New Windows Live Essentials 2011

craig3000

craig3000

craig3000

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http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials?os=other

This is rather a big update, the only ones I use myself are Messenger and Mail.
Messenger can now be linked to facebook/linked in/myspace. It is especially useful for facebook as you can now chat from the messenger client to friends on FB and it seems to update and work better. You also recieve a notification when somebody pops online :).

A useful note for messenger if you want to return to almost how it looked before click on the icon top right that looks like a small grey window, it's called 'compact view'.

The big issue I had with the old Mail is it could freeze often, I can't remember it doing it recently however, hopefully this release is much better. The interface now works on the ribbon thing like office etc.

Overall I like.
 
Over the years I've found messenger and outlook express (now Live mail I guess) have just got more bloated and ****. I'll try this though, if you think they're good.
 
Thanks for the heads up will check it out.

I totally agree that even Im shocked at the size and bloatwareness of simple IM software...do any of you guys run Yahoo Messenger. Take a look at task manager next time you got it running. I wonder why its that heavy on the memory?!
 
And so we find they're still up to their old tricks:

www.tweakguides.com said:
Unfortunately although Windows Live Essentials 2011 contains some improvements, it also installs a new service and several aspects of itself which are unnecessary, especially if you don't sign in using a Live account. The 'Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant' service cannot be disabled if you want certain Live programs to work such as Windows Live Mail - set it to Manual. However a range of Windows Live-related background programs, tasks, etc. can be disabled using Autoruns; see the Startup Programs chapter of the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion for general instructions. Alternatively, stick with your existing versions of Windows Live programs, as the newer versions don't necessarily contain any dramatic improvements aside from adding the Ribbon interface, which some may even find undesirable.
Click to expand...
 
A-Patch has also been updated, useful for removing ads and other nonsense:
http://apatch.org/

www.tweakguides.com has this to say about the latest Live Essentials:

Unfortunately although Windows Live Essentials 2011 contains some improvements, it also installs a new service and several aspects of itself which are unnecessary, especially if you don't sign in using a Live account. The 'Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant' service cannot be disabled if you want certain Live programs to work such as Windows Live Mail - set it to Manual. However a range of Windows Live-related background programs, tasks, etc. can be disabled using Autoruns

I'll update mine in a moment. I've been using the betas, and while I'm not sure I like it quite as much as the previous full version, it's not bad and has some nice features. New Windows Live Mail is very good too.

As for bloat, there are a few unnecessary services and programs that are installed (as above), but generally these can be removed and you just need to be selective about what you install to begin with. There's certainly far fewer ads and 'premium content' links in these later versions than there used to be though.
 
People worry too much about services. I bet they use barely anything at all. It would be nice if it asked, but most people wont even care/notice.
 
Just looking at 'Live Mesh@ which is included as part of this. Does it mean I could 'sync' say my photos file and it'll back up my photos online to the skydrive?

If so I thought skydirve had 25gb not just 5gb storage?
 
The photo editor is pretty good as well actually, in particular the photo fuse edit (take 3 or 4 pictures of a group of people and combine it into one with the best of everyone). Scarily it actually works quite well...
 
welshdragon said:
Just looking at 'Live Mesh@ which is included as part of this. Does it mean I could 'sync' say my photos file and it'll back up my photos online to the skydrive?

If so I thought skydirve had 25gb not just 5gb storage?
Click to expand...

Skydrive does has 25gb, Mesh syncs to it but it's limited to a total of 5gb, i really don't know why.

If you want to sync to skydrive i'd recommend using SDExplorer.
 
Installed and patched, I like it, just as minimal in compact view as previous MSN. And yes you can choose a display name too.

FB Chat is nice!
 
Not nice at all. Managed to slow my boot time by a whole second and increased my process count from 43 to 47. I'm totally anal/OCD about bloated software slowing my system down, especially since I clean installed Windows 7 Pro just 2 days ago.

Uninstalled it straight away. But I fear the damage is done :(.
 
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Got beta when it came out. Uninstalled within a week. Were bugs then but now most likely fixed.

Though it seemed complicated and weird.. Will keep with current version
 
You can change your display name on Live accounts:

name_1.PNG


name_3.PNG
 
asim18 said:
Not nice at all. Managed to slow my boot time by a whole second. I'm totally anal about bloated software slowing my system down, especially since I clean installed Windows 7 Pro just 2 days ago.

Uninstalled it straight away. But I fear the damage is done :(.
Click to expand...

You do realise your boot times won't be exactly the same every time anyway?
 
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