Before I try and make some friends on Windows Live via my new persona, I should really customize my HOME page. It’s still in its default state, so let’s sort it out!
1. Go to http://home.live.com and after inputting your Live ID you will be taken to your new HOME page. This page is private and only you can view it. It’s YOUR HOME page and can be thought of as the door to everything else available on WINDOWS LIVE.
At the top inside the header you will see the following, your WEATHER which shows a weather graphic depicting the weather at the present time, your TOWN, CITY and COUNTRY where you live and the present temperature, PRIVATE MESSAGES so that you can go and view any private messages that you may have received, PEOPLE THAT YOU MIGHT KNOW which is based on the people in your NETWORK, and finally YOUR CALENDAR.
This is followed by several tabs running across the top consisting of HOME,PROFILE,PEOPLE,MAIL,PHOTOS,MORE and MSN. These tags are all clickable and MORE and MSN also contain drop down lists which contain some more choices. There is a SEARCH bar which allows you to search in either PEOPLE or the WEB. At the far right of the HEADER area is your NAME and your PICTURE or AVATAR and underneath that is a HOME PAGE photo area where you can display up to 4 photo’s to help make your HOME PAGE more personal to you.
In the main area of your HOME page is MAIL which shows any mail that you have received in your HOTMAIL account, and below that WHAT’S NEW WITH YOUR NETWORK which is obviously empty at this time as we have no one in our NETWORK. At the right hand side of our HOME page there is your name at the top with your chosen message, and directly above that is OPTIONS and HELP. In order to CUSTOMIZE our HOME page we need to click on the small black arrow to the right of OPTIONS.
2. In this OPTIONS drop down list we can change the HEADER THEME of not only this HOME page but also other pages on WINDOWS LIVE except your SPACES page and EVENTS. So click on top of each theme to see just how they look.
3. If you click on MORE THEMES then you can also choose some DYNAMIC THEMES which change with your local weather conditions and also the time of day! For example, if it is night time where you live and snowing outside, then your chosen DYNAMIC THEME will change to reflect this. Once you are quite happy with your new THEME then just click on SAVE.
4, The next choice in the drop down list is CUSTOMIZE THIS PAGE. So click on that to be taken to the CUSTOMIZE WINDOWS LIVE HOME page. The first choice on this page is WEATHER and this allows you to change your location, for example, you might be travelling around and need to know the weather on your HOME page for where you will be staying or you may have moved home. You can also choose whether or not to show the temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit.
5. Next choice is PAGE LAYOUT, and this allows you to change the order that the present MODULES display inside your HOME page, so for example, if you prefer to have WHAT’S NEW WITH YOUR NETWORK at the top of the page above MAIL, then just click on WHAT’S’ NEW WITH YOUR NETWORK, then click on the UP arrow at the right hand side and it will then be moved above the MAIL area in the main column.
6. Similarly, you can move the items in the right hand column up or down, so if you prefer to have Windows Live team blog at the top of this list, then just click on it and then click on the up arrow to move it above the MSN choice.
7. The next choice is NUMBER OF ITEMS SHOWN and the first choice refers to how many PHOTOS you would like to display at the top of your HOME page. You can choose between HIDE ALL, JUST ONE photo or UP TO FOUR photos so let’s choose some photos to display on our HOME page.
8. Click on ADD OR REMOVE PHOTOS. You will then be in taken to this screen where you can select pictures either from your computer or from a PHOTO ALBUM already on WINDOWS LIVE. Once you have chosen your photo’s then just click on UPLOAD and the pictures will then be uploaded to be displayed as a rolling slideshow on your HOME page. I chose to have 4 on display in my HOME page.
9. The next choice is how many E MAIL messages you would like to be visible on your HOME page, and you can choose between having just 1, 3, 5 or 10 showing so just click on the number that you would like.
10. The final choice is concerning how many WHAT’S NEW UPDATES you want to display on your HOME page. Here you can choose between 5,10,15 or 20 updates being displayed from your WHATS NEW WITH YOUR NETWORK updates so just select how many you would like to see displayed.
11. Once you are completely happy with your CUSTOMIZE settings for your HOME page, just click on SAVE at the bottom of this page then just click on HOME to see the results!
And that’s it! We have customized our HOME page and now we are ready to go and find some friends on WINDOW LIVE!
Take a look at my new CUSTOMIZED HOME PAGE and see how I have changed things around. Try different things out until you are happy with your HOME page.
Next we are going in search of some new WINDOWS LIVE friends!
TG 
