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First look at the new Windows Live Wave 4 header themes

By on February 26, 2010 3:34 PM
29 comments

Following our last post on the new Windows Live Wave 4 header, showing you some of its new functionalities and the organisation of services, this time we will show you several of the new themes that will come with the release of Windows Live Wave 4. Microsoft actually gave some lucky users a sneak peek when they accidently placed it in the Options menu on some current Wave 3 services, but all they could see were icon thumbnails. Today we will reveal to the world the whole set of the new Windows Live Wave 4 themes, and they look quite amazing:

Windows Live Wave 4 header theme

There are 16 new themes in total, including the Windows Live default one which still has a Wave 4 “touch” to it. Most of these new themes originate from the Windows 7 wallpapers, including those from the Characters, Scenes, Architecture, and Nature sets. Here’s all 16 of them, and their respective names (note that these names might not be final):

Windows Live Headers

Judging on the previously leaked Windows Live Messenger Wave 4 screenshots, it looks like the default set of “Scenes” in Messenger Wave 4 will get updated too with some of these new themes.

Picturepan2 from LiveSino.net also revealed that in Windows Live Wave 4 web services, you no longer select your themes from the “Options” menu, but you can quickly change your themes by hovering over the header, and the themes menu will appear:

Themes menu

What do you think about these new themes? Leave us a comment below!

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Comments

  • http://twitter.com/surilamin surilamin

    Judging by just the headers, I’ll agree with you and say they look amazing. However, it will be more important to see how everything looks as a whole and do all the Live properties have a consistent & integrated look and feel.

    • FremyCompany

      I agree. You can’t judge a theme based on a header. The whole environement should be taken in consideration.

      Wait & See :D

  • http://gregsedwards.wordpress.com Greg Edwards

    Well, looks like I’ll be sticking with the sky theme yet again. I grew tired of the “kitschy” Win 7 themes after about a week. At least they didn’t include the creepy anime babies with the jeweled eyes. Those scare the bejeesus out of me.

    You’re never going to please everyone with the canned themes. Here’s a crazy idea…how about letting users upload their own header images to SkyDrive, or perhaps even provide some kind of Win 7 themepack integration?

    And what about Spaces? I wonder if these themes will finally be extended to that oft-neglected corner of Windows Live?

  • http://flavors.me/efelippe Evandro Felippe

    I like those new themes, they look beautiful!
    The “Character 6″ is my favorite there. =d

    But I would like some colors variations from default top image (black, orange, red, and so on…) too.
    Maybe, upload my own top image and do my own color scheme. =)

  • http://mds.pip.verisignlabs.com/ Matt Sharpe

    They’re pretty much all just Windows 7 wallpapers. Can’t they create some new images?

  • WE3R_Cz

    I like about three of them. I thing Microsoft needs to create some more conservative-looking themes. The thing is, it looks to me that a majority of the themes (same as in Wave 3) have kind of girly touch. But that’s just me…

  • technogran

    I agree. Although the Live Esssentials suite is an integral part of Windows 7, the website itself isn’t. One or two aren’t all that bad, but I would prefer to upload my own header theme as others have said. And as Greg has pointed out, its full new themes we want in Spaces, not necessarally the rest of the site. Wonder if as before some will also be Dynamic?

  • dyadka

    Will it be possible to upload own picture?

  • JSYOUNG571

    I am thankful for Windows Live coming up with new themes. The problem I have with them is that they look really girly like WE3R_Cz said in the previous comment. I also agree with a couple of people who said that we should be able to create our own themes just like we can on Windows Live Messenger. Speaking of Windows Live Messenger, I hope that they didn’t take that feature away. It would be nice to see more dynamic themes that match on Windows Live And Windows Live Messenger.

  • Ed Glogowski

    I think that it would be nice to be able to load your own? You know, pic your own picture and a rectangle will show you what you would see. Being able to move it around on your picture so you could pick the exact spot you want as you header. Uh, maybe you can do this now … guess I have never tried … but, in any case, that would be really nice.

    • http://gregsedwards.wordpress.com Greg Edwards

      I’m certainly in favor of this option, but one drawback to personalized themes that occurred to me could be the potential to put objectionable material in your header for the world to see (remember, your selected theme is displayed on your public Profile page). Of course, other sites such as Twitter allow you to personalize your backdrop, so I’m sure there’s a way to manage it.

      • Joe B.

        It’s called the “Report” button.

  • jntowers

    Nice looking, but it would be great if they included some simple ones – like just a color selection, or something like the good ol’ “brushed metal” theme! Can’t please everyone, though… I also hope that the dynamic themes are actually dynamic in Hotmail in Wave 4.

  • JohnCz

    In this prerelease, the depicted menu shows “Hotmail” instead of “Mail”. “Profile” looks like it has been moved under the user name (good move imo). What I don’t see is “Home”, “People” or “More”. And I don’t see the Bing search box which would be awesome if it didn’t display if you had your browser defaulted to Bing or if you had Bing Bar installed. Hovering over header to change the theme is a bit strange…I’ll have to see how that works before I can judge.

  • bbir

    The colors are fine, but why all those crazy figures? Doesn’t look nice at all to me. They may be OK for younger people, but not all of us are young anymore. Hope we can get colors only also (without the figures). If I had to choose it should be either “Valentine” or “Characters 6″.

    • JohnCz

      I don’t think MetalWork, PalmLeaf and Character 3 & 6 fall into the too young category. I agree with others here, it would be nice to reference your own graphics. I’m assuming that built-in graphic themes are easier to optimize for fast page load times.

  • burrr

    Is this it for themes in Wave 4? I’d like more variety. While there are some nice images here, I’m not sure they how well they will look as themes.

  • http://twitter.com/ltpress LT

    LA WAVE 4 CADA VEZ ME GUSTA MAS Y LA VARIEDAD DE TEMAS ES MAS Q GENIAL ESPERO Y SALGA PRONTO

    • http://www.appatic.com Avatar X

      Parte de ella es casi seguro de que salga para MIX010 en CTP o en Beta

  • http://jamieellis.co.cc/ jamie1984

    I agree with design your own theme from a picture suggestion. and there should also be themes that is standard colour with a colour palate giving people endless opportunities if they want a basic theme!

    They should consider to keep the older ‘Waves’ themes incase someone do not want the new themes. Having more themes is more choice right!

    • Damaster – LiveSide.net

      All of the ‘Wave 3′ themes are still there – these are just newly added extras as part of Wave 4. =)

  • http://about.me/mackenzieprice mackenziepricee

    @JohnCz
    Unless I am missing something I have no idea what you are talking about.

    It is called Hotmail, not Mail. It was named Windows Live Mail Beta back in 2005, then changed back to Hotmail. I doubt that they would be changing the name again.

    • JohnCz

      I’m just pointing out a change (at least in this preview graphic). When you log into Hotmail currently, the top page menu indicates “Mail”. At least it does for me. Now if you are talking about your browser title/tab, it’s caption is “Windows Live Hotmail”. Although all the other areas in Live are captioned as “[servicename] – Windows Live”.

      My opinion, whatever service name they go with should be used with the respective desktop/mobile client application.

  • G. Roberts

    Too graphic.
    Add some occpations. Example; archaeology, photography, hiking, fishing, etc.

    • JohnCz

      good idea

  • feralboy

    Hmm…I’m not seeing it. If they changed, automatically, to match the theme you’re currently using on your deskptop, maybe. That said, I’d much rather they create something based on glass. Maybe some nice, etched glass designs would work. I don’t know, but these seem to call to much attention to themselves.

  • http://www.sabertoothvsx23.spaces.live.com/ Sabertoothvsx23

    Gee, woohoo. A few new header pictures… Windows Live Team are really coming out with the goods! You would have to be very shallow or just plain stupid to get any form of excitement out of this absolute junk. Who cares???

    Face it people, Wave 4 is a hoax. There is going to be no real change of any substance in this so called update. Changing the look and feel of a website is common practice and Windows can’t even do that properly these days.

    Windows Live Team member discussion -

    So.. what do we do guys?

    I know! Make it look a little different and mix the buttons around a bit. We can chuck in an extra link here and there mabey?

    Yeah do that, that will keep the masses occupied for a while while we cook up a new way to change facebook status using Messenger.

    Cool, give me a few hours while I crop a few Windows 7 themes… Hey, what about Spaces?

    Spaces? Nobody uses Spaces anymore, besides, Facebook just did a revamp….

  • http://cjs.au.com cjschrissouth

    When’s it going to come out?

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