The good news is that it was not you who caused this error. Several server-side factors have caused it to appear — the good news is that you can now just retry to launch Windows Live Mesh, and it will load successfully, as the server-side configuration of Live Mesh has been changed to avoid the error occurring.

You get a different error when trying to connect to Windows Live Mesh? Please let me know — add a comment below!

Get the update at go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=125631.
Wondering about Windows Live Sync for Mac OS X Snow Leopard? An update is in preparation.

You can connect multiple computers to a personal folder, but each one must have a unique computer name. Only you can synchronize files in your personal synchronized folder.

You can connect to someone else’s shared folder, if the owner gave you permission. Just sign in using your Windows Live ID.

1. If Sync isn’t already running, on the Start menu, click Programs or All Programs, click Windows Live, click Windows Live Sync, and then sign in using your Windows Live ID.
2. In the notification area on the taskbar, click the Sync icon .
3. Click Sync website.
4. Under Personal folders or under Shared folders, click the name of the folder that you want to connect with the computer you’re using.
5. Click Add a computer.
6. In the list of available computers, click the name of the computer.
7. Select the folder on the computer where you want Sync to synchronize the files, and then click Sync folder here.– or –To create a new folder, select a location, click Create new folder, type a name for the folder, and then click Create and sync.
8. Choose the synchronization setting that you want, and then click Finish.

Notes

• Your computer must be online for files to synchronize. You can’t view files or the contents of a folder on the Sync website.
• If you created a folder for synchronizing, and you delete a file with a .p2p extension from the folder, the placeholder, as well as the actual file, is deleted from every computer that shares the folder.
• Synchronizing Microsoft Office Outlook .pst files between computers is not recommended because these files constantly change. This can result in frequent sync errors and files that aren’t updated.
• Keep in mind that Sync can’t merge data between database files. If you use a Microsoft Access, SQL, or ACT! database, you can synchronize database files to another computer so that they can be edited and viewed on multiple computers, but a database itself can’t be opened or modified on two computers at the same time.

Source: http://windowsliveblog.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!720E46AE746458F7!5810.entry

mynetx: Please tell me a bit about yourself. Is your life directly or indirectly involved with Windows Live?

Lance: I go by the name of Salem. I’m 22 right now, originally from South Africa (the country, not Southern Africa); however I am currently residing in the Cambridgeshire in the UK. My life doesn’t directly involve Windows Live actually—in fact, I consider myself rather new to the whole MSN/Windows Live community.

mynetx: New? Since when are you in the Live business? Tell me a bit about your history with it…

Lance: Okay, maybe not “New”; I just see myself as new to the whole community when I compare how long some people have been involved. I first started using MSN software in 2003 when I first moved to the UK from South Africa. As can be expected, the first MSN software application I used was MSN Messenger, that’s when I first became a regular user at least. I tried a couple of times before that back in South Africa to chat to my relatives in the UK, but due to terrible internet access (high cost and unreliable) I was only ever able to sign-in twice. (OK, maybe it wasn’t a South Africa-wide internet issue, maybe just our budget ISP. [laughes])

But yeah, I really got into it in 2003. Don’t ask me what version I used, I can’t remember if it was MSN Messenger 6.2 or 6.5, but somewhere around there. I applied to take part in MSN Messenger Beta testing (thinking I’d never get in) back in, I think, 2004. To my surprise, I got in…

mynetx: Do you think the Windows Live team cares for their users’ demands? Why?

Lance: I think people (Messenger users) can be very demanding. Well, Windows Live users can, too; but I’m saying Messenger users as it is by far the most used Windows Live product. Users can be very demanding: wanting things, and expecting to get a feature, just because they ask for it. Yet again, it can be kind of frustrating when specific suggestions/demands get made over and over and over again, and they are just dismissed by the developers.

I think it is easy for the casual users to demand things and not fully understanding the behind-the-scenes work that needs to be done to satisfy that demand.

mynetx: What might be the motivation behind dismissing user’s suggestions, especially when they are made really frequently (example: tabs)?

Lance: Haha, yes, tabs was one of the suggestions I was thinking about. I honestly don’t know, but I think the most likely reason would be, as I mentioned before, the scale of the work involved in getting it to work. However, considering that even a third-party developer (like Patchou) can get it working well enough in an add-on, surely Microsoft can get it working in their own software.

mynetx: Well, the Messenger Plus! creator, Patchou, is just one person and is able to implement it…

Lance: Yes, it is certainly possible. I think of the most frequent suggestions, tabs would be one of the easiest to reliably implement (compared to something like polygamy, the ability to sign-in to multiple accounts from one client).

mynetx: Use your fantasy: how do you think Messenger will look like within the next five years? What new features could it present?

Lance: Wow, really difficult question! I would like to see Silverlight/WPF used more. I mean it is Microsoft’s own technology, yet they are not using it.

mynetx: Like in the Twitter desktop client “blu”, you mean?

Lance: I have not heard of blu myself, will need to look it up!

mynetx:

Lance: I just mean, Messenger needs a total visual overhaul. I like the different look they introduced in the first beta of the renamed Messenger (from MSN to Windows Live), the orange one. I think many people complained at first about it because it was so “different” (people don’t like changes) so Microsoft reverted back to a GUI similar to previous versions.

View Full Album

mynetx: Wasn’t Wave 3 (2009) visually overhauled enough?

Lance: Apart from the new colors etc., there is not that much difference in Windows Live Messenger from MSN Messenger 6.x. Maybe I’m wanting to much but: think of the visual overhaul from Windows 9x to Windows XP, XP to Vista, and Vista to Windows 7—big changes, not these minor “tweaks” we are getting.

mynetx: I see… Apart from the user interface, what new features could Messenger present in five years?

Lance: Well… I don’t know what it could have, but I do know some things I’d like to see. Among the top items on my wish list are (in no particular order):

1. Official Polygamy Support — The ability to sign-in to multiple Messenger accounts from one Windows Live Messenger client, and have separate statuses/personal status messages/display names/display pictures for each account.
2. Tabs (although this can be done in add-ons like Messenger Plus! Live, so not that important to me).
3. Multi-party audio (or even better, video) chats.
4. The ability to export your whole WLM Contact List including the structure (groups, categories, favorites etc.). It’s a real pain when you try and migrate to a new account, as you can now only export and import the contacts, you then have to manually re-sort them in the new account.

mynetx: True, I have recently experienced the need for that, when I changed my Live ID.

Lance: It has taken me 2 years to migrate to a new account for this very reason. I just cant resort/rearrange them all; it’s a pain.

Oh, and “Bring back the MSN video carousel in the UK”, lol.

mynetx: I have always wondered that the “Video Carousel” was in 8.5? *-)

Lance: We had it in the UK when it was introduced in Windows Live Messenger, but it did not last long. It is gone now…

In fact I don’t even know if it made it past WLM 8’s beta.

mynetx: Any bugs that need fixing?

Lance: Yes, here is a “bug” I want fixed: Try adding a Yahoo! contact to your contact list (a localized one, not Yahoo.com) as a buddy. Messenger changes it to Yahoo.com even though you enter the localized one (in my case, Yahoo.co.uk). Thus, you cant add Yahoo! Messenger users who have a localized Yahoo address to your contact list. I have requested this a number of times, still not fixed.

Suggestion No. 2: Get rid of the bloody roll-over flash ads in the contact list! (That’s not a “feature” though.)

mynetx: Interoperability with other IM networks is a great field to improve, in my opinion. Yahoo looks like “hacked” into Messenger, instead of implemented correctly…

Lance: Yes, they need to add support for other Chat / instant messaging clients / protocols: Facebook Chat (as they have a stake in Facebook), definitely Jabber support please. Jabber is an open protocol, so an agreement should not be needed. I could then dump Google Talk for chatting to my MXit contacts.

mynetx: A propos Yahoo, what is your opinion on the final deal to use the Bing engine on Yahoo! websites, after all those never-ending ramblings about a cooperation, search deal, whatsoever?

Lance: Well, Microsoft needs to do something especially in search/online advertising, as Google is way ahead in market share.

mynetx: How does Bing relate?

Lance: I have tried Bing a few times. It is definitely much better than MSN Search/Windows Live Search/Live Search (whatever the last time was, lol). It also seems to be improving Microsoft’s market share. Though, I am wondering if this is because people like it, or if people are just “trying it out” as it is new—only time will tell.

mynetx: Mentioning the word “Butterfly”, what comes into your mind?

Lance: A colorful insect that flies!

mynetx: And adding “Windows Live…”?

Lance: Ahh, lol, I knew what you meant.

mynetx: What comes into your mind? What was so special about this group of exclusive people?

Lance: The Windows Live Butterfly program/group goes way back to the MSN days (hence the groups name being “Butterfly”). It was a group of beta testers who have “excelled” in Beta testing Windows Live products. Participants of the group were chosen by Microsoft and in some cases by those who were already butterflies from testers of Windows Live (and previously MSN) products/services. The group had a private discussion “area” on the Microsoft newsgroups. That’s just one of the benefits of being a member of the group. You can think of it as something similar to the MVP program, although only for MSN/Windows Live products, and lower down the hierarchy.

mynetx: Did you like being a butterfly?

Lance: I certainly did enjoy most of my time being a butterfly. It was a really good experience, not only testing, but also socializing and getting to know those with similar interests as yourself. As with any “cyber-community”, the group had its ups and downs but generally it was a good experience. It’s a shame to see the community go!

I think also what made the community so good was the way main person who managed it as he really helped things out.

mynetx: Let’s bring out a toast on Eric Chen!

Lance: Haha indeed.

mynetx: Please provide two positive and negative comments about any outstanding Windows Live product.

Lance: Hm… I choose Windows Live Mail.

Positives: Contact list/Address book synchronized with Live Messenger—that is my main reason for choosing it over other applications.

Negative: Slow (!), especially in IMAP mail downloading; furthermore it can only synchronize/use Contact list of one Windows Live ID even if you add a different Windows Live ID as account to Live Mail.

— Look how easy it was to think of negatives, and how hard it was to think of positives: it makes Live Mail not look good at all…

mynetx: OK, thanks for these.

Let’s talk a bit about your personal customs. Do you run Windows Live Messenger 24/7? Do you have some kind of a routine with Messenger and the other parts of Windows Live?

Lance: Yes, Windows Live Messenger is on 24/7—as long a PC is on it is running and signed in. Routine? Not really. I usually check if any people I chat to often are online (Messenger Plus! Live Desktop Contacts), see if I want to talk to them. I may then open Live Mail, but as it doesn’t auto-run on startup/login nor auto-run in system tray, I have to do this manually, so I often forget. However, as these are the Windows Live applications I use most, that is usually the order I would do things.

mynetx: Comparing your ideas we talked about before (like UI enhancements, tabs, multiple accounts per endpoint, more IM networks, etc), with Messenger’s current features, which of these might be added in the next release, Wave 4?

Lance: I think more IM network interoperability may be the most likely, especially as we heard rumblings about it for this version (although unconfirmed). Like I said also, Jabber could come as it is an open standard and wouldn’t need any agreements (as with other IMs like AIM).

I’d say UI change is next—but not likely. (Again, by UI change I mean a big change, not minor tweaks/changes.) Tabs would be next, and polygamy last, as I foresee this to be more work.

mynetx: Are you satisfied with the Windows Live services that are provided to you? Why?

Lance: Mostly yes. They just satisfy my communications needs, whether it be IM, social networking or e-mail. They are things I think that can be worked on (as mentioned earlier); but yes, overall I am satisfied.

mynetx: Will Windows Live be able to fill the position as overall Windows (and Office) add-on, especially when looking at Windows 7?

Lance: I think so, it is a good suite of applications for the average computer user. I think it would be better to be just integrated with Windows, but the European Union will not be happy.

mynetx: Windows Live and Office Live, along with cloud power in behind—is this the solution? Better than legacy software?

Lance: That depends on the market, in my opinion. In markets where a decent (that is, broadband) Internet connection is easily available/accessible, it is good; but otherwise it isn’t, no. I think people in Europe/the US forget about computer users in places without broadband Internet connections, not to mention those with no Internet at all.

mynetx: So, is the gap between industry lands (high-tech nations) and economically less strong areas increasing?

Lance: I don’t know whether it is increasing, but I don’t think it’s getting smaller. Take my home country for example, South Africa. Broadband Internet (ADSL) access has only become available to the general public (that is, not business) in the last 3-4 years. Here though (in the UK), it was already very common. Now, in South Africa citizens can get a broadband connection, but at a price: for example, they pay the ISP and phone line (as we do), but they also pay a charge for the phone line to be used for broadband/ADSL. So it costs at least three times as much there, plus they still have ridiculous caps/quotas making only basic net usage possible; whereas here, we are using it for much more. Just imagine cloud computing in places like that…

mynetx: To summarize: using cloud web applications is problematic for regions where no broadband web access is available.

Lance: Exactly! I’m all for it, but I wouldn’t want everything to go “to the cloud” soon as it will leave such nations behind.

mynetx: What is your favorite feature in Messenger?

Lance: Video chat is got to be.

mynetx: Why?

Lance: Being someone that lives in a different country than family and friends he grew up with, it’s good to be able to see and hear them.

mynetx: What was your first impression of Live Mesh? Could it be a new diverse method of file sharing among peers, or could it improve the current system at hand?

Lance: I loved it as soon as I tried it, and I am using it all the time now. It is what Windows Live Messenger Sharing Folders should have been. Well, apparently Mesh is intended to be more than just a file sharing service. I’m yet to see the others though, but it makes file sharing/synchronization available to the masses, for free.

mynetx: We can expect some Mesh love in Windows Live Wave 4, as it will play an important role in the upcoming “Windows Live Devices” service. How could it be connected tighter with the other services? What might we see?

Lance: No idea actually; though, I am excited and looking forward to see what they have planned.

mynetx: Me too. I will tell you as soon as I know more details…

Lance: It looks like Wave 4 will be a better release than Wave 3 (I honestly wasn’t happy with Wave 3 at all.)

mynetx: What was wrong or missing in Wave 3, the 2008-2009 release of Windows Live?

Lance: The beta ran extremely long to me—too long for what we saw as changes. Sure, Movie Maker joined Windows Live; but apart from that and minor visual changes, there wasn’t much. I don’t know, maybe I just expected too much.

mynetx: Do you wish Messenger would have a feature that a third-party IM software already has?

Lance: Well, I don’t use any other IM apps (apart from Google Talk, which is crap considering its features; the only reason I use it is for communicating with MXit people), so I don’t really know what other IM applications offer.

mynetx: Ahh, so you are a loyal Windows Live user?

Lance: (laughes) Not loyal; there is just no real need to use anything else. Most of my contacts are on WLM or Skype, but Skype doesn’t offer anything different that I want in Messenger.

mynetx: As Messenger user, I’m sure you’ve got a good tip that not everybody might know about yet—any tweak, counsel, suggestion, whatever comes into your mind.

Lance: One good tip is allowing two WLM instances to run at the same time. It is a registry setting that needs modifying; the only thing is it won’t auto sign-in to a second account (Live ID). [Read more about this tip soon.]

mynetx: How would you summarize your overall experience with Windows Live in a brief sentence?

Lance: Windows Live services help me keep in touch and share my views/stories.

mynetx: Lance, I found it very interesting to talk with you about all of this!

Lance: I enjoyed it too; thanks for thinking of me as some to interview and for taking the time to do so.

Thanks to thirteen23 labs, Alto Voltaje Design, Bram Vandeperre, Messenger Stuff, BuddyFuse and LiveSino for the images.

When you delete or block a contact person, Messenger will try to synchronize your local contact list with the server, and this connection cannot be established properly on some organizational environments.

• Solution 1: Add Messenger servers to exception list
  1. Click Start, Control Panel, Internet options.
  2. Switch to the Zones tab.
  3. Mark the entry Trusted sites, and click the Sites… button.
  4. Add the following entry to the list of trusted sites:
     https://*.contacts.msn.com
  5. Click OK, and switch to the Connections tab.
  6. Click the LAN settings button. If the Advanced button is active, click it and add *.contacts.msn.com to the Exceptions list.
  7. Click OK to close the dialogs.
  8. Retry to sign in to Messenger.

• Solution 2: Choose a different place where to synchronize your contact list
  1. Take your notebook home and connect to your private Internet.
  2. Sign in to Windows Live Messenger.
  3. It will synchronize the contact lists.
  4. Now, Messenger will also sign in at your corporate intranet, as long as you do not change your contact people.
• Solution 3: Switch back to Messenger 2008
  • The last resort is to uninstall Messenger 2009 and start using Messenger 2008 (8.5) again.
    Update 15 September 2009: Since Messenger 2008 does not work anymore, you will have to contact the Messenger support (see below).

If you have a different strategy how to fix this error, please comment on this post. You might also want to contact the Windows Live support at http://support.live.com/.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Live_Messenger

mynetx: Nice to see you! Windows Live and You—that includes some personal questions as well. You could start with describing yourself and your connection with Windows Live, in one sentence.

Jonathan Kay: I am Jonathan Kay and currently a Microsoft MVP for Windows Live Messenger (aka MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger), assisting in Microsoft Messenger related newsgroups since 2001. I also run my own Messenger blog.—Gah, two sentences!

mynetx: An MVP?

Jonathan Kay: [Microsoft] Most Valuable Professional. It’s a yearly award given to people who’ve been identified by Microsoft as making a significant contribution to their community.

mynetx: Ah. So they consider you making significant contributions to the Windows community?

Jonathan Kay: Well, Windows Live community. Prior to their being a “Windows Live” MVP category, it was all bunched in with Windows, but right now it’s separate.

mynetx: Helping other, inexperienced users to get their, for example, Messenger working is interesting work, isn’t it.

Jonathan Kay: It is, not to mention quite satisfying. You also gain a lot of knowledge and experience in other related areas by doing it.

mynetx: Since when are you in the Live business? Tell me a bit about your history.

Jonathan Kay: Well, when I got my first modem 1992-ish, text-based real-time communication attracted me pretty quickly. I spent many hours dialed up to local bulletin board systems just chatting to people in my own city. This fascination carried over to Internet Relay Chat (IRC) when I got Internet access a few years later and then gave way to what we would consider modern instant messaging with ICQ in 1996. In that time span, I met some really extraordinary people which led my interests to obtaining my first MVP award in 98 for Internet Explorer. As IM has evolved, so have I, which brought me to being given the MVP award as a top contributor in the Messenger community in 2001. This has carried on since, all the way to Windows Live Messenger and I’ve continued to meet some exceptionally brilliant people.

mynetx: Like?

Jonathan Kay: I won’t name names because it’s far too easy to forget one and the whole community is just filled with them. Yourself included naturally…

mynetx:

What is your favourite feature in Messenger?

Jonathan Kay: If you mean favourite feature of all time, that would be really difficult to answer since there’s a lot to choose from. Earlier this year, In the brief webcast that was done at the MVP Summit, I mentioned What’s New as my favourite new feature, which is still true, but I had forgotten that MPOP (Multiple Points of Presence) was also an option so I think I’ll go with that here. MPOP is a really well implemented feature and being able to seamlessly move from one client/device/location to another is just excellent. It will be even better once more software/devices support it.

mynetx: What devices are you using MPOP from?

Jonathan Kay: Myself personally, just my desktop, server or laptop. Conversations can just continue as you go off to do something else, or need to reboot one machine, it’s great. But there’s lots of other scenarios that would be very nice too that I know people are just waiting for (like Xbox for instance).

mynetx: And what do you like most in Windows Live at all?

Jonathan Kay: Obviously I need to say Messenger as it’s my “first love” as it were, but there are certainly lots of awesome products under the brand. I think what I like most about everything in general is just how everything works together. For example, if you’re logged into a Hotmail-enabled account in Messenger and the same account in Live Mail, when you receive an e-mail to that account, you’ll be notified in Messenger, Live Mail will immediately have the message ready and if you log into the Hotmail website, it will all be synchronized with the desktop application. Photo Gallery is able to make use of your existing contacts’ information and can publish photos to Live Photos or third party sites (Flickr, Facebook, etc.). There are similar functions across all the products and I’m looking forward to more of this in the future. I certainly don’t believe anyone else has offered this sort of integration story previously, especially not with third party sites and for no cost.

mynetx: True, Windows Live offers unique features—for free. However, I think there are still many good ideas for new features to be implemented into Messenger. What is one thing you’d love most to be added to Messenger?

Jonathan Kay: Oh, most definitely. I have yet to meet anyone who didn’t have their own personal Messenger feature wish list.

Personally, I’d like to see some resources allotted to revisiting and enhancing some of older well used features in Messenger. There is a lot of functionality that has remained relatively unchanged since first introduced that is really in need of updating. A lot of these—custom emoticons, message history, and other core features originally showed up in MSN Messenger 6 (circa 2003) and are really due for some upgrades. Also, because there’s no way I can limit myself to one here, I’d also like to see some options to explicitly control parts of Messenger’s interface. For instance, I would love to be able to decide who and what sign in events specifically generate a toast on my screen.

Of course, the Messenger community provides some great options for overcoming both of these today.

Oh also, I’d like to see group and multi-person functionality continue to evolve more, such as multi-person voice conversations. Okay I’ll stop now!

mynetx: Lol, seems like there is much to do. Do you think any of these will be added in Windows Live Wave 4? If so, which are most likely, in your opinion?

Jonathan Kay: Really hard to say as they’re certainly tight lipped. However I would love to be pleasantly surprised.

mynetx: On to your personal habits… Running Messenger 24/7? Maybe you’ve got kind of a daily routine with Windows Live.

Jonathan Kay: For the most part I leave Messenger running all the time. I have no specific routine, but I certainly make use of a variety of the Live services every day (Messenger, Mail, Spaces, and so on).

mynetx: When you’re using Messenger intensively, I’m sure you’ve got a breaking tip for an “aha” effect. Give me a tip you consider precious

Jonathan Kay: Let’s see, there’s probably better ones, but one unobvious thing is you can drag (the icon of) completed files in the conversation window elsewhere to your desktop, to other conversation windows to resend, or to another application, such as a music player’s playlist to queue up a just transferred song.

mynetx: Hey, great tip! Didn’t know that myself either.

And finally, are you currently working on any Live-related project?

Jonathan Kay: I have a few ideas rattling around in my brain, but I’m not working on anything specifically that’s Live-related presently.

mynetx: Fine! Your last small project you made with PatchWise, was a good idea as well. Did you start right away on the tool for preventing automatic PhotoShare in Messenger, when you read about the patch?

Jonathan Kay: Well I checked to see if someone else had done made anything yet, and they hadn’t, so I thought I would make it easy for everyone.

mynetx: And you did! What download counter do you currently have?

Jonathan Kay: I just let the data accumulate in web logs and use a PowerShell script to extract and do the sum calculations. I haven’t felt the need to do much more than that, as the real reason for my redirect links is just so I can easily move it to another hosting location if I needed to.

mynetx: True… Have anything else to tell my readers?

Jonathan Kay: Yes, if they’ve made it this far, then I appreciate their time going through all this and hopefully it was at least somewhat interesting. And thank you for the opportunity to be on here.

mynetx: No problem—thank you for taking the time to talk with me about Windows Live and You!

Jonathan Kay: You’re very welcome

The team reports some enhancements in its new Live Sync blog:

• Higher file limits—up to 20 synchronized folders (formerly known as libraries) with up to 20,000 files in each one.
• Integration with Windows Live ID.
• Integration with the Recycle Bin.
• Unicode support.
• More languages for Windows (46 in all).
• And lots of bug fixes.

Oh – I nearly forgot: There is also a client for Mac available on the download site. (Thanks Bram for reminding me!)

If you want to check out Windows Live Sync, go to http://sync.live.com/ , which is by the way still in Wave 2 design.

Thanks to LiveSide.

Microsoft has announced details on the future, the new, Windows Live, and I am bringing them to you like I promised.

Over the coming weeks, the next generation of Windows Live will become available at www.windowslive.com. The new Windows Live experience is enhanced by Microsoft partners with feeds from third-party sites that help you stay up to date on what’s new with friends and family, and see information from other online services such as Flickr, Pandora, Photobucket, Twitter,WordPress and Yelp. Refer downwards to get some details on this.

The Windows Live Web services and applications for the PC are now called Windows Live Essentials. Also Windows Live for mobile will get a revamp.

Windows Live Web services

• Windows Live Hotmail
  • Integration of “What’s New” feed
    After you send an e-mail to a friend, Windows Live displays a page confirming that the e-mail has been sent. If the friend is part of your Windows Live network, you will also see a concise update of the friend’s online activity, on both Windows Live and third-party services.
  • POP access
    You can access your Windows Live Hotmail inbox while offline using Windows Live Mail or Outlook with POP access. Anyone can use just about any e-mail application, whether it is from Microsoft or not.
  • POP aggregation
    This feature offers one place for your e-mail. With POP access in Windows Live Hotmail, any non-Hotmail e-mail account that is POP-enabled (such as Yahoo! Mail Plus, Gmail and AOL) can be imported into Hotmail for convenient, one-stop access. There are options to see all e-mail in one inbox or have each account filtered into a separate folder that users specify and label.
  • Instant Access
    Instant Access is a tool for quickly finding and embedding Web images, restaurant reviews, maps, directions, movie times and more into e-mail messages — without having to leave the compose e-mail page.
  • Instant messaging in Windows Live Hotmail
    The Windows Live Messenger instant messaging service can be used to send and receive instant messages from the Hotmail inbox.
• Windows Live Photos
  The home to your photos on the Web is at http://photos.live.com. You can create Web slide shows and share photos through Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Groups, Windows Live Events, Windows Live FrameIt and Windows Live Spaces. You can even see all your photos from Windows Live Photos on most Web-enabled cell phones. Windows Live Photos includes several tools and features such as these:
  • People tagging
    You can identify and tag people in your photos, and see other photos that they are tagged in.
  • Commenting
    You can add comments to photos and see comments friends make.
  • “What’s New” feed
    You can monitor the photos that people in your network post on Windows Live.
  • Shared albums
    You can create albums on Windows Live Groups and give friends permission to add photos, tag them, and collaborate to create a shared album that combines the best photos from all group members.

  

• Windows Live SkyDrive
  Conveniently access all your files with the increased ease and storage capacity from Windows Live SkyDrive, now offering 25GB of online storage and tighter integration with other Windows Live services.
  

  

• Windows Live Profile
  Broadcast key information about yourself from Windows Live and more than 50 partner sites to your Windows Live network. Anything that you do on Windows Live or on select third-party services is automatically reflected on your profile as well as throughout most other services in Windows Live — if you choose to share with your network. You are in control to broadcast your activities to the world, share only with some friends and family, or share with no one at all. The Profile page is also the place to invite your existing friends and contacts from your favorite third-party services, such as LinkedIn, to Windows Live so that they can see your latest updates. You can also choose to publish your activity on more than 50 sites into your Windows Live feed, to allow your network to see updates from all your online activities in a single place.
• Windows Live People
  The People page is for storage and management of your Windows Live contacts. It’s a central address book that contains your contacts from Windows Live Hotmail as well as all the people in your Windows Live network (Windows Live Spaces and Messenger contacts). With Windows Live People, you can invite your contacts from third-party services such as LinkedIn (and more services will be added over time), organize contacts into categories, and assign permissions that put you in control of what your contacts can see about you online. The People page is accessible everywhere in Windows Live through the header, so you can add, invite, follow or connect with your contacts wherever you are in Windows Live. You can also chat with your IM contacts directly from the page with Windows Live Messenger for the Web.
• Windows Live Spaces
  With the newest version, Microsoft has focused on improving the experience by making the fonts easier to read, removing advertisements and generally improving the user interface.
• Windows Live Sync
  Formerly known as Windows Live FolderShare, the new Windows Live Sync enables you to keep your files and folders synchronized across PCs and Macs. The new features include Windows Live ID integration for a unified sign-on experience and functional enhancements such as Recycle Bin integration for easy file recovery and Unicode support for working with files from an even broader range of formats.

Windows Live Essentials

• Windows Live Messenger
  There are some fresh images about the new Messenger. Look here:
  

  <a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=c1b27998-9f2a-4795-8f87-c034ca04a963" target="_new" title="Windows Live Messenger">Video: Windows Live Messenger</a>

Windows Live for mobile

• Windows Live Hotmail for mobile
  Some of the new features, scheduled for release in early 2009, follow:
  • Mail search
    Ability to search within your e-mail
  • Rich e-mail
    HTML rendering of e-mail, including embedded images and links
• Windows Live Messenger for mobile
  Web-, client- and SMS-based IM from your mobile device
• Windows Live Photos for mobile
  Web-based photo viewing, upload and sharing. Client-based photo upload.
• Windows Live Profile for mobile
  It offers Web-based access to view and update your information and connect with others.
• Windows Live People for mobile
  Integrated contacts in mobile phone address book for supported devices. Web-based hub to access contacts. SMS-based search for contact info.
• Contact search
  Search for contacts in your contact list using your phone’s Web browser.
• Get Contact Information
  Send SMS to a Windows Live SMS shortcode to look up a contact’s information (coming early 2009).
• Windows Live Spaces for mobile
  Web-based access to personal Web page and blogging
• Windows Live Calendar for mobile
  SMS-based access to today’s and tomorrow’s appointments
• Get calendar
  Send SMS with “today” or “tomorrow” to a Windows Live SMS shortcode and get your calendar for the day (coming early 2009).

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&#038;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:ed82b0bc-81a1-417e-8db6-cedad0d078b9&#038;showPlaylist=true&#038;from=msnvideo" target="_new" title="Windows Live">Video: Windows Live</a>

Images, Videos: LiveSide.net, Windows Live Wire