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Oh by the way, where’s Windows Live Wave 5?

Sep 14, 2011 4:06 pm by Kip Kniskern | 8 comments

This week at Build, we’ve heard about changes upcoming to the way mail and messaging will work in Windows 8, perhaps putting a Windows Live Messenger client and Windows Live Mail out of business, once you’ve moved over to the new platform. That could be a long way off, however, and in the meantime, we’ve heard next to nothing about client updates for Windows Live Essentials applications.

Now, Build was expected to be, and fully is, a Windows 8 event. There’s far more than enough here this week to get our heads around without diluting the message, but still, many of our questions about the present and future of Windows Live remain unanswered.

We’ve come to expect a cadence of releases from other Microsoft properties, with Windows Phone updates well documented (even if delayed), Bing spring and fall updates, and a regular Xbox release schedule. Even Hotmail and now more recently SkyDrive have been updating frequently. With Windows Live Essentials, not so much.

Even if Windows 8 were to be released tomorrow (we’ll be lucky to see it next fall), the user base for Windows Live Essentials will continue to be large and growing, it’s not like Windows 7 won’t be hanging around, maybe as long or longer than XP.

We’d sure like to hear more about the immediate future of Windows Live Messenger and the Essentials applications. Will they get a Metro treatment, like seemingly everything else at Microsoft, to usher in the new Metro-style era descending upon us? With the likes of Mail and Messenger apparently being built in to Windows 8, what will become of the other Essentials apps? And now that the Live Connect APIs are out, are we finally close to getting a SkyDrive client (or do we have to build our own?)

Now that the long awaited Windows 8 cat is finally out of the bag, isn’t it time to hear more about Windows Live Wave 5?

This entry was posted in Opinion and tagged Wave 5, Windows 8, Windows Live. Bookmark the permalink.

Sascenter
Windows Who?
Technogran -
I fully agree! We were promised more frequent updates, but it hasn’t happened. I’m dying to see what changes have been made to my favourite programs, especially Windows Live Writer!�
Anonymous
I am hoping they continue to improve Windows Live Essentials. I am a big user, especially with Windows Live Messenger.
Travis
All the Windows Live apps including Microsoft Security Essentials are going to be morphed into Windows 8 it’s self. They’ll push them out individually for a while after Windows 8 is released but I promise your not going to see any decent updates (probably just security patches# and only for as long as they have to (people stop complaining there not getting them for the old OS’s). I know it sucks but really this is probably for the best in my opinion…
- Damaster – LiveSide.net
  Actually… with the new Windows Defender in Windows 8 offering antivirus and
  real-time protection features, I don’t think Microsoft Security Essentials will
  be required.
  - Travis
    Yeah that’s what I was saying, but I’m sure it will still be made available to owners of Windows 7 and down for a while…
  - cuz84d
    Windows 8 defender is Microsoft Security Essentials.
    - Travis
      Yup :)