Windows Calendar Tricks (Live & Vista)
I wrote an article a couple of days back about why the Windows Calendar in Vista needs to be replaced with a Live Calendar client, which in all probability will happen. Here is a post that should help you make use of Windows Calendar as an aggregator of your calendar events like birthdays & events of your Facebook account. Also, it will allow you to do a one way sync of your Live Calendar events, which is the basic problem of Windows Calendar as mentioned in the above linked article.
What are we doing:
Getting all the events & birthdays of our Facebook account and the tasks listed on Live Calendar, onto the desktop client.
What we need:
- fbCal – Application for Facebook
- Windows Calendar (Vista)
- Live Calendar
- Some Gulab Jamuns.
Let’s begin, bringing your Facebook reminders to Windows Calendar & Live Calendar is pretty easy:
1. First, you need to install fbCal – Go here.
A pretty simple wizard, once you’ve logged into your Facebook account & installed the application you will be presented with something like this: (Screen-shot)
2. Copy the contents of the first box and open Windows Calendar, as well as Live Calendar.
In Windows Calendar:
3. Hit on the Subscribe button in top bar (screen-shot):
4. Paste the link you copied from the first box in step 2. Hit Next and you will be presented with this window: (screen-shot)
5. Enter the name, select the Update Interval (by default it is No Update); check the 2 boxes and Finish. This is what you will see in Windows Calendar: (Screen-shot)
Click to enlarge.
You can customize the color in which this particular group of events is displayed from the Details Pane on the right. If it is not there then simply press Ctrl+D.
Let’s sync this event with our Live Calendar (calendar.live.com) too.
In Live Calendar:
6. It is the same process, click on Subscribe on the top: (screen-shot)
7. You will then be taken to the settings page, enter the name and same link copied in step 2. Choose the color and press Subscribe to Calendar. This is what your Live Calendar will then show: (screen-shot)
Follow this process for the Events box in fbCal.
Now, let’s bring the events in Live Calendar that you enter.
NOTE: Calendar subscriptions in Live WILL NOT be synced with Windows Calendar by this process.
In Live Calendar, next to the Subscribe button, you will see ‘Share’.
On the next page, replicate the following settings and select the ICS option, from the pop-up copy the URL.
Settings screen-shot:
Pop-Up:
We go back into Windows Calendar and repeat steps 3, 4 & 5. Voila! You now have the events you enter into Live Calendar shown on your Windows Desktop Calendar.
Off-course this will become more meaningful once Windows Calendar is replaced with Live Calendar, so that events you add on the desktop client will reflect on the online client as well.