Windows Live Essentials 2011 Updated

Windows Live Essentials, a bundle of free client applications for common tasks, such as e-mail, instant messaging (IM), and photo and video editing, are being updated to improve performance and add features such as support of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) transport in Windows Live Mail. A change to the Windows Live ID sign-in page may help avoid user confusion. The changes enhance Windows Live Essentials, which provides useful applications for Windows users and helps bolster Windows PCs against competitors.

Strategic Support for Windows

Windows Live Essentials replaces many applications that formerly were bundled with Windows, without adding to the overall size of the Windows client OS as the bundled applications did. Also, Microsoft can update Essentials as needed without having to wait for a full release of the OS or a service pack. The Essentials applications incorporate online functionality, but they are not restricted to using Microsoft’s Windows Live services—for instance, the Mail client works with Microsoft’s Hotmail service as well as any e-mail account that uses standard Internet mail protocols, and the Photo Gallery client lets users post photos or slide shows to Windows Live SkyDrive as well as Facebook and Flickr (owned by Yahoo).