Transcript
Meet the new Essentials Windows 7 and Windows Live Essentials Windows 7 just got even better with the best tools to organize photos, make movies and keep in touch with the people that matter most. Windows Live Essentials delivers a set of consumer applications that make life easier by simplifying activities that you perform frequently, from touching up photos and creating beautiful slideshows to connecting with friends through email, instant messaging (IM) and your social networks. What’s more, Windows 7 and Windows Live Essentials work great together. Windows Live Essentials refreshes the Windows 7 experience with an integrated set of free apps that include these: •
Windows Live Mail
•
Windows Live Messenger
•
Windows Live Photo Gallery
•
Windows Live Movie Maker
•
Windows Live Sync
•
Windows Live Writer
•
Windows Live Family Safety
•
Bing Bar
The modern desktop Innovative new devices from high-quality mobile phone cameras to video cameras and webcams are leading to an explosion of digital photos and videos. According to IDC, the current growth of consumer-generated content is estimated at 13 percent year-over-year, or nearly 622 billion new photos in 2009 alone. That’s an additional gigabyte of photos every six months. People are sharing their stuff more than ever, too. The average person has three email accounts, two social networks and hundreds of contacts on all of them. Each minute, 15 hours of new video is uploaded to YouTube. And on average, each photo or video uploaded is shared on more than two different sites. In parallel, people are also using more devices than ever. According to InfoTrends, in the U.S., more than 75 percent of households have more than one PC (16 percent even have more than four PCs). Wireless penetration is estimated at 91 percent and still growing. Coupled with your increasingly busy life, this presents a tremendous challenge in how you can organize, share and connect with others online.
With Windows Live Essentials, Windows is the modern — and most effective — desktop for busy people. Messenger provides the best way to connect with your closest friends. Photo Gallery and Movie Maker make it easy and enjoyable to organize, touch up and share your digital memories. Mail is a flexible and simple way to manage your email, calendars and contacts. Sync bridges the PC and cloud to let you access your content on the go.
The new Essentials pairs really well with… Windows Live Essentials has been optimized for Windows 7. The new ribbon is used throughout to make it easy to access the most frequently used tasks. JumpLists are a part of each application, taking you right to the shortcuts you use every day. In addition, Windows Live Movie Maker takes advantage of codecs available in Windows 7, and photos can be adjusted using touch on any touch-enabled Windows 7-based PC.
What’s new in Essentials Advanced made easy: photo sharing & video creation Windows Live Photo Gallery and Movie Maker make it easy to create visually stunning photos and videos that you can share with friends and family. Photo Gallery and Movie Maker provide advanced features with easy-to-use apps. Easy import With Windows 7, it’s easy to get photos and videos off your devices and organized on your computer quickly. Just plug in your device and Windows will walk you through it. Intuitive user interface If you use Windows or Office, you’ll be right at home with Windows Live Photo Gallery and Movie Maker because they use the same ribbon toolbar that puts all the right tools at your fingertips for easy access and efficiency. Find tab Photo Gallery’s new Find tab allows you to naturally filter your photos by faces, names, date, geo-location, descriptive tags, folder titles or any combination. Finally, it’s easy to take your million and one photos and find that one in a million.
Facial Recognition Facial Recognition technology allows Photo Gallery to find pictures that have people in them and deduce who is in those pictures based on whom you’ve tagged in the past. The more you tag, the smarter it gets! Tags made in Photo Gallery travel with the photo wherever it goes, and any tags you or your friends make on sites such as Facebook also sync back down to your Photo Gallery. Photo Gallery and Movie Maker also give you new ways to take your photos and videos from good to great in seconds. New features that help you do that include these: Photo Fuse Allows you to take the best parts of multiple photos to combine them into one “perfect” photo with an easy-to-use editing tool. Retouch Whether it’s a blemish, scratch, bruise or stain, Photo Gallery’s Retouch feature enables you to make it look like it never happened, employing the same technology that professional agencies use to polish photos. Batch Auto Adjust Make professional adjustments in seconds with Auto Adjust. In a matter of moments, your photos will receive a fine-tuning to their exposure, color balance and sharpness, so you end. AutoMovie Themes Create polished movies with your photos and videos that you can then share, even if you don’t have a lot of time. AutoMovie will add a beautiful theme to your photos and videos in less than a minute that includes transitions, a title, captions and a music soundtrack. You can use these same themes in Photo Gallery’s Slideshow mode. up with a professional-quality finished product. Video and audio editing Editing a video clip is made easy with Windows Live Movie Maker. The precision editor makes finding and including the best part of each video a snap. It also allows you to tailor your movie’s soundtrack to set the right mood with easy audio editing. Save in high-definition 720p and 1080p Provide a great viewing experience by saving the movie you created in Movie Maker in high-definition format that can be shared online or burned to a DVD using Windows DVD Maker.
Photos and videos are meant to be shared, so Photo Gallery and Movie Maker give you easy options to facilitate sharing in any way that you want. Share online Easily publish to Facebook, Flickr, YouTube or SkyDrive with the extensibility to add plug-ins for other online sharing sites. Mobile sharing Save a movie in 1080p, or to a portable device such as a Windows Phone or Zune HD player.
Smart, anytime email, calendar and contacts. When it comes to managing multiple email accounts, organizing contacts and calendars, or reading through customized RSS feeds, Windows Live Mail offers a great solution. Windows Live Mail is easy to set up and gives you anytime access to your emails, attachments, calendar and contacts, allowing you to work online or offline. Easy and familiar If you are familiar with the simplicity of Outlook Express, Windows Mail or Outlook, you’ll be able to get up to speed quickly. Email account aggregation Windows Live Mail can help you manage multiple email accounts, calendars, RSS feeds, contacts and newsgroups in one place. Offline access Emails sent or calendar edits you make while offline will be queued up and synced next time you have an internet connection. Shared calendars Access, view and edit calendars that have been shared with you right from Windows Live Mail. Windows Live Messenger integration Reply to friends with an instant message right from Windows Live Mail. Presence information is integrated right into the email header. Efficient inbox management tools Tools such as conversation threading give you the convenience of viewing your messages in the way that you choose. Quick views organize and find selected
types of mail (unread mail from contacts only, flagged email, all mail across inboxes, etc.) across your email accounts, newsgroups and feeds. Slim Cal Instantly view your calendar without navigating away from the context of your inbox. Photo email Send photos in email without worrying about size restrictions. Add captions and layouts and edit your photos from within Windows Live Mail.
Your most important digital stuff, always accessible. With Windows Live Sync, your photos, movies, music and other files are synchronized across your PCs, and they automatically remain updated with the latest changes so you have access to your most current stuff when you need it. Set up Remote Desktop through Windows Live Sync and you can access your PC when you’re away from it, from any internet-enabled computer. And with Sync, you can share settings for your favorite programs across your PCs, so programs work the same way on every PC in your home. Sync folders across all your PCs (and Macs) Windows Live Sync keeps your files and folders, such as Documents, Pictures and Music, in sync across your computers so you can work or play wherever you want. Update a file on one computer, and it will automatically sync to the rest. Once your folders are synchronized, your files are available even when you don’t have internet access. Remote Desktop Leave your PC online and you can access it from devices.live.com. Find your PC among the list of devices on the website, and click Connect to remotely control your PC.
Comparing Windows Live Essentials *Chart last updated on 03/15/2010
Application Suites
Windows Live Essentials
iLife
Cost & Multitouch Support Cost of Applications
Cost of Services
$0
$79
$0 (Windows Live)
$99 annually (MobileMe)
Multitouch support Multitouch on trackpad and screen
Multitouch only on trackpad
Chat/IM Apps
Messenger
iChat
Basic instant messaging (IM)
Interop with Yahoo Messenger
Interop with Office Communications Server
Photo carousel
HD video chat
Personalization (scenes, themes)
Games
Multiparty chat
Multivideo chat
(up to three-person chat)
Instant Messaging
Continued on next page
Chat/IM Apps (continued)
Messenger
iChat
Tabbed chat
Connect with Facebook
Connect with MySpace
Connect with AIM
75 partners globally
Social dashboard
Social notifications
Universal status message
with Hotmail
iPhone client
IM on the Web
IM developer platform
Mobile browse client
SMS support
Social Networking
Web activities
Email integration
Access Anywhere
Photo Apps
Photo Gallery
iPhoto
(New!)
Limited, one filter at a time.
(New!)
Flagging
Photo captioning
Tagging, including geo-tagging
Ratings
Windows 7 Libraries (New!)
Basic editing (crop, rotate, straighten)
Batch editing (editing multiple photos at one time)
(New!)
Advanced – Panoramic Stitch
Advanced – auto adjust
Advanced – Red Eye
Organize/Find Top people Photo finder with sort by: date (day, month and year), people, ratings, and tags Facial detection
Batch face detection confirm
Integrated with operating system
multiple filters (New!)
Touch Up
Advanced – Photo Fuse
Continued on next page
Photo Apps (Cont’d)
Photo Gallery
iPhoto
(New!)
Advanced – Effects
Fine tuning – exposure, noise reduction
Revert to original
(New!)
Slide shows
Send to blog
AutoMovie
(New!)
Share to Windows Live
for MobileMe
Plug-ins for additional partners
Touch Up (cont’d) Advanced – Retouch
Publishing & Sharing Photo mail
Share to Facebook
Share to Flickr
Native sign-in
Integrated photo printing
Integrated book printing
(New!)
Limited
(New!)
Windows Live ID and publishing partners
Video & DVD Apps
Movie Maker + DVD Maker
iMovie + iDVD
Import Video – device and file
AutoMovie of photos, videos and music
Basic editing
Precision trimming
Drag and drop timeline
Transitions and titles
Visual effects
Organize/Find
Auto preview how all effects, transitions or animations look on your project AutoMovie themes
(live preview on your content)
(preview on example content)
(5 themes)
(19 themes)
Video clip stabilization
Voice over narration
Support for the most popular devices and file formats
Revert to original
Output Support DVD
High def
(1080p, 720p, 480p)
limited (720p only) Continued on next page
Video & DVD Apps (Cont’d)
Movie Maker + DVD Maker
iMovie + iDVD
Output Support (cont’d) Standard def
File format
.wmv
.h264
Screensaver
Video mail
Windows Live Mail
Mail
POP, IMAP support
Exchange support
Unified inbox (account aggregation)
Email Quick views
Anytime access (offline)
Contact address book
(address book)
Photo mail
Mail Apps
Web Email
Limited, attachment size limits Continued on next page
Mail Apps (Cont’d)
Windows Live Mail
Mail
Slim Cal
Multiple calendar support
Calendar sharing
Calendar subscription
Integrated Calendar
Efficient Inbox Management Tools Integrated contact presence
Conversation threading
RSS feeds
Notes
To-do's
IM integration
Messenger
iChat and AIM
SkyDrive
Writer
iWeb
Open blog support
WYSIWYG editing
Integration with cloud storage
Publishing Apps
Editing
Continued on next page
Publishing Apps (Cont’d)
Writer
iWeb
HTML editing
Limited, snippets
Photo/video integration
Familiarity with Microsoft Office
Website creation
Embed maps
Tagging
Widgets
Themes
Limited, support for Blog Themes
Publish to major blogs
Limited
Live preview
Limited, what's new updates
Editing (Cont’d)
Publishing
Facebook notifications
Security Apps
Family Safety
Mac OS X Parental Controls
Monitor Windows Live ID child accounts
N/A
Monitor Windows Parental Controls accounts
N/A
Family Safety filter
N/A
Automatic website filtering
N/A
Parental controls
Manage when users have access to computer
N/A
Garage Band
Lessons for piano and guitar
N/A
N/A
Jam with other instruments
N/A
N/A
Plug and play
N/A
N/A
Record yourself
N/A
Mix multiple tracks
N/A
Export music to iTunes
N/A
General Safety Features
Music Creation Apps
Learn to Play
Record and Mix
Meet the new Photo Gallery
Photo Gallery
Product Overview Windows Live Photo Gallery is the best way to find, edit and share your photos and videos — for free. Windows Live Photo Gallery enables you to get your photos and videos off your camera easily, narrowed down to the ones you want to share, and then sent off to the people you care about as quickly as possible. Whether you want to upload photos to Facebook or save a great photo and video slide show to YouTube, you can do it all from the new
New features summary
Windows Live Photo Gallery — your one-stop shop.
Ribbon (UI)
What’s new in Photo Gallery Intuitive new ways to find your photos With Windows Live Photo Gallery, you choose how you want to manage your photos.
Enhanced Find capabilities via new search filters Facial recognition Batch editing Photo Fuse Retouch
You can leverage face recognition in Photo Gallery to quickly organize your content by
Windows 7 Library integration
the people you care about. Or use the Find Tab filters to naturally search for your photos
Geo-tagging
by date, names, geo-location and tags, or really get specific by adding multiple
Sharing to Facebook, Flickr, SkyDrive, YouTube included
filters together.
Network file support
Take your photos from good to great in seconds Photo Gallery enables you to take a bunch of photos, one click, fix them all — thanks to
Suite integration – AutoMovie in Photo Gallery, better Photo Mail, etc.
batch editing with auto-adjust, which automatically fine-tunes the exposure and color
Photo books
balance, straightens and even sharpens your photos in seconds. And now in Photo Gallery,
AutoMovie Themes in slide show
you no longer have to take the perfect picture when you can just create the perfect
Hardware acceleration
picture using Photo Fuse. This new feature allows you to take the best parts of similar photos and fuse them together into one “perfect” shot! Plus with the new Retouch feature, you never have to worry about uploading a photo with a blemish again.
Share in more ways Automatically share to Flickr, Facebook, YouTube or Windows Live SkyDrive. Whether you’re posting a new album to Facebook or SkyDrive, where all the people tags you and friends make in your photos are always synced between the web and Photo Gallery, sending a fun video slide show to your friends and family over email, or creating a stunning photo book to keep on your bookshelf, Windows Live Photo Gallery gives you the ability to share with the people you care most about.
Photo Gallery’s key features Import photos and videos Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows 7 make it easy to get your photos and videos off your devices and organized on your computer quickly. It can even help you create a beautiful movie that you can share. Just plug in your device, and we’ll walk you through it. Find Tab The new Find Tab allows you to naturally search for your photos, using a number of filters. Whether by faces, names, date, geo-location, descriptive tags, folder titles or any combination of the like, it’s easy to take your million and one photos and locate that specific one in a million. Photo Fuse Can’t get that one “perfect” photo? Photo Fuse allows you to take the best parts of multiple photos to combine into one “perfect” photo with an easy-to-use editing tool. Retouch Whether it’s a zit, scratch, bruise or stain, Photo Gallery’s Retouch feature allows you to make it like it never happened using the same technology that professional modeling agencies use with their photos. Panoramic Stitch Looking for an easy way to create a stunning panoramic photo? How about clicking a single button in Photo Gallery? We’ll do all the work — combining, aligning and matching your photos to create a panoramic photo you’ll be proud to share. Facial recognition Facial recognition technology allows Photo Gallery to find pictures that contain people in them and identify who is in those pictures based on whom you’ve tagged in the past. The more you tag, the smarter it gets! Noise Reduction Ever tried to enlarge a photo and notice that it’s really grainy or feels like it’s really pixelated? Photo Gallery’s Noise Reduction feature not only smoothes out pixelated or grainy parts of your photos, but it also is intelligent enough to preserve all the detail within your images, giving your photos a professional touch-up.
Photo Gallery
Round tripping tags Not only do any tags you make in Photo Gallery travel with the photo wherever you go such as sites like Facebook and SkyDrive, but any tags you or your friends make on sites like Facebook also sync back down to your Photo Gallery — it’s like a round trip! Auto Adjust Elevate your photos from “good” to “great” in seconds by selecting one or multiple photos and clicking Auto Adjust. In a matter of moments, your photos will receive a fine-tuning to their exposure, color balance and sharpness, giving you a professional-quality finished product. Auto-straighten Unlike other applications that make you manually straighten crooked photos, Photo Gallery’s auto-straighten technology from Microsoft Research automatically finds the most appropriate horizon in your photos and adjusts them accordingly. Plus you can select more than one photo at a time and use batch editing to take care of them all at once. Batch editing Apply expert level edits to all your photos with a single click of a button. Simply select the images you want to have improved and click the edit action you want performed on them. All the heavy lifting is done for you saving precious time. AutoMovie Themes in slide show You want to create a polished slide show with your photos and videos that you can share, but you don’t have a lot of time. Use the power of AutoMovie Themes in slide show to create a beautiful video for you in under one minute that you can save, share or drop into Movie Maker to further edit. Share online Photos and videos are for sharing, so we make it easy to publish your creation to Facebook, Flickr, YouTube or SkyDrive with the extensibility to add plug-ins for other online sharing sites. Windows 7 Libraries integration For those of you on Windows 7, no more trying to set up Photo Gallery to find your folders that have photos and videos in them. Photo Gallery reads directly from the Windows 7 Libraries, which means any organization you do in Photo Gallery is reflected in the Windows 7 Libraries.
Photo Gallery
Intuitive user interface If you use Windows or Office, you’ll be right at home with Windows Live Photo Gallery because it uses the same user interface (UI). The new ribbon toolbar puts all the tools you need right at your fingertips for easy access and improved efficiency.
Comparing Photo Gallery
Photo Gallery
iPhoto ‘09
Picasa 3.5
Able to organize, edit, AND share your photos and videos
Basic photo editing
Panoramic Stitch
Photo Fuse
Facial recognition
Publish to YouTube
Publish to Facebook
Extensible plug-in support for uploading to additional websites
Burn to a DVD
Photo books
Photo collage
*
Windows Live Photo Gallery supports more formats: 17 video, 23 photo (including selected RAW formats), and 6 audio formats
iPhoto supports 12 video; 4 photo and 5 audio formats
Slide show themes
Video editing
Application Features
Support for the most popular devices and file formats**
Picasa supports 17 video, 23 photo (including selected RAW formats), and 6 audio formats
*Requires the download of Microsoft Research AutoCollage add-on to Photo Gallery
Photo Gallery
Meet the new Movie Maker
Movie Maker
Product Overview Windows Live Movie Maker is the easiest way to make movies. Create a movie with your photos and videos to share the way you want — for free. Windows Live Movie Maker allows you to easily turn photos and videos into great-looking movies to share with family and friends across a TV, PC or mobile device using the most popular camera types and file formats on the market today. You can create, edit and share your home movies right on your computer. Whether you’re new to movie making, or you’re a steely-eyed video blogger, you’ll find something to love in the new Windows Live Movie Maker.
What’s new in Movie Maker Get started quickly With Windows Live Movie Maker, there’s no manual needed. Our intuitive interface puts the tools you want and need right at your fingertips. What may seem like a daunting challenge in other applications is merely a couple of clicks in Movie Maker.
Make your project stunning in seconds Add transitions, pan and zoom effects, titles, credits, and visual effects to your photo and video content with a single click thanks to the one and only AutoMovie. Select from one of our stylish themes or start from scratch using Movie Maker’s live preview ability to see what your changes will look like before you add them!
Share your movies easily And the way you want! Whether it’s uploading directly to YouTube or Facebook in high def, sending your movie over Windows Live Mail, saving your movie in 1080p, or saving to a portable device such as a Windows Phone or Zune, Windows Live Movie Maker gives you the power of choice.
Photo Gallery’s key features Import photos and videos Windows 7 and Windows Live Movie Maker make it easy to get your photos and videos off your devices and into a beautiful movie that you can share. Just plug in your device, and we’ll walk you through it.
New features summary Six AutoMovie Themes
(Cinematic, Contemporary, and four basic themes) with Live Preview in ribbon. Also: using metadata (like face tags and captions) from photos and videos for titles, captions, and credits in Movie Maker
Hardware accelerated decoding (not encoding) Webcam capture Network file support Upload to Facebook, SkyDrive, Windows Live Groups (hardcoded) AutoMovie features in Photo Gallery slide show Speed up/slow down video editing Automatic “save movie” option (chooses the best output based on source content) Windows Phone and Zune output options Full-screen preview from Movie Maker Animations in the storyboard and full touch support
AutoMovie Themes You want to create polished movies with your photos and videos that you can share, but what if you don’t have a lot of time? AutoMovie will add a beautiful theme to your photos and videos for you in less than a minute, combining transitions, titles, captions and a music soundtrack. Live Preview It’s hard to know how transitions and effects will look before actually adding them. Live Preview gives you a brief glimpse as you mouse over them, so you can quickly choose the best transition or effect to fit your content. AutoMovie Themes in Photo Gallery slide shows Use AutoMovie even in Photo Gallery! After selecting your favorite photos and videos in Photo Gallery, you can view an AutoMovie slide show just by clicking slide show in the View tab. When your slide show opens and starts playing, you’ll notice there’s a bunch of stuff you can do right from this window including changing the theme, sharing via email, uploading to an online service, playing/pausing/ skipping, and even opening Movie Maker to edit your slide show as a movie. Content transitions You want your video to look professional, but don’t want to hire an editing crew. Transitions make your video flow seamlessly between photos and videos and add more action to your creation. Share online Video is for sharing, so we make it easy to publish your creation to YouTube, Facebook, Flickr or Windows Live SkyDrive with the extensibility to add plug-ins for other online sharing sites. Video editing We know that not all the moments you film should make the final cut, but editing your video is daunting to many consumers. Windows Live Movie Maker makes video editing easy so you can find and include the sweet spot of each video clip. Audio editing Tailor your movie’s soundtrack to set the right mood with easy audio editing.
Movie Maker
Intuitive user interface If you use Windows or Microsoft Office, you’ll be right at home with Windows Live Movie Maker because it uses the same user interface. Visual effects Make your photos even more interesting with rich effects that add variety to your video. Titles, captions and credits Overlay text captions onto your video to tell your story, and give credit where it’s due by adding title screens and end credits. Save in high-definition 720p and 1080p Create a great viewing experience by saving your movie in high-definition format. Storyboard Lay out your movie just like the pros do. Storyboard view makes it easy to drag and drop elements to different places and add and edit new elements including audio and transitions. Photo animations Make your video an action flick by adding panning and zooming to photos in your movie. Fit content to music length No more tinkering to get your content to match your soundtrack — with Windows Live Movie Maker, you just make one click and they match up perfectly. Improved speed and reliability The new Movie Maker takes full advantage of your graphics card to improve speed by up to 2x for most common tasks like video scrubbing and up to 2.5x for saving a movie. Addressing the top requests from our customers Capture from a webcam, network file support, even better Window 7 integration with library support and taskbar progress bar, Windows Mobile and Zune HD output, as well as iPod and iPhone playback are all a part of the new Movie Maker thanks to your feedback.
Movie Maker
Movie Maker
Movie Maker vs. iMovie ‘09
Movie Maker
Apple iMovie ‘09
Automatically generate a movie out of photos, videos and music*
Basic video clip editing
Transitions
Visual effects
Preview how all effects, transitions or animations look on your project before applying
Publish to YouTube
Publish to Facebook
Extensible plug-in support for uploading to additional websites
Burn to a DVD
Publish in high definition
Application Features
Support for the most popular devices and file formats**
Windows Live Movie Maker supports more formats: 17 video, 23 photo (including manufacturer RAW formats), and 6 audio extensions
iMovie supports 12 video, 4 photo and 5 audio extensions
Movie themes
Video clip stabilization
Voice over narration
Meet the new Mail
Mail
Product Overview It’s not uncommon to have multiple email addresses today. However with multiple email messages comes the ordeal of logging in to multiple sites to access them. If you ever want to go back and forth between all your email messages or want to find something but can’t recall which inbox contains it, you have to patiently log in to each email account in an effort to locate it. Sorting through and managing your Hotmail, Gmail and ISP mail separately can be difficult and inefficient. When it comes to managing multiple email accounts, organizing your contacts and calendar, or reading through customized RSS feeds, Windows Live Mail is your solution.
New features summary Photo email (with templates) Ribbon (UI) Conversation Threading
Windows Live Mail enables smart email, calendar and contacts management that seamlessly
Calendar Pane
integrates with your online and offline Windows and PC experience. With Windows Live
Viewing Shared Calendars
Mail you can easily aggregate all your inboxes in one client for efficient mail management.
Integration with Windows Live Messenger, Writer, Photo Gallery
What’s new in Mail Windows Live Mail allows you to access your email accounts within one application, send multiple photos and videos (you decide if you’d prefer high or low resolution) in one email without clogging your friends’ inboxes or your own, integrate with Windows Live Messenger and Live Writer, and much more. Easy to get up and running Quickly configure your email addresses by just entering your email address and password. Windows Live Mail configures your email accounts without you having to figure out which protocol, port or server settings to use, making it really easy to get the program up and running quickly. Windows Live Mail also comes with inbox management features such as conversation threading (ability to collapse all messages with the same subject to one expandable line), flags, deep search and sort, folder management, and more to allow you to quickly sift through what’s important. With built-in contacts management and calendar support, Mail gives you easy, contextual access to your information when you need it.
Anytime access Unlike most browser-based mail providers, Windows Live Mail allows you access to all your email whether you are online or off. So even if you are on the road on your way
to a client meeting and are looking to access your email and attachments to finish your presentation, Windows Live Mail’s offline capabilities let you be efficient. Read and respond to email from any of your email accounts without having to login multiple times regardless of internet connectivity.
Photo email and share without restrictions With Photo email, Windows Live Mail finally overcomes a major pain-point for users by allowing them to attach multiple photos in one email without worrying about size restrictions. No more having to worry about permissions and privacy issues related to sharing your photos online. Feel safe and in control as you attach HD photos, caption and edit them on the fly, and send them to your friends or family! In addition, the new and improved Mail ribbon-interface sports many new features including integration points with other Windows applications on your PC such as Windows Live Messenger, Live Writer and PhotoGallery. As an example you can select pictures in Windows Live Photo Gallery, upload them to SkyDrive and share them with your friends in email with one click! Windows Live Mail is sure to make your mail management more efficient.
Mail’s key features Easy and familiar If you are familiar with the simplicity of Outlook Express, Windows Mail or the Office suite on your PC, you will get up to speed with Windows Live Mail quickly. Email account aggregation Windows Live Mail can help manage multiple email accounts, RSS feeds, contacts and newsgroups in one place. All-in-one Access multiple mail accounts, attachments, calendars and contacts from one place. Offline access Email sent or calendar edits you make while offline will be queued up and synched next time you have an internet connection. Any activity in your mail accounts or calendars online will automatically sync with Windows Live Mail. Once synched, Windows Live Mail will allow you to access your email and calendar regardless of connectivity.
Mail
Shared calendars Access, view and edit calendars that have been shared with you right from Windows Live Mail. Quick views Quick views organize and find selected types of items (e.g., unread mail from contacts only, flagged email, all mail across inboxes, etc.) across your email accounts, newsgroups and feeds. Windows Live Messenger integration Reply to a friend with an instant message right from Windows Live Mail. You’ll know they’re online because presence is integrated right into the email header. Efficient inbox management tools Tools like conversation threading reduce clutter in your inbox. Slim Cal Instantly view your calendar without navigating away from the context of your inbox. Photo email Send hundreds of photos in one email without worrying about size restrictions. Add captions, layouts and edit your photos from within Windows Live Mail itself.
Mail
Mail
Comparing Mail
Windows Live Mail
Thunderbird
Zimbra Desktop
Application Features Easy Setup
Email Aggregation
Calendar Support
Contacts Support
Photo Email
RSS Feeds
Suite Integration
Conversation Threading
Exchange Support
Meet the new Sync
Sync
Windows Live Sync makes it easy to access your digital stuff anywhere from any device. With Sync, you have the freedom to use any PC, knowing you’ll always have access to the files or apps that you need. Product Overview Like many people, you might keep your pictures, documents and other files on your main PC. But now you’ve bought a netbook — and you want to move all the information you have on your primary PC onto your netbook so you can work (or play) anywhere, and keep files in sync across the two PCs going forward. Usually this would require a USB drive and lots of inconvenient copying back and forth. But with Windows Live Sync installed on both of your PCs, your PCs can talk to each other — making it easy to transfer files and stay in sync automatically. Sync can also transfer and sync settings for popular apps like Internet Explorer and Office — saving you the hassle of customizing your settings all over again. You can even sync files with a Mac. But what about when you are away from your PC and your netbook and you need to access an important file or app from the road? Windows Live Sync has you covered. Sync up to 2 GB of your important files to SkyDrive so you can access them from virtually any browser. If you need files that aren’t on SkyDrive or if you need access to apps from home, you can use Remote Desktop to access your PC (if it’s online) from a browser. You can access either feature from devices.live.com, which lists all the devices that you have used to connect to Sync.
What’s new in Sync Access your files from anywhere You can use up to 2 GB of online storage on SkyDrive to sync files from your PC. You can then access your files anywhere — even if your PC is switched off.
Access your desktop from anywhere Leave your PC online and you can access its files and apps anywhere from devices.live. com. Find your PC among the list of devices on the website, and click on Connect to this computer to remotely control your PC. This is great for emergency situations where you might be at work and need an important file from home.
New features summary Sync important files to your SkyDrive so you can access them anywhere
Select folders to synchronize online so you can access them even when you are away from one of your PCs.
Remote desktop
Leave your PC online and access its files and apps anywhere you have internet access using Sync with Windows Live Devices.
Application settings sync
Keep your important Internet Explorer and Office settings like Favorites, typed URLs and dictionaries in sync across PCs.
Copy and paste files in Remote Desktop
Easily move files back and forth between your local PC and remote PC with just a few clicks.
Multi-monitor/zoom support in Remote Desktop Use your PC from afar as if you were sitting right in front of it.
Increased max files per folder to 100,000. Increased max sync folders from 20 to 200. Increased max file size that can be synchronized between PCs from 4 GB to 40 GB. (continued on next page)
Get your new PC up and running quickly by transferring files and settings
Sync
Use Sync on two (or more) PCs to transfer files and keep your files up-to-date across all of your PCs. Sync can even transfer and sync really big folders with pictures and personal videos. You can also sync your Internet Explorer and Office settings to make it easy to set up your new PC just like your old one.
Sync’s key features 2 GB of online storage on SkyDrive Sync your most important files online so you can access them from any web browser in case you need them.
New features summary (continued)
to your PCs
Auto-folder mapping – If you have many PCs, Sync can — in one step — start synchronizing your favorite folders across all of your PCs.
With Windows Live Sync, you and your spouse could create a common folder (e.g.,
Sync with Macs
Create a common folder that you and someone else can each synchronize
“Our child’s special moments”) on each of your PCs. When either one of you adds new pictures to the common folder — you both instantly see the latest pictures on your PCs. Internet Explorer settings sync Enjoy the same web browsing experience across your PCs with sync of your Favorites and recently typed URLs. Microsoft Office settings sync Never tell Word to ignore the same squiggly red lines twice because Sync keeps your dictionary (and other Office customizations like Outlook signatures) in sync across your PCs. Copy and paste files in Remote Desktop Easily copy files back and forth between your local PC and remote PC with just a few clicks. Zoom and use multiple monitors in Remote Desktop Use your PC from afar as if you were sitting right in front of it.
Sync photos, documents and other files with Macs as well as PCs. Note that Windows Live Sync is now only supported on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.5 and newer. (see system requirements) If you have a Windows XP machine with Sync installed, you will not be able to synchronize files with computers running the new version of Sync.
The Differences Between Sync and SkyDrive SkyDrive sync storage is good for things other than folders on SkyDrive. It is great for syncing some of your PC’s folders to SkyDrive for access even when your PC is off. It also can store really big files. Regular folders on SkyDrive are great for sharing pictures and working together on Office documents.
SkyDrive Docs, Photos folders
SkyDrive Sync Folders
Storage quota
25 GB
2 GB (Folders synced only between PCs and not to SkyDrive can be as big as you want)
Max file size
50 MB
2 GB for files on SkyDrive 40 GB for file synced only between PCs
Folder sync with PC
Offline support
Partial using Office 2010. Files opened from SkyDrive will be cached for use when you are offline; OneNote supports active synchronization
using Windows Live Sync
with real-time synchronization of changes
Web-based photo slide shows
Web-based doc viewing, editing (Office Web Apps)
Versioning
Sync folders can be accessed like any other folder on your PC
Office client integration
in Office 2010
Sync
Meet the new Writer
Writer
Product Overview Windows Live Writer is a powerful blogging tool that allows you to create and share custom blogs easily. Whether its photos, videos, relevant search results, maps or more, Writer allows you to seamlessly integrate content into your blog and publish it exactly the way you want it to look. Sharing your thoughts and memories has never been easier. Windows Live Writer is the intuitive way to create rich, fun and engaging blogs to tell your story. When creating Windows Live Writer, we realized that the last thing you want to do when
New features summary
creating a blog is worry about tweaking your formatting to make sure it publishes the
Ribbon (UI)
exact way you created it. With powerful WYSIWYG editing, Writer ensures that what you
Easy integration with popular blogs
see is what you get. Another cue we took from our users was to ensure our support for rich media like photos, videos, maps and more. With the new and improved media embedding functions, Writer
Powerful WYSIWYG canvas Unlimited Photo Upload with new templates
allows you to insert photos with custom templates, maps from Bing and other contextual
Seamless tie with YouTube for video upload
data to enhance your blogging capabilities.
Bing integration Suite integration
The new and improved Writer sports many new features including easy posting to popular blog hosts such as Windows Live Spaces, WordPress, Typepad and SharePoint, tight integration with the Windows Live software and services, a consistent look and feel with your Windows PC, and much more. Windows Live Writer is sure to wow you and your audience as you create stunning and engaging blogs.
What’s new in Writer Intuitive and powerful ways to enrich your blogs Add photos, videos, maps and more seamlessly to your blogs, and publish to popular blogs with ease using Windows Live Writer. The way you designed and created your blog is exactly how it’s published, saving you time and letting you focus on creating and building new experiences to share in your blog.
Anytime access Simply sign in with your Windows Live ID and access your published blogs and drafts from any PC in the world. We understand that bloggers often travel without access to their PC and recognize that this should not impede their ability to blog. By allowing access to published as well as drafted blogs, Writer ensures a seamless experience for you.
Stunning in seconds Embedding photos is becoming more and more popular in blog posts. Editing photos before creating innovative templates is a thing of the past with Writer. Writer’s tight integration with Photo Gallery and hot new templates allow you to create good-looking posts in seconds.
Writer’s key features Auto-save Writer automatically saves a draft of your blog every 15 seconds to make sure you are protected against sudden failure. WYSIWYG With Writer what you see is what you get. Publish blogs to your favorite sites exactly the way you created them. Ribbon integration The new scenic ribbon exposes powerful blogging tools and brings them right to your fingertips. Easy publishing Set up your Writer to publish to your favorite blog host in seconds. Whether its Spaces, WordPress or SharePoint, Writer allows you to get blogging quickly by automating Writer integration with the top blog hosts. Bing integration Access Bing’s decision engine capabilities from within Writer, and embed results easily within your post.
Writer
Meet the new Family Safety
Family Safety
Product Overview Microsoft knows that keeping kids safe on the family PC is important to parents. That’s why Windows Live Family Safety is designed to augment Parental Controls on your Windows-based PC, to help parents keep their children safer online. It works hand in hand with Windows Parental Controls, to offer parents the ability to manage which websites their kids can visit, as well as the list of contacts they can communicate with when using the Windows Live services such as Windows Live Spaces, Hotmail and Messenger. We know that parents are busy, so we make it easy for them to set up Family Safety, to view activity reports, and to have the same settings on all the machines in the house. It’s easy to set up Family Safety because parents can use simple filters for the most commonly blocked sites. Parents can then view reports on their children’s computer and online activity from any computer that has web access. They can also approve access requests from their children when appropriate.
What’s new in Family Safety Works great with Windows It’s seamless to move between Windows Parental Controls and Family Safety online so you can manage your child’s local activities on the PC and their online activity in one location.
Tools for monitoring and controlling children’s web browsing Simple filters for website blocking let parents easily manage which websites children can visit. Parents can also manage a child’s email and IM contacts to ensure their child is only communicating with trusted contacts that the parent approves (when using Windows Live Spaces, Hotmail and Messenger). Family Safety enforces Safe Search to close the back door to inappropriate content when using search sites like Bing, Yahoo and Google.
Easy setup and monitoring Website filters are designed to be simple. When installed on multiple PCs in the household, Family Safety will enforce the same settings and consolidate usage reports from all machines. Family Safety generates reports on children’s computer and online activity that parents can retrieve from any computer online. Requests from children to view a blocked site are delivered to parents via email so you can approve or reject the request from anywhere.
New features summary Centralized control for Time Restrictions, Game Restrictions and App Restriction Allow older children to bypass warnings when appropriate SafeSearch is locked on for Bing, Google and Yahoo
Family Safety
Family Safety Competitive Comparison
Family Safety
Apple
McAfee
Norton OnlineFamily
Easy setup
Easy management
Safe Search
Activity reports
Limited
Web content blocking
Contact approval for IM and email
IM only
Access from any PC
Cost
Free
Fre
$39.99
Free
Security Features
Windows Live Essentials System requirements & specifications Requirement
Component
Operating System
One of the following: Windows Vista (32-bit or 64-bit editions) Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit editions) Windows Server 2008 Note: Windows XP is not supported in Wave 4
Processor
For Windows Vista or Windows 7: 1.6 GHz or higher
Memory
Windows Vista or Windows 7: 1GB of RAM or higher
Resolution
Internet Connection
Browser
Graphics or Video Card
Prerequisite Software
Minimum 1024 x 576
Internet functionality requires dial-up or broadband internet access (provided separately). Local or long-distance charges may apply. Windows Live Toolbar requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 or Internet Explorer 8. Windows Live requires a video card that supports DirectX 9.0 or higher, and Shader Model 2.0 or higher. These components are required and will be downloaded and installed if they’re not already on your computer: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or higher*
