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Windows 7 Tip of the Week
They Don't Call Them "Essentials" For Nothing

Tip date: February 26, 2010
Tipster: Eric Bosman

Windows 7 is an impressive and refined OS with fun and productive new features. (In fact, I award it a rare 5-out-of-5 stars in my own review.) But there are some important pieces missing. And while we might debate Microsoft's rationale for not including these solutions in Windows, the truth is, they're easy enough to find and install separately. Best of all, they're free.

I'm referring here to two key downloads, Windows Live Essentials and Microsoft Security Essentials. The former is a collection of useful applications that includes the new versions of some utilities that were bundled with previous versions of Windows. The latter is an impressive anti-malware solution that completes the Windows 7 security picture, protecting your PC against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Windows Live Essentials

Windows Live Essentials is a suite of Windows applications that "completes" or "light up" the Windows experience by adding a surprisingly rich set of functionality to the base OS. It consists of a single installer, from which you can pick and choose the individual applications you'd wish to install.

These applications include...

Windows Live Mail. The email, contacts, and calendar solution in Windows Live Essentials, Windows Live Mail is full-featured and supports multiple email accounts, including Windows Live-type accounts (Hotmail, MSN, Live). You do not need to be a Windows Live user to use this application, however. It works just fine with more traditional POP3 and IMAP-based email accounts, and you can mix and match any number of Live- and non-Live-type accounts.

Windows 7 Tip of the Week
Windows Live Mail.

Windows Live Messenger. Windows Live Messenger is Microsoft's instant messaging (IM) solution and one of the most popular IM solutions on earth. But Messenger is about much more than just IM. You can use the application to make Voice over IP (VoIP)-based phone calls and it integrates deeply with Microsoft's many Windows Live services. When you're signed on to Windows Live Messenger, that status and availability is broadcast throughout the network, alerting your contacts about your availability. From this application, you can configure information about your Windows Live Profile as well as view information about your contacts. And a "What's New" feed streams along the bottom of the main application window, giving you an animated overview of what's going on with those in your Windows Live network.

Windows Live Photo Gallery. Windows Live Photo Gallery lets you organize, edit, and share your digital photos. It provides pretty standard management features, simple editing functionality, and integration with Microsoft's Windows Live Photos and Spaces services. (And, via third party add-ons, more popular photo services like Flickr, Google Picasa Web Albums, and others.) Advanced functionality includes people tagging and panoramic photo stitching.

Windows 7 Tip of the Week
Windows Photo Gallery.

Windows Live Sync. If you install Windows Live Photo Gallery as part of Windows Live Essentials, Microsoft will quietly install the Windows Live Sync service as well. This peer-to-peer synchronization service will eventually provide a way to automatically sync photo galleries (as well as documents and other files) between PCs you've configured with your Windows Live ID.

Windows Live Movie Maker. Windows Live Movie Maker is Microsoft's tool for creating and editing digital videos and publish them to the web. You can import a variety of digital media types into the application, including home movies, photos, music and other audio files, and even recorded TV shows. Then, using simple editing techniques along with professional transitions and effects, you can create completed videos that can be shared with others on the web.

Windows 7 Tip of the Week
Windows Live Movie Maker.

Windows Live Writer. Windows Live Writer is a surprisingly rich and deep blog editor. It works with Windows Live Spaces, Microsoft's blogging service, as you might expect, but it also works equally well with virtually every competing blog service on earth as well. It offers excellent photo and video posting functionality as well as integration with a number of related services, like Digg, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter, via add-ons.

Windows Live Toolbar. This is a browser add-on for Internet Explorer 8 (which is part of Windows 7). Unique to this toolbar are several buttons, such as Mail and Photos, that provide pop-up, at-a-glance looks into the related Windows Live services (Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Photos in this case) without requiring you to navigate away from the current web page. That is, when you click one of these buttons, a pop-up window appears on top of the browser window. The Windows Live Toolbar integrates with a wide range of Windows Live services. In addition to the two previously mentioned, it includes gateways to Live Search, the Windows Live portal, Windows Live Profile, Windows Live Calendar, MSN, Virtual Earth, and more.

Windows Live Family Safety. This solution integrates with the parental control features in Windows 7 and adds new functionality around activity reporting, web filtering, and contact management. Windows Live Family Safety consists of two pieces, a Windows application that determines whether the feature is enabled, and a set of web-based services from which you configure its parental controls capabilities.

Office Live Add-in. With the Outlook Live Add-in, you can access your Office Live Workspace web storage from the standard File Open and File Save dialogs in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, treating these web-based locations as if they were local storage. (A web site and service, Office Live Workspace provides two core features, web-based storage and document sharing capabilities, as well as a host of ancillary functions like task and event lists.) You will only see this option if you have a modern Microsoft Office version installed.

Office Outlook Connector. The Office Outlook Connector allows Outlook users to access their Windows Live-based email (Hotmail), contacts, and calendar information from within Microsoft's premium personal information management tool. Because the Outlook Connector provides true two-way synchronization of data between this application and the cloud, it can be used offline as well. It is compatible with both Outlook 2003 and 2007 (and, soon, 2010) and will only be made available by the Windows Live Essentials installer if Outlook is already installed on your PC.

Silverlight. Silverlight is basically a .NET runtime for the web, allowing Microsoft-oriented developers to use their traditional Windows programming skills in the emerging market for hybrid solutions that bridge the gap between Windows and the Internet cloud. To users, Silverlight is essentially a web browser add-on that provides compatibility with Silverlight-based sites.

Looked at broadly, Windows Live Essentials is an essential piece of Windows 7, and one that all users should download and install in order to receive the "full" Windows 7 experience. Indeed, it is one of the very first things I install after installing the base OS. And because Essentials includes many applications that were formerly part of Windows, it makes sense to simply treat it as part of Windows, albeit one that will be updated more frequently than much of the OS.

If you're interested in more information about Windows Live Essentials, please read my Windows Live Essentials feature focus article and my review of Windows Live Movie Maker.

You can download Windows Live Essentials from the Microsoft web site.

Microsoft Security Essentials

Essentially a free and updated version of the anti-malware functionality that previously appeared in the paid Windows Live OneCare product, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is designed to address an important issue facing PC users. While most new PCs do, in fact, come with some sort of security solution, those solutions are typically trial versions that expire after a set period of time, and some users believe they're protected even after the initial subscription period has ended. Some don't even activate the free, bundled solutions at all. Some--especially those in emerging markets--can't or won't pay for security suites, most of which need to be renewed every year.

MSE works side-by-side with Microsoft's other security technologies, including those built into Windows 7 and accessory products like the Malicious Software Removal Tool, but adding the crucial element of real time protection. It is based on the same trusted and well-regarded security engine that is used by Microsoft's Forefront line of products. It is incredibly easy to install and use. And, perhaps best of all, it is almost completely innocuous: Unlike the OneCare product it replaces, MSE is small and light and runs quietly in the background with a nary a chatty pop-up to be found. Finally, Microsoft has gotten client security right.

Windows 7 Tip of the Week
Microsoft Security Essentials.

Best of all, MSE is completely free. As long as you have an activated, known-good (i.e. "Genuine") copy of Windows 7, you're good to go. Microsoft Security Essentials is just part of the package, a perk for Windows users. (It also works with Windows XP and Vista.) And unlike other free solutions, Microsoft doesn't use MSE as a vehicle for up-sell. It just does what it does, and it will never prompt you to purchase a Pro version or whatever. There's no registration, no information collection, no annual worry. You install it and forget it, and it keeps you safe.

Still not convinced? Well, consider this: I use MSE, and only MSE, on all of my PCs, on my wife's PCs, and on my kid's PCs. It's a solution that I trust, and MSE--and its predecessors--have never let me down.

If you're interested in more information about MSE, please read my review of Microsoft Security Essentials.

You can download Microsoft Security Essentials from the Microsoft web site.

--Paul Thurrott
February 26, 2010