Usually I’m not akin to using beta software but Microsoft has a whole bunch of "Live" branded stuff at ideas.live.com so I figured I’d check it out.

I first tested some of the software on my laptop which happens to be a 1.5GHz Celeron M with 1GB of RAM. Way too slow; I had to revert back to the current-gen Live products because the slowness was agonizing.

On my big box (1.8GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM) the Live beta software runs a whole lot better, and in fact I’m using Windows Live Writer beta to publish this article.

Here’s my quickie reviews of Writer, Mail and Messenger beta.

Before I get into the reviews, I noticed something during the install.

Microsoft, there is NO EXCUSE FOR THIS. None. Shame, shame.

Anyway..

Windows Live Writer Beta

Verdict: Good.

This is better than the current version. No question. The image editing capability that’s in the Technical Preview version (such as "Crop", "Tilt" and so on) is in this. Very cool.

In addition the interface is a whole lot cleaner.

Windows Live Mail Beta

Verdict: Bad.

Those nice little icons at the top indicating what did what are completely gone. It’s nothing but "text buttons" now. Looks like Netscape 1.0. BAD. Usability goes down a huge notch just from that alone.

Switching back to "Default color" does not work.

The calendar is nice and all that, but the software gets "confused" when you try to switch back and forth between mail and the calendar.

Buggy. Not good.

Windows Live Messenger

Verdict: Good.

Notable improvements can be seen immediately. The new mail indicator is much more visible (very nice), the "What’s New" at the bottom allows you to scroll thru your Contacts updates (very cool), the overall look is far cleaner and doesn’t look "toy" like as the current version does.

This is probably the best product of all the betas. If you use Windows Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger), yes you will like this. A lot.

Will I continue to use these?

Not in the beta versions, no. I will wait until the full versions are released.

To note: When you uninstall the betas, it does not revert back to the previous versions of the software. You have to go back to get.live.com and re-download them.

And no, your mail will not disappear. When you reinstall the previous version of mail, your mail store will still be there (mine was).

Just when I thought I knew everything about Live from Microsoft, here comes another: www.WindowsLive.com. Is this the same at www.live.com? NO. It’s different. And I don’t mean different in a better or worse way. Just different.

First I’ll say that this is one of the few (if not only) web sites Microsoft has done that’s actually easy to figure out. You can consider this a "site map" of sorts for actual Live products including Hotmail, Mail (i.e. Windows Live Mail), SkyDrive and so on.

If you were confused - as everyone was/is - as to what Live is all about, this site at least puts things into better perspective and gives a general direction of where Microsoft is headed internet-wise.

Microsoft, believe it or not, "does internet" better than most and they’ve got the experience to back it up. For example, Hotmail predates Yahoo Mail. In fact it’s a challenge to find any e-mail service that’s still under the same ownership that’s been in operation on the internet for 12+ years.

Live’s competition is not Apple (especially considering they’ve been stumbling in the internet department). Rather, the competition is other internet companies.

Microsoft still has a way to go with Live. Although they’ve got some good stuff going on, there’s still a bit of clutter left to clean up. They can start with the naming conventions. Is it Hotmail? Windows Hotmail? Windows Live Hotmail? Live Hotmail? Live Mail? No one knows.

But at least WindowsLive.com helps you to figure that out.

aMSN is a free alternative to Windows Live Messenger. The immediate advantage of using aMSN is that it is not as memory-hungry as the client delivered by Microsoft.

In addition, as far as an alternative messenger app is concerned, this one more closely resembles traditional-looking clients rather than something totally new that takes you a few days to learn everything. aMSN is laid out in such a way where just about everything is familiar to those who have used the regular WLive client. (Even the system tray icon is familiar-looking.)

Lastly, aMSN is not just for Windows. It also runs on OS X and Linux. So if you use multiple operating systems, aMSN will look the same no matter what you run. Try it out - you may like it.

Oh, and by the way, if you were looking for a simple Hotmail notifier (something that tells you when mail comes in), even if you don’t use the chat features aMSN sits neatly in the tray and puts a small envelope icon there when you receive new mail. You can click on the envelope and get your mail afterwards. Nice touch.

Note: This is a seriously techy article - but very useful to those that need this type of information.

Question: What is a federated identity?

Answer: Wikipedia describes it as “the process of a user’s authentication across multiple IT systems or even organizations.”

The layman’s answer: It’s the thing that allows you to use your domain e-mail login with a chat service (Google Talk or Windows Live Messenger depending on what service you have.)

If you use Google Apps or Windows Live Domains, you’ve probably gotten everything to work except the fact you can’t chat - but you really want to.

The problem is that your host provider doesn’t allow it.

Why is this?

It’s a technical limitation due to the fact the host provider doesn’t allow customers to manually edit SRV records.

Control panel software (like H-Sphere) hasn’t progressed to the point where SRV record editing is the norm. More often than not you’ll see it as a “feature request” in the forums for that particular software.

Is there anything you can do NOW to get chat with Google Talk or Windows Live Messenger working?

Absolutely. Use an alternate DNS provider that does have SRV record editing ability.

In my recent switch to Windows Live Domains I really wanted to get the chat working with the messenger software. After scouring ’round the internet, I found that by using an alternate DNS provide you can do the following:

1. Keep your existing web host provider. No need to switch.
2. Get more control over everything. “A” records, “CNAME”, “SRV”, “MX”, “AAAA” and more. You’ll get control over stuff you probably didn’t have prior with your DNS.
3. Do the above for free.

The DNS provider I use is EditDNS.

If you use Google Apps, you’re in luck because these guys have some auto-configure options that will completely set up everything for Google Apps automatically. The MX servers, CNAME and of course the all-important SRV for Google Talk ability.

If you use Windows Live Domains there is no automatic option, however it’s relatively easy to do.

This is what EditDNS looks like in the admin interface:

(Note: I’m using my personal domain as an example.)

As you can see, all the bases are covered. The As, CNAMEs, MX, NS (name servers), the TXT for SPF and the SRV.

Once finished, you login to your registrar, switch over the DNS servers and 12 to 48 hours later, ta-da.. you’re off to the races.

Yes, I’ve done this myself. It does work and works well.

Special note for Google Apps users: Google uses A TON of servers. To use their e-mail service for your domain requires 7 MX entries. I’m not kidding. It is highly recommended you read this forum thread to get up to speed before taking the plunge.

I was a hardcore Pidgin user for all my instant messaging stuff but I recently discovered Digsby. I liked it so much that I switched! See video below on why I like it so much.