Understanding Windows Live - Part 1

I thought I might take a few blogs here and there and delve into those Microsoft products branded under the “Windows Live” label. As you will no doubt see, Windows Live is not an easy concept to understand…but I will do my best. Trust Microsoft to make it as obscure as possible.  But, if you dig hard enough there are some good things available to make your computing better…but there are also a few turkeys.  We will be look at the good and the not-so-good.

Its hard to get your arms wrapped around what Windows Live truly is. Here is the best description I could find from Wikipedia:

“Windows Live is the collective brand name for a set of services and software products from Microsoft. A majority of these services are Web applications, accessible from a browser, but there are also client-side binary applications that require installation on a user's PC. There are three ways in which Windows Live services are offered: Windows Live Essentials applications, web services, and mobile services.”

To put it more succinctly, some applications for Windows Live reside only on your computer, some reside only on the Internet, and some work in both places. Some are well advertised, others are sort of hidden away.

First, lets look at Windows Live Essentials, a downloadable collection of several software products.  If you are moving to Windows 7, some of these applications replace similar products that were part of XP and Vista. But, understand, Windows Live Essentials does not come with any version of Windows 7. It has to be downloaded from the Net…and I recommend everyone do it. Then, pick and choose the products you want to install.

There are currently 11 software products that come with Windows Live Essentials:

• Messenger
• Mail
• Writer
• Photo Gallery
• Movie Maker
• Family Safety
• Toolbar

Additional programs:

• Microsoft Office Outlook® Connector
• Office Live Add-in
• Microsoft Silverlight

I won’t cover them all, but just the ones I use or experimented with.  Windows Messenger is similar to Yahoo Messenger and other instant messaging programs. You can talk to friends and family, as long as everyone is using Windows Messenger. I have not used it yet, but may try it out sometime with a friend.

Window Live Writer is a fantastic program specifically made for writing blogs. It is what I am using to write this blog and have been doing so since it first came out. If you write a blog, you want this.

Windows Live Mail I will save for a future blog as it is quite involved. Photo Gallery and Movie Maker are excellent programs for storing and manipulating photos and videos, but I don’t personally use them, so I will not be reviewing them.  Same for Family Safety and Live Toolbar (no family and have enough toolbars).

Microsoft Office Outlook Connector (for connecting to Windows Live Hotmail)seemed like a very good idea and I tried using it, but it set up its own accounts inside my Outlook rather than blending with my current accounts.  A good idea, badly executed. But try it if you use Outlook for your email and calendaring. The last two I will skip for now.

So there is a quick look at Microsoft Live Essentials, but we have a long way to go yet.  Stay tuned.

PS – If you would like to see a complete list of all Windows Live products, be sure and check out the Wikipedia reference I quoted above.