Announcing the next generation in Windows Live apps & services

Posted by:
Nick White
01:25 PM Tuesday
Nov 06, 2007
37 Comments

Today the Windows Live team announces the final release of the Windows Live suite of applications and web services designed to enhance the Windows user experience. Consumers can now download the full Windows Live suite at once or pick and choose their favorite apps and services.

Why Windows Live on this blog? Simply put, the two product platforms are now linked more than ever before. Windows Live includes the Windows name because, ultimately, it is designed to take the Windows computing experience one step further. The power of the PC is now combined with the flexibility and pervasiveness of Windows Live online services. For example, the Windows Live Photo Gallery client app for Windows Vista now includes panoramic photo stitch and the ability to publish to Flickr.

This release comprises these Windows Live Applications:

Windows Live Messenger 8.5
Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Writer
Windows Live Photo Gallery
Windows Live OneCare Family Safety

...and these Windows Live Services:

Windows Live Spaces
Windows Live Events
Windows Live Hotmail
Windows Live for Windows Mobile (client-based or browser-based access to Windows Live from a Windows Mobile-based device)

To install the final versions of the Windows Live suite of applications, go here to access the Windows Live installer, which will let you pick and choose among the available applications. New in this release is installer support for 64-bit PCs.

If you choose not to install all of the Windows Live applications at once, you can re-launch the Windows Live installer to install any of the remaining Windows Live applications whenever you wish.

Going forward, we'll be covering more of how the new Windows Live applications enhance the Windows Vista user experience both here and on the Windows Experience Blog. Expect us to dive deep into each specific Windows Live application.

Meantime, be sure to check out the Q&A over with Chris Jones, Corporate Vice President of Windows Live Experience Program Management, where Chris details what makes today's release a compelling one for consumer users, developers and advertisers alike.

Comments

BillD

Posted on: November 07, 2007 at 1:37PM
BUG in Windows Live Messenger 8.5 final:

when the application is closed, the icon remains in the system tray.
chakkaradeep

Posted on: November 07, 2007 at 1:45PM
kwdaves, have you chosen to receive updates from Windows and Other products in your update settings ? Unless you set the update manager to receive updates of other Windows products too, you wont receive an update for photo gallery :)
chakkaradeep

Posted on: November 07, 2007 at 1:48PM
BillD, the icon doens't remain here for me...

Have you opened Windows Live Mail (mail.live.com in IE) in your browser and closed Messenger ? The Windows Live Mail tries to auto sign in Messenger and if you haven't set the Messenger to sign in automatically, you would see the icon in the system tray until you close your Windows Live Mail (mail.live.com in IE)
tino

Posted on: November 07, 2007 at 3:18PM
The icon for Messenger is in the system tray until you hover the mouse over it. This bug is in every version of Windows Live Messenger on Vista.
kwdaves

Posted on: November 07, 2007 at 3:34PM
Yes, I have the automatic update enabled for all my MS products. Moreover, if I check for updates from Vista Photo Gallery Option, it tells me I have the most recent version installed.
Farenas

Posted on: November 07, 2007 at 8:06PM
Sorry guys, but Windows Live is not working well. If you go to Live Spaces and try to go to your friend's Live blog it shows a window telling you that the page you are looking for does not exist!! Few hours later the same page is working ok. So, there is a big problem around to solve ASAP. 3 months trying to live with this Live thing!!
dentaku

Posted on: November 07, 2007 at 9:38PM
I tested out Windows Live Mail in an XP virtual machine first and I like that it finally has Eudora/MS Word style spellchecking that underlines misspelled words with a red squiggle so I decided to install it "for real" in Vista and after installing it all I get is "please wait while windows configures windows live mail" then all my desktop icons refresh and nothing happens. It doesn't work at all.
daddysgirl

Posted on: November 08, 2007 at 5:23AM
ok, ive got a question, ive just gotten Windows Vista, however i am unable to access pages such as Hotmail, bebo, certain pages on ebay etc. just wondering if theres any help manuals out there that could help me out!
CSMR

Posted on: November 08, 2007 at 6:24AM
Windows Live Photo Gallery is no good. It doesn't come up to Microsoft standards. Full screen mode actually changes the physical screen resolution! Incredible! Ridiculous! And the images are not actually scaled to be full screen. Even WMP is much better as an image viewer.
dznetworks

Posted on: November 09, 2007 at 10:46PM
Will there ever come a time when Microsoft finally decides to abandon the name HOTMAIL and simply go with windowslivemail?

Trackbacks

Posted by: Josh's Windows Weblog on November 06, 2007 at 8:10PM
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Posted by: MegaRed on November 11, 2007 at 12:22PM
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