Welcome to Windows Live Wire, a blog for Windows Live customers by Windows Live customers. OK, so we’re customers who happen to work for Microsoft, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It means that we’re pretty familiar with the products and the best ways to use them.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. If we want you to read our blog, we should probably start by explaining what in the heck Windows Live is. (Trust us, you’re not the only one who’d like to know.)
The short answer: Windows Live is a growing group of Microsoft online services that work well together and with Windows. Some of the services, like Hotmail® and Messenger, help you communicate more quickly and efficiently. Some, like Spaces, make it easy for you to post pictures and ideas and share them with the people you choose. Others, like OneCare™ and Family Safety, help protect you, your family, and your PC from threats on the Internet. Most Windows Live services are free, but a few have a premium version that you can pay for.
You can use one e-mail address and password, called a Windows Live ID™, to sign in to all Windows Live services, and chances are, you already have one. That is, if you have a Hotmail or MSN® e-mail address, if you use Messenger, or if you ever signed up for a Microsoft Passport account, you have a Windows Live ID. You can also use your Windows Live ID to sign in to a bunch of non-Windows Live services, like Zune™ and Xbox Live™, or anywhere you see this icon: .
That’s enough for now. In the future, we’ll explain more about Windows Live, how our services work together, and how they work with Windows. We’ll also keep you posted about new stuff (assuming we can keep up with it), cool features you may want to try, and our own experiences using Windows Live.
We’d like to hear about your experiences, too. Our feelings won’t be hurt if you tell us you don’t like something. In fact, we hope you do. That way, we can go back to the folks who make the software and let them know how they can make it better.
Of course, we’d also like to hear when you do like something, when you have a question, and what else you’d like to read about here. We’ll do our best to respond and keep you coming back.
Nice to meet you
Hello to you.
I look forward to the whole Windows Live family or offerings coming together more cohesively than it has in the past.
I\’ve gotten to where I really love the Windows Live products. They are probably best looking offerings on the Internet. I love how they all work seamlessly together and have the same look and feel to them.The only thing that has kept me from coming completely over from Google is Windows Live\’s lack of a calendar. I know that Hotmail has a calendar, but it isn\’t exactly what I\’m looking for. I would like to have one that would work with Vista\’s Windows Calendar (perhaps a replacement called "Windows Live Calendar"?). I really would like to make multiple calendars and share with other users. Also I would like for Windows Live Contacts to work with Vista\’s Windows Contacts. If there is a Calendar coming (and I read last spring that one may be coming), when can we expect it?Window Live is exciting and vibrant – keep it up, guys!
Windows Live search has taken over my homepag an now I can not change it bk. This is something I would like to do.
I\’ve been following the whole "Live" theme for a long while now, and using all the Betas where possible. The current move towards more coherence in the "Live" product family is very welcome, especially where a more uniform look & feel is being implemented.
I feel strongly that if all the "Cloud" services that the Web 2.0 evangelists are promoting (I love Silverlight by the way) are to work we need a trustworthy company like MS taking an active role.
I really feel that "Live" is starting to add value to your products and to the Internet in general, so good luck with the roll out…
It\’s great – I like the new wave 2 products, and their UI.
The only thing is – will the new Live Home be customisable – I\’m assuming it will be replacing Live.com at some point. I use the current Live.com to read and manage all my feeds and it would be a shame to lose this functionality.
I think it would be really nice if there was an option to change what services were listed when you click on the "Live" button in the top left. Many of the services I don\’t use are listed but most of my favourites aren\’t, I still think that the Live Button linking all the services is a Really good idea.I don\’t like the new colours by the way, I preferred the old ones.It would be really good if Microsoft could negotiate with companies such as http://www.c2kni.co.uk so that they would remove their Blockage of many of Microsofts services, especially as the Live services could have a very useful implementation in an educational enviroment.The one remaining thing Microsoft has yet to do, which I think would immensly boost the popularity of All their services, would be to have an "Online" or "Live" version of Office. I know there is Office Live, but it doesn\’t actually provide normal people with a Microsoft Word 2007 or Excel 2007 sort of interface.I think the idea of live services, is to take programs that usually have to be installed on a computer and put them on the internet. Why not do this with Office?I certainly hope Home.Live becomes more customizable (Although I would prioritize making the live button/orb thing customizable at the moment)Live Local has absolute Rubbish images of Belfast compared to Google Earth, the road maps are better though.I really like the Live services, keep up the good work! (AND keep working on Firefox support. No offense but IE is Rubbish.)
I agree with Ali. I like the new dashboard at home.live.com but there is no easy way to go from there to my normal live.com page that contains all my rss feeds. bummer!
great stuff…
I wish there was a link to go from home.live.com to my personalised page on http://www.live.com.
Will we be able to use gadgets on home.live.com?
I\’ve been testing windows live services recently. I like skydrive a lot. It\’s fabulous. But I found some problems with it as descript below.
problem 1: If drag a folder to the add files area, I will get a viewerror message.But that\’s not what i expect. I prefer that the skydrive will create a new folder with the folder\’s name and upload all the files in the folder.
problem 2: Can I manage my files like hotmail – choose a bunch of files with the check box and delete them or move them to another folder.
problem 3: I really like to have an skydrive client.
I want to build a live search that returns the profile image in a windows live spaces profile. In other words I want to be able to view the windows live spaces users that have a profile image only but in the live search images view. The windows live spaces equivalent to the myspace browse. I thought I start by searching using the MSDN Blogs Search Engine. Please comment in my guest book if you have any thoughts!
Hi ya Beta Team,Yeah great job,good work,keep it up..
the real (YODA)
I tried posting this before but not sure I am posting it in the right place so I\’ll try here. A week or so ago, all of my hotmail emails in my inbox mysteriously disappeared? Is there any way to get them back??? I had several saved that I NEEDED information from and when I logged on one day, my inbox was empty. I really need to get in touch with someone to help me but I have no idea how to do it except for something like this. The messages are not in my deleted items as I did not delete them, they literally just disappeared one day. HELP!!!!
Window Live sucks. You guys are drinking the Kool-Aid. I am closing my Hotmail account and switching to Yahoo. Also, you have finally given me that final "push" top try LINUX. Remember how we used to think IBM was going to take over the world? People felt the same way about Microsoft. Pushing this "Windows Live" product down people\’s throats is akin to WordPerfect (remember THEM?) chaning the F7 fucntion key. Bad Move. Sell your Microsoft Stock. The era of the O/S dominance in the computer business is coming to a close. You are killing the goose that laid the golden egg.