Windows Live Essentials 'beta' out now!


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When I open a photo from Windows Explorer a Wave 3 styled window shows up without any edit tools. I must click "Open in Photo Gallery" to get Wave 4 look and edit tools. What "genius" could do it that way !? Sometimes I really think that some idiots are designing this software ...

Just set the Photo Gallery to open it by default...

Does anyone familiar with the new Sync know how it deals with available bandwidth, particularly upload? ?Does it just go as fast as it can? ?I hope not, because that's crippling for something like Web browsing done at the same time. I didn't expect to see a throttling control a la Dropbox, but I at least hope it's smart about what it's doing.

Is anyone having problems with the whole offline issue?

I'm appearing offline to EVERYONE on my list, even when I am appearing ONLINE.

The only way I found out to fix this is to use the new feature "appear offline to this person". Use it, then revert it and they'll see you every time you're online, but I don't want to do this for everyone.

I just noted that this is not for Windows XP! My Office computer has XP in it! And it means I cannot use sync my files with my homes computer having Windows 7!

I mean what's MS is thinking? Over 60% PCs cannot use Windows Live Essentials just because they don't have Vista or 7?

Windows XP is old tech and it doesn't support the new APIs which are in Windows 7 and backported to Vista such as Direct2D and Directwrite. From a technical point of view it can't work since good part of the WLE 2011 code is based on that it seems.

ugh i hope they give us a beta 2 because this is so unstable to use it's like a pre alpha it's so bad :( as much as I would like the final to be in august or September at this rate I hope it is longer than that so they get the bugs fixed along with visual changes from feedback from its users..

Guys, I have a problem. I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and it seems like Live Essentials 4 Beta is not installing. I tried to install and checked out the Windows Live folders while I'm installing. It seems like it installs normally and when it's done, it removes all installed files.

Anyone had a problem like this? If so, what's the proper solution? Is Live Essentials 4 Beta not working on 64-bit Win 7?

WLMessenger is just awful, down right atrocious to use now. I know it is beta, but betas of the same program have never been this buggy ever. WLMail is somewhat nicer than before, needs some polishing though, and I wasn't expecting the Ribbon UI. So that was a welcome surprise.

Is anyone having problems with the whole offline issue?

I'm appearing offline to EVERYONE on my list, even when I am appearing ONLINE.

The only way I found out to fix this is to use the new feature "appear offline to this person". Use it, then revert it and they'll see you every time you're online, but I don't want to do this for everyone.

im having the same problem, well was last night, not sure about this morning as yet

I just noted that this is not for Windows XP! My Office computer has XP in it! And it means I cannot use sync my files with my homes computer having Windows 7!

I mean what's MS is thinking? Over 60% PCs cannot use Windows Live Essentials just because they don't have Vista or 7?

Perhaps they're thinking people should upgrade from a 9 year old operating system? You can actually sync files from your office computer to your home computer; you just have to upgrade your office computer ;)

With many problems and bugs being reported by Neowin members here,i think i will wait for final build.

What about those of us who haven't come across any bugs? I haven't and I use most of the features. It makes sense for you to try it out for yourself; a lot of people who report so called 'bugs' are just not using the software properly and blame the software...

Nice assumption you made there :rolleyes:

How is it an assumption? I've seen this happen. I'm a software developer and our company gets this sometimes; after further investigation, we often find it's not a bug, it's just lack of user awareness of how the feature functions. Again, what assumption did I make? I said 'a lot', not 'everyone'.

What about those of us who haven't come across any bugs? I haven't and I use most of the features. It makes sense for you to try it out for yourself; a lot of people who report so called 'bugs' are just not using the software properly and blame the software...

But MS should have fixed "Share something new" field bug or problems with uninstalling Mesh client before releasing a public beta. They failed a little bit in my opinion.

What about those of us who haven't come across any bugs? I haven't and I use most of the features. It makes sense for you to try it out for yourself; a lot of people who report so called 'bugs' are just not using the software properly and blame the software...

this comment is going to open a big can of worms, i know what im doing with the software and i know how to link my accounts with facebook and stuff like that, but how do you explain missing contacts?

But MS should have fixed "Share something new" field bug or problems with uninstalling Mesh client before releasing a public beta. They failed a little bit in my opinion.

I've not tried the 'Share something new' field yet for some reason, but I will see. About Live Mesh... doesn't that cleanly become uninstalled automatically when Live Sync installs?

this comment is going to open a big can of worms, i know what im doing with the software and i know how to link my accounts with facebook and stuff like that, but how do you explain missing contacts?

I'm not saying there are no bugs and people need to realise that's not what I'm saying. I was just trying to explain to Shayla that she may not come across any bugs or she may only come across a couple of minor bugs, seeing as it appears different people are experiencing different things - I've not experienced loss of contacts, but it appears some have.

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