Did you know that a new version of Windows Live Essentials is on the way? Well it is, and the beta is already available for free download.

Live Essentials contains a load of programs, including Mail, Movie Maker, Family Safety and more. I don’t use these however 😉 and so I’m sorry! I will be reviewing Messenger, Outlook Connector, Sync and SkyDrive.

There’s lots to discuss here – the new version of Messenger for example is substantially different to your old version, but as you will see, it’s a lot better.

On with the review then, and let’s leave Messenger to the end. We’ll start with Outlook Connector, which is pretty simple. Have you noticed how these days all your social networks talk to each other, authorizing each other to see this and that data? Well Outlook Connector is a plugin for, strangely, Outlook. It allows you to add Facebook, Live Messenger, Linked In, and MySpace to your Outlook, and it will link up all your contacts or get you to do it.
What does this give you? Outlook gets a brand new ‘People Pane’ where you can see recent emails and social network info from your contacts. Simple but nice. I tend to be a little OCD so I like everything to be tidily linked.

Now onto Sync. For me, this is a dream. It’s a little app that runs on startup, and it allows you to associate each PC you use with your Live account. Live keeps track of any PC running Sync and can keep folders and program settings synced between the two. It’s remarkably fast, detecting changes instantly and updating the other PCs. It also stored these files optionally on the special 2GB ‘Synced Storage’ SkyDrive; this is not part of the 25GB I will discuss in a minute, it’s extra!
Sync also has one unobvious function. It has a brilliant remote control function, allowing you to finally, seamlessly control one PC from another in a secure way using your Live account. Once the particular PC is enabled for remote access Sync its done!

Finally Live Messenger. Well hold on guys. It’s now much bigger looking and more useful in this modern age. Facebook integration. Yes, Messenger now incorporates a social feed, taking your social feeds from Live and Facebook and combining them into a nice interface. Additionally, the chat now allows you to chat on Facebook Chat too. Useful.
The chat window has had an overhaul too. New drawings for emoticons, and the ability to share files stored on your SkyDrive such as photos are here.
Oh, and ‘block’ is now just called ‘appear invisible to’ lol

The title mentioned 25GB. So time for SkyDrive. You probably have heard of online cloud storage before. Meh, right? Well, reconsider. Hard drives in your PC don’t last forever. Any freak error, flood, fire, theft, crash and your precious memories, gone. And with Microsoft now giving every user 25GB of free storage, you have no excuse. It even links with their new Photo Album app.
I recommend using something like SDExplorer, which allows you to mount your storage as a drive on your PC, giving you traditional explorer functions. Be warned however that this app has horrendously slow transfer speeds.

Well, in summary:

Pros:

• Finally a modern set of Windows apps
• Facebook integration is nice in Outlook and Messenger
• Sync tool is the best of the lot – sync all my uni and PC stuff, and also allow remote control
• SkyDrive storage now has all my photos backed up and safe
• Beta seems bug-free to me

Cons:

• Messenger is much less minimalist (at least by default) and some may not like this change
• Lacking in other social network integration in Outlook and Messenger (e.g. Twitter)

I am actually pretty impressed, visually it all fits nice with Windows 7  and the apps themselves (at least the ones I reviewed) are great.

N.B. – I can’t vouch for the other parts of the Essentials Pack!!!

Peace, out!

Matt