Windows Live Essentials just got updated!

A popup in the notification area in my taskbar tells that there’s an available update for the Windows Live Essentials Beta.  By just clicking the link my computer started to download the update, installed in a few minutes and prompted me to restart my computer.  Now let’s see what changes in the Windows Live Essentials 2011 Beta.

Some noticeable changes are the following.

The  Windows Live folder gets omitted in the All Programs menu in the Start Menu.  A new folder was created named Windows Live Accessories which includes the Live Family Safety Beta, Live Sync Beta, and Live Writer Beta.  Now you might might be wondering where did the other applications go? The Live Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, and Movie Maker Beta is now being relocated at the top along with Windows Media Player, DVD Maker, etc. right before the applications folders.

The splash screen of the Live Writer was changed to Windows Live Writer 2011.  Also the Writer has now better integration with Office retaining formatting when copied from MS Word and other office programs.

Just with evaluating it in few minutes, the best feature that amazed me is that Live Messenger has now the capability to connect with Facebook Chat! By just connecting my Live Messenger to my Facebook account, I can chat with my Facebook friends without logging on on to my Facebook the traditional way using a browser!  Another nice feature in the Messenger is that while chatting with two of my friends I noticed that the Messenger just used one window and created a tabs with my friends name on it (will it be called ‘Tabbed Chatting'” haha)

To prove that I can use Messenger to chat with my Facebook friend, here it is.  Our conversation both in Messenger and Facebook chat is just the same

There’s a lot more improvements out there, I’ll let you know in few days.  For now I strongly recommend that you update you Windows Live Essentials.  The updated Live Essentials can be downloaded here.

 

Want to know more?  Join Windows7ako the official Windows 7 community in the Philippines!  You can ask help and questions regarding Windows 7 there and also get to meet the members of the community during the meetups!