Communication History in Longhorn

[Emir214]

Here is a short post on Communication History in "Longhorn", a feature often overlooked for two reasons: first, it requires WinFS, the infamous resource hog; and second, it requires using Outlook Express. I created an account just to demonstrate how Communication History works.

The build I used is 4074, the only build I have installed at the moment. Click the links to see the images.

1. The Communication History window shows four messages. Two are in the inbox in Outlook Express. The rest are deleted Outbox messages which were never sent due to a "The TCP/IP connection was unexpectedly terminated by the server" message.

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2. Messages may be stacked according to different characteristics. The pane on the left side shows the available stacks under "Subject" (basically, one stack for each e-mail).

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3. Clicking "Stack all by Subject" leads to this view.

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4. Clicking the last stack leads to this view.

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5. Other ways of stacking messages include "From Address", "To Address", and by clicking "More", "Date Created", "Date Modified", even "CC".

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6. Messages may even be stacked according to "Read", whatever that means.

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7. Messages may also be stacked according to "Priority". How priority can be changed is anyone's guess.

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8. Clicking the "Medium" stack leads to nothing.

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I used the term "Messages", not "E-mails", in describing the contents of the Communication History window. That is because Communication History was also intended to contain instant messages. Whether that was the case in 4074 we will never know, because I could not use the Windows Messenger bundled with it. I could not log-in to the .NET Passport service, even at the time the servers were active. Probably anyone else has better luck than me.

Communication History bit the dust after the reset. Here is an attempt from 2009 to come up with something akin to this feature.

So that was a short trip down memory lane. Perhaps a more experienced user can explore its full potential.

[Maza]

It is good to see you again, Emir214!! Thank you for posting this!!
I would like to address some of the comments in the initial post before sharing something.

6. Messages may even be stacked according to "Read", whatever that means.

This is one method of referring to the read status of the item (i.e., whether it has been read).

7. Messages may also be stacked according to "Priority". How priority can be changed is anyone's guess.

If I had to guess, this is referring to the Importance property of the message; how this is changed depends on the e-mail client that is used.

With that said, I feel obliged to note that one can approximate the concept's functionality with a "Communication History" virtual folder in Windows Vista (!!!):

Communication History is based on the titular concept from pre-reset builds of Windows Vista when it was known by its codename "Longhorn." It is my preferred concept from pre-release builds and, as such, I sought to create a virtual folder that is fundamentally similar. The Communication History virtual folder aggregates items that are recognized as a communication—attachments, calendar entries, contacts, distribution lists, e-mail messages, faxes, journal entries, notes, tasks, and text messages—from indexed locations (particularly Microsoft Outlook) and displays them in a single, unified view. [...] Communication History includes column headers for the Name (i.e., Item Name Display), From name, To name, Date (i.e., Item Date), and Size properties (which is similar to previous concepts) [...]

Conceptual images and videos shared within that post suggest that all forms of communication would be aggregated by Communication History. Once downloaded or created, users can stack the items that appear in this virtual folder by various metadata properties in Windows Vista. Based on some of your examples, the screenshots below depict items stacked by Name, Date, and Read Status properties; the icons have been changed from Details view to Tiles view to display the number of items directly underneath each stack.

Name (replaces Subject as not every item includes a subject):

Date:

Read Status:


This does not even delve into some of the finer details such as narrowing results to e-mail received from a particular contact and then further filtering (or navigating into a stack) based on other properties. All applied filters are treated as physical locations in the breadcrumb hierarchy, to which users can navigate back and forth or even modify in real-time.

I realize that this is not why you posted the topic... but I saw it while browsing the index and I could not resist sharing.

[Emir214]

(snip)

It's amazing what one can do with the "Saved Searches" feature in Vista. Wish we knew about this at the time Vista was released. Perhaps Microsoft was not creative enough to come up with these for the finished product. Thank you for sharing.

[Emir214]

Here is a video of Communication History in build 4074 by Sergey Tkachenko from 2010:

[Maza]

(snip)

It's amazing what one can do with the "Saved Searches" feature in Vista. Wish we knew about this at the time Vista was released. Perhaps Microsoft was not creative enough to come up with these for the finished product. Thank you for sharing.

It is interesting to see Windows 10 try to emulate the "Communication History" and "Saved Search" functionality with the "My People" experience—it can show all communications from a contact and filter on when they were received or sent.

I am obliged to mention two features that were not discussed in the previous post:

• Users can create Search Folders for other queries related to communications (e.g., Unread E-mail) and then place them in the navigation pane of Windows Explorer, similar to quick links in "Longhorn" (depicted below). Additionally, more powerful queries such as Recently Received Attachments are possible.
• If Microsoft Outlook is installed, queries can be performed directly from the context menu (depicted below):

[PeterFalk]

Of course, I posted the same video on my channel

[Maza]

Of course, I posted the same video on my channel

I am grateful that with the exception of grouping stacks, all of the features in that video related to search and organization are possible in Windows Vista. I should note that stacks could be grouped in post-reset Windows Vista Beta.

With that said, I am disappointed that you did not demonstrate some of the finer features such as metadata painting. Your Communication History demonstration was but a flicker compared to the flame of other virtual folders such as Pictures and Videos. One honestly wonders why you opened it at all in the video.

[PeterFalk]

Maza
I do not think I showed almost everything what 4074 is capable of. The video has everything that is associated with sorting photos and documents. If you know any hidden secrets, demonstrate them so that we can all see something new