Applies ToPhotos on Windows Live Windows Movie Maker
Notes:
-
Windows Essentials 2012 suite reached end of support on January 10, 2017.
-
It is no longer available for download.
Introduction
Windows Live Essentials is a suite of free programs from Microsoft to help you stay in touch with the people you care about most and do more with Windows on your PC. You can edit and share photos and personal videos, manage your email and calendar, publish to your blog, access your files on multiple computers, and help keep your kids safer online. It’s all in one download, and it’s all free.
More Information
Windows Live Essentials includes Windows Live Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mail, Writer, Family Safety, Windows Live Mesh, Bing Bar, Messenger Companion, Microsoft Silverlight, and Outlook Connector Pack (Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector and Social Connector Provider for Windows Live Messenger). You can install just a few of these programs or all of Windows Live Essentials.
To install the latest version of Windows Live Essentials 2011, visit the following Microsoft website:
Windows Live Essentials 2011
Note By clicking Download means you agree to the Microsoft service agreement and privacy statement.
The download may include updates to Windows Live programs you already have. You’ll get updates to these and other Microsoft programs from Microsoft Update. This software may also download and install some updates automatically.
For more information about the Windows Live Essentials, visit the following Microsoft Website:
Windows Live Essentials Help Center
Windows Live Essentials requirements
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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; or Windows Server 2008 R2.
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Processor: 1.6 GHz or higher
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Memory: 1 GB of RAM or higher
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Resolution: Minimum: 1024 × 576
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Internet connection: Internet functionality requires dial-up or broadband Internet access (provided separately). Local or long-distance charges may apply.
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Graphics or video card: Windows Live Movie Maker requires a video card that supports DirectX 9 or higher and Shader Model 2 or higher.
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For Photo Gallery and Movie Maker: Some required components of DirectX 9 may be installed for you if they’re not already on your computer.
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For Windows Live Mesh: To run Windows Live Mesh on a Mac, you must have OS X 10.5 or newer installed. If you already installed an earlier version of Window Live Sync beta or Live Mesh beta, please see the detailed release notes for additional requirements.Instructions
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- Publication date
-
2010-09-30
- Topics
- Windows Live Essentials 2011, Windows Live Essentials, Live Essentials, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Photo Gallery, Windows Live Movie Maker, Windows Movie Maker, Movie Maker, Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Family Safety, Windows Live Mesh, Windows Essentials
- Language
- English
- Item Size
- 156.5M
If you can’t install Windows Live Essentials 2012, try this instead. They’re both extremely similar and don’t really have much of a difference.
The suite includes:
- Messenger
- Photo Gallery
- Movie Maker (which is probably why you’re installing this)
- Writer
- Family Safety
- Mesh
The suite is compatible with Windows Vista and later versions of Windows.
- Addeddate
- 2020-12-14 22:07:42
- Identifier
- wle2011_offline
- Scanner
- Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.6.4
- Year
-
2010
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(5)
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Windows Essentials
|
Windows Essentials applications — clockwise from the top left: Mail, Messenger, Photo Gallery and Movie Maker. |
|
| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
|---|---|
| Initial release | August 25, 2006; 18 years ago |
| Final release |
2012 (v16.4.3528.0331) |
| Operating system | Windows XP to Windows 10[1][2] |
| Type | Software suite |
| License | Freeware |
| Website | windows |
Windows Essentials (formerly Windows Live Essentials and Windows Live Installer) is a discontinued suite of Microsoft freeware applications that includes email, instant messaging, photo sharing, blogging, and parental control software. Essentials programs are designed to integrate well with each other, with Microsoft Windows, and other Microsoft web-based services such as OneDrive and Outlook.com.[3][4]
Windows Essentials Applications
| Edition | Windows Live Installer [5] | Windows Live Essentials 2009 | Windows Live Essentials 2011 [6] | Windows Essentials 2012 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photo Gallery | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Movie Maker | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Writer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| OneDrive | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Family Safety | Yes | Yes | Yes | Windows 7 only[7] |
| Messenger | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Toolbar | Yes | Yes | Replaced with Bing Bar | No |
| Mesh | No | No | Yes | No |
Windows Essentials applications support installation on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2,[7] as well as Windows 10. Previous versions were also available on Windows XP and Windows Vista, and included Windows Live Messenger.[7]
Windows Live Installer (Wave 2)
[edit]
The first eappearance of a Windows Live Dashboard is seen with the initial «Windows Live Wave 2» unified installers from Windows Live Messenger 8.5, Mail and Writer that was released on May 30, 2007. In the «Windows Live Wave 2» suite of services, Windows Live Installer was the name of the website and software given to serve the purposes of allowing users to discover, download and install Windows Live software and services. Users were able to select the Windows Live software they wished to install on the website, and the website would pass on the information to the unified installer software such that the installer will only download and install those applications selected.[8]
Windows Live Essentials 2009 (Wave 3)
[edit]
The Windows Live Installer application was significantly updated with the subsequent «Windows Live Wave 3» release of applications, with the new inclusion of Windows Live Movie Maker (beta) and Microsoft Office Outlook Connector to its suite of products. On October 29, 2008, it was announced at the Professional Developers Conference 2008 that Windows Live Installer would be renamed as Windows Live Essentials, and would be integrated into Windows 7 to allow users to download the included Windows Live applications. However, the Windows Live Essentials applications will not be «bundled» with the Windows 7 operating system. This should allow more frequent updates to the Windows Live Essentials applications outside of major operating system releases.[4]
On December 15, 2008, the «beta refresh» versions of Windows Live Essentials applications were released.[9] This release included many changes since the previous beta release based on user feedback. A significant visual change in this release was the introduction of new application icons which added a common design theme to all the Live Essentials applications. The words «beta» were removed from most of the build numbers. On January 7, 2009, the «beta refresh» versions were released as the final versions, with the notable exception of Windows Live Movie Maker.[9]
Microsoft updated Windows Live Essentials Wave 3 on February 13, 2009[10] and again on August 19, 2009,[11] when Windows Live Movie Maker was released out of beta and significantly updated with additional features since the beta version released in December 2008.[12] The final build number was 14.0.8117.0416.
After the release of Windows Live Essentials 2011, which dropped support for Windows XP, Windows Live Essentials 2009 was renamed to Windows Live Essentials for Windows XP and was made available for Windows XP users to help maintain the product user base. Some applications, such as Windows Live Movie Maker, were not included with Windows Live Essentials for Windows XP.
Windows Live Essentials 2011 (Wave 4)
[edit]
Microsoft released a public beta for the next major update for Windows Live Essentials dubbed «Wave 4» on June 24, 2010.[13] The updated applications include Windows Live Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Family Safety, Mesh, and Messenger Companion. For Windows Live Mesh, the application has been rewritten to be based on the previous Live Mesh and will allow PC and Mac users to keep their documents, pictures and music in sync across multiple computers. It was also announced that Windows Live Toolbar will be discontinued and replaced by the Bing Bar.[14] In addition, the ribbon user interface was incorporated into Mail, Photo Gallery, and Writer. The Wave 4 beta has dropped support for Windows XP; Windows Vista or Windows 7 is required for its use.[13] The beta refresh of Windows Live Essentials 2011 was released on August 17, 2010. Microsoft released the final version of Windows Live Essentials 2011 on September 30, 2010. The applications were updated with a hotfix/QFE (except for Mesh and Family Safety) on December 1, 2010,[15] and that update became available through Windows Update from March 20, 2011.[16] On May 2, 2012, Microsoft announced the re-branding of Windows Live. Although all applications in Windows Live Essentials 2011 suite will continue to function on Windows Vista, 7, and 8, there will be no significant updates made to these applications in the future.[17] In June 2014, Microsoft announced that Windows Live Essentials 2011 would no longer be available for download on Windows Vista.
Windows Essentials 2012 (Wave 5)
[edit]
Microsoft released Windows Essentials 2012 on August 7, 2012, for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users.[18] Windows Essentials 2012 included SkyDrive for Windows (later renamed OneDrive), and dropped Windows Live Mesh, Messenger Companion and Bing Bar. Microsoft Family Safety is also installed for Windows 7 users only, as Windows 8 has built-in family safety functionalities.[17] Further, Windows Essentials 2012 also dropped the «Windows Live» branding from the installer itself, as well as from programs such as Photo Gallery and Movie Maker, which have been branded Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Movie Maker respectively. These two programs have also received several updates and enhancements since their 2011 release, including video stabilization, waveform visualizations, new narration tracks, audio emphasizing, default save as H.264 format, and enhanced text effects for Movie Maker; as well as AutoCollage integration and addition of Vimeo as a publishing partner for Photo Gallery. No significant changes or re-branding were made in this release for other programs such as Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail, and Windows Live Writer.[19] While the program is no longer available for download by Microsoft, it is still possible today to download the original pack for Windows Essentials 2012.[20] Such links are provided in the form of links to the Wayback Machine, and the suite can also be found on the Internet Archive.
Some of the apps included in the package are unsupported on Windows 8.1 and 10 and are removed after an upgrade. The Facebook integration in Photo Gallery and Movie Maker broke due to Facebook API changes.[21] Microsoft turned off Windows Live Messenger’s service and redirected users to Skype, another one of its messaging services; the installer has not been updated to reflect this change.[22][23] Windows Live Mail no longer works with Outlook.com using the proprietary DeltaSync protocol due to removal of support for the latter from Outlook.com,[24] but can be configured to use such accounts using either IMAP or POP3 protocols.[25] Windows Live Writer no longer works with Blogger due to Blogger’s authentication API changes.[26] The suite had otherwise not received a major upgrade since 2012, and it had not received any updates through Windows Update since 2014, although Microsoft offered a downloadable (albeit buggy) update in December 2015.[27] Microsoft announced that the suite would be officially retired on January 10, 2017, and would no longer be available for download, and that after the end of support date applications already installed would continue to work but with «an increased security risk associated with use of unsupported products past their end of support date.»[7]
- ^ «Windows Essentials download options». Support. Microsoft. Retrieved July 18, 2016.
- ^ «Windows Essentials». Support. Microsoft. Archived from the original on July 22, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
- ^ Foley, Mary Jo (August 5, 2006). «Microsoft Seeks Testers for Windows Live Essentials». eWeek’s Microsoft Watch. Ziff Davis Enterprise. Archived from the original on June 30, 2012. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
- ^ a b Thurrott, Paul (October 6, 2010). «Making Sense of Windows Live Wave 3, Part 1: How We Got Here». SuperSite for Windows. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
- ^ «Microsoft releases Windows Live unified installer». Windows. Ars Technica. Retrieved April 17, 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ «Windows Live Essentials 2011». Windows. Microsoft. Retrieved April 21, 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c d «Windows Essentials 2012 Release Notes». Windows. Microsoft. Archived from the original on June 22, 2016. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
- ^ Zheng, Long (September 7, 2007). «The cookie magic behind Windows Live Suite installer». iStartedSomething. Archived from the original on August 28, 2008. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ^ a b «Refreshing the Windows Live Essentials beta». Windows Live team blog archive. December 15, 2008. Archived from the original on December 28, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ^ Protalinski, Emil (February 13, 2009). «Windows Live Essentials updated to build 14.0.8064.0206». Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on April 17, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ^ Protalinski, Emil (August 20, 2009). «Windows Live Essentials Wave 3 updated again». Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on January 23, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ^ Protalinski, Emil (August 20, 2009). «Windows Live Movie Maker 14 finally comes out of beta». Ars Technica. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on February 1, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ^ a b Sierra, Piero (June 23, 2010). «Announcing the new Windows Live Essentials beta!». Inside Windows Live. Microsoft. Archived from the original on October 23, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ^ Sierra, Piero (June 2, 2010). «Preview of the new Windows Live Essentials». Inside Windows Live. Microsoft. Archived from the original on December 16, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ^ Kniskern, Kip (December 1, 2010). «Windows Live Essentials QFE released: you can update now». LiveSide. Archived from the original on December 25, 2010. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ^ de Haan, Arthur (March 21, 2011). «QFE1 for Windows Live Essentials 2011 now available through Microsoft Update». Inside Windows Live. Microsoft. Archived from the original on February 9, 2013. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ^ a b Sinofsky, Steven (May 2, 2012). «Cloud services for Windows 8 and Windows Phone: Windows Live, reimagined». Building Windows 8. Microsoft. Archived from the original on February 16, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ^ Weed, Brad (August 7, 2012). «Introducing the New Windows Photo Gallery and Movie Maker». Windows Experience Blog. Microsoft. Archived from the original on November 25, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ^ «Windows Essentials 2012 Q&A». Windows Experience Blog. Microsoft. Archived from the original on August 11, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ^ July 2017, Amy Oztan 30 (July 30, 2017). «10 Old Windows Programs and Games (And How to Get Them)». LaptopMag. Archived from the original on September 4, 2018. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ «Facebook Connect is no longer available». Office. Microsoft. Archived from the original on September 16, 2016. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
- ^ «What’s happened to my Messenger contacts in Skype?». Skype. Microsoft. Archived from the original on May 7, 2016. Retrieved September 7, 2016.
- ^ Warren, Tom (February 15, 2013). «Microsoft is forcing Messenger users over to Skype starting April 8th». The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on August 31, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
- ^ «Using Windows Live Mail 2012 with Outlook.com? Time to update your email application!». Office. Microsoft. May 5, 2016. Archived from the original on August 8, 2016. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
- ^ «Windows Live Mail and Outlook Mail». Answers. Microsoft. Archived from the original on October 18, 2016. Retrieved October 15, 2016.
- ^ «Windows Live Writer Stopped Support For Blogger «Permanently»!». December 16, 2015. Archived from the original on September 9, 2016. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
- ^ Leonhard, Woody (January 15, 2016). «Windows Live Mail woes continue with re-re-released KB 3093594». InfoWorld. IDG. Archived from the original on September 13, 2016. Retrieved September 7, 2016.
- «How do I install Windows Essentials while offline?». Windows Essentials Help & How-to. Microsoft. Archived from the original on March 23, 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2011.
- Official website
- Download for Windows Live Essentials 2012
Microsoft released Windows Live Essentials 2011 yesterday afternoon. While the Windows Live software package is focused on PC functionality and Windows 7 integration, there is a growing connection to Windows Phones. Especially Windows Phone 7.
For those not familiar with Live Essentials, it is a series of tools and applications that range from Family Safety filters for the internet to Windows Live Mail.
Essentials also contains several connected services that we expect will integrate with your Windows Phone 7 device. These services include:
- Windows Live Photo Gallery: A photo management application that has the ability to share photos on your Skydrive, Flickr, and Facebook accounts.
- Windows Live Movie Maker: A video editor that has the ability to instantly publish movies to YouTube.
- Windows Live Messenger: While known for it’s instant message ability, Messenger now allows you to stay in touch with friends on Facebook, LinkedIN and MySpace.
- Windows Live Mail: An email application that keeps you in touch with your Hotmail and other email clients.
- Windows Live Mesh: Mesh will give you the ability to sync files across multiple devices and to your Skydrive making them accessible wherever you are.
How tightly integrated these connected services will be with Windows Phone 7 has yet to be seen. We could easily see taking a photo and it’s automatically uploaded to your Photo Gallery storage on Skydrive or create a Word Document on your PC and have it accessible through Mesh on your Windows Phone. While you can do all this now, everything will be native to the Windows Phone and third party apps or plug-ins won’t be needed.
We have heard that Windows Messenger will be a part of Windows Phone 7 and cloud storage has been increased with Skydrive increasing from 2 gigabytes to 5 gigabytes.
The one feature that most will agree was the KIN’s strongest feature was the KIN Studio. The KIN Studio offered online access to your phone’s photos, videos, messages, contacts and social feeds. Many felt it was the one feature that should carry over to Windows Phone 7 and with the updates to Windows Live and the release of Essentials 2011 we may very well see this be WP7’s Studio?
You can download your copy of Windows Live Essentials here and follow the break for some screen shots and observations on the update process and finished product.
All the latest news, reviews, and guides for Windows and Xbox diehards.
Windows Live Photo Gallery
Again, Windows Live Photo Gallery is a management application for all your photographs. You can tag, sort and edit photos, create folders, and preview your photos. The Photo Gallery will now recognized geo-tagged photos and give you the option to display the location the shot was taken in Bing Maps. The Photo Gallery also updates the facial recognition functionality, making it more accurate and reliable.
Windows Live Movie Maker
If you are familiar with Microsoft Movie Maker, Windows Live Movie Maker will seem very familiar. Movie Maker is your basic video editing application that has the ability to directly upload your videos to YouTube, Flickr and your Skydrive account.
Windows Live Messenger
Asides from being a instant messaging application, Windows Live Messenger pulls in your social feeds from Facebook and see your friends updated status. You also have the ability to chat with Facebook and Messenger contacts and while Messenger is running in the background of your PC, pop-ups will appear when the online status changes of friends.
Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Mail received a decent face lift with Essentials 2011. Obviously, Windows Live Mail is Essentials email application where you can access your Hotmail account and other email clients. The interface is really smooth and lays all your email information out nicely.
One footnote with regards to upgrading from previous versions of Windows Mail. It is very important that you back up your contacts. When I updated my version of Windows Live Mail to Essentials 2011, the update deleted all of my contacts (either that or hid them really well on my computer). Luckily, I had a backup copy of my contacts and imported them.
Windows Live Mesh and Skydrive
I am just now beginning to appreciate Microsoft’s Skydrive and having the storage space increase from 2 to 5 gigabytes is a nice bonus. Users are able to store files on the Skydrive and access them remotely from work, home or anywhere I have access to a computer. Windows Live Mesh will sync these folders and files between your PC, Skydrive and any other «trusted» computer.
It’s nice to see Windows Live get a little more beefier with functionality and it will be interesting to see how much of Essentials will be integrated into Windows Phone 7.
George is the Reviews Editor at Windows Central, concentrating on Windows 10 PC and Mobile apps. He’s been a supporter of the platform since the days of Windows CE and uses his current Windows 10 Mobile phone daily to keep up with life and enjoy a game during down time.
Over the last seven days, Neowin took an in-depth look at all the Windows Live Essentials 2011 products. We covered the main highlights and new features of each program. Essentials 2011 offers a lot to users looking for useful utilities in their day-to-day tasks, and Essentials delivers this, all for free.
During our coverage of each product, including Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mail, Mesh, Family Safety and Writer, we heard a lot of positive feedback from our readers and some great suggestions for insight on specific products.
As our coverage has concluded, we wanted to give a quick overview of all the highlights and features within Windows Live Essentials 2011.
Windows Live Essentials 2011
Windows Live Messenger 2011
One of the most used instant messaging clients in the world, Messenger brings you closer to your friends and family around the world. Each year, the Messenger team looks to improve Windows Live Messenger with exciting new features, and this year the new big addition is social network feeds.
Messenger now combines Facebook feeds and chat into your client, allowing you to see photos, shared videos and links and even instantly chat with friends on Facebook.
Read the full review here.
Windows Live Photo Gallery 2011
Most of us take hundreds and even thousands of photos when we go on vacations or events, and managing all of these photos and videos becomes difficult. Photo Gallery scans your computer looking for photos and videos, organizing them by date, time, geolocation, tagged faces or descriptions, and many other options. Photo Gallery not only organizes all your photos in a single program, but you can edit your photos with some basic effects like straightening, brightness, contrast, and many other effects.
Read the full review here.
Windows Live Movie Maker 2011
Most of us aren’t video editing experts and just need to quickly touch up a video by adding some text, audio and maybe some pictures from a recent vacation, which makes Movie Maker an excellent tool. This version is definitely a big improvement from past versions. A lot of bugs and annoyances have been fixed and removed and now Windows Live Movie Maker just works, and works well for that matter.
Read the full review here.
Windows Live Mail 2011
Windows Live Mail is a great alternative to Outlook, if you aren’t already running Microsoft Office. Mail comes with a load of options, even some features that Outlook 2010 doesn’t have. You can manage, send, receive and even share photo albums and videos from Windows Live Mail to family and friends around the globe. Mail comes with all the basic features you need to manage your daily emails.
Read the full review here.
Windows Live Mesh 2011
If you are looking to keep your files on your home network all in sync, Windows Live Mesh will provide you with an easy tool to do just that job. Mesh can sync up to 10 computers in your home network, including 5GB of SkyDrive storage.
Read the full review here.
Windows Live Family Safety 2011
When you can’t watch what your kids are doing online, Windows Live Family safety can. This easy-to-use tool can keep your kids safe from dangerous and untrusted websites. The online tools allow you to see what your kids are browsing on the Internet, requesting permission to view and what desktop applications are being used.
Read the full review here.
Windows Live Writer 2011
Writer is an excellent tool for bloggers and journalists. An easy way to manage your online blog from your desktop computers. Add images, videos, maps, emoticons all from your desktop with a one-touch publish button. Writer works with just about any blog on the Internet, and even allows you to use pre-made and custom themes.
Read the full review here.
Neowin hopes you enjoyed our coverage of Windows Live Essentials 2011. You can download it from here for free.