Windows Live

A new Windows Live Essentials public beta will have deep hooks to multiple social networking, media-sharing, and Web mail services, as well as the new Office Web Apps, Microsoft announced Wednesday. The public beta will be available starting Thursday at the Windows Live site, although Microsoft has yet to say at what time.

The Live Essentials update focuses on making Windows more Web-friendly, without leaving users on the hook for uninstalling programs they don't want their computer to come with. The new betas of Windows Live Messenger, Writer, Mail, Movie Maker, and Photo Gallery will all connect to multiple … Read more

Microsoft has started upgrading Hotmail users to the new version of the Web mail service, an update that includes support for larger attachments and new views for looking at attached photos and documents.

The company is upgrading to the new service one server cluster at a time--and it has hundreds of such clusters--so not everyone will get the upgrade right away.

"If you don't see these features today, please hold on just a little while longer--everybody will be upgraded this summer," program manager Mike Schackwitz said in a blog post on Tuesday.

The company previewed the new-look Hotmail … Read more

Editor's note: We used Cover It Live for this event, so if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component below. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with commentary from our readers and CNET editor Josh Lowensohn. For those of you who just want the updates, we've included them in regular text here.

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie are slated to speak Thursday at the D: All Things Digital event.

Check back around 8 a.m. PDT for … Read more

Microsoft on Wednesday outlined a series of improvements it's making to its Windows Live set of downloadable programs for managing photos and videos and keeping files in sync.

With no major update to Windows coming this year, Microsoft is counting on improvements to Windows Live to help boost the appeal of Windows for this year's holiday shopping season.

"We're refreshing Windows 7 with a new suite of apps," general manager Brian Hall said in a telephone interview.

The updates to Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Movie Maker, Windows Live Mail, and Windows Live Sync … Read more

Like all parents, Microsoft likes to tout the accomplishments of its offspring. Any conversation about Hotmail is likely to start with the fact that, at least globally, the free Web mail service has more active accounts than any of its rivals.

Pressed, though, company officials also see Hotmail's shortcomings. In recent years, rivals Google and Yahoo have been ahead of the game when it comes to adding things like conversation views, mobile synchronization and other features. And Yahoo has more U.S. accounts, while Google has been growing faster than Hotmail. Beyond any one feature, though, Hotmail has come … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--The next update of Windows Live is starting to take shape.

CEO Steve Ballmer last week previewed the new version of Messenger. Microsoft isn't quite ready to detail everything its planning for the next Hotmail, but general manager Brian Hall offered a pretty good indication of where the company is placing its bets.

"This release, while we are not going into any details right now, it is the one that places Hotmail back on top, especially for busy people who just want an efficient e-mail," Hall said over lunch on Monday. Hall was here to check … Read more

Microsoft is getting ready to start public testing of the next version of its moviemaking and photo-editing software, but the company confirmed this week that the products won't run on Windows XP.

The new versions are part of a series of changes coming to Windows Live in the "Wave 4" update to Microsoft's online services. In updating Windows Live Movie Maker, Windows Live Photo Gallery, and other downloadable Windows Live Essentials programs, Microsoft opted to take advantage of the improved graphics engine and other capabilities that have come into the operating system with Windows Vista and … Read more

Microsoft said on Wednesday that it is halting e-mail-based support for its suite of Windows Live services.

Instead, the company said users will have to go to online forums for help with issues. The move is effective Wednesday, Microsoft said.

In an e-mail, a Microsoft representative characterized the move as a positive.

"This means that consumers and partners will experience quicker resolution times and will be able to leverage our extensive community forums to post or answer questions, view service alerts and find solutions," the representative said. Forum answers, Microsoft said, will come from peers, volunteer Most Valuable … Read more

In a move to marry its old-school Office product with the newer trends of the Net, Microsoft issued beta software Wednesday that brings social-network information into Outlook.

The product, called Outlook Social Connector, has been available in the Office 2010 beta. According to the Outlook Social Connector download site, the new version works with Outlook 2003 and 2007 and connects with social-network partners, which wasn't the case with the earlier version.

Outlook Social Connector will let people see updates from a person's social-network contacts. LinkedIn announced in November that it would become the first actual partner in the Microsoft program. … Read more