YAY

Italian ?

No Italian?! You're crazy...no other words

Can't wait!  Really looking forward to trying out the beta apps!

If this is anything remotely close to the leaked build earlier this year you should have started over...

Obrigado Microsoft por incluir o Português do Brasil em seus softwares Beta ! (Thanks Microsoft for include the Portuguese of Brazil in its software Beta!) :)

Will there be any problem if we install, let's say, the english beta now, and, let's say, the german final version afterwards? Update issues? Compatibility issues? Better to uninstall first? How should we proceed with different language versions?

this is great, the ribbion UI is brilliant, love it on office 2010 :D, also will UK have to wait till like 7PM to download like we did with apple iOS

I decided to skip bed tonight for Essentials beta ! It's 2:33 AM in Romania, I can't wait anymore, let's see 'em !

I am very upset and disgusted over the decision to drop compatibility with Windows XP.  What can you do for those who cant afford to upgrade to a new laptop or operating system. There is a lot of people like myself who are stuck with windows xp and can't afford to upgrade.  This is totally unfair. Microsoft is suppose to be customer friendly. This is very disappointing.  Like ive posted in other postings, people are going to leave WLM due to the fact of dropping compatibility with windows xp.

I have been waiting to test it. good stuffs!!

Staying up all night to DL this. No if, ands or buts about it.

@Joe Sales

You can't expect support for a **9 years old** OS. Anyway, no one is urging you to use the new software. I'm sure you can continue using the old version :-)

@James Manes

LOL. I bet it will be sometime Friday. Not Thursday.

@Joe Sales XP is the new windows 98 dude. Tis old.

about time ive waited for this im so excited

I think Windows XP is too old to continue to be supported, as it did with Windows 98, now if succeeds Essentials, a lot more people to switch to Windows 7

@ dovella, Rw7 - Scusateci amici!  I am Italian myself and feel bad we could not support Italian in this release.  We had to prioritize languages the we support to get the beta out the door, but rest assured that Italian support (and dozens of other languages) will be added before we release.

@brianm76 - very constructive, thank you.  :p  Leaks are very unfortunate because they are not representative of the final product, and often represent a technical proof of concept or (worse) someone's digital image manipulation.  So please wait for the build itself before passing judgement eh?

@Cleverson Regis - De nada.  

@Islander - there should be no problem switching languages during install.  You do not need to uninstall first.  

@mbadsey - the build should be live tomorrow with no timezone restrictions.

@Joe Sales - You have made your point of view on this very clear on many recent posts.  We absolutely have heard what you think about this, and we are sorry you are not happy with our decision to not support XP.  I could repeat the answers we have given on this on other posts, but I doubt we could change your opinion. All I will say is that we continue to support Windows Live Wave 3 for our XP customers, and that the decision to not build Wave 4 on XP was not easy for us, but it is also irreversible.  

@James Manes - get some sleep man!

thanks for adding Spanish in this release!

I think that microsoft should offer an upgrade to Windows 7 for users that still use XP. Be it a new computer, or a RAM upgrade so that the computer can support Windows 7. This offer should be at a reduced price. As long as they have the XP disc and their copy of XP is genuine there should be some type of discount. If not microsoft will lose respect from XP users like myself. I, in fact, am upgrading to Windows 7 very soon. I just need a few more 10's and I'm running the latest OS from MS. Although the choice to remove the one-way webcam feature was a very unfortunate move. This dissapointed me massively considering the video call freezes my messenger (Although that may be due to manual registry edits). I am looking forward to testing the new messenger beta when I attain my copy of Windows 7. Thank you for listening to, and reading, my comment.

-Brandon

At what time o'clock will be the beta available?

Guys, at what time will it be available? I'm waiting for it...

And thanks for adding Portuguese to the beta testing version of Essentials!

I'm still waiting for it right now... =)

Horray!  Any possible way I could switch languages without having to reinstall? (Like what you can do with Win7 Ultimate, only you don't have to have that version)

@Raphzs

Is in Portuguese (Brazil) which will be available!

I have four computers all running Windows 7 Ultimte original, and all of them waiting for the new Windows Live Essentials suite. I'm here in anticipation ...

@Cleverson Regis

I hope so. But I'm really weird! I enjoy using software in English Language... kkkkkkkkk

It's getting complicated... it's already 02:42 here in Brazil. Bur I'm still waiting for it. What time is it in the USA? 11:42 or 12:42? Or maybe none o both... kkkkkkkk

I think we have to wait a couple of hours, I'm from peru and here are 12:49 am, and I have very eager to try the beta wave 4

@Raphzs  

- Actually I also like the English, but have the software in the default language of the operating system is much better now that my language is this. But you know what matters now is that the launch since a long time that new suite and in recent days the expectation was even greater with so many dates and rumours on the Web, and now we have date marked to definitely be able to use the new functionality of the new suite is not?

Calm yourself people. Live is free, and developers are not slaves. It will be up soon enough.

I think we all now in anticipation of the launch. I guess that will be in the afternoon the launch (PM)....

@Spencer

Probably you are right. I think this Beta will be available some hours later...

I think I'm going, almost 3 am!

@Raphzs

good but just in case ..., I wait until 1 am xD, and for those who say they are slaves u_u xD I want my beta and until the publication are slaves! xD (?) is a joke.

I do not think it is until after 1 pm, should be earlier, but the Spanish that would have access only on 26

Holy iLife-crushing essentials suite batman! It's not here yet! Lol

But still I think the beta is only available in the afternoon (PM) USA

Giving up right now. Maybe I should wait for the developers to wake up and to go to work...

Bah. Going to bed. I'll have dreams of hd video and tabbed chat. 0_o :D

@Raphzs  -  Is there a truth, we wait until that decide the time to announce. kkkkk

I'm from Vietnam, it's 1:20 PM here and it's still not available!!!! LOL @ James, we're in the same boat....

@Tai Tran

Everyone! Just want to be able to start the download, after installing I'm going to bed, because it is 3: 25(AM) here in Brazil.

Can I donwload from indonesia?

Hi Piero (i'm italian like you).

Is possible to connect Live with Twitter like facebook or the other social networks you listed in your post ?

Thanks !

someone knows the exact time of the release of Windows Live Essentials?

@ Alfian - I think so, I think everybody from everywhere can get the beta, right, Piero?

Please let us know where we can report problems.  Will it be in this blog?

@Carmine Console

The beta of Windows Live lets you integrate yes popular social networks such as twitter or facebook the beta social network appears to you to add and add your account information

@ABomb

to report a problem with any program you enter windows live http://support.live.com/

Instalando el beta =D (Already installing the beta)

Impressive! Add me to the queue for the Beta! ;-)

@jazter - where from? How come I don't see it on explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-beta ? Please send me the link if possible. Thanks...

To everyone posting from out of the United States...

As of right now it is 1:13 (0:13 where Microsoft is).  I'd say it'll be at least eight more hours before the beta is available. (note I said least and not most, it could be much longer...)

@jazter de verdad ya lo está instalando? Comparta el link! Porque este no me funciona: explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-beta

///// Are you really installing the beta? C'on Share the Link! That one doesn't work for me

@jazter - where from? How come I don't see it on explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-beta  ? Please send me the link if possible!!! Thanks...

@jazter

lo bajaste por la pagina de windows live preview o por el link del blog si es por el de windows live preview

ese es el messenger 2009

explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-beta NO funciona aun. Habemos varios hispanohablantes aqui. Soy de Costa Rica, es la 1:18Am y aun no funciona.... No quiero dormir aun pero si de verdad son 8 horas no pienso esperar tanto

windowslivepreview.com/essentials

SkyDrive integration will turbo-boost all of these features!

BUT please fix the embed code on SkyDrive video files! We want to embed the video player, not an icon:

www.timacheson.com/.../skydrive_feature_requests

I clicked on DOWNLOAD on windowslivepreview.com/essentials but it took me to the WLEssential 2009 download page (like usual).

@Tai Tran & @Jazter Same here. Same old messenger.... Are you really downloading the beta? or just clicked download without checkin?

Only at the end of the day will be released!

Dangg, still not released yet. It's already June 24...

Is it just me or somebody else is also experiencing posting problem? I can't post a comment any more.

Great :) It's been a long time coming. Looking forward to see how the Windows Vista/7 graphics platform will be utilised.

Una pregunta, soy de peru y son las 5:30 AM y aun no sale el link para la descarga o mejor dicho el link que puso piro no funciona, y cuando veo la pagina de Essentials dice que el link saldra a finales de este dia, pero leendo mas abajo dicen que ya lo estan descargando, quien dice la verdad o quien miente???? o alguien sabe con mas exactitud para que hora saldra el verdadero link ???

Gracias

We want here in Germany an englisch version , please! Germany is the biggest country in Europe! :D

Could we have a SkYDrive/Windows Live app for Android please? :)

Bear in mind that Android's built-in web browser lacks the ability to upload files! (I don't understand why Google creates and sells an a web browser with no file upload and other major limitations, and an OS with no file explorer! It's lame.)

It's such a loooooooooooooooooongggggg wait.... I have been waiting for 5 hours................ (not too mention many days before....) :(

Will there be another beta with a german languagepack in the future?

@Brandon- They do offer an upgrade for those who are still on XP: store.microsoft.com/.../102

Seriously though, why should MS take a hit for users that need to upgrade in order to run Windows 7? There were plenty of pre-order package deals sold by the retailers and they're sure to still have some upgrade bundles to attract customers to them. Microsoft, however, has released Win 7 at a decent price and with reasonable minimum requirements. At some point, a line has to be drawn where support for legacy configurations ends in order to provide a better product.

I can sympathize with everyone not being in a position to upgrade, but, I also can appreciate MS having to stop support eventually. If they didn't, we'd have people yelling that they couldn't get the latest and greatest software to run smoothly on the Windows 3.1 systems they just got in '93!

is there a specific time the beta will be released?

Yes and still is the matter for German in Beta??? or that will be issued later in few days?

I would really like to see a version of at least Writer for the Mac.

Can we get an exact time that the beta is going to be released? I've been waiting for a few hours.

Can you please let us know when???????????????

Tai Tran, let them wake up first: it's 6:30am in Seattle

@mjd - That's pretty funny, I just woke up and it's 6:30AM here, saw your comment.  :)  Folks I'm sorry we aren't giving a precise ETA.  Getting the bits onto the download centers actually takes quite a bit of time since we need enough servers to ensure millions of downloads etc.  I am told we should have this ready sometime this morning, stay tuned and thanks for being patient!

It's 16:34 here in Romania. I'm growing tired of this crappy wait. This is pushing nerves to the limit. WHAT TIME IS IT GONNA BE, REDMOND ?

I've waited soooooo long for this I want to cry..... :((((((

Pretty annoying to have a product upgrade like this announced without a more precise time specification. A time frame and appropriate time zone would have been preferred. Not all people live in the US, in fact most don't.

Oh noooooo,

I'm waiting so long from morning... Now here 8:53 PM. :(

Does anyone know what exact time windows live available...??????

Guys, stop complaining about the wait - it's free, it's (hopefully) as awesome as the previews have shown and we've all (including me) been waiting quite a long time now...

Give it one more 24 hours and we'll all be able to enjoy Essentials Wave 4 Beta!!!

@Piero: Still, pls hurry! :)

I only slept 4 hours, went to work, finished it earlier just hoping I'll find the download page up and working. I have a Windows-dedicated Radio Show tomorrow (actually it's a weekly show which I'm also posting as a podcast) and I wanted to have time and play with Messenger to be able to talk about it tomorrow, maybe even post a short video on my show's website. I think I'll just have to talk about something else. Next time better let the news out one or two hours before the actual launch. It's easier on all of us. This was hard teasing which I don't appreciate at all.

Hola en colombia es la 9:03mins en las link que aparecen solo descarga la version msn9 aun no existe una hora exacta para probar la descarga?

Good luck for all developer of windows live... I'm always waiting and ready to download.... :)

@Piero Sierra

eh eh, so buongiorno e buon lavoro Piero!

Keep us posted!

Come on already.  How about not making the announcement until it's actually ready?  Stop moving at the speed of BP.

For Germany!:

Die Beta soll im Laufe des Tages auf einer speziellen Webseite angeboten werden, vermutlich auch in Deutsch, obwohl Microsoft statt Deutsch »Dutch«, also Niederländisch angibt. Deutsche Versionen gehören eigentlich immer zur ersten Welle aller veröffentlichten Microsoft-Produkte.

@iWater  Don't forget - Germany is the biggest country in Europe but I'm from Austria and our language is German too ;)

One more reason to launch it in German =)

When is the release? Why so long?

I think MS need to rethink what they are doing. Why always late in release, even the beta?

Just a comment..... You guys are going to do the same thing for Win7 mobile too.. Just keep this in mind. Droid and Iphone are going so good in releasing in a short time and you guys give out release for our grand children?

Why not take another 4 years with all the man power?

@Piero

Can you acknowledge that it would be released in dutch or in german?

@marhon Gibts da auch eine Quelle für?

Guys, relax! Launching a release is not that easy. If you notice, when you click the link there is a 404 Live Page, which means they don't only have to set up the software, but the whole site in order to launch the download. They must be working hard right now to deliver that preview and trying to make sure that Live.com is not going to "whale" with the massive amount of downloads.

Goodness, if anything, all these delays are shaping up to be a tremendous hype machine. First it was last week, then Monday, then Tuesday...finally! Today! :D

I really can't wait for the release. All the screenshots and previews seems absolutely amazing. And I'm not against the ending of support for Windows XP, either. People, get over it. It's old. People need to move on.

I'm sure there are people out there using ME or 2000 also, because "they can't afford a new computer" etc. etc. Should MS provide support to them also? What's wrong with them moving onto newer systems which offer much better features, aesthetics and security?

hey!.... i was so exaited to have the beta and now i read this post and i cant believe i cant have it cause i have Windows XP.Ho my God!. Soy una de las pocas personas que se toman la necesidad de estar al día con sus productos y mandar comentarios tal como lo hize con Microsoft Office 2010 Beta. Es una mala jugada que muchos de los que tenemos Windows XP seamos excluidos. Ubieran tomado la decisión de implementarnos alguna herramienta para que Windows Live Essentials corriera también en Windows XP. Me disgusta mucho.

Why people complain already? lol. MS wrote "sometime between Thursday and Friday". Just like any other *US* company, it means: "Launch will be sometime on Friday" Friday in the USA. So Asia, Europa or whatever will probably see the new site on Saturday :-p

@Edin Orozco

the problem is that the new Windows Live Essentials Beta is made to work in the Windows Vista Aero and Aero, Aero Peck windows 7 is not released for Windows XP Operating system there are two more advanced

@Edin_Orozco en parte entiendo tu preocupación, también he seguido las betas de Microsoft bastante de cerca recientemente. Pero debemos tener en cuenta el hecho de que Windows XP es un Sistema Operativo bastante viejo al que ya se le exprimió todo el potencial posible. Ahora que Windows 7 ha demostrado ser una actualización digna, dejar morir a XP, aunque en parte injusto, es completamente lógico. No sólo se gastaría más dinero, tiempo y recursos si se enfocaran en desarrollar para una plataforma desactualizada, sino que su rendimiento sería muy inferior. Essentials Wave 4 usa tecnología (como la Aero que mencionó sombra) que no está disponible en Windows XP, lo que implicaría el desarrollo de dos series de Wave 4 distintas, poco conveniente en cuanto a soporte y mantenimiento.

Can't wait to try out the new features.

Let Microsoft an expectation now is great, I think more than fair that is released the Beta. Will the New Windows Live Essentials Suite, all my PCs is already waiting to install ...

Thanks !

@mbadsey Ribbon is great? Oof, I think that's the first time I've ever heard anyone say that.  Certainly can't agree, particularly in MS Office.  Was so bad that they brought back part of the File menu in Office 2010.

@eboy: Relax. It's only 8:50 in Redmond, so chances are people are still showing up for work.

How much longer???!! Extremely excited :)

Arrrrggggghhhh I can't wait!!! :D

18:20 in Spain. I should be studying but i'm in front my laptop pressing f5 every 5 minutes xDD Please, release it as soon as possible...

Piero, please, keep posting who is it going and what you are working on so that we relax :p

by the way, Piero, i'm so sorry but Italy just got out of the World Cup :p

Well, the page changed slightly (mainly just text recolor) but that at least means there's *someone* in the office...  Download coming very soon, yes?

Can't wait... make it happen!!!!!!!

When it is coming out. It's already 25th here~ Argh I want to sleep but I want to try the new WLM... Argh... Faster guys...

Man, we want it now! i'd really like to try it out =(. But i just wanna say thank you guys from Microsoft for offering these new services, you're really doing a good job with Windows Live Essentials, Internet Explorer 9, Windows 7.. you're really working hard this time, congratulations!!

P.S: Thanks for adding spanish =) gracias por añadir el español

@Hojsn: ja im Gamestar.de findest du es!

Microsoft have almost all the right pieces in place here, a good product, enthusiastic users, and even some hype. But the final delivery is vague.  Why not have an exactime for the unveil? would it hurt? As the last person pointed out it's the 25th in someparts of the world, according to them you've not delivered what you promised.

Getting even more disappointed ... the wait is no longer supportable. I say again that next time you should post about any (beta) release you should do it just before the download is ready. I'm expecting servers to fall right after launch, so it will be a shameful fiasco. I wasn't expecting this delay at all.

Would be better if you had specified an exact time of availability, seems more like a planning fiasco.

@RichardC:

Friday June 25th, 0100 to be exact. UTC  +8. I agree with some of the comments above, why make a hype out of something that is not ready. I have bad experience over such methods. I hope the server won't fail also.

Why Brazil Portuguese? Why not Portugal Portuguese?

@RichardC

Did they say it would be on June 24th or did they say tomorrow?

If it is already the 25th then Servarus received this notice for the beta on the 24th.

As far as I know they still have several hours to deliver on that promise.

You guys are too impatient.  It takes a while to copy everything to all of the servers so that you can download and run the new Live Essentials.  Remember, they need it to be available for MILLIONS of people worldwide to download it.  There is no way possible to give an exact time.  It takes as long as it takes.  Would you prefer that they give a time and then miss that time because of a problem with deployment?  Which would make you angrier - waiting like you are now, or expecting it to work and it not work?  I prefer to wait until they are certain it will work.  Just give them time.  They said it will be available today.  It's only 10:00 AM in Redmond.  Most people don't start working until 8 or 9 AM.  I can't wait to use it either, but please give the folks at Microsoft a break.  Remember, they're only human and they can only do as much as they can do!

@Piero, I have three questions related to Live Sync:

1) I have Live Mesh today configured amongst about four machines.  Will I have to install Live Sync on all computers for syncing to continue to work, or can some stay on Live Mesh and others on Live Sync?  That is, do they interoperate?

2) When I update a machine to Live Sync, will it automatically see which Live Mesh folders I have and turn them into Live Sync folders?

3) When going from the beta to the RTM, will Live Sync automatically keep my settings or will I have to do all my settings over again for each folder.  This is probably an hour on each machine, so if I have to do this twice, I'll probably just wait until RTM.  Thanks!

Give 'em a break guys.  They haven't been at work for long. :-)

Piero, I came to a conclusion on the possibilities of the download links for WL Essentials 2011 Beta, and posted my findings on TrustedNerd.com

"After researching how Microsoft did things before, and continue to do so. I have come to a conclusion that there are two possibilities how Microsoft will release Windows Live Essentials 2011 Beta.

The first possibility is by using the "beta" and g.live.com/.../wlsetup-web.exe, removing the previous build for the betas.

Second possibility, g.live.com/.../wlsetup-web.exe (This I think, will most likely be the final version though)

Of course, changing the "web" part to all, will give the entire installer, not the web installer.

The third: g.live.com/.../wlsetup-web.exe

Above link, changes the URL to the beta tag, which might be a possiblity.

At the time of posting, all the above links are down, and re-direct to Msn.com. "

What are your comments?

@Noco:

as I said a bit vague. It seems there are many people here hitting F5... and probably 1000's more not on the forum doing the same. Perhaps they could do an apple type thing and have a 'We'll be back soon'  or even a count down?  It would look great on the news sites etc.

This product is a big deal 10's of millions and I'm sure it will be great, so why not make people happy and informed on this final piece? I know this won't matter by tomorrow, but maybe something for next time.

Another idea is to let us enthusiasts in to an early beta?  it would be another way to make Microsoft enthusiasts feel more engaged and cared for.

@RichardC:

Totally agreed. Well, as a consumer of Microsoft, and also many other when I read this news I was hoping the WLE is out. But then it's just an announcement. Yes, it is free and all, but I waited long for this. Paid dollars to upgrade to W7 to add.

Plus their reputation as a worldwide company makes me think that they have many other servers not just at uh, Redmond as you say? Well, it's not like I am demanding. Just asking an ETA or something near that.

@Damon Russel I completely agree but,they should not have anything to do the very same day they are releasing it. if they planned to release it on 24th the should have it ready! You know what I mean? Imagine that they've got a problem and cant release it til tomorrow. Everyone would love to kill them xDD What I mean is that it is safer or better to prepare it and then the next day release it, rather than "we are making it tomorrow" and know they're in a hurry and we are waiting. I'm not saying the should have done this yesterday but, as they are doing it today, do it today, and once it is ready announce that it'll be released on 25th. By doing that you wont be delayed by problems and people wont get upset xD

@Anmi, the reason this is, is when they plan their project, they plan certain build #'s to compile at

WL Essentials 2011 Beta, will be the following build #

15.4.(something).0624

15.4 is the build number, second bit is version # and the # bit is the timestamp, or today's date.

If they compiled it, yesterday, it would be 0623, and wouldnt match up..

They have a reason.

Build # most likely, 15.4.2850.0624

yeah, can´t wait ^^ love vista / 7 & live essentials!

wohhooow! this new windows live essentials is so amazin!!!

Decide Microsoft: Should we use Mesh or Sync? Why would you create two applications that does the same thing?

F5 F5 F5 F5....what a life....

Ya no puedo esperar para probar el WLE.

Llevo horas esperando, estoy seguro que sera bastante bueno , ya que ultimamamente microsoft ha sacado productos excelentes.

There are too many people hitting F5 at this moment. I can't wait for it. Windows 7 + Office 2010 + Essentials = Perfect mix

@rizon

Sync uses Mesh technology - your tone is not appreciative.

@rizzon Microsoft have decided.  Live Sync is the way forward, Live Mesh will be shutdown in 6 months or so.

@rizzon

Windows Live Sync was suposed to be while they worked with Live Mesh, in the Wave 4 they will replace Sync with Mesh and it will be... A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

@hysonmb

Thank you for turning me to this site location. Turns out I'll get Windows 7 faster than I thought :D

I'm so happy they're shutting Live Mesh down!! It is a little bit hard to make it work in some situations and its slow. It gave me a hard time. I've using Live Sync ever since I found out about it.

waiting patiently from one day already. im not getting away from my computer and is constantly refreshing the page every 10 minutes... haha. have put my friend to work in kitchen. we all are hungry here...

@jyaniv I did not know that, thank you. But still... what's the problem on calling it "build 2362010" and release it on the 24th? I dont know much so, thanks again ;)

@Sombra1020

thanks, i know about Aero in Windows Vista and Windows 7 i worked with it and is fun and faster. The only thing in here is this: is so nessesary Aero for the new Windows Live Essentials?

@ Alexis Lopez Abreu

Gracias, yo se que tu como yo conocemos muy bien los betas que a sacado Microsoft y que despues hemos comprado. Pero si me incomoda saber que tengo que cambiar de plataforma para poder correr nuevos programas ya que Windows 7 es caro en mi pais y cuento con muy pocos recursos, por eso sigo corriendo Windows XP. Sera dificil pero me cambiare a Windows 7. Creo que esto es como mercadeo, tratan de dejar atras un OS para poderle sacar mas dinero a uno y para que sea obligatorio el cambio le limitan los programas tambien, pero bueno.

Comprare una nueva PC con Windows 7 :)

Wow, even available in Dutch ... Thank you very much from such a small country (The Netherlands).

Dude? Where is this thing? What time it comes after all? My F5 key is now broken.

@Edin Orozco   No creo que sea como mercadeo, simplemente ten en cuenta que XP ya tiene casi 10 años y eso en el mundo de la informática es demasiado... Imaginas si aún pidieran soporte para Windows 95 o 98?  El mundo se tiene que mover y si, es una forma de forzar a las personas a que se actualicen, pues eso facilita el trabajo de los desarrolladores y a nosotros nos beneficia con mejores aplicaciones... Por cierto, de que país eres?

Quoting: "I think that microsoft should offer an upgrade to Windows 7 for users that still use XP."

Microsoft offers upgrade pricing for owners of all Editions of Winodws XP and Windows Vista.  You can go to sites like TigerDirect.com and get an OEM copy of Windows 7 with the purchase of some hardware you probably need already, anyways (new cheap hard drive, ram, etc.).

Stop crying about XP support.  There is no excuse for being stuck on XP 4 years after Vista was released, and when it's basically 2 releases old.

Don't wanna hear the crap about Vista sucking, either.  It's been more than usable ever since the first flurry of updates and as usable, if not more so, than XP sine SP1.

If you have a computer and an internet connection, I find it hard to believe you can't afford to upgrade.  Skip going to the movies or the bad a few times a month and you should be able to get you OS upgrade no problem...

Or enjoy using Hotmail, etc. through a web browser.

Bye.

@Nater I agree with you, Vista had pretty good usability since SP1 I had a laptop that came with Vista SP1 and I never had the problems people say about Vista....

@jyaniv

thanks tahanks tahnks

download spanish g.live.com/.../wlsetup-webd.exe

@jyaniv

Isn't that a couple of months old? And by the way, find your caps lock...

hm, I can't open this wlsetup-webd file... does anybody know how it works?

THE BETA IS HERE!!!!! CLICK ON THE LINK!!!!!!!!! explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-beta

got it - just had to add the .exe to the filename :)

ITS AVALIABLE!!!! At explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-beta

YEAHH

@ArmandM pues si entiendo y si entiendo en que sentido Windows 7 mejora el rendimiento del Disco Duro y su forma de ordenar las celdas. Bueno soy de Guatemala, un pequeño país en medio de un gran continente.

THANK YOU MICROSOFT, THANK YOU PIERO!!!! It's here!!! :D :D :D I love you guys!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D

34% completed the installation ...

It's available now, but the Portuguese translation included is the Brazilian one? I think that's a bit unfair to the European Portuguese users... :(

@Edin Orozco  Pues somos vecinos, soy de México... Una alternativa para ti es instalar Windows 7 en tu PC y mantenerlo sin activar  (utilizando el periodo de prueba), es posible utilizarlo en ese modo hasta 120 días de forma totalmente legal, y mientras podrias ahorrar para pagar la licencia...Yo afortunadamente pude acceder a un precio de 400 pesos mexicanos por una oferta para estudiantes en mi laptop anterior por que aca también es caro, la laptop que tengo ahora, por supuesto, venia con 7 :D

Thanks Microsoft for include the Portuguese of Brazil in its software Beta!  It is very good even new suite congratulate Microsoft!

@Piero Sierra  You are most welcome!  I would place money on the fact that this beta build you are about to release is not significantly different then the leaked build I tried a couple of months back.  It took well over a year just to get to this point so why would I even think in my wildest imagination that you could make any real improvements in a couple of months.  This will be the very same product as the leak with bug fixes plain and simple.  I was not impressed and  you could even say disappointed and unless you truly have done some amazing things with this since the leaked build, my opinion will not change.

I have found the download link on trustednerd.com

g.live.com/.../wlsetup-webd.exe

And now even explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-beta is online !!! happy download my friends !!!

Fantastic!!!  Official download site is ... live!

POR FIN DIPONIBLE DESDE ESTA DIRECCION explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-beta

SOLO HAY QUE CAMBIAR LA EXTENSION DEL ARCHIVO AL FINAL HAY QUE PONERLE    .exe

49% completed the instalation....

Can't install. It says I'm not connected to the internet!!! Of course I am!

Finished installing but can't log in.... It says "service is temporarily unavailable" How am I supposed to fix this? I was able to log in before with WL2009.

Me tira error D: no puedo instalarlo T____T

Installed and using it. I can upload pictures and status to FB quite easily. In fact the upload is faster. Good job!

It worked. I'm signed in now. YAY!!!!!! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D So happy, hihihihi.......... :D :D :D :D :D :D

@spencer

si te lanza un error y utilizas windows xp es normal ya que esta version nada mas es compatible con windows vista y windows 7

HELP! Using Windows 7 Ultimate, Installer says I'm not connected to internet and fails!

Is anyone else getting an error when trying to launch Live Sync? On one of my PCs it runs fine, on the other I get a "Sorry, there is a problem with the sync servers".

Has anyone noticed they can't change their display name? Mine seems to be stuck on my full real life name (the name from my Live Profile) and I can't seem to find anywhere to change it.

WTF MS.. You just forced me to install BLOAT WARE into Firefox and IE.  I can't even removed the plugins from firefox.  MESH upgrade looks like a major downgraded.  Facebook is broken.  All my contacts are GONE!  Why can't I select what I want installed anymore?  LAME.  yet another reason why MS is getting so far behind.  product fail.

@sombra1020

uso win 7 desde sus betas u_u me insulta k creas k tngo xp u_u

era un problema con el antivirus ya lo instale u_u

Tried to do Live Sync.  I could select a folder to start syncing, but when I click "Go to Windows Live Devices" I just get the windows live essentials page.  So I have no way to start syncing multiple computers yet.  Rats!  I guess they weren't ready for people to start using it yet.

@Piero Sierra

Já que temos o software em Portugues Brasil então vou agradecer em meu idioma. Obrigado Piero Sierra por liberar a nova suite e por também incluir o Brasil em seus softwares beta, tenho certeza que o nosso país é uma grande força em tecnologia. Mas, obrigado mesmo pelo belo trabalho, o programa está muito bom mesmo. Toda a sua equipe merece meus  parebéns.

Very very very thanks... :) I'm donwloding now...!

at least, I can sleep well, here now June 25, 02:29 PM in Indonesia.

You guys are weird... Were waiting and hitting F5 like crazy just to complaint and whine now? It has a "Beta" tag. Bugs and malfunctions are supposed to show up. Our work, as betatester is not to rant and go "screw up MS" but to actually give useful feedback. "Live Sync not working" "Display Name stucked", those are examples of good feedback. If you want stability and candies and flowers, you waited for the wrong download.

@Sam Beckett You can. On the download page, click "Choose which programs to download." Is it stupid that they changed it? Yes. Is there anything we can do about it? No.

I mean AM here... :) I so sleepy...

@sambeckett

Maybe if you give us more specific details someone can help you but...

First: Is a BETA version... little or major problems are always an option, 1 year ago i have buy a .me account from Apple and i have lost some of my contacts during the first sync task i have performed on my ex iPhone. And .Me is NOT free and when i have payed for the account the service was indicated as STABLE.

Second. I have just installed Live Beta with no errors and i have already performed a couple of sync from my desktop to my laptop with no problems at all (Office sync, IE Sync and 4 folders). Even the remote desktop works fine.

On Messenger Beta all works fine even with the social networks integration.

Third: Your live (messenger) contract list is stored on a remote server and is not resident in your pc... i doubt you can lost your contacts in that enviroment.

@sambeckett  Off course you can choose what to install, in the download page you have to click on the "Choose the programs you want" link to download an alternate version....

@tsger

If you install the beta on two computers and login (with the samne account of course :-P) you can see the connected devices without the nedd to access the web page :-)

@Jack Newport

They've told us about this change before on this blog.

Incoming fake names :/

@Gyussz So is the old display name system gone? We're going to have to have the <FirstName> <LastName> display name format? If so, bleughh :/ Sorry, I haven't been following this blog until very recently.

It doesn't log me in on Messenger, it says the service is not available temporally =( does this happen to someone else?

No me loguea en Messenger, dice que el servicio no esta disponible temporalmente =( a alguien mas le pasa esto?

All the programs are had really great improvements! The only one that i'm facing some bugs is the Messenger, but as it is a Beta version, i can normally deal with it. Here is my opinion about Messenger for the next public realease:

- Improve the visal interface: it's too white, the collor of the background in the bottom of the window could change when changing the main theme, as in the earlier version (2009); The pictures in the conversation windows are too next to the borders, it looks like it's missplaced;

- Fix the "Share something new" baloon (at least I can't change it through Messenger);

- Add the "Show what I'm listening to" option as in the other versions (maybe it's there and I just can't find).

That's it guys! Congratulations!!!

Not being able to de-select Outlook Connector Pack is a usability failure, IMO.  People should not be forced to install applications that they don't want or need, especially when it's not needed by any other components (like Silverlight or the .Net Framework).

I better be able to uninstall it when this is finished.

I'm also suprised this takes over an hour to install...

I mean "all the programs 'REALLY HAD'". Sorry for the mistake.

Right ok, I have installed Messenger Beta.  But how do we change our "Nickname" like we did on the normal version of MSN.  Its just showing my full name now.

OK, I can go to the devices.live.com site now and see my computer.  Guess it just took a few minutes.

Hi. I've downloaded the new Windows Live Essentials, and I can't login to Messenger :S.

How can I fix this?

Thanks in advance

Attention Mesh and Sync users!

If you're using Live Mesh or Windows Live Sync already, you’ll have to uninstall the previous version before you start using the new beta version – the Mesh team has written up a quick FAQ to help you get started.  Learn more about the new Sync beta in our previous blog post here: windowsteamblog.com/.../coming-soon-windows-live-sync-beta.aspx

@ Jack Newport - To change your display name, click on your display name on the messenger and then go to options, and then you can see the "personal" tab, your display name is there and next to it is the word "Edit". Now you can change your display name.

Why not Languages for German??? :-( Please update Windows Live for German!!!!

Please!!!!

@Raphzs - the song function is already there, if u look at options and the "personal" tab.

For those who are having trouble logging in, don't worry, be patient and try again a few more times, I had it too at the beginning and now I am able to log in... Nothing to worry about... :)

Someone was able to connect Twitter ? is not present in the social networks list... Is a problem related to my country ? other italian users have the same problem ?

@ Tai Tran.  When you click "Edit Name" it takes you to your profile on MSN.  We want to figure out how to change our Nickname like we used to on Live Messenger 9.

I love the new Photo Gallery, it's beautiful and works great!  However, I was hoping to keep the Photo Gallery (not just the photos) synced between 3 home computers.  Back in the day you had a Gallery Sync which kept the photos, settings and changes sync'ed.  Is there an option for that now, if so where?

Tech Question: I installed the beta and opened Photo Gallery. All of my photos appeared as they should. After changing windows a few times, I went back to the Gallery window and there were no photos found. I have a message in the middle of the screen that says "No items match your search." The trouble is that I have not searched for a particular photo(s) by date or any other criteria. I can't find any place to "clear" the search. I have tried to repair the windows live installation, restarted several times, uninstalled only photo gallery, and uninstalled then reinstalled Window Live. I am still having this problem. Can someone kindly point me to where the search criteria might be coming from and where I can clear it? The correct pictures folders have been added to my library so now I am at a loss. I looked in the program file settings but did not see anything that might fit this bill.  Thanks!

Guys, I've heard a few people with the same issue. After you run the installer, you get an error message:

"Couldn't set up the installer. Check to be sure you are connected to the internet"

I thought it was becouse of congestion, but after an entire hour I was still unable to install; so I tried with another laptop and it worked fine.

Any hints?

I'm on W7HP 64bit and I already uninstalled Mesh.

Movie Maker is SOOOO disappointing!

There does not appear to be a timeline, so MSFT has stiffed us again.

The Project tab is odd; it has a few throw-away features (though admittedly the "Fit to music" button appears useful), but it's certainly not home to a timeline and it's really not clear why the tab is there in the first place.

The Edit video tab still features that incredibly annoying duration box, forcing you to guess (and re-guess) at the length of a photo rather than sliding it precisely - like in a timeline - to where you want it to go. ARGH!

So, WLMM is still a slideshow maker to me. I guess the WLMM development team is truly serious about the Movie Maker enthusiast crowd moving on to commercial software.

If only the improvements in this new version had been added to WMM6!

That was the WORST installation process I have ever had - crash, reboot, unable to integrate Facebook, crash, reboot, uninstall, reboot, crash on install process 2nd attempt. unable to stay logged into Live Messenger - - Uninstall, reboot, install last proper version - I am being polite, there were several swear words in real life

Love the new programs but REALLY wish sync and skydrive were not separate..... seems like a huge mistake to me that you can't use sync to get files to your skydrive and then have skydrive's 25 gigs of storage as well as the webpage office editing.  Had an opportunity to do something special for skydrive and sync.

Worked flawlessly for me, and I just uninstalled the outlook hotmail connector afterwards.  It did take a bit long, but that's probably because everyone and their mother is downloading it.  I like to keep hotmail in WLM and my Exchange in Outlook, not together.

Loving the facebook integration, now I don't have to visit the website unless I get a message or need to approve someone (or something of that nature).  Finally a decent Facebook Client!

Social View is REVOLUTIONARY!!!11!!!1

New Windows Live is just Wonderful, but in Windows Live Mail when I Have new message I can't find option for the page color, why??? I'm worry please you change it, i miss it so much, please please please. Sorry for errors my english language is not good, I'm from Poland

Same problem here...

"Windows live Essentials couldn't been installed"

"Couldn't install these programs: Sync" (wich is the only one i've tried to install)

"It looks like another program is preventing the installer from working" (Who? Satan?)

Error: 0x80070643

Source: Contacts

I'm running windows 7 home premium 64bit...

Unrelated question:  Any idea when everyone will be upgraded to the new Hotmail?  My hotmail account is still using the old interface/

You should really include that white red mark over the status icon of the people who are blocked. I'm really having some problems on distinguishing who are blocked and who are not... =/

You should really include that little* red mark over the status icon of the people who are blocked. I'm really having some problems on distinguishing who are blocked and who are not... =/

The only bad thing about this is the bug. That when you update the social box at the top. It does NOT change your Facebook status even though you have Facebook Synced :(

Also the main (Nickname) thing you have. Does not change/you can't change it. And everyone using the Stable 2009 version can see what it is and you can't change it :(

Why did you make this beta buggy :( The 2009 beta was not as buggy :(

instalation (ok)

messenger and social integration (ok)

movie maker (ok) and awesome!

but, my windows 7 home premium (64bit) crash one time.

for now, ok. waiting for the final product soon.

Quote:  "The only bad thing about this is the bug. That when you update the social box at the top. It does NOT change your Facebook status even though you have Facebook Synced :("

WorksForMe™

Why in Windows Live Mail beta haven't option Page color? will be?

Love the new messenger....

Im having connection issues, i can sign in as offline without a disconnection but then when i appear as available it goes off and i cannot update facebook or myspace live feed

This build was compiled on the 7th? Its old! lol

UNABLE TO put Messenger in system tray == DEATH of windows messenger!!!

Why is MS forcing us to keep messenger in the taskbar?

It might not be so bad if they could compress it.  But seeing "Windows Live Me..." in the foreground is not only sloppy looking, it is not efficient.  Put the icon back in the system tray OR I not going to use it .... lol

Piero, how do we give feedback on the beta, in terms of bugs and such?

When I try to add a person to share a folder with (online, via synced folders), the permissions don't "take."  It still shows up as only shared with me.

Testing live writer.

I notice you now give font options, please add in an option to disable this, you are getting into frontpage teriority. Use web designers do not want our clients going crazy picking fonts that will not show online. Plain text with basic formatting is all we want.

If you do keep this font option why show every font on the system when you know we can only use core web fonts online?

Also the font face tag is not depreciated. The previous live writer created excellant code, you are starting to get sloppy.

When you play music in Windows Media Player it doesn't appear in The Messenger Status.

@sambeckett - if you want to put messenger to system tray, do this trick, go to start menu, go to the messenger icon and then right click on it and choose Properties. Now choose the "Compatibily" tab and choose "run program in compatibility mode for WINDOWS VISTA SERVICE PACK 2". Click ok/apply. Now you can put the messenger to the system tray.

@sneekywaffle27 - make sure the "windows live messenger plug-in" is ON on your windows media player.

In the full view can't you swich between social an friends as you did in M2?? Because I don't see the option anymore and I want the Firends section to be bigeger than the Social section...

Why is the message title font larger in the message list than the previous version? Is this by accident or intentional? It's quite annoying... we're not all 50 years old or have vision problems.

Where do we report bugs i.e. sending separate messages with the same subject to two different people get grouped together in one conversation.

Is there a way to remove non-used buttons i.e. Sign In?

Ok, feedback for all Microsoft. It's not working on 64 bit versions of Windows 7. The installation crashed or tells me that I have no internet connection.

The default action (wlsetup-webd.exe) to install all the apps (including Bing toolbar and such) by default without ever warning the user about it or giving them a choice is a very bad move IMHO.

Yes, if you go to explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-beta and click on "Choose the programs you want" you can get a decent installer which will give you a normal choice, but why isn't that the default installer? Why was an automatic installer even created? Almost nobody will notice the "Choose the programs you want" link as everybody will expect you can choose which apps to install in the installer itself... as it has *always* been, for *every* software package I know.

This move to force all the app on everybody just seems very hostile to me, especially when by default you add a browser toolbar which just looks spammy to most people because it reminds them of invasive adware browser toolbars.

@ seboobs  I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit and It worked perfectly fine for me...

Hey guys, if you want to leave feedback/report bugs, check out the windows live forums at http://windowslivehelp.com/ for the product you want to talk about.

@Johan Bruné  Well have in mind that this is for testing purposes and we are supposed to test them and send feedback, so I gess thats why they provide us all the software automatically. In the final version probable we'll have the installation options

Sorry Microsoft, but if you'd present a company such a product... they'd sue you. Unsatisfying or just terrible is the right word. CPU goes up, RAM is like I would use AIM, Yahoo and ICQ together and you must be kidding... normally I do have 2 persons in my buddy list (the others already signed up for Yahoo)... after installation I do have 200. Thanks for adding all the Facebook pages to my buddy list. Takes 2 minutes to scroll to the bottom. And come on... "Send a message to I'm a fan of George W." is absurd because it technically doesn't work. One can't send a private message to a "I like page". Why the heck didn't you add XMPP support. Would take 2 seconds for the user to add Facebook (or even Gtalk).... but who am I talking to... like any other IM provider... you don't care for other networks. Hopefully many users will switch to multi protocol messengers.

I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit and it worked fine. I was happy about this beta but when downloaded it I was disappointed. What I hate about the new messenger:

1. You can no longer have a screen name because when you click edit name it takes to your profile

2. http://www.msgplus.net/  cannot be used on this new messenger which sucks

3. You can't change the background in an open conversation. Why remove messenger plus features when it already had tabbed chat and so much features?

4.

What I love

1. That you can appear offline then appear online to one specific person

2.Love the new look of it all

Well seeing that I cant do most of the good things with this messenger I had to uninstall it. :( I try installing the other beta programs but the messenger is a must update so they can keep their Windows Live Essentials Beta. I love the upgrade to the other programs especially Hotmail but sorry. I hate what they have done to the messenger I love so much so had to get rid of it.

@MarcoIsAFool   Do you know what BETA stands for?  es.wikipedia.org/.../Fases_del_desarrollo_de_software

@Jack Newport

Yup, no more display name, unless they change their minds.

(windowsteamblog.com/.../giving-you-more-meaningful-choices-to-control-your-privacy.aspx)

well i do hope in the full version it would put back screen name and enable you to use messenger plus or even backgrounds

@lovemeeka  Well the Messenger Plus is not Microsoft Software therefore, they have no responsability about it, its responsability of its developer to update de app so it is compatible with the new Messenger...

As for nicknames and backgrounds, well in my opinion its one of the best features, the backgrounds I dont care about them, but the nicks, I'm tired of seeing longer and longer nicks and with all kinds of stupid things written there... But of course thats my opinion, I prefer to see only the name, it looks cleaner...

Getting the following error: Couldn't set up the installer. Check to be sure you are connected to the internet

I tried to install the beta but is says I have to delete all of the old live essentials I have on my computer. What happens to all my pictures and email and email  contacts if I delete the old essentials? Don't want to screw up what I've got, it's working fine.

same here! error 0x8104000b! help!

@kadenus Easy, everything is stored either in Microsoft servers or in your computer, for example contacts are stored in Microsoft servers, and your photos in your computer, but WL Installer won't touch them, so you can uninstall without being afraid...

It seems like you don't know what is beta. If you want everything to work, use the old stable. If you want bleeding edge and like testing new stuff use this one.

Thank you guys, amazing work! Loving it ^_^

Still playing around with this, but there does seem to be a few problems.  The install was troublesome on 3 out of 4 computers I installed it on, all of them Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.  Speaking of 64-bit, it's a shame Microsoft is not taking the lead in making their software 64-bit.  I cannot stand the Bing Tool Bar, the WL toolbar was better, and the Bing bar is using far too much memory (mswinext).  Please, don't lecture me on this being a "beta", I am well aware of that, and I have participated in so many Microsoft betas I have lost count of the projects.  But, there are some serious performance and memory issues with several of the programs.  I am very disappointed with Live Sync and what happened to Live Mesh, and it is absolutely nuts about the Live Sync limit of 2GB with SkyDrive, that makes no sense at all.... none.  You guys have some work to do, and better start with the install issues I have seen reported and experienced.  I appreciate the free software, but Microsoft can do better, and it must.

@Michael The way you express prevent us from lecturing you the beta thing, what you say is really important and those things are the one we need to report to Microsoft. I totally agree on the Sync - SkyDrive issue, moreover, I think they should be integrated, although I don't think Microsoft is changing that anytime soon nor the design of the Bing bar... But as I said before, we have to report this stuff to Microsoft...

I can read facebook infomation from messenger, but can not update the infomation to facebook

Is it a bug?

******** HOW TO GIVE FEEDBACK & REPORT BUGS ********

Folks, here are some URLs to use for feedback and bugs that should be more efficient than leaving comments on this post.

General feedback > http://feedback.live.com

Bugs > http://windowslivehelp.com

Thanks!

-Piero

@ArmandM   Sorry, but BETA is plain wrong. This piece of software is Pre-Alpha, not a bit Beta. And what does "urging users to use real names instead of an alias" have to do with Beta? Nothing.   The current release looks like developers worked a week on it and not 3 years :(

Downloaded the Essentials Beta. I HATE the changes to WL Mail. Absolutely hate it. First there's the ribbon. It's huge. The old WLM had a nice, thin toolbar. This takes up significantly more screen space on a small screen. Second, why did you change the message preview so that subject is on the top line and who it's from is on the bottom? WTF were you thinking. The old WLM is reverse of that, as is Outlook, and the web interface of Hotmail if using a preview pane. Third, you default the sort by Date to conversation and it took me a long time to figure out how to disable this. It's annoying. Lastly I DO NOT WANT MY FACEBOOK CONTACTS TO APPEAR IN MY WL MAIL CONTACT LIST. NO! NO! NO! There appears to be no way to filter this out.

Some of you guys should be blocked from downloading as you don't seem to understand what "beta" means

Found a problem with Messenger. IF you go into Personalize, Themes, and delete one by mistake, there is no way to restore them. I accidentally deleted the one I wanted to you use because this dialog is very unintuitive -- why would you have the option to delete, and why would you get a red X instead of a green checkmark? Confusing.

@MarcoIsAFool Well thats your impression, for me it has been working just fine, and the real names instead of an alias is one of the things I liked the most, I hate those annoying nicknames with all kind of stuff in them; now, at the moment I have just 3 complaints, the first one is the time it took the installation process, second a little bug I noticed when having multiple convesations that "cut" my display by the half, but it only happend once, and third than you can't switch the possition of the social/friends areas.... Everything else has performed decent enough for me...

@leftofcentre

Your grievances have been noted. The Writer team totally understands where you're coming from. Thank you for your feedback on the new Live Writer. Please keep it coming.

What doesn't the Messenger allow user to have a display name different from the Windows Live Profile name?!

Also, I think a conversation tab can be closed by a middle mouse click like Internet Explorer. Why isn't it allowed?

*Unable to get Messenger to upload status to Facebook.  Download recent activity correctly.

*Messenger bug with Yahoo contacts showing as Offline since Monday is still broken even with update.

*Sync is a downgrade from Mesh. I love Mesh and Sync is great too since it is a freebie, but lacks polish.

*WTF is up wih the Outlook extensions. I hope I can find a setting to turn it off or uninstall it. Taking up half the reading pain is not ideal at all.

*Love photo gallery.  Would be nice to have the ability to "delete" when doing the "group tagging". Generally if you do not know who the person is, most would probably delete the photo.

So far so good, but here's what I thought / assumed would happen...

1: A Skydrive shortcut in My Computer. However thank you for putting it in Windows Live Photo Gallery

2: I thought I would see an option in Windows Live Photo Gallery to sign into my facebook, picasa, flickr, etc and see ALL of my photos on all of my sites. I would LOVE a program to do that. Master control from one app right on my laptop.

I just wanted to expand my comment and say I think that it's looking like a great suite of applications and while it's missing the 2 elements I mentioned before, I am sure it will be useful and I wouldn't mind Windows Live Spaces becoming more popular than Facebook through it;'s ease of using MY stuff on MY computer. Thank you.

PJGINTX, PcBoyGeorge and sayjay09,

 Could you describe in a bit more detail what happens when you try to update Facebook? Are you saying posting a status update in Messenger doesn't end up on Facebook within a few seconds/minutes or that you can't post comments in response to what your friends said on Facebook?

PS: The best place to report bugs in Social Networking in Messenger is windowslivehelp.com/forums.aspx

Was there supposed to be eventual Facebook Chat support?  AIM's was way too glitchy to use (seemed to get the "idle" and "offline" statuses mixed up too often) and I really don't like having the chat window open just to talk to one person there.

I can say this MESSENGER beta build is awesome and nice, especially the interface and graphic.  However I will appreciate if more options (settings) can be put into this messenger.  For example, give the options:

- to choose the font size of content in "social" and "friends".  IMHO, the font size in "social" is a bit too large while for "friends" is a bit too small

- to choose whether "social" on the right or on the left.  I used to let the "friends" on the left

- make the ads smaller, ok? t took up too much spaces

thanks!

and ya, give us the options to

- remember my ID

- remember my password

don't group them together.  I'm very concern about my security because my computer is shared.

@grants04 If you're getting a "No items match your search." message in your gallery is because you either a) Have a filer applied (look for a bar below the ribbon) you can use the 'x' on that bar to clear the search or b) You have a folder selected (on the left pane) that doesn't contain any files that Photo Gallery can display, just select another folder and you should be able to see your photos. If you need further help please check our forum at: windowslivehelp.com/forums.aspx

I can't get it to install,  I get the same

""Windows live Essentials couldn't be installed

Couldn't install these programs: Sync"

It looks like another program is preventing the installer from working

Error: 0x80070643

Source: Contacts"

message as has previously been mentioned.  It doesn't matter whether I try to install all programs, some programs or each program individually, the same thing happens.  I've uninstalled all previous versions of Windows Live programs but that didn't help.

@DareObasanjo - I enter something in the social box (Box right at the top) and press enter. But it does not update my Facebook Status

And tried restarting,unlinking Facebook and relinking but no luck

Is it possible to JUST install windows live sync and nothing else??

I can't find any integration with twitter though... That's too bad :(

Live Sync crashes on me everytime I start it on one PC:

Faulting application name: WLSync.exe, version: 15.3.2804.607, time stamp: 0x4c0d884a

Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 6.1.7600.16385, time stamp: 0x4a5bdbdf

Exception code: 0x80000003

Fault offset: 0x000122a1

Faulting process id: 0xd1c

Faulting application start time: 0x01cb144af11bb681

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\SyncUX\WLSync.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Windows\syswow64\KERNELBASE.dll

Report Id: 32df9650-803e-11df-97be-00247e2e64ca

When i try to share something in msn it does not update my facebook why?

Why is there no straightforward way of giving feedback directly? Office 2010 beta had a very nice way of sending feedback directly and so did windows 7 , why not WLE 2011?

1. "feedback.live.com/"   has no option to select the version of Windows live mail and same goes for the other live products too . How will the developer know for which version of the product the feedback is given?

2. "windowslivehelp.com/" has no way of reporting a bug and all it gives is "ask  a question"  how does that qualify as a bug? i m really curious to know

The software is not free, you are charging for that in the form of  windows 7 , vista and office 2010 etc . So why don't you implement a proper channel for feedback like the above products did? is that lethargy or carelessness?

Hi, I'm a Live Essential User till the very first moment, I like your products and with this wave 4 you've done a big step toward, but I also have to regret that you're still behind some functions Apple suite offers from long time:

1) in Live Mail, Movie maker and Photo Gallery now it's not possible to change the color scheme

2) in Live Mail I can't freely rearrange photos inside the specific layout I choose, simply dragging & dropping them from one place to another, nor in any other way

3) in Live Mail it's still not possible to automatically discover names, addresses, phone numbers and appointments and contestually save them in the contacts or in the calendar and so on, as Apple Mail do from long ago

4) in Live Mail background templates for photo mail are now completely absent

No problems when installing. Window 7, 64-bit.

Windows Live Messenger always crashes when trying to open the main window. It logs on OK, I can rightclick on the taskbar and open conversations with friends, edit options, etc, but whenever I try opening the main Messenger window the program freezes, and I have to shut it down. I've tried with both compact and full view.

When using an alternate live-ID (with no friends or activity) the whole program works smoothly without issues.

Same issue anyone, or suggestion for solution? :-)

PcBoyGeorge,

 If you go to windowslivehelp.com/forums.aspx you'll see where I've provided my Microsoft email address on a forum thread on this topic. Please contact me by email so I can get some information about your account so we can better investigate this problem.

#PhotoGallery How do I give People Tagging Suggestions a fresh start? ... I have deleted all the existing tags from my photos, as I hoped that after that, I will get fresh Batch Suggestions, but it won't recognise the deleted faces again. Any suggestions or registry tweaks?

@MarcoisaFool -- good news for you regarding XMPP and Facebook Chat integration.  Like we announced a few weeks ago and again earlier this week with the new Messenger iPhone app, Facebook Chat (via XMPP) *is* coming and will be available later this year.   This will let you do Facebook Chat natively from the Messenger Client, from WebIM in Hotmail and throughout Skydrive and our other web sites, and via the Messenger iPhone app.   stay tuned :)

Like it but am I missing something how do I filter my Facebook contacts to those online only?

Ok i must ask this ! :-D

Someone from the staff can say something about the intergration with windows phone 7 ?

Skydrive access from phone, contact sync, device sync etc etc ???

I'm a Enterprise Admin and many companies ask me full convergence desktops/mobile phones and many little companies cannot afford an exchange/sharepoint enviroment...

The new services in Live can resolve many problems even in a small-business enviroment.

Hi Pashih, you asked for more feedback, i posted this comment before, but never got a reply, maybe you can consider it as i think its important.

I like live writer a lot. I am a web developer and i always install live writer on client machines to let them edit their sites. Clients find it very easy to use but one problem always occurs - there is no way to insert files in posts. It’s not in the current version, and i can see from the screen shots this feature does not appear to be in the new version either. I know there are some plugins that add this feature, but they are quite clunky, and i find them buggy with windows 7.

The plugins show that this feature can be done, so it seems such an obvious thing to have, as people need to attach files to posts, so why leave out this feature? Eg to download word files, pdf files etc. Please do consider adding it as I find it the number one user complaint. Live writer is a great product, having this feature would make it excellent :-)

@leftofcentre

Insert files in posts is a great feature suggestion that's been on our backlog and we'll revisit for future releases of Live Writer. Unfortunately, we were not able to get to it in this release cycle.

In the meantime, be sure to check out http://skydrive.live.com and http://office.live.com for easy ways to share photos, videos, documents, and miscellaneous files.

Negative Messenger:

Missing the one-way webcam functionality...

Missing the option to choose a screenname..

Few small problems with the dutch translation. (At some points the words are too big)

Positive Messenger:

Tabbed conversations

Great new login screen.

Option to choose wich individual contacts can see your online/offline.

New emoticons

Wow Pashih you are quick today :-)

Features i would love for Messenger:

When someone sends me an IM and i am in another program i want a small preview box with the message text in it, like you get with outlook when a new email arrives.

It drives me nuts have you click between apps when chatting. I have a 24inch monitor, what i would like is too be able to dock the chat window in the right side of the screen, then all other apps will not obscure it. This should be very easy in windows 7 as the snap feature does some of these things but its fiddly to arrange the windows.

Can we please have tabbed chats? Msgplus has had this for years.

Security with files transfer. I am an MS developer so not a complete idiot. It really annoys me when messenger blocks certain file types. And no i don't want to scan my files either. Please have a setting to overide these security options for users who know what they are doing.

Thanks

Impressed with most of the WL essential's apart from Sync. I'm having all sorts of problems with it. It doesn't appear to end syncing folders despite having exactly the same files on both devices. Also when syncing folders to skydrive that too seems to keep going on forever, even though when I check it online it appears to have uploaded all the files. Is anyone else having the same problems?  Its really annoying as it bring my internet to a crawl while appearing to do nothing ;(

Love the new Messenger, short of 2 things: 1. PLEASE bring back the old style display name function! I loved changing my name to something totally random but I can't do this now without it affecting Hotmail. 2. Enable multiple instances/polygamy! I have many e-mail accounts and using the old version of Messenger had a nice reg hack that enabled me to do this. So please consider this Windows Live team. :)

Does anyone know how i can get Sync to launch on startup?

Please do not make the Messenger quitting by pressing Alt+F4

I love Live Mesh, also looking forward to Live Sync. But, when I was trying the beta:

- You uninstalled my Live Mesh, that's fine, but I can no longer have my data synced with my existing PCs;

- You leave all my data in Live Mesh folder, and did not transfer these data to my skydrive. You want me to upload the 5GB data myself again?

- I have quite a lot devices added to Live Mesh, can't you simply import these device settings to skydrive? You want me to add them back one by one?

As you said, Live Sync is the successor of Live Mesh, will you resolve the legacy data problem by moving our data and settings on Live Mesh site to the skydrive?

Oh ya, some updates on my feedback:

- no twitter support

- unable to use nickname, users are forced to use real name

- overlapping issues of text (below the text input area) with the border of conversation windows

- unable to use small thumbnail instead of large thumbnail in conversation windows (the arrow button to show options on the left of avatars as in WLM2009 is lost)

- will not remember online status when attempt to sign in (lets say I ask to sign in as "appear offline".  I closed messenger and I launched again, the option goes back to "available")

Why microsoft is not providing a standalone version of Windows Live with all the application in it. Everyone want to install the softwares offine and when required they will connect to internet and update that softwares if any updates found. I'm using Windows Live Writer for my blog (bcdalai.spaces.live.com) and want to use this tool wherever I go, but the problem is that you have to install that software before posting to blog. I want this software near me in CD/Pen drive so that I can install this in any computer and post my articles on the blog instantly. Also the stand alone version for other application is also too much important.

bcdalai

bcdalai.spaces.live.com

WHY THE HELLL! WOULD U GUYS REMOVE THE INDIVIDUAL WEBCAM FEATURE!? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!? X(

Love the new Windows Live Mail client.  Two issues with "conversation view" though:  1) Would love to see my replies ("sent" emails) in the conversation, so Ic ould see the whole conversation and not just one side of it, and 2) when deleting an email from a conversation (whether the root, or a reply with many sibling replies), the selection jumps to the next conversation.  This makes deleting several emails from the same conversation awkward and tedious.  I would think the selection should just select the "next" message in the conversation.  This isn't intuitive behavior.  

Love the new Photo Gallery, but there are some usability issues around the Facial recognition:  In the "batch select' mode, there's no intuitive or obvious way to exit back to the main gallery page.  I finally figured it out, but I had to look way too hard, and got frustrated trying to figure it out, and almost just quit out and re-launched just to get back.  Definitely not a good thing.  Also, when "confirming" a guess, there needs to be a "No, that's not correct" option to go with the existing "Yes, confirm" option.  The "Ignore" option should be used for things that aren't faces (I have seen a few of those), and for random strangers in the backgrounds that get detected.  Selecting "ignore" when the question is to "confirm?" doesn't make sense and isn't logical.    And finally, I noticed that the batch face tagging page was asking me or coming up with the same faces over and over with the wrong guesses.  Even though I was entering the person every time, it never seemed to learn or "stick".  When I went back to the regular gallery view, and tagged that face/picture again, this time it prompted me for a first and last name... the person was in my contacts but without full data filled in, and this seemed to confuse the batch face tagging page.  Once I filled in that info (when prompted), it stuck.  So that would be a bug.

And finally, Photo Gallery absolutely needs one new feature:  the ability to filter out folders (and all sub-folders) from the standard view.  If I have personal or private photos, or things I just simply don't want everyone to see just by launching Photo Gallery, I have to move them out of my "Pictures" folder.  That seems ridiculous.  It seems I should be able to just mark a folder as "private", so that the only way to see what's in there is to actually drill down to it and select it... it's never selected by default even if you select it's parent.  That really is, to me, a MUST HAVE feature.  Of course, the same should be true of my "videos" folder, and Movie Maker.

Other than that, I have to say Great Job, and Windows Live Mail is officially my favorite mail client now, vastly superior to Windows Live Mail wave 3!  Keep up the good work!

The current beta has a lot of great features, and a sleek clean look, however right now for me the cons are outweighing the pros;

1. Please bring back Nicknames, which was a huge reason why I used Live Messenger. It adds personalization.

2. Allow us to disable/enable the social networking.

3. SmartScreen needs to have an option to turn off. Or at least after a few times seeing the warning message, it stops appearing.

4. Allow us to disable the Bing feature (underlined words) I have accidently clicked those so many times.

5. When we post a picture link, don't automatically display it. Let us disable that too.

6. Let us AT LEAST hide our last names. So we have the customization of just a first name, because you don’t want everyone on your list knowing your information. It's the internet, keep information private. We have private emails, and for that we want our name hidden.

7. Don't require us to have so much information on our "profiles." That is unnecessary if most of the people using live messenger aren't going to be using that, at least the people I know won’t.

8. Bring back when you right click a contact and press edit contact, to have its own little built-in pop up. Not a website. That is not needed when you want to change say a birthday or add a quick note.

I have been beta testing the messengers for years, and this is a good stable build but I have run into quite a bit of errors for an open beta, and the quality you put out is not top notch as it has been before.

@Dreda...

2: Hiet the button on the upper-right to switch between social and messenger mode. Once you are in Messenger mode it remembers which mode you last used before you closed Messenger, so you never have to see the social mode. Nobody is forcing you to connect other services to your profile either.

4: You can already. Click on your name -> More options -> Messages -> untick "Underline a word if I can add content about it from the web".

7: Which information are you really required to have in your profile? Last time I registered a Live accout I really wasn't forced to enter much information. Yes, you *can* enter a lot more, but it is not required, and if you don't ever edit your profile you don't even notice it is there.

I agree with most of your other points though :).

When you sync a remote folder between just two computers the sync goes trough *.gateway.edge.messenger.live.com regardless if you want to sync to the Live Drive or not. This should be done directly by p2p as the old Sync did.

It's not a problem, but it will greatly reduce the speed that the syncing are done in.

#PhotoGallery How do I give People Tagging Suggestions a fresh start? ... I have deleted all the existing tags from my photos, as I hoped that after that, I will get fresh Batch Suggestions, but it won't recognise the deleted faces again. Any suggestions or registry tweaks?

1) in Live Mail, Movie maker and Photo Gallery now it's not possible to change the color scheme

2) in Live Mail I can't freely rearrange photos inside the specific layout I choose, simply dragging & dropping them from one place to another, nor in any other way

3) in Live Mail it's still not possible to automatically discover names, addresses, phone numbers and appointments and contestually save them in the contacts or in the calendar and so on, as Apple Mail do from long ago

4) in Live Mail background templates for photo mail are now completely absent

Remove the Ads that pop up in every messenger chat window, please.

Great seeing all the interest in Live Essentials Beta. If you are interested about how the new Live Photo Gallery handles more than 100.000 photos and if the "batch people tagging" function works, follow me on mihailcretu.spaces.live.com/blog

my "real live" test is running since 24.06

Ok, this is weird. So I imported contacts from my facebook account. Now, in hotmail, it deduplicated them. However, in Windows Live Mail, in contacts, it has not been deduplicated. Trying to clean up contacts online shows that there are no duplicate contacts. When I try to tag people in photo gallery, people have also not been deduplicated! This is really annoying. Anyone?

I already posted the above question on windows live help, but was hoping someone here may answer it faster :) Really anxious to finally have my photos organized with people tags.

Sync - Would like it if you restored the ability to right-click a folder and choose to add it to list of synced folders.

@Joyette Scantleberry:  To start Sync on startup, I had to add a shortcut to the executable in my startup folder.

I've posted on windowslivehelp but nobody has responded, so I'm asking; does anyone else's social view look like this? img194.imageshack.us/.../capturenul.png

With the half screen advert blocking out the precious space for your contact list? It looks like a HUGE design flaw, or it simply could be a bug.

Please respond!

@Parax Welcome to more of Microsoft's banner ads.

@Johan

Haha I just found those today! Forgive me.

I forgot to click one more button in the settings, where pretty much all those were.

In my haste trying to figure out anyway to block my full name, I didn't take them for the others,

More feedback on Windows Live Mail.  The old version had gotten pretty good at filtering out the gunk mail on my various email accounts (one in particular gets tons of junk mail and spam).  However, after upgrading, that seemed to go away, and my inbox is now flooded with junk mail, and I'm having to use the "junk" button a lot more than I previously did.  

Is there some way it can preserve the junk mail settings or whatever the old version 'learned' so that I don't have to go about training it all over agian?  I mean, it still catches some, so it's not starting from scratch, but it's also missing a tons of obvious spam that should be getting caught without me having to flag it as junk.

@Parax - It's hard to tell 100% because of the black-out, but your view does not look like a bug.  It just looks like you do not have many friends sharing social updates.  For example where there are no photos in your feed, we switch to a single column of updates like in your picture.  When more friends post more rich updates (though Windows Live or Facebook or other), your feed will look richer.  However from you comments I think you might actually prefer our Compact view without all the social stuff, see this post for information: windowsteamblog.com/.../windows-live-messenger-full-or-compact-view-you-decide.aspx

@achalddave - When we find two contacts we believe are the same, we mark them as such in our database *without actually merging the contacts* - it is just extra information we store.  Then each 'view' of contacts can decide whether it wants to use that extra data to display each contact separately, or to visually merge them into one. For example in Messenger (and some Hotmail views) you can show your contacts merged, or teased apart individually.  In Windows Live Mail, contacts will show you each and every record individually.  Our data shows that most users use that particular Contacts view to 'manage' their list (as opposed to Messenger, where poeple mostly 'find a person to chat with'), so we think showing each contact independently is a better choice - easier to edit / delete each record.  We did not have time to add the options to merge / tease apart contacts in this view.

@Piero, sorry I acrtually meant the half screen advert on the bottom right side. It can't be hard to miss.

Hello Windows Live Team,

I downloaded the new version of windows live and I like it verry much. I think that is verry verry good for a beta. Good job ;)

However I feel that something is missing: in live mail client you can sort you contacts by first name, but on the live messenger you can't. This is something that was already missing in the previous version of messenger. It should be easy to have the option to sort contacts by first name and then by last name.

I hope that you guys make it until the final release. Please tell me if you agree with me.

Cheers

This isn't going to be a required messenger update for Win7 users is it? I really don't much like it. The interface is oversized, as is the ad window. I'm using the Wave 3 version and it's very compact in the contact list. I tried the beta and it was ok, took alot to get in installed (Had to turn on Windows Firewall for some unknown reason), but this isn't something I could stand to use myself. So yeah, In short, even if this does become final I won't be updating to it...:(

First, this is nice and interesting.

I may have totally missed this - but WHERE is FACEBOOK CHAT? Seriously, you'll integrate Yahoo's chat, but not Facebook's chat?

And I'd customisable layouts.

Hey!  Why is my Windows Live Profile page suddenly in French?!?  GAH!!!  How do I get it back to English!  I didn't change anything... it was just that way when I fired up Windows Live messagnger, went to tools->Options, and tried to set the Layout for the Social Media options.  It fired up a web page, took me to my Windows Live Profile, and suddenly everything was in french.  And it seems to have gotten stuck that way.  Help!

@Hemingray - If you do not like the larger interface, you can switch to a more compact view at any time as previously discussed:  windowsteamblog.com/.../windows-live-messenger-full-or-compact-view-you-decide.aspx

@mrmckeb - As previously announced, we are working on enabling Facebook chat before our final release.  Stay tuned!

There are a bunch of bugs, I hope all of them are weeded out in the next beta version or the final.

Here is the main one tho, which will cause a lot of users a great annoyance.

When you are trying to message your friends, they do not get your messages, or you do not receive theirs. It has something to do with the "appear offline" to the single user.

However, everything else seems to work fine, besides that and as someone said before, facebook does not automatically update even when synced to the messenger client.

@Piero Sierra Oh I see! That's good to know. However, I really think that in Windows Live Photo Gallery, the contacts should be merged. After all, when I am tagging someone, I want to tag the person-- and I don't care which network they are on. Let's say I want to tag some random person-- Joe. If I have this person on my Facebook and on my Windows Live, when I try to tag him on Photo Gallery, it will show me two "Joe"s, one from Facebook and one from Windows Live. That can be really annoying. Will that be fixed in the final release? Or is this a bug?

@ Piero Serra: please, I'd like an answer on this themes I feel really important:

1) in Live Mail, Movie Maker and Photo Gallery now it's not possible to change the color scheme

2) in Live Mail I can't freely rearrange photos inside the specific layout I choose simply dragging & dropping them from one place to another, nor in any other way

3) in Live Mail it's still not possible to automatically discover names, addresses, phone numbers and appointments and contestually save them in the contacts or in the calendar and so on, as Apple Mail do from long ago

4) in Live Mail background templates for photo mail are now completely absent

@Piero Sierra: What about the nicknames? I like those better than having my real name exposed (which isn't ever going to be present anyways). Also, is it just me, or are server-generated passwords the only logins working? I keep having to get a new password generated to login every time...

PS: When this is final, is this going to be a required upgrade for Windows 7 users?

Fixedsys font doesn't work correctly. It looks more like Courier. Also, there are some problems when I try to send a message as visible only for one person. The text area doesn't work, and I have to reopen the window. One last thing, about the tabs: they work greatly, but I think that putting a close icon without having to go to that conversation would be better.

Sorry, I forgot to tell that all of this occur on Windows LIVE Messenger.

I do agree with the people who say messenger is now too big and bulky with a lot of white space, and no that is with it in the minimized feature.  The other feature is just awful, that is what my browser is for, i prefer a message client to be for messages, not social networking, awful.

I'm liking windows live mail with the exception that it is so tied into hotmail that if you do not have a hotmail account you get annoying, frustrating, almost driving me to thunderbird pop ups everytime you do something asking you to sign into hotmail/live account.  Please remove this from future releases for those of us who do not use free email services like hotmail, yahoo, etc.

In the new Windows Live Mail, When I reply to a newsgroup message, the original text doesn't get idented and prefixed with a ">". Also, when set to plain text, the font size in the message editor is tiny and cannot be changed.

And where did you hide the "go to next unread message" button? I couldn't find it anywhere on the uncustomizable ribbon (thanks the god Ctrl-U still works).

Those bugs/features make this version completely unbearable and unusable for newsgroups.

And as if it the app wasn'r broken enough already, the slick message list pane known from Wave 3 has been replaced with an ugly old OE-style list.

Since the installer doesn't let us mix new and old versions of Live apps, I had to uninstall the entire Wave 4, only because of the completely broken newsgroup part of WL Mail. If it weren't for those few but colossal bugs, I'd stick to Wave 4 and be probably happy with it.

My overall experience with this beta: utter dissapointment.

The GINORMOUS Advertisement in the Social View Window (under the contact list) has to to, or be shrunk.  Also, they have inserter ads into every damn chat window.  What the hell is this?  If anyone at Microsoft actually used this and though tit was okay, they should be fired.

Secondly, you can add Yahoo Messenger contacts into Live Messenger since years now, but Windows Live for Windows Mobile 6.5 client still shows all the Yahoo! IM contacts as non-IM contacts.  Can't chat with them from your phone.  Have to use Third-Party software to chat with them, SMS, or some other IM service.

I have not encountered any functional bugs with Live Messenger, outside of not being able to click on my name in the Messenger Client to change my status (online, away, invisible, etc.).  However, this zerg of ads in Social View/chat windows is unacceptable.

Windows Live Writer *STILL* remove the EXIF info of pictures.

Live sync.... When syncing Internet explorer with mulitple computers it places duplicates of all the same favorties just lists the PC name after each favorite.  It should just list 1 instance of the favorite site.

@Carmine Console, @Alxandr, @yihtang

While we were thrilled to have Twitter among our list of partners in the past, unfortunately due to policy changes made by Twitter, we are no longer able to support the Twitter Web Activity.  We are working hard with Twitter to make this service available again and will let you know when Twitter, Windows Live Messenger integration becomes available.  This change has no impact on your ability to connect Windows Live with our 75+ other social networks and service partners. Additionally, if you still would like your tweets to be viewable by your Messenger friends, you can connect Twitter to Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace, and then connect any of those services to Windows Live.

@Grant. - You can report any beta issues you see at the Windows Live Solution Center at windowslivehelp.com/forums.aspx.  I'm afraid there's no way to remove unused ribbon buttons.

@SonicG - Thanks for the feedback.  Your suggestions are all good ones, and we'll consider them carefully.  

@pmbAustin - Thanks for the kudos.  :-)  I can't reproduce the problem you're having with the selection jumping to the next conversation though.  Can you tell me exactly what you're doing (e.g. "click on the third message in a conversation, press Delete")?

Why can't outside people (people without live ID) canot write comments in my blog? Blog is to share information both the ways. Why are you guys so sluggish in making an update which is requested by a lot of users. I cannot wait for my grand children to see the updates you guys are making.

Too bad.

Don't try to come up with big news each time. By the time you guys make an update, you already lose a big user population. Be fast. You have enough man power, then why this laziness?

In the Live Mail client on my laptop, the message list is sometimes empty (not visible), but I can select a message with the mouse or up/down keys and the email is displayed in the reading pane. After restarting the app the list appears sometimes, but sometimes not.

In Photo Gallery I miss a simple and quick "Full Screen View". I don't want a slow starting slide show which I can't stop easily. I just want to hit a button and the photo is displayed in full screen view. Why is such a simple feature missing? And then in full screen view it would be awesome to use the touch screen on my laptop to switch to the next photo with a flip.

I seem to have had two Firefox add ons from MS installed with Live Essentials Beta.  Bing Bar, and Default Manager 2.2.  I can disable, but cannot uninstall.  I don't even know what "Default Manager" is, and searching the net just finds me a few other people who've noticed the same thing but are unclear as to what happened and what they are doing, too.

I may have missed this in the install process, but I don't think so.   This is not a good way to go, MS.  I don't install other company's products when they start to do stuff like this.  And this is not the first time you've done this with Firefox IIRC.  I think you got bad press from this one time before.

I have installed the Windows Live Beta.

I very love the Messenger, Writer and Mail.

Just a feedback, conversation view in the Mail is really good~ however it does not include sent mail.

I believe if the conversation view could includes 'sent' email, that would be perfect as an perfectly full conversation in the view.

@divinglog - Sorry that you're having problems.  We're aware of this issue and are investigating.

@Glen - Thanks for the feedback!  We're not planning to include sent mails in conversation view, but we'll consider adding that feature in the future.

@jetfire (belatedly) - If you find the ribbon too obtrusive, you can minimize it by clicking the little down arrow in the Quick Access Toolbar (beside the Mail icon at the very top left of the window), then selecting Minimize the Ribbon.

I also agree with Glen: it's more logic that if I can read a conversation I have to see also my answers, not only messages from the other one.

And really: please implement templates for the backgrounds of photo mail, it's so ugly and stupid to have photo mail only with white background. But give us great backgrounds like the Apple Mail ones, not bears and bubbles like in the past.  

Implement simple discovery functions for sensible data in the email, like addressess, names, phone numbers, appointments and so on, to contestually save them in the contacts, calendar and so forth and let us freely rearrange photos inside the specific layout chosen, by simply dragging & dropping them from one place to another.

Windows Live Mail is by far one of the best mail apps on the market, but it has some stupid weaknesses that do not permit it to be absolutely the best, please implement this simple functions, eliminate weakness and it will be the best and most complete mail app outside there...

@the WL team: The blue guy kinda does stink at dancing, but he can sure beatbox. (in ref to www.facebook.com/.../video.php)

Thanks for banning changeable screen names, it made the decision to switch back to AOL IM that much easier

Unrelated, but the green/blue dudes from the WLM logo are quite funny in these videos. You guys should consider making a weekly comic strip/video with them!

Wooo! I tried the beta / have it currently installed, but one thing that I don't really like is how we have to 'log in' online to change display names (for messenger) or allow shared permissions (for sync). It's just so much easier doing it from the actual program.

But apart from one or two annoying things which really let it down in my eyes, I think it's a job well done! =]

damn, I agree with many people! the individual webcam has to come back!  i mean what if you are eating/dont look good/dont feel like webcamming, but the other person does? it's kind a weird that they force you to use your webcam as well. If this is really happening, ill say byebye to windows live messenger and go to skype. Or i should promote the windows live messenger 2009 offline installer, worked for me, and can still use single webcam(thank God).

Greetings,

Ro

The Netherlands

BETA FEEDBACK ON CURRENT WAVE4 MSN CLIENT:

Please, if you want people to use MSN, do not implement this messenger. I have been using msn for the last  8 years and this beta is the worst thought out version yet. I have never bothered to discuss MSN clients until i felt so compelled by the overwhelming frustration with this new client.

I have noticed people are steadily using other forms of clients to message their pals and if this beta is implemented as the current version, be prepared to drop users even more.

1. You can't send a single webcam invitation. YOU HAVE to have a video call. This is a step backwards. What if I don't want to send my audio? Or even my webcam? Then I have to run around on my computer settings muting audio and adjusting my webcam settings.

I like the concept of the skype like chat (large video and puts the chat section out of the way) that is very nice, but you have taken way the existing features to send a single video, single audio, receive single audio / visual. This is very frustrating.

2. The emoticons are not as clear as the old ones, kudos for putting more in but they look shocking. You now have to find the corresponding keyboard shortcut to get the gist of what the emoticon is. This is just a case of not being use to seeing them, it's because their expressions are cluttered. Bring back the old emoticons and add more in that existing style. There clean and straight forward.

3. Facebook intergration. I like the concept of this. My issue here is that you are forced to choose whether you want to permanently link your status updates with facebook or permanently not have this feature. (Ie, When activated, you can't post a status which doesn't also post to your facebook and vise verser.)

It would be better if when typing in this box, a checkbox appeared that was pre ticked that said "also post to my facebook wall", so a user change their status and untick this box, to be able to update there msn status without changing there facebook wall.)

Ie. Many times you want to say something to the current people on your messenger but not have to share it with the wider friend group in on facebook.

This may be difficult to read but please understand the practicality of what I am asking for here.

4. For messenger users that don't use groups, the Facebook group always appears on top of other contacts when really it should appear below the native MSN contacts.

5. You can no longer change your MSN name. This absolutely sucks, I don't see the point in making it like this. People could assign nicknames incase they were forgetting who is who. Idiotic if you ask me.

I agree with implementing new features but you have done this by taking old features away.

Be prepared to lose more users including ME!, a msn USER OF 8 YEARS!!  without correcting these changes.

Definitely a bug with Junk Mail in the Windows Live Mail client.  I've flagged spam from the same domain, selecting "Add sender's domain to blocked list" ... and every day, I get more spam in my inbox from that same domain.  It's flat out not working.

bad move with messenger.   now its "in your face" at the start and even in  "comapct view" wont get slim enough not to be a pain.   messenger is suffering from MS maturity.  its losing its balance between useful and annoying

BETA FEEDBACK ON CURRENT PHOTO GALLERY BETA WAVE4.

I'm testing the WLE Beta (Wave4), and find very disapointed feature,

In the current version of Photo Gallery (wave 3) you can open an image (by double clicking on it) and select FIX in the above bar (of PG Viewer): you can retouch, crop, and more from within the viewer.

Now, in the beta version, you canno't do that anymore! It's very annoying!

To fix some image fast... you have to make this:

1) Open the image

2) Select "Go to Gallery" in the option above the viewer

3) Select FIX

4) Close.

4 steps (in beta wave4) againts 2 steps (in current wave3)!

Now, the major problem is: I do not want to ADD the entire folder in wich the FIXED photo stays... but I cann't do it in other way! Basically, Photo Gallery is forcing you to add a photo to the Gallery to allow fix options!

This is something that definitelly will make me to stop using Photo Gallery.

Please, don't ruin your work, and listen to the users!!!

You know, I have bad experiences with the damn Bing Bar. It´s not as nice as the Windows Live Toolbar. OK it´s got some cool features. But it doesn´t fit to the Windows Live Essentials Pack at all.

You should give the possibility to users to decide which toolbar anyone wants to install!

Dear Windows Live Messenger Developer team members:

Hello.

I used Windows Live Messenger 2010 beta, and I found that it has not support p4-context function, which in previous versions have been supported.

This problem led me to use IMGroups services (http://imgroups.net, formerly groups.im),  I can not see the other members' nickname in the group chats.

How does this change is intentional, or a BUG?

Look forward to your reply, thank you.

New Photo Gallery - very nice.  Wife is loving the intergration with FB to post photos of our pride and joy.  We have about 200GB of photos/videos, and load times are pretty decent.

Sync - so very depressing after finding the nearly-perfect tool with Live Mesh.  Sync4 took the best things of Sync3 and Mesh and discarded them.  IMHO, Mesh is superior in about every way to Sync (3 or 4).  XP support... ok can deal without it.  Mobile support... ouch, ok, dropbox it is for eWallet password files and other stuff needed on the winmo phone.  But Mesh also had the ability to share in read-only mode - a one-way sync that is supported by most sync tools.  Live Sync 4 only allows sharing with full permissions - yikes!

Even dropped the one feature that Sync 3 had over Mesh, the on demand sync.

Puzzled, but hopeful

Normally I'm very excited about a new Live beta. Always was, especially about MSN/WLM. I've used WLM for over 10 years now, and was always a big fan of it. So, without thinking, I decided to download the latest betas last night. However, being far of everything, including broadband (I'm on dial-up internet), I had to cancel the download at around 70% because I had to disconnect. No big deal, I'll do it tomorrow, I thought. Then I decided to check online to see what people thought.

Thanks god I did.

Okay, I don't know how to put this nicely... like I said, I've used WLM and your other software for over 10 years, and I've always encouraged my friends, family and people in general to upgrade to the new WLM. I would even offer them to help if it didn't work that well on their computer. I was always a big fan, and I'd often defend Microsoft for many things.

But this time I can't defend you. I just can't. It's impossible.

What are you doing? Everything was great so far! Then you decided to take out one-way webcam features from the new beta, and to prepare to it, you even "patched" WLM 2009. Did you even think about the possible consequences of forcing video calling? I'm on dial-up! One-way webcam worked, not amazing, but it still worked, and that was better than nothing! But by forcing video calling, you effectively killed ANY webcam features for dial-up users! And I'm sure I'm not the only one who's in a similar situation. Trust me, Microsoft, if I could upgrade to broadband, I'd do it in a heartbeat, but we've been fighting with our ISP for 10 years. Microsoft doing this is the ultimate insult. Not only I can't even synchronize my Live Mail emails with the Outlook connector or Windows Live Mail anymore because I'm on dial-up and you decided to change how messages are being downloaded (yes, I actually asked for tech support, the guy eventually gave up and told me to get broadband, lol), now I can't use my webcam. Heck, just by seeing how heavy the new WLM looks like, I even wonder if I could log in! This is ridiculous!

Also, what's that about not allowing us to have a custom nickname instead of our full name now? Who thought about that? Scammers will get around that in 5 seconds. In fact, it already began. However, I would like it if I could, you know, not show my full name to the world, because I have many people on my list that I don't actually know personally. Plus, people are so used to see my nickname instead of my real name that they might end up wondering who I am! I like to be able to personalize my display name too. Please put that back, at LEAST.

I know there's a feedback link. However, I don't want my message to end up nowhere. I'm not the only one who isn't happy about this, it's obvious. Your new features in WLM look awesome, and it's just too bad that the cons far outweight all of them. Unless something major happens over there and you all decide to step back, I will no longer tell people to use WLM. And if those updates ever become forced updates, you will definitely lose me, as I will search for an alternative.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Well, looks like I had to install it anyway - starting the installer seemed to corrupt my original WLM installation, and also somehow messed up my screen resolution after I turned my computer back on (???). Here are my impressions for WLM, besides what I already complained about.

-I like how it looks. From the pictures, it looked huge, but it's not that bad. Everything looks clean too, which is a big plus. And the abily to switch between normal and compact modes is great. Everything feels fast too. However, compact mode feels a little "empty" for some reason. It looks too much like the 2009 version, and it feels like something's missing...

-I dislike the removal of the red and green lists in the privacy options, and how you can't see who added you back anymore (even if that feature didn't seem to work well lately). The privacy options now open a webpage, which I didn't really check out yet (I admit it) because my internet is slow. Really, I would like to have the old integrated privacy options back too. If they're there, I didn't see them.

-I actually like how the new emoticons look, nice job there.

-I'm surprised of its speed on dial-up, I expected it to take forever to logon and everything, but it's comparable, if not actually faster than 2009 for some reason. Might just be me though.

I'm still disappointed. The new features are great, and it looks great. But you removed important features that I use and need...