Windows Live Writer, pretty much our favourite Windows Live application, can be run from a thumb drive, and it can even incorporate all the settings and sites you’ve already set up on your existing Live Writer setup.
Windows Live Messenger (aka MSN Messenger, aka Microsoft’s ad-laden IM client) turns 10 this week, and Microsoft calculates that 4.5 million Australians use it each month. I have a simple question: why?
Microsoft has released a new version of its Outlook Connector software for synching Windows Live email, contacts and calendars with its Outlook desktop mail client (2003 and 2007 versions are both supported). The main changes in this release are fixes to stop meetings getting their times shifted (yikes!), eliminate not handling calendars with more than 250 appointments properly, and not messing up MAPI connections used by other programs.
If you’re a Windows Mobile user and linked into Hotmail or other Windows Live services, Microsoft has released an updated Windows Live app that’s going to make your mobile life a bit more streamlined.
Windows only: Image publishing plugin LiveUpload to Facebook uploads pictures from your Windows Live Photo Gallery albums directly to Facebook through a simple menu option—so you can upload photos without wasting time. Once installed, uploading pictures from Windows Live Photo Gallery is easy—just open up the Publish menu and choose More Services -> LiveUpload to Facebook, which will launch a quick wizard that easily uploads your photos, picks the Facebook album and privacy settings, and can even match your Photo Gallery tags with Facebook tags—an impressive time-saving feature. LiveUpload to Facebook is free and open source, available for Windows only.
LiveUpload to Facebook [via Addictive Tips]Microsoft said that its Windows Live and Office Live services will merge into a single web portal, possibly dubbed Kumo. Whether that simplifies or complicates the already-rangy Live offerings remains to be seen. [via PC World]
Windows only: Windows Live Writer, Microsoft’s multi-platform blogging tool, was one of many Live Essentials apps that recently received a few upgrades, and they’re really helpful for anyone writing on the web. Most helpful in this release candidate, for anyone writing a blog on Live.com, Blogger, WordPress, MovableType, or any other supported platform, is the ability to search through local drafts and published posts for text in any post, letting you get at older posts for editing and unfinished ideas quickly. WordPress.com and self-installed WordPress users get the same kind of auto-completing tags as on their site editors, and new plug-ins for Writer have been released that let you upload and link pictures from Flickr, auto-tweet your posts on Twitter, and do more. New to Live Writer? Head over to blogger Jared Goralnick‘s tips and tweaks for Windows Live Writer. The release candidate of Windows Live Writer 2009 is a free download for Windows systems only.
Windows Live Writer 2009 [via Digital Inspiration]Windows only: Despite what its name would imply, free application KLS Mail Backup backs up popular Windows web browsers and address book apps in addition to email applications—including Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird, and Seamonkey; Windows Live Mail, Contacts, and Messenger; along with Windows Mail, Windows Contacts, and Internet Explorer. Backups are automatically zipped, can be stored locally or on a networked hard drive, and are kept under version control. Apart from the backing up, the application also restores any of your archived backups. According to the Download Squad post, it can also run off a portable device, so you can make and restore backups from your thumb drive. In short, if you’re looking for a solid backup solution for your browser, email, or contacts app, KLS might be up your alley. KLS Mail Backup is free for personal use, Windows only. KLS Mail Backup [via Download Squad]
