LiveSide - News blog : Windows Live

Windows Live Essentials & Services Book

Sunshine — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:03:21 GMT

For everyone who wants to get the most out of Windows Live: The Windows Live Essentials and Services Book.

This book by MVP Brad Jones and Marcus Schmidt is a full-color, step-by-step guide for using Microsoft's new Windows Live Essentials series of free applications.

Step-by-step instructions show you how to use not only these applications, but also associated Windows Live on-line services. As an example, you'll learn just how easy it is to create panoramic pictures in seconds or how to create movies from pictures in just a few minutes. Then you'll get the inside scoop on how to communicate and share using Messenger, SkyDrive, Spaces, and Groups.

With this book, you'll quickly be on your way to accessing these useful applications in an effort to making your life easier.

Learn how to get Live Essentials Applications free and install them on your computer
Chat with Live Messenger, keep in touch with Live Mail, and set up and create your own blog with Live Writer
Get creative with Photo Gallery and Movie Maker, which let you manage and enhance your photos and turn them into movies
Socialize with the help of Live Spaces
Organize appointments and special days with Live Calendar
Use SkyDrive to store files and documents online for easy access from anywhere
Explore additional apps and services such as Live Contacts, Live Groups, Bing Maps, Bing Search, and more

You can purchase the book at amazon.com.

Windows Live Rolls Out 19 New Web Activity Partnerships

Sunshine — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:27:00 GMT

We could already add quite a lot to our Windows Live Profile, but starting today there are 19 more to add!

The newest feed partners are:

4Travel (Japan), Azbuz (Turkey), Baby Kingdom (Hong Kong), Biip.no (Norway), Break.com (US), BuscaPe (Brazil), CNET (US), L’internaute Copains (France), Doctissimo Community (France), IRC-Galleria (Finland), Libimseti.cz (Czech Republic), lokalisten.de (Germany), Multiply (US), MyVIP (Hungary), Neogen (Romania), PIXNET (Taiwan), Qype (Germany), Wat.tv (France), and YouTube (US)

Note: The region listed in parentheses after each website name indicates where the site originates, but you can add these web activities to Windows Live no matter where you live.

That brings the total of partnerships to 74 sites from around the world – localized into 35 languages, with broad coverage of leading sites worldwide in social networking, video sharing, photo sharing, blogging, reviews and ratings, and more.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Windows Live is a co-author and active participant in the Activity Streams standards, an effort for safely exchanging activity feed content (with user opt-in) among sites and client applications.

So share now, and let your friends know what you do online the easy way!

Source: YouTube and 18 more new partners make it easy to share with friends on Windows Live

Upgrade From Windows Live Messenger 8.5

Sunshine — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:03:00 GMT

The Windows Live Messenger Team notifies Messenger users in a blogpost that the mandatory update for version 8.5, as announced back in August, has begun. Users on Windows XP will need to ensure that they have installed Service Pack 2 (SP2) or higher, otherwise the upgrade will not work.

Incase you have issues or questions during this upgrade process, the team provides the following resources:

Troubleshooting Login Issues
This post from the support team provides some guidance into how to determine what error you are getting and steps to resolve many of these.
Online Help
You can also try the online help pages. On the left hand side, you can select ‘Table of Contents’ (near the bottom) and get information on troubleshooting and error codes.
Contact the Support Team
If you have already tried the going through the online help suggestions and still having difficulties then you should consider contacting the Messenger support team and providing them with more information about the problems that you are encountering.

Users on Messenger 2009 (version 14) will have to upgrade too starting November 9th, unless they already installed the latest version (Build: 14.0.8089.726).

Wondering which version you have? You can find out by going to Help > About in the menu. Don’t want to wait? Go get the current version from http://download.live.com/messenger

The Windows Live Wave 4 rumor mill

Kip Kniskern — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:33:00 GMT

Microsoft is keeping very quiet about the upcoming release of Windows Live Wave 4, and it’s driving us crazy. Obviously we were hoping for a release to coincide with the launch of Windows 7, but that deadline has come and gone. We’re hearing now that Microsoft is keeping the release dates very close to the vest, even within Microsoft, but that the release dates have been changing. Remember back when Windows Live first started, and those cheeky kids at Red West were going to teach Windows how to ship every 2 months? Well now Windows Live has moved out of Red West, and they haven’t shipped anything of consequence in over a year. Well we can hope for a nice big blockbuster new version that will make it all worthwhile, but this wait is killing us.

So while we wait for someone to push Windows Live out the door, we still have wild rumors, Twitter posts, and some sneak peeks to fall back on. Let’s take a look at what might be coming:

Messenger:

Will this be the release that finally gets tabbed conversations? A commenter on LiveSino.net claims to have seen just that:

# November 2009 on Tuesday, February 10: 14 pm
I have used M1 version, there is already a tab chat features

Now we’ve seen hints about tabs in previous versions, as the LiveSino post points out, so we’re not getting our hopes up. Tabbed chatting has to be the #1 feature request for Messenger, though, so we’ll hold out hope.

Windows Live Writer:

News of Writer’s demise may be exaggerated, at least in the short term. One Twitter user was quite impressed with what he saw:

The new internal Windows Live build is so awesome that I skipped a beat as I launched Writer.

Documents and Devices:

We told you before about a couple of new tabs we spotted, and it looks like Wave 4 will at least begin to bring Live Mesh and Office Web Apps more firmly into the Windows Live experience.

We’re not expecting to see a full Live Mesh experience in Windows Live this release, but at least some integration is coming

SkyDrive, “Flix”, and a return (of sorts) of Soapbox?

Ok this one is from the TOTALLY WILD RUMOR department, but as it sits right with where we think Windows Live should be heading with user-generated video, we’ll go ahead and leave you with this to mull over:

"Flix" is not intended to compete with YouTube. Will offer granular sharing controls a la WL Photos. Meant for family-sharing etc. Will be powered by Silverlight, and surfaced under the Windows Live Photos brand, WLMM plugin coming soon.
CSP is @Skydrive for all this of course and Skydrive is now managed over a Azure fabric controller. The roadmap right now apparently, is not to officially increase the 25GB cap, but up the per-file upload limit to 100 MB over the web & WLPG, 500 MB through WLMM, while LOE will use delta-sync. When the average usage level goes above a certain percentage of 25GB, Microsoft will bump it up to 50 GB, which is already provisioned but not officially marketed. And yes, ever-increasing storage is free.

Now we checked, and not only is Flix a trademarked name for computer video software, but Google bought the company that owns the trademark, so we doubt even if there is a grain of truth to this that we’ll be seeing the Flix name anytime soon. That doesn’t rule out Flix as a code name, of course. We’re planning on hearing a lot more about Azure at PDC in a couple of weeks, and will be snooping around for how Windows Live and Azure fit together. We’re being told there won’t be much Windows Live news, but you never know (and hey it’s a week in LA for a sun-starved Seattleite!).

Hopefully we’ll have a bit more than wild rumors and speculation soon. In the meantime, have you heard anything new about Wave 4?

It’s Windows 7 Day!

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:12:00 GMT

Just wanted to say congratulations to Microsoft, Windows, and Windows Live on the launch of Windows 7. We’ve been using Windows 7 since PDC last year (well since Longhorn 4051, really), are truly excited both about the stability and quality of Windows 7 and about the opportunities it presents for Windows Live, now firmly a part of Windows, and firmly entrenched on the right side of the freeway in Building 88.

We have a number of friends at the launch party in New York in the morning (Hi Chris P., Tom W., Sean, Rich, Bryant, Paul, Ed, Mary Jo!), and will be a little sorry not to be there. Thanks to another friend, Brandon LeBlanc, we’ll be able to watch the festivities live, starting at 8am Pacific. We’ll be there in spirit! (By the way if you’re looking for a good deal on Windows 7 hardware, sounds like now is a good time to shop!)

We’ll be watching the Windows 7 Bing.com/Twitter feed, too

Anyway, congratulations, Microsoft! From the opening bell on, it should be a great day!

Which Windows Live service is next to go?

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:01:00 GMT

We haven’t had the heart to start our own little Windows Live Deadpool, but the hits just keep on coming. Windows Live OneCare was probably the first shocker, and then Soapbox (ok not a Windows Live service, but it almost was and should have been), and Silverlight Streaming, to name a few, have all been recently slated for the slag heap. Jamie’s not too sure about My.Live.com, either.

Now a new nasty little rumor has popped up on Mini-Microsoft’s blog:

Windows Live is supposed to help with building value via rich applications. Live has been broken out of Windows to free it from the consent decree and all ('cept for sneaking a Win7 component out early, wink-wink). Messenger, Mail, Photos, Movies, and an awkward online service. And Live Writer (though rumored a dead-man walking per comments).

(Emphasis (in bold) is ours, and we’re not quite sure which comments he’s talking about)

Now it seems unlikely that Windows Live Writer would go through all the trouble of gaining a ribbon just to cut the product, although a number of key members of the Writer team have left Microsoft recently, so who knows.

Anyway, what do you think is up with Windows Live? Will we see more products cut? We’ve put up a poll on the home page, feel free to cast your vote.

Adding Photos To Hotmail Messages Possible Again

Sunshine — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:16:57 GMT

Back in August, the Hotmail team temporarily removed adding photos to the body of Windows Live Hotmail messages due to a security issue in the upload tool. They have been building an updated version of the tool and now you can add Photos again! Yes, that’s right, the Tool is back!

Instead of adding pictures as attachments to your Hotmail messages by clicking Attach and then File and then selecting the pictures you would like to include, Hotmail brings you a tool so you can more efficiently select and add multiple photos to a Hotmail message in Internet Explorer in a couple clicks: select Attach and then Photo.

Source: Adding photos to Hotmail messages – an anticipated return - Windows Live

Windows Live for Windows Mobile updated

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 04:11:13 GMT

With today’s announcements around the release of Windows Phone (Windows Mobile 6.5) comes not only an updated MyPhone, but upgrades to both the mobile client and web experience for Windows Live for Windows Mobile. Not much from Windows Live about the new versions yet, except one post on the Stay Connected (Windows Live for Windows Mobile Team) blog (last post: Dec 26, 2008, woohoo!). Here’s what’s new, from the post:

Windows Live Home - an entirely new feature!
- View you and your friends "What's new" feed from Windows Live and other major 3rd party social networking sites.
- View Windows Live photos and comment
- Upload photos to Windows Live and other 3rd party sites through integration with the new My Phone client
- View your Windows Live people
- Update your status and accept network invitations from others
Improvements and Updates like
- Entirely new launcher screen
- Significant touch investments that shine with new Windows Mobile 6.5 devices
- Bing search integration
- Abuse reporting
- Automatic uninstall of previous versions
- Virtual memory improvement and reduced installation file size through client refactoring

You can try out Windows Live for Mobile at mobile.live.com

Windows Live for Mobile client:

You can also download the Windows Live for Mobile client to your Windows Phone (or Windows Mobile 6.0 or 6.1 phone). To get it on your phone, go to WindowsLiveforMobile.com, input your mobile number, and send yourself a text message with the download link. From there, you’ll be asked to identify your carrier in order to configure Messenger, and install the app. Sporting a new simplified look, Messenger and Hotmail integration (but not much more) and Mail and Contacts sync, this new app may be stripped down, but looks like a much better Messenger interface than we’ve had previously. No MPOP (multiple points of presence) though, so signing in to Messenger on your phone signs you out everywhere else.

There’s still lots we’d like to see from a Windows Live mobile experience (not the least of which is to clean up the confusion between MyPhone and Windows Live for Windows Mobile, why do we have to re-invent the “don’t be confusing” wheel with every Microsoft product release?). And unfortunately here we don’t have our hands on a true Windows (6.5) Phone, so our experience is limited. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Windows Live Wave 4 rumor mill heats up

Kip Kniskern — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:35:54 GMT

We know that Windows Live Wave 4 is coming, at least in beta form, and soon. We’ve already seen the first of the changes, in the form of some additions to Hotmail (zip downloads, web messenger buddy online status, etc.)The launch of Windows Live Movie Maker as a v1 product marked the end of Wave 3 development, with Wave 4 beginning now and launching formally in the spring of 2010, as outlined in a Japanese language blog post quoting a Microsoft official:

Windows Liveの次期バージョン公開は、2010年の春から夏にかけてを予定する。「今年9月から少しずつアップデートが入り、正式に（次期バージョンが）開始するのは来年の春から」とした。

Windows Live next version public, from the spring of the year 2010 in the summer over to schedule."Update from September this year entering little by little, formally (next version) is from the spring of next year to start" me.

(thanks to Bing Translator for the (rough) translation – anyone want to refine it?)

And adding a bit of fuel to the fire, some of our friends noticed an interesting tweet coming out of India:

Now of course we don’t expect that one tweet makes this anything but wild speculation and rumor at this point, but with the launch of Windows 7 in the next few weeks, some new Windows Live bits to play with on those new machines would be very sweet indeed.

BuddyFuse International Release: Enhance Windows Live Messenger With Google Talk, Twitter And Hyves

Sunshine — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:52:40 GMT

The first international version of BuddyFuse has been released.

BuddyFuse, created by Dutch Computer Science student Yousef El-Dardiry, Jeroen Bransen and friends, is a free extension for Windows Live Messenger, which seamlessly integrates chat and social networks into the world’s most widely used instant messaging client. BuddyFuse currently enhances Windows Live Messenger by adding support for Google Talk, Twitter and the Dutch social network Hyves.

Long time requested feature
By integrating third party chat and social networks into Windows Live Messenger, BuddyFuse turns one of the most frequently requested features of the chat program into reality. ‘The vast amount of chat and social networking services available today causes people to be ‘online’ on different services at different times. By adding interoperability to Windows Live Messenger people can use an application they are already familiar with to stay in touch with all their friends, regardless of the network they are on.’, says BuddyFuse cofounder Yousef El-Dardiry.

Successful try-out
BuddyFuse has been released to the Dutch public in April 2009, supporting only the Dutch social network Hyves. This beta version has been embraced by the community, with over ten thousand users in the first few weeks. ‘The overwhelming amount of enthusiastic responses motivated us to work on this international release’, says El-Dardiry.

Support for more services such as AIM, ICQ and Facebook is planned for future releases.

You can find the download and more information, including a video impression on the BuddyFuse Website: http://www.buddyfuse.com

Exclusive: First Look at Word Web App’s Editing View

damaster — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:04:01 GMT

Following on from yesterday’s post on OneNote Web App, we’ve got the chance to take a look the Editing View of the Word Web App, currently disabled in the recently released Office Web Apps technical preview. Here’s a screenshot of it running in Windows Live SkyDrive:

(Note: Just like the screenshot of OneNote we posted yesterday, the document contents in the screenshot above had been edited because our own contents failed to load. But the Ribbon UI and everything else comes from the actual Web App.)

The Home tab in the Word Web App Editing View looks very similar to OneNote’s, also supporting functionalities such as basic text formatting, copy and paste, styles, as well as spell-checking. This is not surprising as we’ve learnt that the Word and OneNote Web Apps were built by the same team, and the fact that both Web Apps are built on the same “editing surface”.

And just like OneNote Web App, the Word Web App also allow you to insert tables, pictures, clip arts, and hyperlinks into your documents. However, what’s different is that the Word Web App does not have co-authoring capabilities, meaning that like the PowerPoint Web App, only one person can work on the document at any given time. Whether this would change in future versions we don’t know, but we certainly hope that it’ll support simultaneous co-authoring capabilities in the future! (After all, if Word and OneNote share the same “editing surface”, surely if OneNote can do it, Word can as well.)

From the screenshot of the File menu above, we found it quite strange that there isn’t a Print option in Word Web App’s Editing View. What this means is that to print a document directly from the Web App, you’ll need to return to Reading View to access the Print options. Of course, what we’ve shown here are all subject to change when it gets released to the public, so perhaps the Print mode might make a return by then (hopefully!).

We’ve also got a screenshot of Office 2010’s revamped Backstage view, showing the screen that now allows you to save your Office documents directly to your SkyDrive folders from the Office client, very neat! Have a look:

We just can’t wait for the next release of Office Web Apps! After all, the technical preview is missing two of the most exciting and useful Web Apps (Word and OneNote), so expect more to come soon! In the mean time, you can still try out the Excel and PowerPoint Web Apps at http://skydrive.live.com!

Exclusive: First Look at the OneNote Web App Technical Preview

damaster — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:42:01 GMT

After tweaking around with the recently released Office Web Apps, we were able to dig up a few screenshots of the currently unavailable OneNote Web App:

(Note: The actual document contents in the screenshots above have been edited as our own contents failed to load, however, the UI frame including the Ribbon is from the actual Web Apps)

As can be seen from the screenshots above, the OneNote Web App supports basic text formatting, styles, tagging, as well as spell-checking. Going to the “Insert” tab shows that you can add tables, pictures, clip arts, and hyperlinks into your notebooks. Similar to the Excel Web App, it also allows multiple users simultaneously co-author the same notebook, while showing you which section each author is currently editing. Notice that the OneNote Web App doesn’t have a Save button, meaning that changes by each author is automatically saved in the background, and what’s unique about OneNote Web App is the “Page Versions” feature which allows you to go back to the saved histories and retrieve an older version of your document in case someone has accidently overwritten something important while editing. A very useful feature!

Unfortunately, the OneNote Web App is not fully functional for us yet (and we see why Microsoft is not release them yet). But rest assured that they’ll be ready and available for us all when they reach the beta testing stage.

In the mean time, you can still test out the Excel and PowerPoint Web Apps over at http://skydrive.live.com. Also check out our coverage for tips on how to gain access to the Office Web Apps technical preview!

SkyDrive to become the center stage of Windows Live?

damaster — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:44:00 GMT

With the recent series of updates to Windows Live’s web services (Calendar, Hotmail, Photos, SkyDrive and more), we’re seeing a tip of the iceberg of what’s to come with Windows Live Wave 4 (in fact, we know this because all of the web services have been updated to v15). However, these are no way reflective of what Wave 4 is all about and the recent updates seemed more to simply address what customers wanted with Windows Live. So if this is not it, what are we to expect for the future of Windows Live?

Recent developments seemed to demonstrate the idea that Wave 4 is all about “simplification”. One prime example of this simplification is the retirement of Events and having it replaced by Calendar. Extending this idea further, recent developments around Windows Live seems to show that SkyDrive will play a prominent role in the future of Windows Live services. We already have Photos built on top of the SkyDrive service, and earlier this year we’ve seen that Favorites has been integrated into SkyDrive. We’re even seeing that Office Live will be merged into SkyDrive with the Office Web Apps integrated well within (remember that Office Web Apps supposed to replace Office Live Workspace). With all these services built within SkyDrive, it looks like Microsoft is positioning SkyDrive to be the single destination to access, organise, share and edit all your files, photos and documents stored online.

But Microsoft’s ambition for SkyDrive is much more than that. As we’ve seen details leaking last month, Microsoft will soon be launching Windows Live Devices – its replacement for Live Mesh – in Wave 4, and SkyDrive is to play an essential role on its launch. It is expected that SkyDrive will become the storage-end of Devices, playing a similar role to the “Live Desktop” in the current Live Mesh. The next version of Windows Live Sync will also become “meshified”, so besides the original PC-to-PC synchronisation capability, Sync will also sync your files to the cloud – and you’ve guessed it, it’ll be onto SkyDrive. On this front, Microsoft is really positioning SkyDrive to become your online hard drive and an essential piece of the “Software+Services” model.

By understanding how Microsoft positions SkyDrive for the future, it’s not hard to imagine the possibilities Microsoft can achieve with Windows Live. Many existing Windows Live services can be consolidated and be built on top of SkyDrive, and we know that the first of them all could well be Windows Live FrameIt. Paul Thurrott also slipped out a few words regarding (another) possible Windows Live-oriented video service in his review of Windows Live Movie Maker:

One thing that's missing, of course, is a way to post your video creations on a Microsoft service. Since Microsoft killed the Soapbox service, there's been a void, and while the company has nothing to announce at this time, suffice to say they will be adding Windows Live-oriented publishing capability in the future.

While Microsoft already have Video Messages, that service seem to be underexposed and didn’t integrate well with other Windows Live services. Additionally, Movie Maker seems to be the only Windows Live “software” that’s missing the “services” component under the “Software+Services” model. Thus integrating Video Messages into SkyDrive seems to make strong logical sense for Microsoft. Please bear in mind though that this is purely speculation, but we’re certainly watching Microsoft to see if this comes to fruition.

Of course, with all these files to be stored on SkyDrive, the current 25GB of storage space certainly won’t be enough. It’ll be interesting what Microsoft will do regarding this, as one of SkyDrive’s competing service ADrive currently offers 50GB for each account, will Microsoft increase its storage size for SkyDrive? We at LiveSide will of course keep you posted with any updates relating to SkyDrive and the rest of Windows Live, so stay tuned!

Windows Live Included With Windows 7?

Sunshine — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:26:00 GMT

Reading Rob Margel’s blogpost about 5 windows 7 US college ads, I noticed something not Windows 7 specific in the list of videos: a video about Windows Live Movie Maker! Now that isn’t included in Windows 7 as far as we know…

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Curious I went to the YouTube Channel the vids are on, the Windows Videos Channel, and low and behold what I found under the Windows 7 tab! There’s vids in there about Windows Live Photo Gallery too, alongside the Windows Live Movie Maker one already mentioned: one about making panorama photos, one on how to remove red-eye and crop, and one about importing pictures from your camera:

Now notice what it says below the video:

“All the included software in Windows 7…”, so does this mean they plan to deliver a CD with Windows Live on it with the Retail versions on Oct. 22, or is there something else we (not even the Windows 7 beta testers) don’t know about…

Update: I've received the following statement which can be attributed to a Microsoft Spokesperson:

Windows Live Movie Maker and the Windows Live Essentials suite of applications will not ship with Windows 7 – these applications are available today as a free download at http://download.live.com for all Windows users to enhance their Windows experience.

That said, users who purchase a new PC with Windows 7 pre-loaded may find that their PC manufacturer has pre-installed Windows Live Essentials for their convenience. Dell is one manufacturer that will preload Windows Live Essentials on a majority of consumer and small business PCs globally.

How To Access And Try Microsoft Office Web Apps Tech Preview

Sunshine — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:18:00 GMT

If you are curious and eager to try out Office Web Apps, after reading our review, you have to sign up here. Then you have to wait for the invitation to come. But, (once signed up) there is another way to try.

Now this works if you are already in the Office 2010 Tech Preview, but hey you never know, it might if you aren’t too…just follow these steps...

...(read more)