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Microsoft readies Beta 2 of Windows Live Essentials 2011

By | August 11, 2010, 2:30pm PDT

Microsoft is preparing to deliver a second beta of the next version of its Windows Live Essentials suite next week.

That’s the word from blogger Francisco Martin Garcia, who posted about the coming beta on his blog on August 11. (Garcia’s had a good track record on predicting Microsoft delivery dates for various consumer wares.) Enthusiast site Neowin also is reporting the second beta will hit next week, naming Tuesday, August 18 17 as the likely delivery date. I am hearing the 17th is Microsoft’s target for the beta, as well.

(Microsoft officials aren’t commenting on when or if a next Windows Live Essentials beta will hit.)

Windows Live Essentials is a bundle of a number of the Windows Live add-on services, unified via a common installer. The latest Essentials suite is codenamed Windows Live Essential Wave 4 — but expected to be known as Windows Live Essentials 2011 when the final version is rolled out. It includes updated versions of Messenger, Live Mail, Writer, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Live Sync (which is now Live Mesh plus the existing Live Sync), Family Safety and the Bing Toolbar. Microsoft delivered a first beta of the Wave 4 bundle in late July June.

Microsoft originally was touting the forthcoming free Windows Live Essentials Suite as something that can meet and beat the $79 Apple iLife suite. More recently, Microsoft officials began positioning the next version of the Essentials suite — plus the other Windows Live services that aren’t part of Essentials (like Hotmail) as the foundation of Microsoft users’ “personal clouds.” Live Essentials is meant to complement Windows 7 and Vista, but won’t install on XP.

According to Garcia, the new beta will incorporate new icons, new features and many bug fixes. He didn’t specify any of those features or fixes. One fix I’m personally hoping for is to remedy whatever is kept Windows Live Messenger Wave 4 Beta 1 from working on my Windows 7 PC. I got it to work twice but then kept receiving messages telling me the service was unavailable. When I did log in, Messenger froze my PC. Microsoft officials didn’t have a suggested fix for me, so I’m back to the Wave 3 Live Messenger for now.

Microsoft officials haven’t said when to expect the company to launch the final version of Live Essentials 2011/Wave 4. Originally it was expected this summer, but fall is now looking more likely.

Meanwhile, in other Windows Live news, Microsoft is now telling Hotmail users who are having problems reading and writing e-mail after being upgraded to Wave 4 Hotmail that fixes are in the works for various problems. One hotfix is coming this week, Microsoft officials are saying, and another may be rolled out as part of a refresh for Hotmail next week, according to reports.

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Topics

Microsoft Windows Live, Microsoft Corp., Beta, Windows Live Essentials, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

Disclosure

Mary-Jo Foley

Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.

Biography

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 25 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.

Talkback Most Recent of 25 Talkback(s)

  • RE: Microsoft readies Beta 2 of Windows Live Essentials 2011
    I think you mean "Microsoft delivered a first beta of the Wave 4 bundle in late JUNE"
    ZDNet Gravatar
    angarita calvo
    11th Aug 2010

  • ZDNet Blogger

    June for Beta 1
    Yes you are right. Thanks. Fixed. MJ
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Mary Jo Foley
    12th Aug 2010
  • RE: Microsoft readies Beta 2 of Windows Live Essentials 2011
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    atrok
    27th Jul
  • RE: Microsoft readies Beta 2 of Windows Live Essentials 2011
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    ZDNet Gravatar
    Ayşem
    21st Aug
  • RE: Microsoft readies Beta 2 of Windows Live Essentials 2011
    I hope they fix the tagging in photo gallery.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    CobraA1
    11th Aug 2010
  • RE: Microsoft readies Beta 2 of Windows Live Essentials 2011
    @CobraA1 What problems do you have?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    jagansai
    11th Aug 2010
  • RE: Microsoft readies Beta 2 of Windows Live Essentials 2011
    @jagansai Dunno if you tried wave 3 or not, but in wave 4 tagging is a royal mess compared to what it was before. It's been scattered around the new ribbon UI and lost the very nice drag and drop tagging.

    Windows live photo gallery wave 3 was the best tagging system in any product I've tried, period.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    CobraA1
    11th Aug 2010
  • Same Messenger Issue
    MJF, I had exactly the same issue with WLMw4 on my Windows 7 PC as well and like you I had to roll back to the old version. Too bad, because I was really liking 2011 the opportunities I had to use it!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    GoodThings2Life
    11th Aug 2010
  • RE: Microsoft readies Beta 2 of Windows Live Essentials 2011
    @GoodThings2Life I only saw the error where Messenger Wave 4 can't sign in on one of my laptops, but it turned out that all that I had to do in order to get it working was to tell the login screen to 'forget me' from its drop down list of users and then sign in again fresh.

    After that it was smooth sailing. Let me know if this isn't the case for you.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    natelawrence
    13th Aug 2010
  • RE: Microsoft readies Beta 2 of Windows Live Essentials 2011
    @natelawrence

    The same advertisers that brought us Seinfeld (lets play footsie and wiggle our shorts Bill), Laptop Hunters (that got all sorts of bad press for lies (incorrect pricing and customer never actually went into an Apple store) and portraying windows as "cheep"), And Windows 7 was Macs idea (where a college kid who can't get laid and get kicked out of his dorm room (by his Mac roommate) has to watch TV in the hall because he doesn't even have a friend whom he could visit).

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    ZDNet Gravatar
    exibir
    6th Aug
  • XP support
    Alas they don't support XP making it irrelevant for me. I haven't seen any mention of any component using Direct2D/DirectWrite unlike IE9 which truly uses these at its core. Live Wave 4 is falsely dependent on Vista by using the Windows Ribbon framework which was only ported up to Vista instead of using the Office 2010 Ribbon which is improved in fact and supports XP as well. In one of the interviews by Ina Fried, their VP says "We just decided not to support XP". Now that's evil without any real dependency on Vista.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    anonymuos
    12th Aug 2010
  • Upgrade or GTFO.
    They want people to upgrade. It's time to let XP die.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Cylon Centurion
    12th Aug 2010
  • RE: Microsoft readies Beta 2 of Windows Live Essentials 2011
    @anonymuos First of all, support for XP is starting to wane at Microsoft. It is, after all, a legacy OS by now and Microsoft is up to Windows 7.

    Second of all, if you want hardware acceleration, Firefox will also have hardware accelerated graphics soon.

    Also - the UI hasn't been implemented in IE9 yet, so I don't know why you're talking about the ribbon interfaces. In fact, I'd probably bet against IE9 using one of the ribbons in it at all, as it doesn't really make sense in a browser.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    CobraA1
    12th Aug 2010
  • Safe bet
    @CobraA1

    Microsoft toyed with a ribbon UI for IE8 and went against it. I'd say that is done and over with.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Cylon Centurion
    12th Aug 2010
  • RE: Microsoft readies Beta 2 of Windows Live Essentials 2011
    @CobraA1 Most of the Windows Live 4 applications use the ribbon interface now. I don't know why he is talking about IE9 while we are talking about Windows Live Essentials.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    babyboomer57
    12th Aug 2010
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