Microsoft releases Windows Live Essentials 2011

Featured eBooks
Changes in State and Local Government Workforces
NASCIO Special Report 2024
A New Era of Social Media Regulation
Insights & Reports
Unlocking digital potential: Strategies for modernizing government services
Presented By Adobe
Download Now
Unlocking public sector potential
Presented By NTT DATA
Download Now
By Kurt Mackie
 

Connecting state and local government leaders

By Kurt Mackie

|

Microsoft has announced the availability of Windows Live Essentials 2011, a free consumer suite of applications designed to connect Windows users to the Internet cloud.

Microsoft recently announced the availability of Windows Live Essentials 2011, a free consumer suite of applications designed to connect Windows users to the Internet cloud.

The suite consists of more than seven Windows Live applications, featuring Messenger, Windows Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Family Safety and Windows Live Mesh. Windows Live Essentials 2011 runs on Windows Vista Service Pack 2 and Windows 7 operating systems. Users of the popular but aging Windows XP operating system -- still representing the majority of Windows users -- should just stick with the older Windows Live Essentials suite until ready to upgrade their Windows operating system, according to Microsoft's announcement.

The applications are currently available in 48 languages and can be accessed via a download here. Microsoft's equipment manufacturing partner Dell plans to ship Windows Live Essentials 2011 preloaded on Windows 7-based PCs sometime this holiday season. Other PC makers may follow suit, but are as yet unannounced.

The release of Windows Live Essentials 2011 marks a release-to-Web milestone for Windows Live Mesh, according to Bryan Saftler, a Microsoft employee on the Windows Live team, in a Microsoft Channel 9 video. Windows Live Mesh is a synchronization service that lets users access their files anywhere via various devices. Windows Live Mesh connects users to 5 GB of free storage when used with SkyDrive, a free cloud-based storage space offered by Microsoft.

Microsoft previously had two synchronization products before, Windows Live Mesh and Windows Live Sync. However, the company dropped the latter service, Saftler explained. He said that the storage space was bumped up from 2 GB to 5 GB with Windows Live Mesh. In addition, the maximum individual file size that can be stored online is 50 MB.

These free services might be used by business users, but there are no centralized management and security options for organizations using them. Instead, organizations would have to subscribe to Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite services to share documents via SharePoint Online or use hosted (and managed) instant messenger services via Lync Online.

Microsoft Messenger, which is the oldest app in the suite, now provides instant messaging services to about 350 million users, according to Saftler. Microsoft improved Messenger with this release by making it easier for users to connect to social networking sites or play YouTube videos without leaving the IM application.

With Photo Gallery in this release, Microsoft has "cleaned up the experience" for users, Saftler said. Photo Gallery provides a space for organizing photo collections. It can tap into metadata about the photo collections, such as where the photo was taken (through GPS coordinates) and through facial recognition technology. For instance, the "hover preview" function will pop up all photos associated with a tag set by the user. Saftler said that it takes about 10 to 20 photos for the program to "learn" and use this metadata. This metadata also helps users manipulate photos via "photo fuse." For instance, you can replace the face of a person in one photo by using different photo, provided that the program "recognizes" the faces.

Movie Maker is another program in the suite that taps into metadata for some of its effects. Users can stitch together frames of photos into a movie and automatically add effects, music and transitions between frames. Movie Maker can automatically create captions in frames using geolocation metadata, Saftler explained.

Windows Mail is not a mail service, but it's like a free version of Microsoft Outlook that can read various mail services, Saftler said. It can be used as a mail client to read POP3- and IMAP-based mail services.

Windows Live Writer is designed for blog writing and will work with any blog platform. Users can write and post without knowing the HTML markup language, Saftler said. In addition, dates can be preset, enabling automatic publishing of blog material at a particular date.

With this release, Windows Live Writer works specifically with the WordPress.com blog service by default. Microsoft announced last week that it plans to transition all users from its Windows Live Spaces blog to WordPress.com blog.

Microsoft claims that it has 30 million Windows Live Spaces users. However, rather than continue with this service, Microsoft has partnered with Automattic, the company that runs WordPress.com, which is "used on over 26 million sites." Supposedly, Microsoft has made it easy for Windows Live Spaces users to upgrade to WordPress.com and move blog posts, photos and comments over to the WordPress.com space. Windows Live Spaces users get a dialog box to help ease such moves.

Finally, for those who want to control family access rights on PCs, there's Windows Live Family Safety. It allows a user (such as a parent) to monitor PCs from a single computer and set different permission levels for those PCs, including Internet access.

NEXT STORY: Ballmer talks up the cloud in European tour

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.