ooVoo offline installer for Windows

While searching for an alternative to Skype, I've discovered ooVoo - rather new software which provides for free the capabilities, that are not available in Skype: group videochat, video call recording, offline messages, etc.

For some unknown reason ooVoo web-installer hangs on my PC (Windows 7 x64 SP1), and there is no explicit link on the official site with another version of the installer.

After short googling I wasn't able to find the solution, but I've encountered the link to the offline full installer of ooVoo at the forum: http://cdn01.oovoo.com/download/ooVooSetup.msi (version 3.5.8.22).

I wonder why this handy installer isn't provided at the official site.

Anyway I've installed ooVoo, and it works rather good. I had no chance to test the group videochat and video call recording, but offline message are supported.

So it's time to get rid of Skype! :)

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Windows Live Essentials enable Windows Automatic Updating

I had been running Windows 7 (x64 SP1) with disabled Automatic Updating until I decided to have a look at Windows Live Writer, which is a part of Windows Live Essentials.

In short: Windows Live Writer is the same bloatware as it used to be, it still can't display raw HTML nicely, so I continue to rely on Chrysanth WebStory.

Moreover, Windows Live Essentials seem to install several updates and enable Automatic Updating without even letting you know or bothering to ask you. It looks like a normal Microsoft's practice to think of its users as dummies pushing OK buttons. Fie!

Next day my notebook crashed several times during startup - probably because the updater wasn't able to connect to a Microsoft server. After that everything looked normal except for the hardly noticeable slowdown of the system...

And today I've noticed that Skype (which is grabbed by Microsoft) just became a bit better - it has updated itself! WTF?!

I was very suprised to discover that Automatic Updating is now enabled, and Skype is like another system component from now on... The time has come to try its alternatives!

Luckily I keep images with the stable OS states, which save me a bunch of time after Windows happen to put a spell on me :)

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