Over the last few years Microsoft has been working on there Windows live brand of produces messenger, mail, Photo Gallery, Writer, Movie Maker, and others. When you install Windows 7 there is no mail client and no movie maker unlike in vista and XP ware you had outlook express and windows movie maker. Now most people most likely will not notice this cause Windows Live Essentials will be already on there computer because Microsoft made deals with most of there OEM’s to have it already on PC made by these OEM’s like Dell.
The Windows Live Essentials suit makes things a lot easier if you are using hotmail or what is now called Live mail now. The Windows live mail desktop client makes live mail so much more useful then the web client. With things like a built in calendar, RSS feed reader, and your mail you now have one stop place for all your news and your day ahead. The mail client just takes your mail form your hotmail or live account and pulls it to your desktop like Outlook Express use to do. One thing it never could do is pull your contacts out of hotmail and add it to your desktop Windows Live Mail dose this and any changes it makes it just pushes the changes back to the web so you always have a up to date contact list.
Now one of the other things that this mail client dose well is keep you more on top of things. I used the calendar when I was in school to make sure I remembered when to have projects done and other events happening at school it worked grate and having the desktop client made it even better. I ran it on my laptop I would go to my study hall and open up my laptop and take a look at what needed to be done. If I needed to change something I changed it and it would sync to the internet and when I got home the calendar on my desktop was up to date as well. There is one thing though you should know the calendar only works with the windows live calendar. This means if you use Google Calendar it will not sync with it.
Windows Live Messenger well what can I say about that other then its still around. Ok ok ok there are good uses for it and frankly it is my favorite messenger out there I just wish more of my friends used it. I love cause I like most people now are close with people that don't liv near me and its nice to see and hear them once and awhile witch Windows Live Messenger grate just hit one button I can now see and hear them (as long as they have a cam and mic) so there something to say about messenger it lets you keep everyone important to you close as long as they use Windows Live Messenger.
For years now the most popular editing program for youtubers has been windows movie maker witch never really all that grate it was fine for YouTube but your not going to edit a movie like you would on the make with IMovie. Well the Window Live team knew this and revamp movie maker to become Windows Live Movie Maker witch added the Ribbon UI to movie maker. They also simplified movie maker to this kind of drag and drop editing style since it is a Live product it has an web aspect witch is you can save right to YouTube right from movie maker. You have a slide show you need to make windows movie maker with all its transitions it makes that so easy I have done it my self even it took no time at all. (just wish I could find it)
Another program that come with this suit that I use allot is Windows Live Writer. If you have a blog this makes, making updates to you blog so much easier then the web interface most blogging platforms have. Writer makes adding video and photos to your blog so much easier and makes your blog looks much better. There are other add-ins too that makes adding a Digg button much easier. Also have you ever wondered what your post will look like once it is done on the web there is a view option that lets you do that. If you are a blogger and use blogger or live journal as your host service this is a must have.
There are other things part of this suit that I did not talk about like the Windows Live Tool Bar and the Windows Live Family Safety. This is cause these are things that I don’t find necessary to a good windows 7 experience and I feel just drag it down. I also feel most people will never use them so there is no point in talking about. If you do need these thing there, there though. Now there are also other parts to Windows Live such as the online parts and mobile parts. Witch I will be adding to this Tuesday for the web and Wednesday for Mobile. until then have a good Labor day.
-Mike