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The final version of Windows Live Essentials 2011 is now available to download. The all-in-one bundle of mail client, instant messenger, movie editor, blog editor, and more, runs on Windows Vista and Windows 7—Windows XP users need not apply.

We've already had a detailed look at Messenger and Live Mesh (which at the time was called Live Sync). The positives are much the same now as they were then; Messenger's social integration works well, its Facebook chat is useful, and its tabbed chats extremely welcome, if overdue.

Unfortunately, criticisms leveled at those products in the beta are just as valid in the final version.

Messenger has lost widely-used features like one-way webcam chats, the ability to hide that you have a webcam installed (especially popular among teenagers and children, who might want to use their camera but don't want to advertise that they have one), and the ability to have nicknames. Microsoft claims that the webcam features were ditched as part of the development of HD video calling. I don't doubt that HD video calling works, but I don't have the hardware to use it; nor does anyone on my contact list (though Microsoft's HD webcam does look appealing). As such, it seems a bitter pill to swallow. The distaste is exacerbated by the fact that the new video calling appears to place considerably greater demands on my processor than the old webcam feature, enough to cause noticeable slow-downs.

The loss of nicknames is a result of the social integration. Facebook and LinkedIn, in particular, use real names; the abandonment of nicknames and use of real names within Messenger is a reflection of this. It's a move that has been unpopular with many long-time Messenger users; the ability to create "screen names" is a long-standing feature of instant messaging, and its removal, especially for those not interested in social networking features, is felt to be something of a privacy violation.

The system can be subverted easily enough, of course; there's nothing to compel the use of an accurate and honest first name/last name pair.

Live Mesh is still a confused and confusing mix of peer-to-peer sync, cloud sync, and remote desktop access. Though the cloud storage, now 5GB, is branded "SkyDrive," it still doesn't integrate with the "real" 25GB SkyDrive service. Since that SkyDrive underpins new features like large Hotmail photo galleries and photo integration with Windows Live Photo Gallery, this is disappointing. Perhaps we must wait for Essentials 2012.

Windows Live Photo Gallery has a range of desirable new features. Face recognition and geotagging are both welcome additions (although the geotagging is broken). Also useful is a tool named "Photo Fuse," that can take the best parts of several pictures to construct a composite—to allow creation of group photos where everyone has their eyes open, say. With the 30,000 photos I have in my collection, it is a little sluggish, however, which detracts somewhat from the experience.

Photo Fuse is ideal for those annoying group photos

I was also disappointed to see that the Bing Bar remains an apparently mandatory part of the Windows Live Essentials install process. The Bing Bar may be useful. Honestly, I don't know. Because what I do know is this: it doesn't look right (it doesn't fit in with the styling of Internet Explorer 8, and looks even more out of the place in the Internet Explorer 9 beta), and it makes my browser awfully slow. So slow, in fact, that Internet Explorer 9 warns me about it:

Dear right hand, please meet left hand

Internet Explorer 9 may be in beta, but it offers the diagnostic tools; why couldn't whoever wrote the Bing Bar use them and discover that there is a problem with its performance?

Update: Ah, it turns out that the Bing Bar isn't mandatory after all, it just doesn't get uninstalled with the rest of the suite. When I removed the beta to install the final version, it didn't remove the Bing Bar. If the installer finds the Bing Bar is already installed, it gives no choice but to upgrade it. If, however, it's not installed at all, it is optional as it should be.

The aim of the Windows Live Essentials is to provide value to Windows in a manner that's both decoupled from the operating systems' release schedule, and unlikely to receive antitrust attention. They certainly do that. Not everyone will use every tool (I've never used Movie Maker or Family Safety, for example), but it will be a rare person indeed for whom the suite offers nothing of value. Though some decisions are maddening, the 2011 version is certainly an upgrade on last year's offering.

One of Microsoft's ambitions with the Windows Live Essentials was for OEMs to preinstall them. This is, in a sense, the perfect outcome for Redmond: such a move leaves them bundled, as if they were built-in, while still sidestepping legal issues. Dell has been bundling versions of the software since 2009, and has duly announced that the 2011 iteration will ship on new systems from later this year. Though I'd blow away most bundled software that OEMs preinstall, the Windows Live Essentials are well worth keeping.

By Peter Bright

http://www.arstechnica.com