Windows Live Messenger 2011 available for download

Microsoft has released their Windows Live Essentials 2011 software suite.

Windows Live Essentials 2011 groups together multiple programs designed for Windows Vista and 7 users. Due to hardware acceleration not being supported, at least in the way that Microsoft has implemented it, Windows XP is not compatible with this release.

The user is able to decide which elements that they want to install, with the best known WLE 2011 application being the Windows Live Messenger client which will also be made available on Windows Phone 7. In addition to the instant messaging client, the other applications provided by Windows Live Essentials are Windows Live Mail, Photo Gallery, the Windows Live Writer blog editing tool, the Bing toolbar, Windows Live Movie Maker for the creation of films and slideshows, Family Safety and Windows Live Mesh for the synchronisation of data between multiple computers.

Messenger is ever present and we find a module integrated into all of the Windows Live applications to access this. It is possible to change between the usual compact mode and a normal display which allows you to see the latest news from each of your contacts (including photo slideshows, video’s, etc.), and third party social networks. Facebook chat is also supported.

A lot of nice functions have been added like conversations on tabs, the possibility of defining a status for a particular group of users or for a specific contact, leaving video messages for offline contacts and the automatic adaptation of a high definition video conversation (720p). The integration into the Windows 7 task bar is also a nice feature if you want to directly change your status or have thumbnails of each conversation. One interesting function is related to changing the privacy settings, as this will open a page in your web browser from where the changes can be made. You may only want to make a simple change, but we had the impression we were lost among the many controls made available in the advanced options.

For the other applications in Windows Live 2011, the Ribbon interface has been applied. Windows Live Mail looks more and more like Outlook 2010, while it also borrows a lot of the good ideas seen in the new Windows Live Hotmail. Photo Gallery is also rather good with its facial recognition technology which allows you to merge photos taken from the same point of view. You can also define a particular zone and search among your pictures for that something special which can be adapted with the editing software so that you can replace an expression with something better adapted in a group photo, for example.

In Windows Live Movie Maker, AutoMovie themes can be applied to photos and videos with transitions, a title and background music. The backup can be done in the 720p and 1080p formats. It is possible to share your works on Facebook, Flickr, YouTube or even SkyDrive, with it being possible to add to this list by installing plug-in’s for other sites.

It should also be said Windows Live Writer is present despite Microsoft soon migrating their blog platform to WordPress.com. It should also be noted that Messenger Companion and the Outlook Connector Pack.

Download Windows Live Essentials 2011