Windows Vista Team Blog : Windows Vista, Windows Live

Upgrade to Next Version of Windows Live OneCare Announced for All Subscribers

Nick White — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:09:00 GMT

The new version of the Windows Live OneCare service is being made available today, running on both 32- and 64-bit Windows Vista systems (32-bit Windows XP SP2 is also supported).

We built OneCare because we know that most homes have more than a single computer (surely not news to you if you're a reader of this blog), with PC security and maintenance being needs consistently expressed by both home users and small business owners. A lot of these customers run PCs without basic anti-virus and anti-spyware protection, and even fewer perform performance-enhancing tasks such as disk defragmentation and regular system back-ups. Furthermore, the plethora of digital photos stored on PCs means that more and more people are trusting their systems to archive digital memories, but given the general consumer's lack of understanding of archival software, doing so becomes a risky proposition indeed. And, when you factor in the prevalence of wireless networks in use in homes and small-businesses, you quickly get the picture that there is a lot of data at risk out there and customers are ill-prepared to take the necessary precautions to ensure it.

It's not a question of being lazy, but rather having the right tool for the job. That's where easy-to-use OneCare comes in. As a subscription service, all OneCare subscribers benefit from new updates as they are made available, including major releases such as this one.

The latest version of OneCare affords users these advantages:

Home Network Management now further simplifies management of multi-PC environments, including support for printer sharing and one-click wireless network security implementation.
Performance Plus enhancements consist of proactive system recommendations designed to improve the computing experience, as well as a monthly reporting regimen tallying the actions taken by OneCare in the last month plus recommended actions for all covered PCs.
Back-up and Restore now enables central configuration and monitoring of back-ups for all covered PCs, with all data being archived to a central location.

A free 90-day trial of OneCare can be downloaded http://onecare.live.com/standard/en-us/default.htm. A 1-year subscription and maintenance for up to 3 PCs costs only US$49.95. All current Windows Live OneCare subscribers benefit from new features as they are made available, including major updates such as this one.

Click here to also read PressPass's Q&A with Windows Live OneCare Director Amy Barzdukas.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more information on receiving the new Windows Live OneCare release.

Announcing the next generation in Windows Live apps & services

Nick White — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:25:00 GMT

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.

Check out the Windows Live OneCare 2.0 Beta

Nick White — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 21:55:00 GMT

The Windows Live OneCare team today released the Beta version of OneCare 2.0 -- you can download it here. Windows Live OneCare 2.0 is designed to make it easier to secure and maintain multiple PCs on a network so that households and small businesses alike can manage their PCs from a single control panel. Aside from multiple-PC management, new to OneCare 2.0 is:

Wi-Fi connection security: Secure your home Wi-Fi connection and protect the privacy of wireless data transfers.

System start-up time optimizer: Check for ways to shorten PC boot time.

Online photo backup: Back up photos to Windows Live Folders (additional cost).

Printer sharing support: Connect printers to a network so that all users in the vicinity can access the same printer.

OneCare 2.0 was designed specifically with Windows Vista in mind (for instance, it now supports the x64 architecture!). Try it out and let the Windows Live team know what you think.

Three new Windows Live betas now available

Nick White — Wed, 30 May 2007 22:39:00 GMT

Today our Windows Live team is releasing new betas for several Windows Live applications: Windows Live Messenger 8.5, Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Writer. All three are now available for download.

A little about each one:

Windows Live Messenger 8.5

Windows Live Messenger 8.5 presents a brand new look-and-feel that's more in tone with Windows Vista. While this update largely affects the back-end, it also adds several new emoticons and integration with Windows Live OneCare Safety Center. You can expect performance enhancements in there as well.

Windows Live Mail

As mentioned before, Windows Live Mail is the successor to Windows Mail in Windows Vista (and Outlook Express on Windows XP). Windows Live Mail is also the successor to previous betas of Windows Live Mail desktop. It sports a brand new UI that more aligned with what's being adopted across Windows Live. Windows Live Mail will allow syncing with Windows Live Hotmail, serving as a client-to-service bridge. The first beta of Windows Live Mail will offer:

Offline mail
Windows Live Hotmail account aggregation
Additional account aggregation for POP3 and IMAP mail accounts
RSS feed aggregation
More advanced photo-sharing capabilities
More advanced search via integration with Windows Desktop Search
Additional safety measures (AV scanning, anti-phishing, anti-spam protection across aggregated accounts for customers who do not have an AV product)
Additional integration with Windows Live services including Windows Live Spaces

And, there will not be any graphical advertisements in Windows Live Mail at this time.

Windows Live Writer

Windows Live Writer is a tool for composing blog posts and publishing them on several of the web's biggest blogging platforms (such as Windows Live Spaces, Community Server, WordPress, and TypePad). Windows Live Writer allows for custom plug-ins to be installed from Windows Live Gallery that extend its publishing abilities amongst blogging platforms. Today's new beta of Windows Live Writer comes with features like inline spell checking, the ability to add categories, table editing and easier image insertion. Windows Live Writer’s new beta will be available in the following markets: US (English), US (Spanish), India (English), UK, Spain, Germany, Japan, China and France.

Remember, these applications being released today are betas and not final versions. You can submit feedback on any of the betas at feedback.live.com.

And lastly, I expect Brandon will have screenshots on his blog soon.

MSN Hotmail becomes Windows Live Hotmail

Nick White — Mon, 07 May 2007 16:22:00 GMT

Starting today, the Live Team will begin rolling out a massive 36-language upgrade from MSN Hotmail to Windows Live Hotmail. This is the biggest Hotmail update ever seen: the new version of Hotmail improves safety, productivity and flexibility across clients on the web, desktop and mobile phones.

Today's rollout begins at www.hotmail.com, where new user accounts will be created as Windows Live Hotmail accounts; existing MSN Hotmail users will be able to upgrade their accounts to Windows Live Hotmail by clicking the green Join Windows Live Hotmail button in their accounts after logging in. The rollout is expected to occur gradually and continue throughout the next couple days.

Windows Live also announced a brand-new, free email client called Windows Live Mail, the successor to Outlook Express and Windows Mail on Windows Vista. Also coming is a new Outlook Connector which will allow you to sync your Windows Live Hotmail account to an Outlook 2003 or 2007 client.

Read the Hotmail Team's blog post on the launch, including a video of Hotmail's evolution from 1996 to 2007. Also, Kip Kniskern from LiveSide chatted with Windows Live Product Management Director Paul Major to find out a little bit more on the launch announcement.

I'm sure Brandon will soon have in-depth coverage of these announcements in the Windows Experience Blog, so keep your eyes peeled ...

Today's MIX07 Announcements Round-Up

Nick White — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 20:33:00 GMT

Today MIX07 kicks off at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas with the keynote by Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie and General Manager Scott Guthrie. You can continue to catch live, on-going coverage at the Visit MIX website.

Let me take a moment to quickly outline the many announcements that occurred today.

An updated Windows Live Dev website (dev.live.com) has launched and includes brand new controls for developers to tap into Windows Live Services when building mash-ups. Those new controls include a Spaces Photo Control and updated Windows Live Contacts control. The Windows Live Spaces control released allows third-party developers to integrate Windows Live Spaces functionality into their websites. CNET has covered the Windows Live platform news coming out of MIX this week.

The Silverlight Team has several major and exciting announcements that have occurred this morning:

An updated www.microsoft.com/silverlight website
Silverlight 1.0 Beta plug-in for browsers is now available here
A CTP (Community Technology Preview) for Silverlight 1.1 was released, adding the .NET runtime
The Silverlight community website, Silverlight.net, has launched. This website showcases a number of places where you can have the full Silverlight experience, such as at 20th Century Fox's Trailer Library (you'll need the plug-in, of course).

Silverlight Streaming with Windows Live has launched in as an Alpha (i.e., pre-Beta) service. You can upload your Silverlight projects to this hosted service to take advantage of 4GB of project storage "in the cloud." The idea is to give developers and web designers a convenient place for them to host and stream their content, which they can then integrate into their browser services using Silverlight Streaming.

The Microsoft Expression Studio has been released as a suite consisting of Expression Design, Expression Web, Expression Blend and Expression Media. Attendees of MIX07 were given a special commemorative edition of the Expression Studio suite. You can dip your toes into incorporating Silverlight into your web creations using the preview version of Expression Blend 2.0 and the trial version of Expression Media Encoder.

This is just a brief overview of the announcements made today at MIX07, with more to come.

Check out these Live Search Gadgets

Nick White — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 02:06:00 GMT

The Live Search Team has released 2 new Windows Sidebar Gadgets for Windows Vista.

Live Search Traffic Gadget

The new Live Search Traffic Gadget uses Live Search Maps to bring up-to-date local traffic information right to your Windows Vista desktop. The gadget display includes shortcuts to driving directions, local search and a full-screen view of traffic in Live Search Maps. Currently supported are the following cities:

· Atlanta

· Boston

· Chicago

· Denver

· Detroit

· Houston

· Los Angeles

· Milwaukee

· New York

· Oklahoma City

· Philadelphia

· Phoenix

· Pittsburgh

· Portland

· Providence

· Sacramento

· Salt Lake City

· San Diego

· San Francisco

· Seattle

· St Louis

· Tampa

· Washington, DC

Download the Live Search Traffic Gadget from Windows Live Gallery.

Live Search Gadget

The team has also released a Sidebar Gadget that allows access to Live Search directly from your desktop. It’ll accept your search query and render the results directly within the Gadget. You can set up custom searches using Live Search Macros in the gadget’s Settings pane as well.

Download the Live Search Gadget from Windows Live Gallery.

Microsoft LifeCam Support Coming for Windows Vista

Nick White — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 13:26:00 GMT

I've noticed a few discussions out in the community on how Microsoft’s great new LifeCams don’t quite work yet with Windows Vista.

Well, to find out for myself, I just bought the Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000 this weekend. I’m happy to say I am currently testing beta drivers for the LifeCams, to which Windows Vista Technical Beta testers also have access to (via Microsoft Connect). No need to worry if you're not part of that program -- drivers are coming full-speed ahead for these neat new webcams which will work very well on Windows Vista.

New Hardware for Windows Vista Unleashed

Nick White — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 03:44:00 GMT

Microsoft has just announced the availability of three new pieces of hardware coming from MS Hardware later this year that will take advantage of Windows Vista functionality at the press of a button.

Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000 – Available February 2007.

Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000 – Available January 2007.

Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 – Available September 2006.

The Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000 is the very first rechargeable wireless and backlit keyboard to hit the market. It was originally dubbed the "Ultimate Keyboard" a few months ago.

These new hardware set-ups also bring Windows Vista features right to your fingertips:

Windows Start Button: access the Windows Vista Start Menu
Windows Media Start Button: quick access to Windows Media Center in Windows Vista
Windows Live Call Button: make a call using Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Call
Gadget Button: launches Live.com for quick access to your personalized Gadgets

We've also announced plans to make Windows Live LifeCams compatible with Windows Vista when it's launched in early 2007, so stay tuned.