Announcing the Windows Live suite with unified installer

Posted by:
Brandon LeBlanc
12:05 PM Wednesday
Sep 05, 2007
28 Comments

Today Chris Jones, Corporate Vice President of Windows Live Experience Program Management, has announced the availability today of new betas for the new wave of Windows Live applications. These new beta releases showcase Microsoft's goal in releasing the new Windows Live applications together. These new betas are being released with a brand new unified installer for the Windows Live suite. Users will be able to download a single installer for the Windows Live suite in which they can pick and choose the specific Windows Live apps they want to install on their PC's.

To showcase the new installer for the Windows Live Suite - I've got a video demo on how the new installer works. Check it out:

Video: Windows Live Installer Demo

The unified installer is an impressive addition to Windows Live and is a much easier install experience for the user.

Shipping with today's betas is also the broad availability of the new Windows Live Photo Gallery. Previously, Windows Live Photo Gallery was a closed beta. With the new unified installer for the Windows Live Suite, users can now choose to install Windows Live Photo Gallery. I'll be talking more about Windows Live Photo Gallery in separate post very soon.

The Windows Live suite currently consists of Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Writer, and Windows Live Photo Gallery with Windows Live OneCare Family Safety. These applications bridge the gap between the Windows Vista PC and the Windows Live web services. Windows Live Mail allows you to sync your email and contacts from Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Photo Gallery lets you publish your images to Windows Live Spaces. Overall, the Windows Live suite is designed to extend your Windows experience by tapping into Windows Live. Of course choice comes with the Windows Live Suite as well. You can use Windows Live Mail to check any POP3 or IMAP email account and Windows Live Writer supports a great variety of online blogging services.

Give the Windows Live Suite a try today.

Update 1:16PM PDT - Looks like the Windows Live installer page is now online. Give it a shot!

Comments

vasu

Posted on: September 05, 2007 at 2:48PM
Eagerly waiting to try the Unified installer.

The installer video should also have been provided in Silverlight along with the Flash.
Brandon LeBlanc

Posted on: September 05, 2007 at 2:54PM
vasu, MSN Soapbox doesn't utilize Silverlight yet - which is where I upload my videos so I couldn't embed it with Silverlight sorry.
tino

Posted on: September 05, 2007 at 3:21PM
What about a better microphone? ;P

Even official videos on some Microsoft websites have poor sound quality.
hen770

Posted on: September 05, 2007 at 3:27PM
is the Windows Live OneCare is free for 30day is it?
Brandon LeBlanc

Posted on: September 05, 2007 at 3:46PM
tino, good feedback ;-) I think I had the mic up too high. Next time I will make sure its recording at a better level. My previous videos sounded a bit better. I apologize for the mic/sound quality with this video.

- Brandon
Brandon LeBlanc

Posted on: September 05, 2007 at 3:47PM
hen770, you actually get a 90-day free trial for Windows Live OneCare. Just head over to onecare.live.com.

- Brandon
Brytown

Posted on: September 05, 2007 at 5:33PM
great im looking forward to this just got mail its nicer than i thought. CEIRTANLY better than the one that OS came with. nice work
Islander

Posted on: September 05, 2007 at 7:09PM
Unfortunately, the installer doesn't work at all on my computer. I chose to download the package containing only Windows Live Messenger. Upon double clicking the downloaded file, I get a message saying "Windows Live Programs can not be installed on this operating system" (in german, that is).

I'm using Vista x64 Ultimate.
Brandon LeBlanc

Posted on: September 05, 2007 at 7:23PM
Islander, unfortunately the new shared installer for the Windows Live betas does not suppot 64-bit. However, full 64-bit support is expected when the installer RTM's with all the Windows Live apps.

For more information please read the Windows Live installer release notes:

http://get.live.com/betas/installer_release_notes

- Brandon
Rafael

Posted on: September 05, 2007 at 9:56PM
Here's how to install the products separately in Windows Vista x64 (my not-easy, probably convoluted way):

http://www.anti-tgtsoft.com/?p=14

Trackbacks

Posted by: Josh's Windows Weblog on September 05, 2007 at 2:15PM
Today Microsoft is making available a Windows Live Suite , this is an effort to make it easier to for
Posted by: Robert McLaws: Windows Vista Edition on September 05, 2007 at 4:52PM
Brandon LeBlanc has a great write-up of the new Windows Live Suite , complete with a video. Unfortunately
Posted by: Mark Johnston's Blog on September 09, 2007 at 4:46PM
Windows Live is all starting to come together - at the software installer level at the very least :-)
Posted by: The Windows Experience Blog on September 24, 2007 at 3:39PM
Today Microsoft is releasing the Beta of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 which was announced by Nick White

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