I wanted to wish you all my US readers a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday.    Thanksgiving means being with your family and that means that there is an increase in highway traffic with many motorists traveling to unfamiliar locations.

I did a search for accident black spot areas on the web and aggregated all the data I found together.  It is far from complete but it is a good start.  

• Accident Black Spot Map for ST09
• Accident Black Spot Map for ST08
• Accident Black Spot POI CSV file (for importing into any version)

Drive Safe!

Microsoft Help and Support published a new Knowledge Base article to help any ST2008 users who are unable to download the monthly construction updates.

You may receive the message “Construction information for routes could not be downloaded. Try downloading new construction information again later”.

The fix requires you to run a REG file which is linked to on the KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958844

Note:  This only affects Streets & Trips 2008 users.

This week the Microsoft Store opened up and allows you to purchase Microsoft software online and just download the products.

This is something that folks have been requesting for ages.  You can buy a full retail version with the product key without the need to leave your desk!  Talk about convenience.

I haven’t tried it yet but it would make sense to be able to get the key without having to download the software.  I know thousands of you have already downloaded the 60-day free trail from the Microsoft Download site – no need to download it again….just give me the key!

I’d be really interested to hear how this works.  If anyone tries this please let me know in the comments.

By the way,  you can also purchase AutoRoute 2007 and MapPoint is coming soon…