The release of Windows 7 has created a renewed interest in Microsoft's Windows Live Essentials. The Essentials are a suite of free programs that are designed to ‘enhance’ your Windows experience. In fact, many of these programs were formerly part of the operating system, but were removed by Microsoft at the ‘request’ of numerous anti-trust judges.
The ‘live’ pertains to the fact that most of the programs have a ‘web’ component and communicate with Microsoft's Windows Live portal.
The packages that comprise the Essentials group are: Messenger, Mail, Writer, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Family Safety, and Windows Live Toolbar.
Messenger is Microsoft's instant messaging program, competing with AOL's AIM and Yahoo Messenger. Messenger competes with Skype by allowing free PC-PC voice and video chatting. [Both sides of chat need Messenger, a microphone and speakers or a headset, and of course, an internet connection.]
As its name implies, Mail is the email/calendar component of Windows Live Essentials. It allows you to manage all of your POP3 email accounts in one location. This includes Hotmail, Gmail, and Comcast among others. Due to the POP3 requirement, the free Yahoo mail will not work, although you can access a Yahoo Plus account. This program is a capable substitute for those users whose version of Office does not include Outlook.
Writer is a tool for creating blogs that can be posted to Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, Wordpress, and other blogging websites. It includes the ability to create your blog post now, but schedule it to be posted at a later date.
Photo Gallery allows you to find, fix, and share the digital images scattered across your hard drive. You can publish your photos to Windows Live Photos, Facebook, and other photo sharing services. If Messenger is open while you are using Photo Gallery, you can drag and drop your photos onto Live Messenger and instantly share the photo during a chat session. Photo Gallery does not contain the ‘power’ of Adobe's Photoshop, but you cannot beat the price.
Obviously, Movie Maker allows you to create movies that can be posted to YouTube or other sites. Your movies can contain titles, transitions, and background music. If you use Photo Gallery, you can drag your photos from that program into Movie Maker. You can also utilize ‘home’ movies which you have recorded. You can also create DVDs of your movies to be played on (more current) DVD players or computers.
Family Safety is designed for parents who want to protect their children from predators and others that inhabit the dark side of the internet. After this program is installed on a computer, a parent can review detailed reports not only of web sites visited by a child, but also of contacts made via emails, blogs, or instant messaging. The parent can then decide which to block.
After Windows Live Toolbar is added to your explorer, you will have quick access to Windows Live features and Bing, Microsoft's newest search engine. As an example, you can preview your Live Hotmail inbox from the toolbar without having to leave the web page you are currently viewing.
The installer for Microsoft's Windows Live Essentials can be obtained from the Microsoft website. The installer lets you pick and choose which of the individual programs you wish to install.
System Requirements
- Operating System
- Windows XP Service Pack 2 (32-bit only)
- Vista (32-bit or 64-bit)
- Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
- Windows Server 2008
- NOTE: Live Movie Maker and the slide show feature of Live Photo Gallery are not not supported on XP
- CPU
- 800 MHz or higher for XP
- 1 GHz or higher for other operating systems
- RAM
- 128 MB (256 MB recommended) for XP
- 512 MB for other operating systems
- Monitor Resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher
- A graphic card supporting DirectX 9.0 or higher and Shader Model 2.0 or higher is required if using Movie Maker
- For XP
- Writer requires the .NET Framework 2.0 or higher
- Photo Gallery requires SQL 2005 Compact Edition and Windows Imaging Codecs
Subscribe