Windows Live Essentials completes consumers' Windows 7 experience

Dubai, UAE: October 19, 2010- Microsoft Corp. today announced the general availability for Windows Live Essentials 2011- a free suite of downloadable software and applications that complete the Windows 7 PC experience. Windows Live Essentials 2011 provides simple solutions to help consumers create amazing things, connect and share with friends, control data across devices and have the best experience on the web with Windows.  Windows Live Essentials includes tools for photo editing and management, making movies, instant messaging, e‑mail, blogging, managing your child's time online, and more.

According to Charbel Fakhoury, Regional General Manager, Microsoft Gulf, "We designed Windows Live Essentials 2011 to help consumers have a richer experience with the things they do most on their PCs. The combination of Windows plus Windows Live--and of course the latest Internet Explorer beta--offers a complete Windows experience and connects Windows with online services that consumers care about."

General availability comes just three months following the release of the Essentials Beta in June. Since then there has been  a significant number of updates, which include:

Facebook Chat Integration within Messenger - Users now have one place to chat with all their friends. Messenger is the always-on "people app" on your PC that gives you instant access and notifications as people come online in Facebook or Messenger.

  • Find Gallery Live Preview: Find capabilities using multiple filters have been enhanced to allow consumers to better organize and find photos. Consumers now have a live preview by hovering on a Find gallery to see the results instantly.

  • Flickr Video integration: Fans of popular photo sharing site flickr now have the ability to upload video content to their flickr accounts allowing users to share their videos in more places in the cloud.

  • A quicker Messenger - The time it takes to sign in, and to refresh contacts and social feeds, as well as animation speed, are all faster than in previous versions of Messenger.

  • More efficient video chat - Messenger video chat uses 30% fewer CPU resources by offloading work to the GPU.

  • Improved facial recognition - Photo Gallery facial recognition is improved significantly and works more quickly.

  • Larger movie uploads - Movie Maker will upload higher resolution movies to SkyDrive (480x640 vs. the previous 320x480).

  • Higher bit-rate movies - Movie Maker now supports higher quality (bit-rate) content.

  • Better spell-checking - Writer has significantly improved the quality of its spell-checking.

  • Better integration with Office - Writer is much better at retaining all formatting when you copy and paste from Word and other Microsoft Office programs.

  • Better handling of Gmail - Mail now automatically handles Gmail's spam and trash folders properly.

  • Faster web filtering - Family Safety web filtering is 35% faster than in the previous version.

"Our number one priority is to provide the best experience possible to our 500 million Windows Live users. We listened to what our customers wanted and used their input when deciding what we should offer in the latest version of Windows Live Essentials 2011," stated Charbel Fakhoury, Regional General Manager, Microsoft Gulf. 

Consumers can download the final version of Windows Live Essentials 2011  by visiting www.explore.live.com to take advantage of the latest suite of software and services, including: Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mail, Windows Live Mesh, Writer and Family Safety.

Learn more about the Windows Live Essentials 2011 at www.explore.live.com   

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About Microsoft Gulf
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ:'MSFT') is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft Gulf opened its Dubai-based headquarters in 1991 and today oversees operations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE. Microsoft Corporation's address on the World Wide Web is: www.microsoft.comand Microsoft's Gulf Web site is www.microsoft.com/gulf

This material is for informational purposes only. Microsoft Corp. disclaims all warranties and conditions with regard to use of the material for other purposes. Microsoft Corp. shall not, at any time, be liable for any special, direct, indirect or consequential damages, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other action arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of the material. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting any kind of warranty.

© Press Release 2010