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Back in October during PDC2008, I highlighted the Windows + Windows Live relationship. Specifically, I called out how Windows + Windows Live will complete the Windows PC experience with Windows Live Essentials. Now that people can experience the relationship first-hand with Windows Live Essentials today – I thought I’d re-approach and discuss the topic in a little more detail.
Today, users are increasingly expecting that their PC (and their OS) allow them to do things on their desktop that have an online component such as e-mail. This is where Windows Live Essentials comes in. For example, when you’re at home on your laptop you can use Windows Live Mail, but when you’re on the go you can access that same mail from any computer with an Internet connection by going to Windows Live Hotmail. Windows Live Essentials combines what you do on the PC with what you do on the Web. That’s the benefit of software + services.
Many of the Windows Live programs within Windows Live Essentials serve as a “bridge” to the Windows Live services:
Windows Live Essentials extends beyond Windows Live as well. Windows Live Writer is capable of publishing blog posts to most major blogging services, not just Windows Live Spaces. As a matter a fact - I use Windows Live Writer to publish all my blog posts here on this blog, which is powered by Telligents’ Community Server. Windows Live Mail supports POP3 and IMAP allowing for multiple e-mail accounts from a variety of e-mail providers including Gmail. And Windows Live Photo Gallery supports custom plug-ins for uploading photos to a variety of photo sharing websites (check out this awesome plug-in for uploading photos to Facebook).
For Windows Live Essentials, we have introduced 3 programs as the successors to programs that were introduced in Windows Vista:
We made this change because we learned that many of the end-user experiences need to be updated more frequently. With Windows Live Essentials, we feel we are in a better position to innovate on these programs and enhance your experience as a PC user and at a much quicker rate - as they are outside of the Windows OS.
Windows Live Essentials doesn’t just consist of the above 3 programs, it also includes Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Toolbar, and Windows Live Family Safety adding significant value to PC users through its integrated and powerful features.
Windows Live Essentials today are free, key applications that make it easy to manage multiple e-mail accounts, edit and share photos, chat with IM for PC users and available today for you to download at download.live.com (available for Windows Vista, Windows XP, and the Windows 7 Beta).
In the coming weeks, I plan to dive deeper into many of these integrated and powerful features (many of which I use myself) that I that I hope you will enjoy.
Should I give my honest true opinion even if it is considered trolling and ranting? Windows Live Essentials doesn't have the same quality as the Windows 7 apps. Apps like Windows Live Mail are slow, nowhere near the snappiness and loading speed of Outlook Express, also lacking in features (iCalendar import/export), and not even a way to view your contacts standalone. Windows Live Photo Gallery cannot export unlike XP's Picture Viewer. Messenger 9 (2009) also dropped so many features from version 8.5 (2008). How do you call them upgrades if we lose functionality and features? I've been giving feedback on Windows Live blogs and the feedback.live.com website since Wave 2 for several minor bugs but to no avail. Every new release is slower and changes UI around without adding sufficient features. I expect more from Windows Live even if its free. Performane of Windows Live Essentials is the most disappointing aspect for me. I use a Core 2 Duo based computer with a fresh Windows install, yet it starts up slow and feels sluggish.
Windows Live Movie Maker
At one time I think MS has really learnt something and provides a set of useful services and apps. But then there is Windows Live Movie Maker. The current "Beta" is of horrible quality, it's more like a prototype. And lacks both features and reliability. Worst thing is that every time I check for a new version, wlsetup-web.exe tells me Movie Maker gets updated. It then re-downloads and re-installs all these apps. And in the end I get the same crappy 2008 Beta of Movie Maker.
I'm using these Live-things already some time, especially the messenger and livemail.
But then i wanted to use the live-movie maker to create a short trickfilm and I was very disappointed. I used the old one (without "live") quite some time on XP, but now i'm using Windows7 and thought i just download the live movie maker and everything will be fine. But the live movie maker has nearly no features. no music supporting etc.etc.
mfg brio
Brandon, I couldn't agree more. The tools that Microsoft is providing in the Windows Live and Office Live for free are amazing. I was amazed by the features built in the Windows Live Writer. You guys thought of (almost) everything. It even includes full support for Wordpress!!!!
Microsoft Office Live Workspace provides seamless integration with Microsoft Office 2007 which our research group uses extensively for creating charts, graphs and pivot tables etc. However, unlike Google Apps, Live Workspace currently doesn't support custom domains, so you end up using hotmail.com accounts. Which is not very professional when you are exchanging data with other groups. But once Live Workspace offers custom domain and inline editing for spreadsheets and documents we will seriously investigate it as an alternative to Google Apps.
7flavor, your honest opinion was definitely not trolling or ranting in any way. Keep feedback and comments like this coming. Let me respond to a few parts of your comment...
Would you mind describing which features you say were in Windows Live Messenger 8.5 that were removed in Windows Live Messenger 9? What functionality was lost?
I also unfortunately am not experiencing the slowness you say you experience with Windows Live Mail - as I use it as my default e-mail client on all my PCs (I've got a variety of them too). However I am passing this feedback on. I do believe very strongly Windows Live Mail is a far superior and ultimate excellent successor to Outlook Express - which I could barely stand using.
In regards to contacts and Windows Live Mail - you can certainly view your contacts standalone by clicking the Contacts button (lower left hand side). Even if you have a POP3 account and DON'T use Windows Live Hotmail or sign-in you can still access your POP3 contacts. I tested this scenario out myself this evening to see if folks using Windows Live Mail for e-mail accounts other than Hotmail can still access their contacts.
Also: not sure if this is the exact functionality you are looking for but Windows Live Photo Gallery *does* support exporting images in a way. If you are viewing an image, you can click on File and choose "Make a copy...". This essentially exports a copy of that image to anywhere you want it to go on your PC. I use this quite a bit when editing and tweaking images.
anotherjohnboy and brio, we are committed to making Windows Live Movie Maker into a very useful application. See this blog post from JP Wollersheim about Windows Live Movie Maker:
windowslivewire.spaces.live.com/.../cns!2F7EB29B42641D59!35518.entry
I'll be talking more about Windows Live Movie Maker soon.
For WLM removals, it can get to a long list (ability to adjust webcam settings during a video call, status options gone, Sharing Folders, the Send button, some of games I could play on 8.5 have disappeared, "Share backgrounds" is gone, the tabs integration in the Main window is gone along with some tabs as well, integration of Windows Live Contacts and Windows Contacts (you even blogged about this nice to have feature). Where's the "Go to my space" button? I'm tired of listing removed features, that's Microsoft's job. Did I mention performance?
And viewing contacts standalone means without launching Windows Live Mail. Because WLMail itself is slow, accessing contacts is doubly slow compared to how fast Windows Address Book used to load. By a simple tweak, I could share my Windows Address Book with Outlook, that seems to be gone as well. Users have been screaming for long for integration between the online contacts and the offline apps they use, Windows Contacts, Outlook and everything, and making it sync with the phone, can't you give us that? With the cloud craze, Microsoft is breaking all integration between offline and online contacts and between 2 desktop contact apps and the phone sync as well.
Export AFAIK in my years of computing experience is saving while converting to different file format, not a simple Save As.
As a matter of fact, check out the general response here of lots of ppl: stylemywords.com/.../windows-live-messenger-2009-sucks
I’m still very disappointed that Windows Live has gone to a mostly icon-less interface. The icons added a certain friendliness to the interface as well as providing better recognition of buttons. In Windows Live Mail the different accounts being in large text takes up more room than is necessary and makes the interface seem awkward. Changing the color of the various accounts changes the text color and makes the text harder to read. It was much better with the folder icons changing color with the text staying a black and at a consistent size. The choices for the overall window colors (Default Color, Windows Color, etc) are barely noticeable when they are applied. Even black looks like a very light gray, and only at the top with the rest of the app remaining white. I really don’t know the reasoning behind making these changes, but they negatively impact overall usability and simply don’t look good. Until the UI gets a more functional and aesthetically pleasing look to it, I’m going to stick with the 2008 version of Windows Live.
Dear Brandon
you wrote:
My question is:
Where is the capabaility gone of running these programs in multiple languages on the same computer (when one is using the Ultimate edition of Vista or Seven)? Where are the language packs like for Internet Explorer?
For me these successors are not fully qualified replacements of their predecessors. What was the idea when MS decided offering the language packs for the OS and the integrated programs such as IE, Mail and so on, but not for Windows Live anymore?
Thanks for explaining...
thanks