That’s what Hotmail has added to their website recently. When you open the Windows Live Hotmail website you see the standard Hotmail sign in screen for the most part. If you look below the Sign In button you see this:

Not your computer? Get a single use code to sign in with

The sign in form changes when you click on the link. You are now asked to enter your Windows Live ID and the single use code instead of your regular password to log in to the service.

This is also indicated at the top where it states:

sign in with single use code. If you’re signing in from a public computer, you can use a single use code instead of your password for added security.

If you do not have a code yet you can request one with a click on Get one here on the same page. You are then asked to enter your Windows Live ID and a mobile phone number that is linked to the account. Microsoft will send a text message to the phone number containing the single use code that you can use to sign in to Hotmail.

If you have not linked a mobile phone number to your Windows Live account yet you can do so in the account settings. Open the link and enter your standard login information. Click on the Manage link next to Security Info on the page and then on Add New below Mobile Phone on the next page.

The mobile phone number needs to be confirmed before it can be used for single use codes. Hotmail sends an email to the linked account email address. This email contains a confirmation link that you need to load to confirm the addition of the mobile phone number to the account. This obviously only adds to security if you do not use Hotmail as your email provider for that account email address.

Once the number has been verified you can start requesting single use codes for your Hotmail sign ins.

Single use codes are actually available on all Windows Live sign in forms.

The addition of single use codes adds to Hotmail’s and Windows Live’s security big time. What’s your take on this? (via)

The core benefit is that some data gets synchronized with the cloud. This includes common Windows settings, Metro style app settings and sessions, saved sign-in credentials for apps and websites, and automatic sign in to all apps and services that are powered by Windows Live. Settings include the lock screen picture, desktop wallpaper, user tiles, favorites and the history, Windows Explorer settings, mouse settings and many other settings that are stored in the cloud.

When you buy a Windows 8 PC and set up your user account for the first time, you can optionally choose to create an account that is associated to a Windows Live ID. You can either use an existing ID or create a new one. If you choose to create a new one, you can use any email address you want as your new ID, and then create your unique password. For example, you can use example@live.com or you can use someone@example.com. You just need to identify an email address that you want to have associated with the Windows Live ID service, and provide a unique password. Of course, you can also continue to use local Windows accounts as you always have and obviously, domain-administered accounts work as they always have as well.

You can configure the types of data that you want synchronized when using a Windows Live ID to sign in.

Groups include:

• Personalize – colors, backgrounds and lock screen
• Themes – background image, sounds, and more on the desktop
• Ease of access – speech recognition, magnifier, on-screen keyboard and narrator
• Language preferences – keyboards, other input methods, display language, and more.
• Apps – certain settings in your apps
• Web browser – Internet settings like history, bookmarks and favorites
• Other stuff – taskbar, Windows Explorer and search, HomeGroup, mouse and your account picture
• Some passwords – for apps, websites and networks

You find the options in the Control Panel. Click on Sync PC Settings to enable or disable specific features.

There is one restriction in place that can be of importance if your computer system has a monitor that runs a resolution larger than 1920×1200. Windows will automatically compress and resize background images that are larger than 2 Megabytes to 1920×1200.

With cloud syncing, privacy and security becomes even more important. Microsoft has implemented safeguards to protect the Windows Live account from unauthorized access. This includes having to select a strong password and a secondary proof of identity which can be a secondary email address or phone number among other options. The proof of identity is used to establish trust and enable all synchronizing options (like passwords).

We’ve taken measures to safeguard the ID and password you use to sign in to Windows. We do this in a couple ways. First, we will require a strong password (and you can’t leave password blank). Next, we’ll collect a secondary proof of your identity. This will allow us to establish “trust” with specific PCs that you use frequently or own. This in turn will also enable more secure syncing of private data like passwords. Collecting the secondary proof of your identity also helps make account recovery easier and more secure. Examples of secondary proofs are alternative email addresses, mobile phone numbers, and questions with secret answers—something that generally only you will know.

Another benefit of using a Windows Live password to log in to Windows is the ability to go to the Windows Live website to reset the user account password.

Synchronizing data with the cloud makes sense from a usability perspective, but only if the user works on multiple Windows 8 machines. Single-computer users do get a few benefits, like the ability to reset the password online or the ability to sync settings after reinstalling the operating system. It remains to be seen if this is enough for using a Windows Live ID to sign in to Windows. What’s your take on this new option? You can read more about it on the Building Windows 8 blog.

Photographers who shot their photos in RAW format could not really make use of Windows Live’s Photo Gallery until now, as it did not support RAW formats.

This changes today with the release of the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack for Windows Vista and Windows 7. The independent download adds support for more than 120 DSLR cameras to Photo Gallery, Windows Explorer and other programs that use Windows Imaging Codecs (WIC).

Installation of the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack should be a breeze. Users only need to make sure that they install the right version for their operating system. The camera codec pack is offered for 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems.

The download page over at Microsoft’s Download Center lists the supported camera models. I have taken the liberty to quote the camera models below:

• Canon: EOS 1000D (EOS Kiss F in Japan and the EOS Rebel XS in North America), EOS 10D, EOS 1D Mk2, EOS 1D Mk3, EOS 1D Mk4, EOS 1D Mk2 N, EOS 1Ds Mk2, EOS 1Ds Mk3, EOS 20D, EOS 300D (the Kiss Digital in Japan and the Digital Rebel in North America) , EOS 30D, EOS 350D (the Canon EOS Kiss Digital N in Japan and EOS Digital Rebel XT in North America), EOS 400D (the Kiss Digital X in Japan and the Digital Rebel XTi in North America), EOS 40D, EOS 450D (EOS Kiss X2 in Japan and the EOS Rebel XSi in North America), EOS 500D (EOS Kiss X3 in Japan and the EOS Rebel T1i in North America), EOS 550D (EOS Kiss X4 in Japan, and as the EOS Rebel T2i in North America), EOS 50D, EOS 5D, EOS 5D Mk2, EOS 7D, EOS D30, EOS D60, G2, G3, G5, G6, G9, G10, G11, Pro1, S90
• Nikon: D100, D1H, D200, D2H, D2Hs, D2X, D2Xs, D3, D3s, D300, D3000, D300s, D3X, D40, D40x, D50, D5000, D60, D70, D700, D70s, D80, D90, P6000
• Sony: A100, A200, A230, A300, A330, A350, A380, A700, A850, A900, DSC-R1
• Olympus: C7070, C8080, E1, E10, E20, E3, E30, E300, E330, E400, E410, E420, E450, E500, E510, E520, E620, EP1
• Pentax (PEF formats only): K100D, K100D Super, K10D, K110D, K200D, K20D, K7, K-x, *ist D, *ist DL, *ist DS
• Leica: Digilux 3, D-LUX4, M8, M9
• Minolta: DiMage A1, DiMage A2, Maxxum 7D (Dynax 7D in Europe, α-7 Digital in Japan)
• Epson: RD1
• Panasonic: G1, GH1, GF1, LX3

Windows Live Photo Gallery supports viewing and editing of RAW image formats once the codec pack has been installed on the system. Photo Gallery will automatically create a copy of the RAW images in JPEG or JPEG-XR format which can then be edited and worked with by the user.

Windows users can now also preview the supported RAW image formats under Windows Explorer and other programs that make use of WIC.

Microsoft has already announced that they are working on adding support for missing and new camera models. (via)

There are a great many services available including, to name just a few, Facebook, SkyDrive, Flickr and Picassa.  But what if you want to put photos online that aren’t for sharing, and are just for personal access or storage?  This can be more of a problem because by default these websites (with very few exceptions) will assume that you’re putting photos online because you ‘want’ to share them with friends and family.

Examples of photos that you might want to keep private include the full unabridged copies of your holiday photos, including all the ones of the drunk idiot, and perhaps insurance photos that you want to keep in a safe place away from your home in the event of fire.

In this tutorial I just want to talk about Microsoft’s SkyDrive as this this service will be integrated into Windows 8 making it easy, or at least easier, to upload photos to the service and it is one of the photo sharing services already built into Windows Live Gallery.

The other reason I want to highlight SkyDrive is that this service is one of the worst offenders, assuming that any and every new photo gallery you create is to be made public.  Your SkyDrive service is linked directly to your Windows Live Account, and you can link your Windows Live account to many other accounts including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr and more.  You could then suddenly find your personal photos scattered right across the web without you realising it.

To make sure you have your settings set appropriately you need to log into your account at SkyDrive.com and in the top right click on the Profile link.  Once in your profile page click on the Privacy Settings link (see 1 and 2 in the screenshot above).

The default settings in SkyDrive don’t allow you to make everything completely private, which can be annoying if you only use the service for storage as I do.  At the next screen you’ll want to click the Advanced settings link near the bottom of the page, just next to the Save button.  This will take you through to another page where you can set absolute privacy rules for everything you store on SkyDrive, including your photos.

The most important setting here is the one labelled New photo albums.  You will probably find this set to Some Friends or Friends by default.  You’ll want to take this setting down to Just me instead.  The setting for New file folders should already be set as Just me but it is worth checking.  Below this are additional options to modify the privacy of folders you have already created.  You should press the Save button when you are finished.

You can also do this in the main SkyDrive view.  When you holver over a folder a blue information icon will appear on the far right of the screen (see image above).  If you click on this it will display a sidebar of additional options for that particular folder only.  Here you can also change the sharing settings for that folder by clicking on the Edit permissions link.  You can send people a link to photos stored here too if you want to share the contents of the folder.

It’s is very important to remember to change the folder sharing settings before uploading photos to the folder!  If you do this afterwards, you could find that the images have already been shared with other websites.  This means that those websites, rather than having a link back to the photo on SkyDrive, may pull the photo down and store a copy locally.

It is disappointing that some services, and of course I’m singling SkyDrive out here for particular attention, don’t offer you better privacy controls when you first create a folder or upload photos.  They may offer this in the future, but for now this is how you can keep your photos and files safe and secure.

Microsoft recently changed the Windows Live sign-in without prior notification. You may recall that the service displayed multiple user tiles if users had signed in with multiple user accounts before. It also offered options to remember the user (remember me) and to remember the password.

The new Windows Live Sign-In has been changed, and those options have been removed. Users who access the login page will notice that Microsoft has removed the user tile per saved account option and combined remember me and remember my password into a keep me signed in option.

Microsoft has been criticized by users for removing previously available options. Remember Me basically has been removed completely. It was convenient for users who did not want to save email and password, but only their email address so that they did not have to re-enter it every time they sign in to a Windows Live service.

Remember Me was also responsible for the user account tiles on the sign in pages.

Why have the two features been removed by Microsoft? There have been three core reasons for that, according to a post by Eric Doerr on the Inside Windows Live blog:

Customer confusion: We got consistent reports from customers who were confused by the design. Not understanding which checkbox did what and as a result accidentally leaving account tiles at an internet cafe or a friend’s house were common complaints. Depending on your settings, sometimes you were signed in but still had to click the tile, sign-out didn’t always work as expected, sometimes you had to enter a password and sometimes not – it seemed random and confusing. To make matters worse, tiles only worked on Internet Explorer; other browsers always had the simpler experience.

Some customers were confused by the two checkboxes and the tiles, that’s what the statement above basically says. Microsoft is however not addressing the underlying problem. Users should not use remember me, remember my password or the new keep me signed in on public computers, ever. Those that do have a different problem than just leaving their account accidentally logged in on public computer systems. The new setting does not change this at all. The only thing that is not longer displayed is the user account tiles during sign-in, but it still can happen that users stay logged in on a public computer.

Changing trends in device ownership: As more people bought laptops and smartphones (which tend to be used by just one person), we heard more feedback that the tiles just got in the way, and what people really wanted to do was to just get to the service without interruption. We knew from our telemetry that fewer than 2% of users were using the tiles, but 100% of our users were interrupted by them in the old design.

A change again because of some users who could not figure out how to remove tiles from the sign in pages. While I have never worked with tiles, I’d guess that each was linked to a cookie on the system. Clearing the cookies would therefor remove the tiles from the system. Again more of a issue for users who do not know how to do basic stuff like that.

Consolidation on a primary account: Increasingly, customers are consolidating their Windows Live usage into one primary account. It used to be common for one person to have multiple accounts. As we’ve integrated Windows Live ID across other products like Xbox, Windows Phone, SkyDrive, and Office –the core account has become more valuable, and it’s become less necessary to switch between accounts.

While that addresses one issue that some users may have, it neglects the fact that many households are using a single computer system and single user account on that system for their Internet. And suggesting that those households and communities should create separate user accounts for each user may be sound, but it neglects the fact that many computer users do not know how that is done.

User comments have been mostly negatively, including:

Captain Sky

As others have said, by removing the ability to only save your email address and not your password you have made things less safe. Very strange change in my mind (and many other I have talked to about this).

Zwanzer

You say that working with aliases is the solution to that and I tried to figure it out.

It is COMPLICATED and I can’t get it to work when I login.

I cannot understand why you replaced something very easy and user-friendly with something that is so complicated.

Cindyjay

My friends and I all have families who share the home PC. Being able to sit down and simply select which account one wanted to use was perfect. If security was ever an issue, one simply would not choose to have password remembered.

Integrate email accounts? Not if we’re talking about mom, dad, brother, sister, grandma and whoever all sharing the same computer……. all with their own Hotmail accounts.

The suggested solution (to create multiple user accounts for windows on 1 computer) is in my situation inconvenient because of the normal startup (which normally brings me to the desktop) is now interrupted with a login. And I should do so specially because of Hotmail???

Jumbo Frosty

Customer Confusion? If customers were confused between the difference between “Remember me” and “Remember my password”, why not just change the labels to something less confusing, like “Remember my User ID” and “Remember my User ID and Password”.

Changing trends in Device Ownership and Consolidation on Primary Account explain why you would want to add the “Keep me signed in” feature, but doesn’t explain why you would get rid of the old features. For people who are sole users of their computer, it is great to give them the speed and convenience of remaining signed in without having to retype their user ID and password.

But why take away a feature which is beneficial for people who share a computer (such as a family computer) or for security reasons don’t want to remain signed in (like accessing Hotmail from a work computer, and don’t want to worry about logging out before someone from their company helpdesk accesses their computer).

Even the work-around suggestion of creating different Windows logins is absurd. With the old Hotmail feature, I could be creating a PowerPoint presentation on a shared family computer. If my wife wanted to check her email, she could just interrupt me, and with a few mouse clicks view her Hotmail email, and let me get back to PowerPoint. Instead, you are suggesting that I close my PowerPoint presentation, log out completely, and then she log in, check her email, and then log out, then I log back in, and then reopen my PowerPoint presentation. Hardly simpler, faster, or less confusing.

Well the list goes on and one. Have you noticed the changes on the Windows Live Sign-In pages? If so, what is your opinion?

The figure may not look as impressive as it could be considering the hundred of millions of Hotmail users. Then again, users had to opt in to enable SSL. Another reason was that Microsoft’s desktop email programs, Windows Live Mail and Microsoft Outlook, did not support Hotmail SSL. What that meant is that users had to make a decision. Either enable SSL in Hotmail and break compatibility with the desktop email software, or leave the SSL setting disabled to keep using the desktop email programs.

Microsoft updated SSL protection for Hotmail and other Windows Live services yesterday to give desktop email users the same level of protection than online users.

Windows Live Mail has been updated so that all traffic is now using SSL. Even better; The feature becomes available immediately after updating Windows Live Mail to the latest version. This can be done manually via the Windows Live website or automatically via Windows Update.

Outlook Connector has been updated as well so that Outlook users who have configured a Hotmail account in Outlook can use SSL as well. This is again enabled automatically without user interaction.

Microsoft has furthermore enabled SSL on a number of Windows Live websites for PC and smartphone connections. The announcement mentions hotmail.com and live.com.

Lack of SSL support was one of the most requested Windows Live Mail and Outlook features. It is good for all Windows Live users that Microsoft has added SSL support for their external desktop clients, especially so since SSL is enabled by default in the new versions. (via)

Before you dive into this how-to with a bunch of old pictures, take a moment to go out and get a new set of images. The changes between each image should be minimal. You might just want to do this by taking a quick walk around the block – if so, take a fresh image at least every few steps if not on every single step.

Windows Movie Maker still comes bundled with many systems, so before you go out and download anything take a quick peek and make sure you do not already have it. If you find it under start, go ahead and fire it up. If you do not, follow this link to Microsoft’s website. There you will be able to download a copy of Windows Live Movie Maker – the process for creating stop motion videos from images should be pretty close to the same as this traditional method.

If you have not done so already, take a moment and move your images from your digital camera and onto your computer. Then, click on Import Media in the top left corner of Media Maker. This will open up a new window that will allow you to find the images you have taken from your digital camera. Once you have located them all, simply highlight them all and click Import. They should now all be found on the main interface of the program.

Next, go to Edit and locate the Duration parameter in the menu. Here you need to drop down the picture duration considerably from the default seven seconds per image, changing it to something around .175 to .250 seconds. This will allow your images to play in rapid succession. Make sure you mark all of your pictures before you change the speed setting. Click OK.

The latest version of Windows Live Movie Maker adds all imported photos directly to the animation. You can rearrange the photos and images if you like if they appear out of order.

Once you have everything in order, take a moment to review your video by clicking the large play button. The video should play in the large video box. If anything seems out of order, change the order on the right and replay the video. If everything seems correct, click the Save Movie button under the Home tab and pat yourself on the back. You have just created a stop motion video!

One of the biggest changes in this new version of Hotmail are additional mouse and keyboard shortcuts. A new menu has been created that appears when a user right-clicks on a message in the inbox. The menu offers a direct link to reply, reply all or forward the selected message. This is in addition to previously supported right-click actions such as delete, move or mark as junk.

Users who like to use keyboard shortcuts whenever possible have now access to a whole new set of shortcuts, taken directly from Microsoft’s desktop messaging client Outlook, as well as the online email services Gmail and Yahoo Mail.

Users of Outlook, and those who switched from Gmail or Yahoo Mail to Hotmail can now use keyboard shortcuts that they are already familiar with. Popular ones include:

Outlook

Gmail, Yahoo Mail

• Delete a message – # – Delete
• Create a new message – C – N
• Send a message – None – Alt+S
• Open a message – O – None
• Print a message – None – P
• Reply to a message – R – R
• Reply all to a message – A – A
• Forward a message – F – F
• Save a draft message – Ctrl+S – Ctrl+S
• Mark a message as junk – ! – None
• Mark a message as read – Shift+I – K
• Mark a message as unread – Shift+U – Shift+K
• Move to a folder – None – D
• Open the next message – J – Ctrl+.
• Open the previous message – K – Ctrl+,
• Close a message – U – Esc
• Search your email messages – / – S
• Select all – * then A
• Deselect all – * then N
• Go to the inbox – G then I – M
• Go to your Drafts folder – G then D
• Go to your Sent folder – G then T

All keyboard shortcuts work at the same time, which means that you can either press the delete key or # to delete a message, or Ctrl-n, c or n to create a new message.

You find all supported keyboard shortcuts here.

Hotmail users can now customize their email messages by setting a default font and personal signature for all email messages. Here is a video that demonstrates the new features.

What’s your take on the new Hotmail features? I really like the new keyboard shortcuts as they tend to speed things up considerably.

The first available option is to add characters to the first part of the email address. A new alias is created instantly by adding the “+” character and a unique letter combination to the email address, for instance ghacks+news@hotmail.com. This is helpful for niche specific email conversations, especially since it is possible to store alias emails in their own folder in the Hotmail inbox.

The spam protection offered by this kind of alias system is negligible as it is possible to identify the real email address directly.

To counter this a second option to create aliases was introduced. This time as an option to create “completely different email addresses that you can use to receive email into your primary account without anyone knowing what your primary email address is”. These aliases are basically independent Hotmail or Live email addresses that are then linked to the account. It goes without saying that only free email addresses can be selected as aliases.

Windows Live and Hotmail users can add up to five of these aliases to the Hotmail account per year, up to fifteen total.

New aliases can be created on the following page: http://mail.live.com/?rru=createalias

A Hotmail login is required before the new alias can be created. The new email address is selected on the first screen which then redirects automatically to the Hotmail inbox.

Here it is then possible to select a folder or the inbox as the storage location for incoming emails for that email alias.

Microsoft sends a confirmation mail to the main account address that details some of the options that aliases offer:

• You can send email messages from this alias by clicking on your address (above the To line in the message you’re writing) and selecting your alias from the list.
• If you set up a separate inbox folder for your alias, messages sent to it will go to that folder. Otherwise, messages sent to your alias will just go to your regular inbox.
• Remember, you can’t sign in to Hotmail with your alias; you’ll need to sign in with your regular Hotmail address

It is possible to remove aliases at anytime from Hotmail. This may however have implications. Microsoft notes:

If you remove this email address, you won’t be able to use it to receive Windows Live mail, invitations, notifications, and alerts, or to be found through people search.

Links to alias creation and removal pages do not seem to be accessible from within Hotmail at this point in time. It is likely that Microsoft will add those options to the accounts directly to make it easier for users to create and remove aliases.

The option to add unique email addresses as aliases to a Hotmail account takes aliases to the next level. The option could be very interesting for users who have maintained several email addresses just for that purpose. (via)

Update: It is possible to create Hotmail aliases right from within the inbox. This is done with a click on the options button right next to the inbox. It opens up with a click and displays two options.

The Create a Hotmail alias option leads directly to the screen linked above.

Microsoft unfortunately has not added the same option to its Windows Live products. Windows Live Messenger users for instance cannot disable SmartScreen Filter in their application. What does it do?

SmartScreen Filter scans links that are clicked on by the user in the application. Safe links can be opened as usual. They open directly in the default browser. Links that are considered a security risk, or at least of questionable destination, are not opened directly. Microsoft is changing the link target to display an interstitial page warning the user. It reads: Remember to protect your password. You are leaving Windows Live to visit: URL. The website you’re about to go to isn’t part of Windows Live, so don’t provide your Windows Live password if you’re asked for it.

Options are to close or continue with continue redirecting the page to the destination the link is pointing to.

The process itself does not take longer than a few seconds, it does however add up for users who regularly click on links in Windows Live products. Even worse, the message itself is not specific to the website, it is just a general notification to protect the password. It would probably have been better to display that message only once, and not all the time.

We have already established that there is no direct way to turn of SmartScreen in Windows Live Messenger and other Windows Live products. The state of the Internet Explorer SmartScreen filter has no effect on the filter in Windows Live. This was suggested numerous times on websites addressing the issue.

Some users who are experiencing the issue find it confusing that the warning message appears in their default web browser, thinking that it is a issue of the browser and not Windows Live. This is not the case as well. Microsoft basically redirects links internally which are then displayed in the default browser.

How To Bypass Microsoft SmartScreen Filter

1. Remove SmartScreen for Live Messenger 2011

The userscript basically clicks on continue automatically. While it does not remove the intermediary screen it bypasses it without user interaction. It has been tested to work under Firefox and Chrome, other web browsers may also be compatible. Firefox users need the Greasemonkey extension before they can install the userscript.

2. Firefox add-on Redirector and rules

A second option for Firefox users is the powerful Redirector add-on. The extension uses regular expressions to change links automatically. The SmartScreen filter url appends http://link.smartscreen.live.com/?l= to the url which needs to be removed. Instructions have been found in the Mozilla forum:

Then you click on Tools -> Extensions -> Redirector -> [Options]
You Add a new redirection, with :

Example URL = http://link.live.net/?l=http%3a%2f%2fwww.foo.com%2fbar%2f&h=itWsyZHjrlEFsiwF88uQrxzR07adAQGROv79wRiLd%2fs%3d&p=1
Include Pattern = http://link.live.net/?l=*&h=*
Exclude Pattern =
(leave it blank)
Redirect to = $1
Pattern type = wildcard
Unescape matches = checked

Is there a solution if Opera, Safari or Internet Explorer are set as the default Internet browser on the system? Let us know in the comments. Oh, and Microsoft: Please add an option to disable SmartScreen, or at the very least an option to whitelist domains to Windows Live.

While it is possible to integrate Windows live SkyDrive in Windows, for instance with the free Windows Live SkyDrive Explorer tool, it may not be as intuitive as integrating the online service directly in Microsoft Office.

The Office add-on is compatible with any version of Microsoft Office which adds support for SkyDrive in Office editions that do not support it.

Installation of the add-in is simple and straightforward. Users need to execute the file after download. It is probably a good idea to close Office in case it is open.

The new options are then available under the new Office Live Files menu entry in the main interface. The interface offers to load, browse and save files to Windows Live SkyDrive. A sign in prompt is displayed and users need to enter their Windows Live ID and password to make use of the features.

It is then possible to load documents already stored on Windows Live SkyDrive in the appropriate Microsoft Office application or upload documents from the local computer to the online storage.

Office Live Files is available for download at the developer website.

The Windows Live team had similar thoughts as they launched a new website for Windows Live plug-ins. Plug-ins are small extensions of Windows Live programs that add a new feature to one of the Windows Live applications.

The Windows Live Plug-ins website is currently listing plug-ins for Photo Gallery, Movie Maker and Writer. The interesting part is that Microsoft welcomes developers to develop and submit plug-ins for Windows Live which could be offered on the official site eventually, if they pass some form of quality assessment.

A total of 191 plug-ins are currently offered at the Windows Live Plug-ins site, the majority of them (177) for Windows Live Writer. Lets take a closer look at the categories:

• Windows Live Photo Gallery: Plug-ins to publish photos (and videos) on image (video) hosting sites including Facebook, Youtube and Smug Mug.
• Windows Live Movie Maker: Only three plug-ins to upload to Youtube, Facebook or Smug Mug.
• Windows Live Writer: Many plug-ins for post publishing, formatting, content insertion or photos and videos.

Windows Live Writer users are most likely to find plug-ins that will improve their workflow.

It remains to be seen if Microsoft can entice developers to code plug-ins for Windows Live. Lets hope it does not end up similar to developing browser plug-ins for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (which is more or less non-existent).

The Hotmail Sign In page, and every other Hotmail page for that matter, is now accessible via HTTPS and HTTP. Hotmail users have the option to switch completely to HTTPS whenever they access the emailing service, to continue connecting via HTTP to Hotmail or to use HTTPS for individual connections.

They have two options to enable HTTPS permanently. The first option is to open https://account.live.com/ManageSSL, the second to load hotmail by opening https://www.hotmail.com/. Both choices display a sign in form that redirects to a configuration page.

Hotmail users should take note of the information on that page, especially the following paragraph:

mportant note: Turning on HTTPS will work for Hotmail over the web, but it will cause errors if you try to access Hotmail through programs like:

Outlook Hotmail Connector
Windows Live Mail
The Windows Live application for Windows Mobile and Nokia

What does it mean? It means that connections to Hotmail via Outlook Hotmail Connector, Windows Live Mail and the Windows Live application for Windows Mobile and Nokia won’t work anymore. Hotmail users who make use of these applications should not activate HTTPS permanently. The valid option for them is to load the HTTPS sign in page but cancel the request to always enable HTTPs when connecting to Hotmail.

This way they can connect to the Hotmail web page via HTTPS and continue connecting to the Hotmail account in other applications. Additional information are available at a Windows Live Inside blog post.

Windows Live ID users without a Hotmail account can simply visit hotmail.com to sign up for an account using their Windows Live ID. That’s the most comfortable option. Everyone else may use the option to sign up with an existing email address so that no hotmail.com email address gets created during signup.

Some of you sent feedback asking if there’s a way to use these features without the hassle of getting a brand new email address.

We understand. You already have at least one email address and you probably don’t need another. You may also use your existing address for things other than just email, such as signing in to online shopping sites, which makes changing even more challenging. Also, you might have an address that you really like, but a similar name might not be available on another email service. So we looked for a way to make it easier for people to give Hotmail a trial run.

Hotmail walks the user through setting up the connection to the old service, so that existing emails are imported to Hotmail using POP, and that the user can send and receive email messages from Hotmail with the primary email address.

The big question is: What’s the benefit of signing up for Hotmail this way?

Probably the most noteworthy benefit are abilities to make use of Hotmail features, such as the 25 Gigabyte SkyDrive storage that can be used to send large attachments without cluttering the inbox. If you are new to Hotmail you may want to check the Hotmail page over at Windows Live which offers a feature overview, walkthroughs and tips.

Some of the more interesting features include:

Sweep unwanted mail out
View photos and videos in your inbox
Unsubscribe from newsletters
View by conversation
View Microsoft Office files

It is a step in the right direction, to make it easier for users to use Hotmail without having to create another email address. The feature is currently rolled out. According to Dick Craddock, it may take a few days before the new feature set is available for all customer’s worldwide (via).

The official Windows Live website links only to a download of the web installer of Windows Live Essentials 2011. The web installer has a small size and requires an Internet connection during installation, as it retrieves all application files from the web.

windows live essentials 2011

Some users may prefer an offline installer, especially if they want to install Windows Live Essentials 2011 on a PC without (permanent) Internet connection. Those users can download the offline installer of the software suite here.

The system requirements offer virtually no surprises, especially for users who already took a look at the beta release of Live Essentials. Like the beta, Windows Live Essentials 2011 is only compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, and the Windows Server 2008 releases. Sorry Windows XP users, no Live Essentials update for you this time. Windows XP users are stuck with the 2010 releases of Windows Live.

• Operating system: 32- and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 with the Platform Update for Windows Vista, or Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 2 and the Platform Update for Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2.
• Processor: 1.6 GHz or higher
• Memory: 1 GB of RAM or higher
• Resolution: Minimum: 1024 × 576
• Internet connection: Internet functionality requires dial-up or broadband Internet access (provided separately). Local or long-distance charges may apply. High-speed Internet access is recommended for some features.
• Graphics or video card: Windows Live Movie Maker requires a video card that supports DirectX 9 or higher and Shader Model 2 or higher.

Have you downloaded the 2011 version of Windows Live Essentials? What’s your first impression of it? Did you use the web installer or offline installer?

The Spaces migration to WordPress.com will be automated and easy, ensuring the movement of blog content, integrated media, comments and links is simple. 8.5% of all web sites on the internet are now powered by WordPress, which represents over 26 million publishers who use WordPress to power their blogs and web sites. About half of those sites – 13 million – are hosted by us on WordPress where they attract one of the largest audiences on the internet: of over a quarter billion people every  month.

Windows Live Spaces will be formally closed next March and users who do not want to be moved to WordPress will be given the option to download their blog in HTML form or simply delete it.

Windows Live Spaces is, like I said, one of the least used blogging platforms primarily because of its simplicity and a lack of good customisation options.  As a compliment to the other Windows Live services it worked well, but was never as popular as it could or perhaps should have been given Microsoft’s huge user base.

The move comes as Microsoft streamlines the Live services and introduce new ones to stand alongside the existing main applications and services such as messenger, which has been around in one for or another now for twenty years.

The main goals of the project were to offer Windows Live Sync users with options to synchronize files to PCs and the Cloud, to offer easy access to PCs and document collaboration using SkyDrive.

Less than two months later Microsoft made the decision to change the Windows Live Sync Beta name once again. The product has been renamed to Windows Live Mesh, apparently because of the feature additions remote access and cloud storage, which extend the program beyond synchronization.

Microsoft fortunately did more than just rebrand the product. Two feature enhancements have been added to the syncing capabilities. First, hidden files and folders can now be synced with Windows Live Mesh, something that the previous version was not capable of doing.

Second, Windows Live Mesh now displays the missing files in a folder, displaying the file names, last modification devices and dates they have been modified.

windows live mesh

Additional cloud storage has been added. Beta participants of Windows Live Sync received 2 Gigabytes of cloud storage. Only 2% of those users have been using more than 1.5 Gigabytes of space, which usually is a good indicator that the space limits are sufficient for the majority of users.

Microsoft still increased the storage limit from 2 to 5 Gigabytes for all users of Windows Live Mesh. And that is on top of the 25 Gigabytes offered by Live SkyDrive, as the two online storage systems are independent of each other – for now.

Finally, performance has been improved in Windows Live Mesh according to Microsoft. “We worked on cutting the application load time in half ” says Allison O’Mahony, Principal Program Manager Lead, Devices & Roaming. She continues by stating that Microsoft have “optimized both memory and CPU usage during sync activity as well as decreased CPU consumption by as much as 30% when Windows Live Mesh is idle”.

Windows Live Mesh is part of Windows Live Essentials beta, which can be downloaded from the official website. Windows Live Essentials Beta is not available for Windows XP, only for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. (via Caschy)

The Liveside blog discovered all download links prior to the official announcement by Microsoft, which is expected to hit the official website later today.

Below are the web and full download links for all supported languages of the beta. As you can see, seven languages next to English are available: French, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese.

• English: Web – Full
• French: Web – Full
• German: Web – Full
• Dutch: Web – Full
• Portuguese (Brazilian): Web – Full
• Spanish: Web – Full
• Japanese: Web – Full
• Chinese (Simplified): Web – Full

The full installer comes at a size of about 151 Megabytes, the web installer is considerably smaller, but requires an Internet connection during setup to download additional program packages.

So what’s new in the new beta version of Windows Live Essentials?

This new version of the suite, incorporates new icons, new features, many bugs fixed since version Beta releases and what more important… The incorporation Windows Live Language Setting with all language packs (MUI) & (LIP) for example Catalan and Euskera for Spanish version.
This program brings new features like the ability to change languages or install (automatically for the web) the additional languages.

Additional information will become available once Microsoft announces the new beta version official on their Windows Live blog.

Update: The post is live, and it contains lots of information about the Windows Live Essentials 2011 Beta Refresh:

Performance and quality of service improvements

A quicker Messenger – The time it takes to sign in, and to refresh contacts and social feeds, as well as animation speed, are all faster than in previous versions of Messenger.
More efficient video chat – Messenger video chat uses 30% fewer CPU resources by offloading work to the GPU.
Better facial recognition – Photo Gallery facial recognition is improved significantly and works more quickly.
Larger movie uploads – Movie Maker will upload higher resolution movies to SkyDrive (480×640 vs. the previous 320×480).
Higher bit-rate movies – Movie Maker now supports higher quality (bit-rate) content.
Better spell-checking – Writer has significantly improved the quality of its spell-checking.
Better integration with Office – Writer is much better at retaining all formatting when you copy and paste from Word and other Microsoft Office programs.
Better handling of Gmail – Mail now automatically handles Gmail’s spam and trash folders properly.
Faster web filtering – Family Safety web filtering is 35% faster than in the previous version.

Facebook chat in Messenger

Many of you have been asking for Facebook chat, and it’s finally here. More than half of all Messenger customers also use Facebook. With the previous beta, you got a rich social view that brought together all your updates (including those from Facebook) and gave you one place to see and comment on them. With the new Facebook chat integration, you now also have one place to chat with all your friends. And if you use Facebook but don’t use Messenger today, you now have an always-on “people app” on your PC that gives you instant access and notifications as people come online in Facebook or Messenger.

New Facebook chat integration

Connect to Facebook and Windows Live

Quick previews and improved tree view in Photo Gallery

One of the benefits of the new ribbon user interface in Windows Live Essentials is the ability it gives you to preview a change before you apply it simply by hovering over the option. With the beta update today, we’ve also added preview capabilities to the “Find” tab in the ribbon. So before you apply a filter (date, rating, people tags), you can hover over one of those filters and see the results instantly.

Flickr video publishing and Snapshot in Movie Maker

With the new Snapshot feature in Movie Maker, you can select a single frame from a video as it appears in the preview window and add it to your movie. This allows you to quickly grab an image that you want to keep or perhaps use for your movie’s intro or closing.

In addition, because we know many of you use Flickr for photo sharing and have enjoyed publishing to Flickr right from Photo Gallery, we’ve extended support to Movie Maker, so that you can now publish videos directly from Movie Maker or Photo Gallery to Flickr too.

Several of the improvements and new features improve the user experience a lot. Facebook chat integration will appeal to a lot of users, the new option to upload movies and photos to Flickr is plain awesome, the improvements in movie maker that now supports higher quality content, coupled with the increase in movie resolutions that can be uploaded to SkyDrive show that Microosft is on the right way.

We suggest to download the Windows Live Essentials Full installer which offers several advantages including the possibility to distribute it to several computer systems without having to download the program packages over and over again.

Have you tried the second beta of Windows Live Essentials? Let us know what you think of it in the comments.

Update: The beta releases are outdated and have been removed. You can download the latest Windows Live Essentials release from the official website now.

Windows Live Essentials is commonly described as being exactly that, essential, as it’s suite of add-on programs, including Mail, Photo Gallery and the blogging tool, Writer, are often considered not just programs that you really can’t be without, but also some of the finest programs of their type.

Mary Jo says…

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.

There’s no release date yet for the final version but it’s clear that Microsoft are storming ahead as it’s now been long since the first beta of the 2011 suite was released to the public.

The suite features the Ribbon interface first introduced with Office 2007 and later included in some Windows 7 applications such as the new WordPad.  The full suite includes the programs Messenger, Live mail, Writer, Photo Gallery, Movie maker, Live Sync (formerly Live Mesh), Family Safety and the Bing toolbar.  I would imaging that a future version of the suite would additionally include the free Microsoft anti-virus package Microsoft Security Essentials.

You can download the beta from this website.

The service was based around  real-time character-by character chat typing, drag-and-drop file sharing and had a lot of potential.  Sadly it was limited only to GMail users and didn’t receive such a brilliant reception.

Now Google is pulling the plug before the service even gets out of beta.  They’ve said they will keep the service going until the end of 2010 but then it’s all over.

One of the biggest problems with Wave I felt personally was that is was clearly intended as mass-user service but the limitations of the beta, which was invitation only, just never allowed this to happen.  The service just looked like a blank page.

Either way it looks as though Google’s attempt to challenge the mightly Facebook has failed, at least for now.  We can be certain that Google’s not finished yet, neither is Microsoft which is constantly updating and expanding it’s Live service.

but now we wave a fond goodbye to Google Wave, bon voyage.