Microsoft to Release Final Version of Windows Live Essentials 2011 Today

[javajolt]

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft will reportedly make available the final version of its Windows Live Essentials 2011 suite of tools — which includes programs such as Photo Gallery, Mail [Hotmail], Movie Maker, Messenger, Writer, Family Safety, Bing Bar, Messenger Companion, and Sync — today at 10:00 AM Pacific Time, 1:00 PM Eastern Time.

Thus far, Microsoft has released two different betas of the popular suite of tools, which is now fully compatible with Windows 7. The original goal was to integrate Windows Live Essentials 2011 with the new Windows 7 operating system. That’s why all of the programs included in the suite now feature the so-called Ribbon UI.

Anyway, we’ll update as soon as the new version goes live. Stay tuned.

[javajolt]

Microsoft has made another case for upgrading to Windows 7: The company has released the latest version of its free downloadable collection of software and enhancements for the consumer editions of Windows.

And, as promised, the package of goodies will be available for Windows 7 and Windows Vista, but not for Windows XP.

Windows Live Essentials 2011, which has been available in beta form since June, includes movie editing software, a photo management application and the Live Mesh data synchronization software. The new version of Windows Live Messenger allows users to connect with their LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace accounts. New blogging software allows users to update their WordPress, TypePad and Blogger-hosted blogs.

Also, many bugs were rectified since the beta release, thanks to user feedback.

"Our beta users helped us identify and address issues, with over two thousand forum posts and comments. In today's release, we've addressed 95 [percent] of all bugs reported by beta users, leading to improvements that you'll see across the suite," wrote Chris Jones, who is Microsoft's vice president of Windows Live engineering, in a blog post trumpeting the release.

Jones also announced that Dell will be the first global PC vendor to ship new Windows 7-equipped computers with the package preinstalled, in time for the holiday season.

Optimized for Windows 7, the Windows Live Essentials 2011 suite is available for free download here and will be available in 48 languages by the time Microsoft finishes releasing all versions today. Here's what's included in the package:

• Family Safety for parental Internet controls

• Mesh for syncing files across Windows Live SkyDrive

• Photo Gallery for editing, sorting and sharing images

• Movie Maker for rudimentary video editing and sharing

• Messenger, which goes without explanation

• Writer for authoring blogs

• Mail, a lightweight e-mail client

• Messenger Companion, an Internet Explorer add-on for sharing websites

• Bing Bar, another IE add-on for searching the Web

• Outlook Connector Pack, which connects users to Hotmail and Messenger from within Outlook

• Silverlight plug-in for Microsoft's competitor to Adobe Flash

And because I couldn't pass up posting it again, below is Microsoft's ad for Photo Gallery featuring the "Double Rainbow" guy.

"Double Rainbow" -- Windows Live Photo Gallery