Windows Live and the Future

Windows Live represents a huge leap forward for Windows and software integration. Currently, Windows Live Mail is integrated with calendar. Photo Gallery recognizes people from your contacts(with some training). Those same contacts are kept in the online services as well as in Windows Messenger and Windows Live Call. All of the services integrate well with Flickr, and can be extended to add Picasa support. SkyDrive, with a bit more storage, could be the online equivalent of a flash drive. Live Mesh is the new remote assistance service, allowing tech support to be handled largely remotely. The potential for these services integrating closely with Windows 7 is huge. While Windows 7 will not come with these apps, Microsoft could just provide an easy link to install them. While I don’t know much about the new Windows 7 UI(current builds just use the Vista UI), if something like a Windows Live sidebar gadget were to emerge in Windows 7, it would make the Live services amazing. Somehow I don’t think that Apple’s ads will be too successful when Microsoft can counter iLife with Live.

Windows Live Mail

For those who don’t know, this is Windows Mail:

This is Windows Live Mail:

(Photo blurred for privacy reasons)

The new big thing is email preview pane on the far right. Clicking on an email in the middle pane opens a preview in the right pane.

There is now feed reading:

(Those are the default feeds, not ones I chose)

(Photo blurred for privacy reasons)

There is now a calendar:

This calendar syncs with Windows Live Calendar in the cloud, giving windows an online and desktop calendar without an exchange server, finally.

There is also newsgroup support:

In the bottom left corner there is now a set of buttons to switch between the different options:

This can be removed, but I like the option. There is support for multiple email addresses.

Function-wise, the buttons at the top are similar to Windows Mail. The cool thing is that changing modes changes buttons, sort of like a contextual menu:

Windows Live Mail has gained the new color scheme, but unlike photo gallery, it can be customized:

Its a lot easier to setup email accounts now. In addition, you can customize which buttons appear in what context. So for instance:

Also, an update to my previous post on Windows Live Photo gallery, it also has the option to customize the toolbar.