Windows Live Bundle, Search Launch

A new offering called Windows Live Essentials, currently in beta, will provide a central location for downloading and managing multiple Windows Live clients and services and could help Microsoft counter bundling deals between OEMs and other online service providers, particularly Google. Separately, Microsoft’s Internet search site shed its beta designation and got a name change but remains fundamentally unchanged.

Windows Live Essentials

Windows Live Essentials, which started a public beta test in Sept. 2006, is a Web site that lets users download Windows Live software. The download process is consolidated: users check boxes for the clients they want, and all are downloaded and installed one by one.

As of the beta launch, the only clients available are Windows Live Mail Desktop (an e-mail client that consolidates multiple Web-based and POP3 accounts) and Windows Live Messenger (an IM, voice, and video chat client for consumers). Checkboxes also appear for Windows Live Mail (Web-based e-mail) and Spaces (blogging and social networking); if users check these boxes, they are taken to home pages where they can set up a mail account or Spaces blog, respectively.