dollars over the lifecycle of the operating system and yet by most predictions the majority of PCs will not even be capable of playing DVDs. Why cant I just pay for DVD when I need it? When we have DVD playback capabilities in software broadly like in Windows 7, there is no way to distinguish whether the PC will ever play a DVD disc but still this cost is carried on every PC. While we might think that the best solution is some sort of just in time charge back to Microsoft based on telemetry or an anytime upgrade this is not how the third-party licensing programs work as described above. So there isn't an approach where you buy Windows or a PC and only pay as you go if DVD playback is provided in the box. Once it is distributed as a player, a license is required. Will devices with Windows 8 pre-installed be able to play DVDs out of the box? This is ultimately an OEM choice for what peripherals and software to include in a given system. If a new device has an optical drive, it will most likely include necessary software and licenses making it a seamless experience to the vast majority of customers. Similarly, an add-on optical drive (internal or external) will almost certainly come with DVD playback software unless you intentionally purchase a white label drive (which might be a perfectly reasonable choice if the drive is simply for loading software). In all cases, there are numerous complete third-party applications that provide a broad range of support that is properly licensed. On the other hand, the ecosystem wont have to pay for that software and related royalties on devices such as tablets, small form factor desktops, and laptops that are sold without optical drives. What if I upgrade to Windows 8 on my current Windows 7 PC with a DVD drive? If there is existing third-party playback software the Windows Upgrade Assistant will help determine if this software is compatible with Windows 8 and you will have the option to keep it during the upgrade to Windows 8. Otherwise, you will need to acquire third-party playback software after the upgrade to play DVDs. Alternatively, you can acquire the Windows 8 Media Center Pack or the Windows 8 Pro Pack post upgrade. Both Packs include Windows Media Center, including the ability to play DVDs. Why cant I buy a Windows 8 device that includes Windows Media Center pre-installed? With the evolution of device form factors (tablets, thin and light, etc., none of which have optical drives) and change in media consumption patterns from optical disks and broadcast TV to online (Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, etc.), we concluded that we would no longer make DVD and broadcast TV capabilities available in all Windows editions, simply because the feature applies to a decreasing number of PCs sold. Instead, those capabilities will be available only to customers that want it via Add Windows Feature (aka Windows Anytime Upgrade). This ensures that the costs associated with playing DVDs and watching broadcast TV on PCs only apply to devices that have those capabilities and customers that want it. Are you adding another Windows 8 edition called Windows 8 Pro with Media Center? The Windows 8 Pro edition that includes Media Center will be named and branded Windows 8 Pro. The only difference is that it will include Media Center and you will also find a different string in the system properties where it will say Windows 8 Pro with Media Center. This is not a new edition of Windows 8. Why do I have to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro to get Media Center? Trends in Media Center usage show a decline in the number of customers that use it on a regular basis, starting from a relatively small base as we previously blogged about. When we look at actual usage, most customers using Media Center and playing DVDs used Windows Ultimate and XP Pro/Media Center. We believe those customers will also be interested in the additional features provided in the Windows 8 Pro edition, such as Boot from VHD, Client Hyper-V, etc., especially if they are using Media Center on a PC used for general tasks. Considering the audience and current usage, we conclude the vast majority of Media Center customers upgrading to Windows 8 will be to the Windows 8 Pro edition. In our efforts to keep the Windows 8 editions plan as simple as possible, Windows Media Center is only available on Windows 8 Pro. If you already have Windows 8 Pro and want to add Media Center, you just need to acquire the additional Media Center Pack as an in-place upgrade available via Add Windows Features (formerly Windows Anytime Upgrade). What is the Windows 8 Pro Pack and why does it include Media Center? Windows 8 Pro Pack is an upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro. Like we described above, Media Center is only available on Windows 8 Pro. When you acquire the Pro Pack, we make it a single step that takes you to Windows 8 Pro with Media Center. The cost of the Media Center Pack is essentially built into Pro Pack. Again, this is an attempt to add simplicity to the process of acquiring Media Center. What version of Windows Media Center will be included in Windows 8? The version of Media Center included in Windows 8 is what we shipped in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. It is much consistent with what shipped in Windows 7. Will CableCard and other devices continue to work with Media Center in Windows 8? Yes, there is no change in hardware supported between Windows 7 and Windows 8. Why doesn't Windows Media Player support DVD playback even after installing Media Center? Based on the above discussion, it should be clear that we cannot enable DVD playback all the time in Windows Media Player. Given the ongoing feedback to avoid feature overlap and to avoid the complexity of behavior changing for a previously installed component, we only enable DVD playback in Media Center once it is installed. Source: Windows 8 Blog

Microsoft’s Office 365 hosted app bundle is FISMA-certified, making it potentially more appealing to U.S. government customers. Source: All About Microsoft

If you saw our recent post on the [/b] Video Audio Decoders H.264 VC-1/WMV MP4 Pt 2 DD+ (non-disk) AAC WMA MP3 PCM Format container AVI MPEG-2 TS MP4 ASF M4A ASF MP3 WAV In the process of building a robust platform, we’ve also evaluated which in-box media playback experiences we want to provide. The media landscape has changed quite significantly since the release of Windows 7. Our telemetry data and user research shows us that the vast majority of video consumption on the PC and other mobile devices is coming from online sources such as YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, or any of the other myriad of online and downloadable video services available. In fact, consumption of movies online in the United States will surpass physical video in 2012, according to this recent [url=http://www.isuppli.com/Media-Research/News/Pages/US-Audiences-to-Pay-More-for-Online-Movies-in-2012-than-for-Physical-Videos.aspx" target="_blank">IHS Screen Digest research. On the PC, these online sources are growing much faster than DVD & broadcast TV consumption, which are in sharp decline (no matter how you measure—unique users, minutes, percentage of sources, etc.). Globally, DVD sales have declined significantly year over year and Blu-ray on PCs is losing momentum as well. Watching broadcast TV on PCs, while incredibly important for some of you, has also declined steadily. These traditional media playback scenarios, optical media and broadcast TV, require a specialized set of decoders (and hardware) that cost a significant amount in royalties. With these decoders built into most Windows 7 editions, the industry has faced those costs broadly, regardless of whether or not a given device includes an optical drive or TV tuner. Our partners have shared clear concerns over the costs associated with codec licensing for traditional media playback, especially as Windows 8 enables an unprecedented variety of form factors. Windows has addressed these concerns in the past by limiting availability of these experiences to specialized “media” or “premium” editions. At the same time, we also heard clear feedback from customers and partners that led to our much simplified Windows Media Center[/b] available to Windows 8 customers via the Add Features to Windows 8 control panel (formerly known as Windows Anytime Upgrade). This ensures that customers who are interested in Media Center have a convenient way to get it. Windows Media Player will continue to be available in all editions, but without DVD playback support. For optical discs playback on new Windows 8 devices, we are going to rely on the many quality solutions on the market, which provide great experiences for both DVD and Blu-ray. We will offer two ways to acquire Windows Media Center: Starting point [/b]OEM pre-installed, clean install, or upgrade [/b] End-user upgrade [/b]Acquire & install via Add Features to Windows 8 [/b] Ending point [/b] Windows 8 Pro [/b] > Windows 8[/b] Media Center Pack[/b] > [/b] Windows 8 Pro [/b]with Media Center [/i] [/b] Windows 8 [/b] > Windows 8 Pro Pack[/b] > Windows 8 Pro is designed to help tech enthusiasts obtain a broader set of Windows 8 technologies. Acquiring either the Windows 8 Media Center Pack or the Windows 8 Pro Pack gives you Media Center, including DVD playback (in Media Center, not in Media Player), broadcast TV recording and playback (DBV-T/S, ISDB-S/T, DMBH, and ATSC), and VOB file playback. Pricing for these Packs, as well as retail versions of Windows 8, will be announced closer to the release date. To give you some indication of Media Center Pack pricing, it will be in line with marginal costs. We are incredibly excited about the future of entertainment in Windows. We hope you have had a chance to try some of the new Windows 8 Metro style media applications such as the Video and the Music apps. These apps embody the characteristics that make Windows 8 great for both end users and developers, and are included with the Consumer Preview install, ensuring a great local media playback experience on Windows 8. There is much more to come, as developers embrace the power of the Windows 8 platform to delight media enthusiasts around the world! --Bernardo and Linda Source: Windows 8 Blog

Xamarin chief Miguel de Icaza answers five questions about XobotOS, the skunkworks project to port Android to C#. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft is inviting Windows Phone developers to a developer conference in late June. Could both the Tango and Apollo operating systems be on the agenda? Source: All About Microsoft

Windows Live was first announced on November 1st, 2005, and in our press release we described it as “a set of personal Internet services and software designed to bring together in one place all of the relationships, information and interests people care about most, with more safety and security features across their PC, devices and the Web.” Since that time, we’ve been hard at work building software and services that deliver that promise, a foundation that we could rely on as we designed new versions of Windows as well as other Microsoft products. We’ve received lots of feedback about features and ways we could improve the software and services. And we’ve also received some feedback about the naming and marketing we have done. Windows 8 is a chance for us to act on that feedback and reintroduce you to the broadest and most widely used collection of services on the Internet. Today, Windows Live services are used by over 500 million people every month. There has been a lot of discussion recently on what constitutes an “active” user of a service for the purposes of this post this term refers to people who use Hotmail, SkyDrive, or Messenger at least once a month, meaning they send email, use instant messaging, or upload files to SkyDrive. These services run at massive scale – Hotmail is the world’s leading web email service, with 350 million active users and 105 petabytes of storage Messenger is the world’s leading instant messaging service, with 300 million active users, and SkyDrive has over 130 million users with 17 million of these uploading files every month. Windows Live Essentials applications are among the most popular applications in their categories on Windows – including Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Movie Maker, leading in photo management and video editing, and Windows Live Mail, second only to Microsoft Outlook in mail apps. While these results are certainly noteworthy, they still did not meet our expectations of a truly connected experience. Windows Live services and apps were built on versions of Windows that were simply not designed to be connected to a cloud service for anything other than updates, and as a result, they felt “bolted on” to the experience. This created some amount of customer confusion, which is noted in several reviews and editorials. The names we used to describe our products added to that complexity: we used “Windows Live" to refer to software for your PC (Windows Live Essentials), a suite of web-based services (Hotmail, SkyDrive, and Messenger), your account relationship with Microsoft (Windows Live ID), and a host of other offers. Windows 8 provides us with an opportunity to reimagine our approach to services and software and to design them to be a seamless part of the Windows experience, accessible in Windows desktop apps, Windows Metro style apps, standard web browsers, and on mobile devices. Today the expectation is that a modern device comes with services as well as apps for communication and sharing. There is no “separate brand” to think about or a separate service to install – it is all included when you turn on your PC for the first time. We also believe that you should have a choice and control over what services you use, what information you share (with others and Microsoft), and how you access your services. That’s why using any of these services is optional, and you’re welcome to mix and match them with the software and services you choose. Download this video to view it in your favorite media player: High quality MP4 | Lower quality MP4 Microsoft account is our identity service for individuals who use Microsoft products and services. You can use your Microsoft account to sign in to your Windows 8 PC, and then use the same account to check your billing for services like Xbox LIVE, Zune, and the Windows 8 app store. And your Microsoft account is connected to your Xbox gamer tag so you can track high scores and games. You can sign up for a Microsoft account with any email address, and provide additional verification information including your mobile phone number and a list of your trusted devices. We’ll be rolling out the change in nomenclature from Windows Live ID to Microsoft account over the next several months across our product line. There are still some areas we continue to work on such as migrating your account (credit cards and purchase history) from one market (currency) to another if you’ve connected your account to services such as Xbox LIVE. When you connect a device or service to your Microsoft account, you’re automatically provisioned with a set of cloud services, including a contact list, calendar, inbox, instant messaging, and cloud storage. Of course these services connect to your PC and your Windows Phone, they’re accessible from any web browser, and they’re accessible to different apps if the developer of the app implements our API. Because these services are a part of your Microsoft account, they are shared across all Microsoft products and services. For example your contact list is shared across Windows Phone, Windows 8, Hotmail, Messenger, and SkyDrive, so when you add a contact in one place, it shows up in the cloud and on all of your other devices and services. Windows 8 also uses cloud services to roam settings across your PCs so you can log in to a new PC and pick up right where you left off. Along with a Microsoft account, everyone gets a SkyDrive, which is cloud storage for documents, photos, your phone’s camera roll, and settings from your PC. SkyDrive powers the Windows Phone camera roll, so every picture you take is automatically copied to your cloud photo album. SkyDrive makes it easy for you to share and collaborate on Office documents, either using Office Web Apps or Office client applications. And developers can use the SkyDrive APIs to provide an even deeper level of roaming and support in their apps if they choose. Through the innovative features of Contracts and File Pickers in Windows 8, you can access your SkyDrive data from within any Windows 8 Metro style app. We recognize that customers will have services from many different companies, particularly for social networking and communications. So we let you connect your Microsoft account to other services. Just like our contact list, your connected services are stored in the cloud and roam across your devices. This means that if you connect your Microsoft account to LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter, your contacts from these networks show up in your contact list, so you can send them email from your PC or call them from your phone. We also support 3rd party developers through the Live SDK, allowing developers to cloud-power their Metro style apps, or apps and services for other platforms. Our APIs use standard and familiar protocols including OAuth 2.0, JSON, REST, Exchange ActiveSync, and XMPP. Windows 8 is designed to be cloud-powered, so it comes with Metro style apps for communication, sharing, scheduling, photos, and videos. Preview versions of these apps come installed with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and include Mail, Calendar, People, Photos, Messaging, and SkyDrive. They’re all powered by cloud services, so when you sign in with your Microsoft account, your email, calendar, contacts, messages, and shared photo albums show up right in your apps. For customers who have shared family PCs, family safety is now a feature of Windows accounts and no longer requires a separate download. As we’ve discussed before, Windows Phone comes with the same set of apps, powered by cloud services, and connected to your Microsoft account. For customers who use Windows 7, we have a set of Windows desktop apps, including Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mail, Messenger, Family Safety, and our recently released SkyDrive for the Windows desktop. Source: Windows 8 Blog

A Barnes & Noble filing about deliverables coming as a result of its new Microsoft partnership is chock-full of references to Windows Phone. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft and startup Twilio are offering developers a way to incorporate voice and text messaging into their Windows Azure-hosted apps. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft has redesigned its Bing results page to make it less cluttered. Source: All About Microsoft

Fast and fluid animations bring apps to life. In Windows 8 Consumer Preview, you will notice that animations are an integral part of the user experience. When you log in to your PC, the items in the Start menu animate in. When you launch an immersive app or zoom into the Start menu, the experience is enriched with a smooth animation. Animations can tell the user what happened as a result of a specific action. This visual feedback instills user confidence in the app’s responsiveness. Even a simple addition or deletion of an item in a list can be made fluid, modern, and informative using a subtle animation (as seen in Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. [/b] Download this video to view it in your favorite media player: [url=http://media.ch9.ms/ch9/659d/0fc45493-3b60-4a49-82c5-014fe8f8659d/FastAndFluid_high.mp4">High quality MP4 | [url=http://media.ch9.ms/ch9/659d/0fc45493-3b60-4a49-82c5-014fe8f8659d/FastAndFluid.mp4">Lower quality MP4 In Windows 8, animations are a key component of the Metro style personality and you can bring this personality to your own apps! Here is what’s in this blog post: A brief overview of the animation engine How to get started using the Animation Library Custom animations and how to take advantage of the animation engine improvements Tips ‘n tricks for incorporating animations in your Metro style apps. Independent animation A big part of the Windows 8 experience is smooth and glitch-free animations, which are achieved through a capability called independent animation. An independent animation is an animation that runs independently from thread running the core UI logic. (A dependent animation runs on the UI thread.) In Windows 8 many of the animated elements are composed by a composition engine that runs on a separate thread. The engine’s work is offloaded from the CPU to the GPU. Moving composition to a non-UI thread means that the animation won’t jitter or be blocked by the app working on the UI thread (such as JavaScript code execution or sync operations). The GPU hardware is optimized for delivering visually rich graphics and makes use of video memory resources. Using the GPU greatly improves performance, allowing animations to run at a smooth and consistent frame rate. You don’t need additional markup to make your animation take advantage of the independent animation capability. The system determines when it is possible to compose the animation independently. To make animations in your apps performant and smooth, you need to follow the independent Animation Library[/size] The [url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh465165.aspx" target="_blank">Animation Library is a suite of Metro style animations that has been built specifically to take advantage of the platform’s independent animation capability. These animations are used throughout Windows UI and are also available for your Metro app. Think of this library as providing a palette of animations that do the right thing for you and are already designed to be fast and fluid. As app developers ourselves, we love this feature because we don’t have to spend time creating animations that have the Windows 8 look and feel. Simply use the Animation Library and your app now is part of the Windows experience. This library animates the Windows UI itself. These animations are clean and purposeful. We put a lot of attention into getting the timing and animation curves exactly right so that the user gets fast and fluid feedback when they interact with the Windows UI. So when designing animations in your app, we recommend that you first look at the Animation Library to find the best animation that fits your need. It doesn’t matter if you are using HTML or XAML, the Animation Library provides you with a way to use the right animations and ensures that your UI will be fast and fluid. Let’s look at some examples. JavaScript example The JavaScript/HTML Personality Library is built with CSS3 animations and transitions. These animations are used for app navigation, content transitions and Windows 8 controls. A simple yet compelling animation is the [url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br212672.aspx" target="_blank">EnterPage animation. Use it when displaying content for the first time or transitioning between pages in a running app. This example demonstrates how you can use this simple API in your app. HTML JavaScript XAML example In XAML, the built-in Animation Library entails two concepts: Theme transitions and theme animations. Theme transitions are typically used to animate visuals on the screen as they are loading, unloading or changing location on the screen. XAML layout system triggers these built-in animations in response to changes in the layout of the page. These layout triggers include: Adding a UIElement to the page or visual tree. Removing a UIElement from the page or visual tree. Updating the layout properties of an existing UIElement on the page or visual tree that causes its location or size to be updated. A particular theme transition may respond to any or all of the layout triggers. The EntranceThemeTransition responds to trigger #1 and animates UIElements as they are added to the page or visual tree. In the next example, all of Grid’s children are animated using EntranceThemeTransition. Theme animations are built-in animations that are typically run on user interaction and you must trigger them to run. The easiest way to run a theme animation is to call the Begin method on Storyboard class. If you are familiar with the Begin[/b] method: XAML Code Custom animations As powerful as the Animation Library is, it can’t cover all your scenarios. For such cases, you can build your own custom animations that the system runs independently (see [url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh849087.aspx" target="_blank">Animating for design guidance on building your own animations). This is where you need to be more careful about how to build an animation so that it doesn’t end up running on the UI thread. You can still use dependent animations in your app. We encourage you to follow the independent animation guidance for custom animations but if your scenario requires animations that cannot be independently animated then the animation can still be run dependently. The examples here demonstrate the use of a 3D non-affine independent animation that is not in the Animation Library. JavaScript For JavaScript apps, you can access the independent animation capability for custom animations via the CSS3 [url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh441191.aspx" target="_blank">Animation and [url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh453384.aspx" target="_blank">Transition syntax newly introduced to the Microsoft web platform in IE10. Independent animation supports only properties that don’t require re-layout or re-rendering. That means, independent animation for JavaScript apps is applicable to and supported only for CSS Animations/Transitions that target CSS3 2D and 3D [url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh453377.aspx" target="_blank">Transforms or [url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/ff972268.aspx" target="_blank">Opacity. Animations of other CSS properties run dependently on the UI thread. Example of HTML custom animation The example here demonstrates a simple CSS 3D flip. HTML XAML For XAML apps, a specific subset of properties are supported independently (you can find more info in the Windows 8 Developer Center). These properties include canvas positioning, opacity, render transforms, projections, clips and color. Animating any property, besides the list we just looked at, results in a dependent animation. Meaning, the animation runs on the UI thread and thus will be at a risk of glitching. To encourage the development of fast and fluid UI XAML runs only independent animations unless you explicitly enable dependent animations. If you want to run a dependent animation, you can use the EnableDependentAnimation property on Timeline. There’s also a global static AllowDependentAnimations property that you can set to false to disable all dependent animations in your app. Example of a XAML custom animation The next example shows how to animate properties on PlaneProjection that the system runs independently. The animation concepts and syntax are exactly the same as in other XAML technologies but have been enhanced in Windows 8 to run independently, resulting in better performance characteristics for apps. Best practices for independent animations As with all systems, there are some limitations for independent animation. These limitations are different for the HTML and XAML platforms. In general you get independent animations except for these cases: Animating property that affects layout: These properties, such as CSS Width, trigger re-layout and are not supported independently. State of the animating element doesn’t follow independent animation guidelines: Independent animations that don’t follow the guidelines (see [url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh849087.aspx">Animating post) are not supported by the system. Insufficient system resources: If the system doesn’t have sufficient resources (e.g. Video memory) then the animation falls back to dependent composition. Here are a few guidelines for independent animations. JavaScript Avoid infinite animation: When using independent animations, the GPU is allocating video memory. In CSS it is possible to specify –ms-iteration-count: infinite. When you set this property value, the specified animation will continue to run forever. This means your app holds on to the animating element’s video memory until you stop the animation. To stop an infinite animation, you can remove the –ms-animation-name value or change the animating element’s display property to be display: none. Don’t toggle the CSS Visibility property: When you set an independent animating element to visibility: hidden and then back to visibility: visible, this element is no longer independent. The animation continues but now it is composed on the UI thread. Place independent animating elements on top: Because independent composition uses your GPU, there is a limit to how much your system can compose independently. If your independent animation is behind other UI elements, those UI elements on top will also be composed independently. By doing this you are unnecessarily consuming video memory. To avoid this problem, make sure to have all independent animations on top of all other UI elements. If your independent animation is very low in the stack, it is at risk of falling back to a dependent animation. You can have your independent animations on top by: Giving your independent animating elements a high z-index. Using non-negative z-indexes for independently animating elements. Not overlapping your independent animation with other elements. [*]Don’t use large surfaces and too many independent animations: Similar to making placing your independent animation on top, be aware of how big your animating element is and how many you are animating at one time. Independent animations are limited by the system’s GPU. If you go beyond this limit, your animations fall back to the dependent UI thread. If you are noticing your animations not being smooth, you can use the IsIndependentlyComposed API to query your element. [*]Use IsIndependentlyComposed API: You can use this API to determine if an HTML element is being composed independently from the UI thread. This property will return true for independentl animating elements, subscrollers and elements that overlap and independently animating element. XAML Scale the elements for Height and Width animations: Animating Height and/or Width properties of UIElement results in a dependent animation because these properties require layout changes which can only be done on the UI thread. To have a similar effect of animating Height or Width, you can animate the Scale of the control. ScaleTransform are animated independently, this approach provides for a better frame rate. Don’t animate cache content: If you set the CacheMode property (UIElement.CacheMode) of an element to BitmapCache, then all animations in the visual sub-tree are run dependently. This is because we have to recreate the entire cache in every frame. The solution is to simply not animate cached content. Don’t use infinite animations of Progress controls: ProgressRing and ProgressBar have infinite animations that can continue on running even if the control is not visible in the page, which may prevent the CPU from going into low power or idle mode. We recommend that you set ProgressRing.IsActive and ProgressBar.IsIndeterminate properties to false when you’re not showing the respective controls. In closing We are excited about the fast and fluid user experiences that independent animation enables for Windows 8 apps. We hope that you find the Animation Library and the support for custom animations that run independently of the UI thread useful when you create compelling user experiences in your Metro style apps for Windows 8. -- Angelina Gambo and Hamid Mahmood Program Managers, Windows View the full article

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