Windows Live Essentials Beta was released recently at the time of this writing, which you can download right now if you like if you meet the minimum requirements.
This article is not so much a tutorial as it is general advice, because this is the first edition of Live products by Microsoft that requires Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7 to actually work. In other words, the new Live products will not work in Windows XP. If you attempt to install the new Live products in XP, you will receive the notice of, "This is not a valid Win32 application".
This obviously raises a few questions about the future of Live products with XP.
When Windows Live Essentials Beta is released out of beta, will there be an XP version?
It’s very unlikely that will happen. Microsoft has said "No XP" quite loudly by requiring Vista or 7 even in the beta version of the new Live product suite.
Will the existing Windows Live products that do work in XP suddenly cease to function when the new Live products are released?
No. Live products that work on XP will continue to work for several years. My initial guess is that the first one that will stop working first will be Windows Live Messenger. Microsoft will change something in the chat client protocol and require a newer version of the Live Messenger client in order to connect to the service.
For example, years ago when the transition from Windows 98 to Windows XP was taking place, Microsoft as well as AIM and Yahoo! released chat clients for their respective services that did work in Windows 98, but eventually stopped supporting that version of Windows, only concentrated on XP and then changed the client so the older versions wouldn’t work any longer. This scenario will probably be exactly the same for Live Messenger in XP.
Don’t fret, however, because it will be years before the XP version of Live Messenger ceases to function with the Windows Live/MSN chat service. Were I to hazard a guess, I’d estimate the XP version of Live Messenger will either stop working or be "degraded" to limited connection functionality by 2014. Why 2014? Because that’s when extended support for XP officially ends.
The only other Live product under XP that may somewhat cease to work is Windows Live Mail – but only for a connected Hotmail account because that uses a proprietary protocol by Microsoft that may change in the future. Any other POP or IMAP account will continue to work in Windows Live Mail as long as you own the computer, because POP and IMAP are not proprietary. This is incidentally why people can still use ancient email clients such as Outlook Express 6. When the mail protocol isn’t proprietary, you can use any email client you want – even if it’s ancient.
More will be coming soon on Windows Live Essentials Beta
I just downloaded it recently and am still learning the ins and outs of how it works. Tutorials will be posted here soon, particularly concentrating on the Windows Live Mail client.
The mail client, by the way, is improved greatly. You’ll like what’s in it. Stay tuned.
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