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

chakkaradeep

Posted on: September 07, 2007 at 5:28AM
I agree with you someone for releasing Windows Live Calendar with online calendar publishing -thats gonna rock !
chakkaradeep

Posted on: September 07, 2007 at 5:29AM
One thing I noticed is that we are not given options to customize our installation folder. It would be nice if that was added :). I dont want my windows drive to be out of space :D
omgbbq

Posted on: September 07, 2007 at 1:11PM
I second chakkaradeep's comment. Every application should allow you to choose the installation folder. I have separate partitions for boot, programs, and settings/documents. I have run out of space before because installers don't let you chose the install directory, and I have to workaround it by creating junction points. It sounds like an obvious feature for any installer. Are there any wacky technical reasons why this isn't supported?
ThaiAm

Posted on: October 28, 2007 at 3:21AM
I am further perplexed by the installer since it utilizes your IP address to direct you to a language indicated by that address. No good, since I am retired and living in Thailand but cannot read Thai.

I finally did find other sites that told me Live would not work on my 64 bit version of Vista Ultimate and the best guess that I can make is that all of the options will not be made available here, but that is only guess work since I cannot read the optional selections on the web page presented, but do see that not all of the options presented do not have associated links. This Beta should still be Alpha in my humble opinion.

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