Windows Live Essentials Beta Released!

By Sunshine on December 15, 2008 8:19 PM

38 comments

I know we told you the Windows Live Essentials would be released last week, it really was planned like that, but sometimes things just don’t work out as planned. You had to wait a little longer, but now it’s finally here! Now you can complete the Windows Live experience: services and applications working seamlessly together.

Download Windows Live Essentials Beta

The Windows Live Essentials are Messenger, Mail, Writer, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Toolbar and Family Safety. Additional programs that can be installed are Microsoft Office Outlook Connector, Office Live Add-in and Microsoft Silverlight. The installer will let you choose which ones you want to install, nobody forces you to install them all. Dependencies will be installed automatically and only for those applications you choose. Like if you choose to install Photo Gallery, Windows Live Sync will be installed along with it. Of course you can uninstall this manually later but that will mean you won’t have the full features.

Requirements and Release notes

Posted in Featured, News | Tags: Essentials, Wave 3, Windows Live

Comments

http://liveside.net/members/AndyD/default.aspx AndyD

I still have the regular version, in Chrome and IE. Even after tossing my cookies. :/
http://www.liveside.net/members/CalumJR/default.aspx CalumJR

I’ve had the updated version of http://download.live.com (using Firefox) an am currently installing them.

Thank you very much for letting us know so fast Sunshine! It was a nice surprise, I was expecting them tomorrow :D
http://liveside.net/members/AndyD/default.aspx AndyD

Yep. Thanks Sunshine!

I have it in FF now, and I’m installing at the moment also.

It still isn’t showing for me in Chrome or IE though. :/
http://www.liveside.net/members/DeathSeeker/default.aspx DeathSeeker

“Nobody forces you to install them all.” But if you want to install any of them they force you to upgrade. Making it “impossible” to try any of the products if you want to keep a previous version of one of them.
http://gregsedwards.spaces.live.com gregsedwards

Another beta? I thought the final versions were supposed to be released last week. Sigh. Well, if it comes down to getting them quick vs. getting them right, I suppose we can wait a bit longer. Any word on the next Hotmail release?
http://www.liveside.net/members/CalumJR/default.aspx CalumJR

:| They appear to have taken out signature sounds in this new beta? :|

Does anybody know why?

That was one of my favourite new features :(
http://www.liveside.net/members/DeathSeeker/default.aspx DeathSeeker

If I want to try out Photo Gallery, Toolbar and Mail I need to download the Windows Live Installer. Which doesn’t wait for a user to set their firewall program(Windows Live OneCare in my case) to allow connections, so it fails and doesn’t allow you to retry. Meaning you have to hit close and reopen it.

Then let it download and install:

Windows Live Photo Gallery
Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Toolbar
Windows Imaging Component Hotfix
SQL Server CE 3.1
Search Enhacement Pack
Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime
Microsoft Sync Framework Services
Microsoft Visual Studio Runtime
Direct3D 9
Junk Mail filter update
Microsoft Application Error Reporting
Windows Live Communications Platform
Windows Live Call
Windows Live Sync
Windows Live Messenger 9.0

Then I have to uninstall everything I didn’t want:
Windows Imaging Component Hotfix
SQL Server CE 3.1
Search Enhacement Pack
Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime
Microsoft Sync Framework Services
Microsoft Visual Studio Runtime
Direct3D 9
Junk Mail filter update
Microsoft Application Error Reporting
Windows Live Communications Platform
Windows Live Call
Windows Live Sync
Windows Live Messenger 9.0

Then I have to download and reinstall the stuff it forced me to updated: Windows Live Messenger 8.5

What a wonderful experience to try 3 new programs. :-/
http://www.liveside.net/members/Kip-Kniskern/default.aspx Kip Kniskern

@gregsedwards – Yes, Brian Hall called this a “release candidate” type beta release, the final will be early next year.
http://www.liveside.net/members/Kip-Kniskern/default.aspx Kip Kniskern

@deathseeker – maybe you should try Virtual PC or a test machine for testing ;)

Nice list, though!
http://www.liveside.net/members/MCD/default.aspx MCD

so far i am only noticing new icons and more messenger scenes (you can auto use scene color in contant window by right clicking on his/her name area and clicking on use default scene).

also they still didn’t fix the inbox bug when using firefox as the default browser.

in the beta it redirects to msn news now it redirects to msn login page, sigh…
http://www.liveside.net/members/JSYOUNG571/default.aspx JSYOUNG571

Looks very nice and even better. The only problem I have as far as messenger, you still can not do audio and video setup. It’s been that way since the first beta. Is anyone else having this problem?
http://www.liveside.net/members/MCD/default.aspx MCD

more display pictures too, some are animated as well.
http://www.liveside.net/members/Ogden2k/default.aspx Ogden2k

I am very pleased with this update, the new interface feels like the web version. I like the improvements so far. i noticed they renamed Send/Recevie to Sync which is more appropriate.
http://www.liveside.net/members/MCD/default.aspx MCD

live photo gallery still can’t open pictures inside compressed archives (rar, zip..etc..).
http://www.liveside.net/members/tekfan/default.aspx tekfan

I was able to download using Chrome (my new backup browser after IE8). WLM looks nice! Love it :-) Shame though that WLPG still doesn’t have an option to change the color (and I think it even looks worst now, color-wise).
http://www.liveside.net/members/Nacho3891/default.aspx Nacho3891

I see in Messenger that there are no more ‘Signature Sounds’ and I can’t paint a conversation window with a particular colour (maybe they’re putting more attention to scenes and personalization).

After all, I think this is a very nice update.
http://www.liveside.net/members/Nacho3891/default.aspx Nacho3891

Sorry… I forgot this… In this moment I’m using Windows 7 (build 6956) and the Messenger icon does not show in the Notification Area, but in the taskbar as a live icon, with its respective Jumplist.
http://cid-976771184ba14948.profile.live.com/ luisfelipe

Where are the Favorites sync in Toolbar with Skydrive?? This option does not show to me…
http://www.liveside.net/members/orionll/default.aspx orionll

Downloading now :).

Is error 8100451 fixed?

Whatever, I’ll find out myself, very soon :P.
http://www.liveside.net/members/Sunshine/default.aspx Sunshine

@luisfelipe: I wondered about that too, but found it! It’s the Share button. Why it isn’t called Favorites is beyond me. To make use of it you have to log in with your Live ID first, then you can add the current page with a description to your shared favorites. To view all your favorites you can click the link in that dropdown or go to your skydrive.
http://www.liveside.net/members/Master-Devwi/default.aspx Master Devwi

Is anyone else having trouble installing it? It works fine on my laptop, but my desktop keeps getting an “0×80004004″ error. It says the installation was canceled…

I’ve tried installing it many times, and I just manually uninstalled the previous betas. Sadly, that hasn’t fixed it either.
http://www.liveside.net/members/luisfelipe/default.aspx luisfelipe

@Sunshine: Thanks for your interest in help me! But I already see the “Share” button… I’m talking about the other little button near the Options button that allow us to sync our IE Favorites between diferent computers… I took a screenshot from the Windows Live Essentials page about that. See it here >> http://lqmlkw.bay.livefilestore.com/y1ps-uvIS2agWPcTBgL8pBEM4dNydg5LV11l8sSYhGCH5gQEt0okMNDKEv4_wpL-JqyJ39BjN9ScOupGp_yZq8pHQ/Favorites%20sync%20in%20Toolbar.jpg.
Did you see it?
http://www.liveside.net/members/PortugalFire/default.aspx PortugalFire

I am using the new RC beta refresh. Its so much better than the previous version. The interweaving between services and web. Many criticise Microsoft for its empty promises, but this is not empty, and they delivered more or less on time. I must say it is so good.
http://www.liveside.net/members/ChaosAngelic/default.aspx ChaosAngelic

@Nacho3891:

Yeah, I’m using Windows 7, and I noticed that as well. It’s an interesting idea…
http://www.liveside.net/members/ChaosAngelic/default.aspx ChaosAngelic

Oh yeah, anyone know how to make Live Mail hide itself when minimized like you could in the previous version?
http://www.liveside.net/members/orionll/default.aspx orionll

@ChaosAngelic: Right click the Windows Live Mail icon in the taskbar and press the hide when minimised button. Why do and how did you have/get Windows 7 :P?
http://www.liveside.net/members/rgonzruiz/default.aspx rgonzruiz

@MCD: I’m using Chrome, and clicking on the mail button on the Messenger window finally redirects correctly to my WLHotmail (given that you are always signed on, it’ll log you in automagically). Not sure if that’s what you say isn’t working on Firefox?
http://www.liveside.net/members/Dingold/default.aspx Dingold

@orionll:

Windows 7 was available if you attended PDC 2008.
http://edkopp4.spaces.live.com/ edkopp4

I’m having the exact same problem, Master Devwi. I’ve tried installing twice, once with Zonealarm (firewall) on and once with no firewall, and I get the aborted:0×8000404 error each time, so it backs out of the installation and installs nothing.

My computer is running XP SP3 with all windows updates installed. I have the previous beta versions of messenger, mail, photo gallery, sign-in assistant, and writer installed.

If anyone has any ideas on how to successfully install these programs, please let me know.
http://www.liveside.net/members/Sunshine/default.aspx Sunshine

luisfelipe, nope I don’t have that one either. Checked: this option isn’t available in all markets yet.
http://www.liveside.net/members/lbastie/default.aspx lbastie

How can we submit feedback? Is there a mail or a form? Can someone consolidate the feedback on liveside and shre it in a smart way with the WL team?

Thanks
http://liveside.net/members/luisfelipe/default.aspx luisfelipe

@lbastie: You can share your feedback directly to Windows Live Team. Visit https://feedback.live.com/ than select a service/software and fill the form with your comments…
http://edkopp4.spaces.live.com/ Ed

I’ve been researching my installation failure error (0×8000404), and while watching the installation process I noted that everything installs and goes perfectly for most of the process (including installing the new software like messenger, mail, etc) and then during the update of Toolbar, it starts rolling back the installations it just completed for the new applications. I’m guessing that the problem has to do with the update of Toolbar, and since it can’t update that one program, it quits installation and uninstalls everything (which is very annoying).

Prior to this, I had problems uninstalling the non-beta Windows Live Toolbar using its uninstaller. It always cited something along the lines of not being able to find a certain file to complete the uninstall. As a result, add/remove and the Windows Live Essentials installer think that Toolbar is still installed, even though I’ve since gone in and removed all the WLT files and removed all the registry references to it using CCleaner. I hope one of the Microsoft people is reading this and has a solution for me.
http://www.liveside.net/members/joiseystud/default.aspx joiseystud

Kind of surprised they didn’t fix the Mail and IE8 Beta 2 integration issues. Overall this update looks really sweet. Things are polished up. The first time I tried to use the new Movie Maker it crashed though… still some major work to do there. I am confused by their lack of consistency when calling this release a “beta”. Why not call it Beta 2 since the previous version was “beta”. I know they use build numbers but this is still confusing since it appears that the only application still designated as a “beta” is movie maker. All other apps have lost the beta moniker and are just called “Mail 2009 build ….” Any insights on this?
http://www.liveside.net/members/talonmke1979/default.aspx talonmke1979

I am getting the error code: 0×80070643 every time I try to install Windows Live Writer. It’s really annoying. There should be a help tutorial on how to get this application installed.
http://www.liveside.net/members/Kip-Kniskern/default.aspx Kip Kniskern

thanks for all the comments!
DJDB

Same problem here…Error 0×8000404 while trying to setup. Also, for WL Messenger, it says that it couldn’t open a specific reg key because i don’t have sufficient access on that key (despite the fact that i’m the admin on my pc. Isn’t it obvious? :p).

Any solution on those?
ben_b

For those of you with error 0×8000404 try uninstalling all Windows Live products you have installed on your computer. Most likely Windows Live Toolbar will tell you that it cannot uninstall because of an issue with some registery permissions (HKCU\Software\Microsoft\MSN Apps\MSN Toolbar Suite\PhishingFilter). Delete that registery key and then try again. After doing all this you should be able to install the new betas. The reason the new beta would not install is most likely because it could not rollback the old Windows Live Toolbar to allow the new one to be installed.

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