Windows Live Essentials 2011 available for download now

[Brink]

We are pleased to announce that Windows Live Essentials 2011 for Windows 7 and Windows Vista is now available for download! (Releasing in 48 languages over the next few hours, so if your language is not yet available, it will be very soon.) Windows Live Essentials 2011 was designed and built to connect your PC to the services you use every day. We’re also announcing today that Dell will be the first global PC manufacturer to ship PCs with Windows Live Essentials 2011 and Windows 7 pre-installed, just in time for your holiday purchases. Many other PC manufacturers are also planning to make Windows Live Essentials 2011 available and we’ll continue to keep you updated as they start releasing.

I want to offer a special thank you to the millions of people who installed the beta! Our beta users helped us identify and address issues, with over two thousand forum posts and comments. In today’s release, we’ve addressed 95% of all bugs reported by beta users, leading to improvements that you’ll see across the suite.



Designed for Windows 7

Windows Live Essentials 2011 was designed from the ground up for Windows 7. You can pin your applications to the taskbar and use jump lists to quickly get to common tasks. The ribbon brings common tasks to the front, letting you filter photos, change your font, or publish to your favorite services in a single click.

For parents, Windows Live Family Safety gives you the tools to help keep your kids safer on the Internet.



If you have more than one PC, or a PC and a Mac, Windows Live Mesh helps you sync your files and folders across your PCs and connect back to your PC from virtually anywhere.



Connected to the services you use

Windows Live connects your Windows PC to the services you use every day. Use Window Live Photo Gallery to share photos with your friends on SkyDrive, Flickr, SmugMug, Facebook, and more.



Create a video using Windows Live Movie Maker and instantly publish it to YouTube.

Stay in touch with your friends on Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace using the new Windows Live Messenger.

Use Windows Live Writer to update your blog on Wordpress.com, Blogger, TypePad, and many more blogging services.



Use Windows Live Mail to keep track of your email from Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, and more.



Download it today!

Get started and download Windows Live Essentials 2011 today. It is being released in 48 languages over the next few hours, so if you don’t see it in your language yet, you should see it very soon. If you’re running Windows Vista or Windows 7 on your PC, make sure you have the latest Windows updates installed before you install Windows Live Essentials (see the system requirements here). If your computer is still running Windows XP, you can, of course, continue to use the current Windows Live Essentials software, and then switch to Windows Live Essentials 2011 when you buy a new PC or upgrade to Windows 7.

Together with Windows 7 and the new Internet Explorer 9 beta, Windows Live Essentials completes your Windows experience and connects your PC to the services you use every day. Try it out and let us know what you think!

On behalf of the entire Windows Live team, thanks for trying Windows Live Essentials 2011!

Chris Jones
Vice President, Windows Live engineering

More...

See also: http://www.sevenforums.com/software/21530-latest-windows-live-essentials-programs-versions.html

   Information

Some release notes if you haven't seem them. More like bug list.

Windows Live Essentials 2011 release notes

 

[Rhammstein]

This is fantastic! I love it!

I've got my mail, live chat, facebook, everything, all in one spot, and it works!

I've been looking forward to this for a while, passed on the beta. I really like it, it feels like it's a part of Windows now, not an addon. Easy to setup, and works perfectly, woot!

 

[Dark Nova Gamer]

Just woke up, downloading it now. PS the lock on my thread was just plain rude.

 

[Schroff87]

New WLM seems nice! Love the FB integration .. but the "full" view felt too overwhelming/crowded to me .. switched back to the classic view

I noticed they removed or hid the part where you could view those who have added you (old privacy settings section) .. or am I missing something?

 

[OneSerious]

The messenger and Facebook integration is a bit hard to get used to. But I love the new and improved Live Mail. I've used it for a while now and love it's simple but useful layout. I like how similar mail is now stacked.

 

[Night Hawk]

Someone had just pointed me to the ZDNet report that came out this morning. Microsoft set to release final version of Windows Live Essentials 2011 | ZDNet

I'll be giving the 64bit version of this a good run for the money at least!

 

[Lebon14]

Upgraded and works well. The only hitch is that I can't find the options...

EDIT

Duh... just found it. Really, really NOT obvious.

 

[24c]

Someone had just pointed me to the ZDNet report that came out this morning. Microsoft set to release final version of Windows Live Essentials 2011 | ZDNet

I'll be giving the 64bit version of this a good run for the money at least!

There's a 64 bit version?

 

[s31]

I noticed they removed or hid the part where you could view those who have added you (old privacy settings section) .. or am I missing something?

yeah noticed this too

what happened to the save contact list option?

 

[Night Hawk]

When going to download the initial file that itself is a webinstaller allowing you to select the options you want like messenger, Live Mail, I think even the Live Mesh may be an option, and a few other things. Mostly all this is still 32bit in order to universal with XP and Vista as well as for 7.

 

[F1FAN]

when i sign in, how to i get the main window to display rather then having to click it on the taskbar?

 

[dew1]

Are there ways to do Nick Name ?

 

[HQuest]

Of all the features,

If you have more than one PC, or a PC and a Mac, Windows Live Mesh helps you sync your files and folders across your PCs and connect back to your PC from virtually anywhere.

, will this be able to compete against DropBox/MobileMe/GoogleFS hacks?

 

[Night Hawk]

when i sign in, how to i get the main window to display rather then having to click it on the taskbar?

Once you have that new window open look on the menu bar for the "send" option and select the "send IM" for Instant Messaging. Besides the screen changing to the MS/Bing news in the main view your contact list will be on the upper right side under your Live user name.

You'll see "FRIENDS" and then "online" and "Add" below that.

 

[BugMeister]

been running with the BETA version for quite a while..
wow, thanks for the headz-up..!!

it's really fast..!!

 

[Night Hawk]

When going to open it I started trying to add contacts until seeing the indicator that they were being added again? Well there was no import option seen and that can be confusing to some when WLM is already installed.

The trick is to act just as if you were going to send a quick reply to a live contact to change the default screen the first time around and close it out. When going to start WL a second time you will see it open with the contacts on the right and news links on the left. The first time is the key however.

(besides don't you just love betas?! :roflmao: )

To illustrate how to do this easier I added a few screens to look over here. Once you have used the send IM option once that no longer appears however in the menu bar>Actions>Send menu.

 

[s31]

Are there ways to do Nick Name ?

you can edit your name to look kind of like a nickname but it comes up funny so not really

 

[Schroff87]

is it possible to chat with facebook contacts through the new messenger? i read online that it was possible but when a few people were online on FB chat they didn't appear online in WLM's facebook contacts. is there some configuration i've missed out on or something? :S

 

[Night Hawk]

Are there ways to do Nick Name ?

you can edit your name to look kind of like a nickname but it comes up funny so not really

When you look at the 3rd image just added to my previous post for showing to bring up the screens where the contacts are listed you can see my user name on the right side there. Of course that was installing over the regular WLM that had been in use since before the first beta release.

is it possible to chat with facebook contacts through the new messenger? i read online that it was possible but when a few people were online on FB chat they didn't appear online in WLM's facebook contacts. is there some configuration i've missed out on or something? :S

I'll have to ask someone who is a regular FB user who so far loves this release! I was in contact with him earlier before this was asked. ouch!

I could have asked him then while in a live chat since he's a regular external MS tester. He would know right off!

Good catch on the page there! Airbot At least we now know XP is ruled out.

 

[Airbot]

Some release notes if you haven't seem them. More like bug list.

Windows Live Essentials 2011 release notes