windows live

Windows Live is a set of services and software products from Microsoft. A majority of these services are Web applications but there are some desktop software included in Windows Live suite. There are three ways in which Windows Live services are offered: Windows Live Essentials applications, web services, and mobile services.

April 29, 2013

Manage Dropbox, SkyDrive and Google Drive From One Place

UK Software Backup, cloud computing, dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, windows live 0 Comments

There has been a surge in cloud storage apps in the recent times. Although Dropbox was not the first one to offer cloud storage with automatic synchronization capabilities but it was certainly the most popular one. But then came so many other online sync and backup apps from tech giants like Google having Google Drive, Microsoft furnishing their SkyDrive app and so on and so forth.

Almost all the services provide some cloud storage for free. The cloud storage varies from 2GB to unlimited storage. Dropbox offers 2GB free space to its users while Google Drive offer and Microsoft SkyDrive offer 5GB. Many people prefer to use free online storage to store their important documents and files.

For this, they make use of multiple services to make sure that they have enough storage space available. The problem with this approach is that you have to manage your files for each online cloud app separately. This takes more system resources as each service has its own dedicated app for synchronizing data to the cloud.

If you are using multiple cloud storage services like me, another problem is with locating the desired file or document. It becomes difficult to find a particular file on the cloud.

RainbowDrive is a Windows 8 app which strives to solve this problem for us. You can sign into different cloud storage services using RainbowDrive and then browse data of all the services in one place. You can manage, add, edit and delete files from any service which you have connected through RainbowDrive.

RainbowDrive is available for Windows 8 Store, Apple App Store (iPad) and Google Play (Android). It supports integration of the following cloud storage services:

Dropbox
Google Drive
Microsoft SkyDrive
Box (Currently in Beta)

RainbowDrive even supports multiple accounts of the same service provider making it a lot easier to expand your overall storage. It will show the total storage of all the services you are signed in and the free space available in total.

Although the interface of RainbowDrive is quite intuitive, it needs to be easier to use in my opinion. Once you have signed into any of your cloud storage account, your data will be synchronized with RainbowDrive and will appear in the app.

Overall, I like the idea of integrating cloud storage provider accounts but it should also have been done using the Desktop interface of Windows as not too many people will be comfortable with Windows 8 store apps at the moment.

Download RainbowDrive for Windows 8, iPad and Android

April 28, 2013

Messenger Reviver Enables Windows Live Messenger Again

UK Software windows live 0 Comments

Windows Live Messenger was one of the most used instant messenger apps on the Internet. Microsoft shut down the service when it acquired Skype. Windows Live Messenger and Skype were merged together. Now anyone can use the same Microsoft ID (Hotmail/MSN messenger account) to login to Skype. The Windows Live Messenger contacts will be available on Skype.

The people who were addicted with Windows Live Messenger were highly disappointed and wanted Microsoft to reverse its decision. But the fact is the Windows Live Messenger is gone and now you have to be content with Skype for your IM conversations.

Messenger Reviver 2 is a free program that can enable Windows Live Messenger again! It will patch the installed version of Windows Live Messenger to make it working again. Messenger Reviver 2 can patch various versions of Windows Live Messenger including 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012.

Although it the above mentioned WLM versions can be patched, it is always recommended to install the latest one i.e., Windows Live Messenger 2012.

Messenger Reviver 2 is compatible with all versions of Windows including Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. The only requirement for running it is that you must have .NET framework 2.0 or higher installed on your computer.

Download .NET Framework 4.5

Download .NET Framework 4

Download Windows Live Messenger 2012

When you start Messenger Reviver, it will automatically try to detect the versions of Windows Live Messenger installed on your computer. If it does not find any, it will give you a link to the download.

To patch the messenger which is already installed, you will need to click on the Advanced button which will open a drop down menu. The following three options will be given:

Patch messenger
Do a new messenger install
Do a repair messenger install

All the three options are self explanatory and automated. Just select an appropriate option and Messenger Reviver will do the rest.

When you start Windows Live Messenger after patching, it should work fine like before. All functionality is the same and works perfectly.

Messenger Reviver 2

January 18, 2013

Messenger Contacts Not Showing In Skype Solution

UK Microsoft, Tips/Troubleshooting Skype, windows live 0 Comments

Microsoft has already announced that Windows Live Messenger will be discontinued in March 2013. All the Windows Live Messenger users will be shifted to Skype which was recently bought by Microsoft. This means that Skype will be the only messenger application available for Microsoft.

While Microsoft is encouraging users to shift to Skype earlier than March, there are a few issues that users are getting into. One of the issue is about Messenger contacts not showing up in Skype. While Microsoft claims that they have fixed the issue in the latest Skype 6.1, the users of older versions of Skype are still likely to encounter problems like this.

Windows Live Messenger and Skype both save the user contact list on their respective online servers. There is a local contacts database which is synchronized regularly to the online servers. If your computer crashes while the contact database has not been synchronized, a corrupt contact database is likely to happen on both the local and online servers. In this case, there is no fix available and your contacts list will be gone forever. Luckily, this happens to a very limited number of users and is not common.

Normally, the local database of contacts will get corrupted which can be corrected by deleting the local database and then running the Messenger. The Messenger will automatically sync the latest contact list from online servers. To verify that all your Messenger contacts are intact and have not been deleted, you can go to people.live.com and see if all your contacts are visible on the webpage.

To re-sync Messenger contacts with Skype, you simply need to delete the Skype contacts database so that it can download the latest contacts database file from the Skype servers. Just follow the steps below:

Sign out and quit Skype.
Press Windows key + R to open the Run window
Type %appdata%\Skype into the Run window and press enter
Open the folder with the same name as your Skype name
Delete the file called eas.db. If you have hidden file extensions it will just show as eas
Log back in to Skype using your Microsoft Account

If you are using Mac OS, you can follow the steps below:

Sign out and quit Skype.
Go to the folder “ ~/Library/Application Support/Skype/ “
Open the folder with the same name as your Skype name
Delete the file called eas.db
Log back in to Skype using your Microsoft Account

Some people had problems even after following the above steps but it worked fine after sometime when the contacts database synced with online servers.

Microsoft claims that this trick will be useful for all and work most of the times but we should be cautious and should upgrade to the latest version of Skype and integrate it with Messenger before the time runs out and we get into further problems.

If you have encountered any problems while migrating from Windows Live Messenger to Skype, please do let us know in the comments.

September 24, 2012

Open And Edit Any Post In Windows Live Writer 2012

UK Microsoft, Software windows live 5 Comments

Windows Live Writer is by far the most popular and the easiest desktop blogging tool. It is used by millions of people. There are a few alternatives but none of the tools compete with WLW ease of use and feature set. I was reading about 4 alternatives to Windows Live Writer on MakeUseOf. They have discussed about WordPress built in editor which is, obviously, web based. Other tools include Zoundry Raven, BlogDesk and ScribeFire. I have tried and tested all these tools but have a feeling that none of these tools compete with Windows Live Writer.

One limitation of Windows Live Writer is that it can only display a certain number of posts from your blog. The maximum limit is 500. So if you have more than 500 posts on your blog, you will only get to edit the latest 500. Since I have several drafts waiting to be written and published, only the drafts will get to that 500 number.

Although Microsoft does not provide any way to edit any post in Windows Live Writer, we will go step by step and will be able to edit any post in Windows Live Writer.

First of all, we will need to download and install WLWDownloader plugin. This will allow us to implement the third step easily. Actually it will create a new protocol “wlw” similar to “http”. We will be able to open any post using this new protocol. One thing to note here is that you should close Windows Live Writer when installing WLWDownloader plugin.
[download id=”42″]
Now you will need to get the Post ID of the actual post you are about to edit. There are many ways to get the Post ID. If you are logged on to your site, visiting the post in question will give you an admin bar on top of the webpage. You can hover your mouse on the “Edit Post” button and get the Post ID from there.

There are other ways to get the Post ID but the above method is the easiest and I use it whenever I want to know about the Post ID.
Next step is an important one. Now you will need to open your browser, Internet Explorer, Firefox or Google Chrome, and open the following URL:
wlw://www.technize.net/?postid=6734
You will need to replace www.technize.net with your own site name which should already be registered in Windows Live Writer and the Post ID which you got from step 2.
Open the URL in step 3 will open a launch application dialog which will ask you to open the URL in Windows Live Writer.

Click on the Allow button to proceed. Please note that the above screenshot is taken while opening the URL in Internet Explorer. If you are opening it in any other browser, process will be similar.
Windows Live Writer will start downloading the post and it will open once the download process is complete.
Once you have completed editing, you can click on the publish button which will update the same post.

If you do the editing frequently, you can also create a function in your theme which will display a link to edit the post and this link will be displayed on each post and page. I have already automated this by creating a small plugin which does this painlessly. If a reasonable number of people want the plugin, I’ll publish it here. Just tell me in the comments that you’re interested.

August 8, 2012

Windows Essentials 2012 Full Offline Installers Download Links (All Languages)

UK Internet, Microsoft, Software Offline Installer, windows live 3 Comments

Microsoft has finally taken the big step of removing the “Live” brand from Windows Live Essentials. Windows Live Essentials 2011 will be the last version of Windows Live Essentials. From the next version, it will be called Windows Essentials. Windows Essentials 2012 has been released with quite a few exciting enhancements and changes.

Microsoft has somewhat reduced the modules of Windows Essentials 2012. Now it includes Microsoft Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, SkyDrive, Writer and Messenger. The separate modules of Windows Essentials still use the Live brand. Hopefully, Microsoft will strip it down in the next releases.

Windows Essentials 2012 runs on Windows 7 as well as Windows 8. So if you’re using Windows 8 Release Preview, you’ll be able to run all the apps of Windows Essentials. There is one catch though. Windows Live Mesh has been discontinued. Windows Essentials 2012 will remove Windows Live Mesh and install SkyDrive instead of Mesh. So if you are using Windows Live Mesh, you should not install Windows Essentials 2012 before backing up your Mesh data.

If you have any Windows Live app opened while installing Windows Essentials 2012, you’ll get a warning message to save your work or the opened app will automatically close to be updated.

If you want to read more about the exact changes to the new apps in Windows Essentials 2012, you can read the articles from WinSuperSite and Windows team blog.

Offline installer links for download

Windows Essentials 2012 English

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All these links are full offline installers. I have done my best to make sure that all the links are pointing towards the correct installer. If you find any broken link, kindly let me know through comments.

July 28, 2012

5 Steps To Securing Your Microsoft Account

UK Microsoft, Security Microsoft account, windows live 1 Comment

Security is an essential part of today’s online existence. This is because of the emergence of cloud computing and cloud storage. Now everything is being shifted to cloud storage so that it can be accessed from anywhere, anytime. But when we leave our data on the cloud, the security of data becomes more important because it is suspected to security issues like hacking and cracking all the time.

Google has been a leader in providing innovative security features to their users and customers. One example of this is the two factor authentication and application level password. With these security measures, the Google accounts becomes a lot more secure than before.

While Microsoft has not provided such authentication and security features to their customers, we can take certain measures even to secure Microsoft Live ID account. To secure the Microsoft account were take the following measures:

First of all, we need to create strong passwords so that we don’t become a victim of brute force hacking attacks. This Microsoft article describes in detail about creating a strong password.
The second most widely security practice is specifying a security question and an answer which will serve as a second level password authentication system. If you ever lose access to your account, Microsoft will ask you about the security question and you’ll need to specify the answer in order to get access to the account again.
An alternative email address can be specified on the Microsoft account so that if you ever lose your account, the password reset code will be sent to your alternative email address. It is less likely that two email accounts can be hacked at the same time. It is recommended that you create two email addresses on different email providers like Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail etc.
Secondly, you can add a phone number to your Microsoft account. Although this is not as strong as Google’s two factor authentication but it can serve as a second level defense. If you ever forget your password or your account gets hacked, you can recover it using this phone number authentication. The password reset code will be sent to your phone number. To add a phone number, go to the security info page and add the phone number.
Another security measure that Microsoft has introduced is the trusted PC feature. You can add your computer or the smart device as a trusted device. This will help in further tightening the security of your account. If you ever lose your account password or your account gets hacked, the password will be reset through the trusted PC. You can add the trusted PC on the security info page by clicking on "Add the PC you’re using as a trusted PC". Multiple devices can be used as trusted devices.

I hope these security measures will make your Microsoft account or Windows Live ID more secure and recoverable after a hacking attack. What measures do you use for your safety? Please share with us in comments below.

April 13, 2012

Windows Live Essentials 2011 Updated With Problem Fixes

Abdullah Microsoft, Windows, Windows 7 facebook, system, update, windows 7, windows live, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista 2 Comments

The Microsoft Windows Live Essentials 2011 has been updated and the new build number is 15.4.3555.0308. It is a minor update. The new update has affected Setup Installer, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Movie Maker, Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Mesh.

The Setup is now a 214 MB. The new setup has improved in a way that it loads faster after accepting UAC prompt.

Windows Live Mail: If someone has got a mail which includes photos that are hosted on the SkyDrive or Facebook a browser opens the web album before update a Client Album Viewer opened the photos.

Windows Live Messenger: The following problems were fixed;

When a user signs in to the messenger they receive an error code “0x84cb000c”. This error was due to the some problem in the messenger, this error has now been removed
The messenger crashed without any sign of problem, this problem is also fixed
The messenger also hanged when users accept or decline any pending invitation

Windows Live Movie Maker: The following problems were fixed;

A setup failure error occurred with the code “80040705”
When a user wants to open a project file with wlmp and mswmm formats, an error code “80004003” occurred
When a user adds WMV files, the movie maker hangs without any reason

Windows Live Photo Gallery:

To Uploading photos to Flickr or Facebook, you need to authorize your Flickr, Facebook. The authorization method has been updated
To communicate with Bing Maps Service within photo gallery an authorization was required and it is updated now.

Windows Live Mesh: Fixed these errors:

Windows Live Mesh crashed when users sync files

Windows Live Essentials 2011 is compatible with Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 (32+64bit),Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2

Download Windows Live Essentials 2011 (all languages)

January 5, 2012

Windows Live Writer Has Encountered a Problem: Cannot Access a Disposed Object

UK Microsoft Backup, troubleshooting, windows live 1 Comment

Windows Live Writer is the most popular blog writing software available today. There are many other competitors but WLW seems to be the best among the free software. The features of Windows Live Writer have tremendously been enhanced in the last few versions of the software. It is available for download as a part of Windows Live Essentials suite.

Windows Live Writer is preferred over online blog editors like the built in editor in WordPress because of its ease of use. You can easily drag and drop media like pictures and embed videos in the posts from all popular video sharing sites like Youtube or even upload your own videos through WLW.

Today while using Windows Live Writer, I encountered the following error message:

Windows Live Writer has stopped working

Unexpected Error Occurred An unexpected error has occurred within the application.

The only two options were Send Report and Do Not Send Report. While investigation the error details further, I found the following technical error details:

Windows Live Writer Has Encountered a Problem: Cannot Access a Disposed Object

Still clueless, I decided to search Google for the problem solution (using let me Google that for you)but was disappointed that there was no solution or even a hint available on the web or Google couldn’t find one.

This error was coming no matter how many times I would close and open Windows Live Writer. I never wanted to restart the computer as there was a plethora of apps open which would take a long time to open again if the computer was restarted. By the way I always hibernate my computer and restart it only after long periods of time.

Going deep into the matter and finding what was running on my PC, I opened Windows Task Manager processes tab. Finally found that WindowsLiveWriter.exe *32 process was the cause of the problem. It was not terminating when the close of WLW window.

I killed the process manually by right clicking it and selecting End Process Tree.

This time Windows Live Writer opened successfully. May be I should think of taking a backup of my Windows Live Writer settings and data.

December 13, 2011

Download Cyberlink YouCam 3.1 With Free License Key

UK Software facebook, Multimedia, Skype, windows live, yahoo messenger 2 Comments

Cyberlink YouCam is a fun software which adds some stunning effects and cool features to your webcam. If you are a heavy webcam user and video chat very frequently, you will love this piece of software. It is not anything productive or something that will add value to your business but YouCam will make your videos more interesting and fun.

You can add cool funky effects to your webcam and capture a video or a snapshot. YouCam can let you wear a funky hat, light up fire on your head or let you wear a weird mask. These are some among the many effects available in YouCam.

Installing Cyberlink is a breeze. There is no configuration required. You only have to press the Next button a few times and it will automatically be installed and integrated in your favorite instant messenger like Windows Live Messenger, Skype and Yahoo Messenger.

When you start YouCam for the first time, you will see the screen split into two columns. The left screen will show you the actual output of the webcam and different functions to capture from it. The right column is the effects room. You can add effects from the effects room to your webcam.

You only have to click on the effect and it will be implemented and shown on the webcam column immediately. Then you can take a snapshot or capture a video from your webcam along with the effect you have selected from the effect room.

YouCam gives an easy way to share captured videos and snapshots on Youtube and Facebook or even email the media to any friend.

One feature of YouCam that I like the most is the surveillance feature. Now you can easily use your webcam as a surveillance cam. YouCam gives three options of capturing video continuously

Motion detection recording
Continuous recording
Time lapse recording

All three options are self explanatory. You only have to select one and then click on the start button to start recording.

The latest version of Cyberlink YouCam is 5 which costs about $34.95 but you can easily get YouCam 3.1 for free!

Go to this Chip.de promotion page. The page is in German language. You can use Google translate to translate the page to English.
Click on the Zum Download button
Click on Download-Server Chip Online link. Cyberlink YouCam 3.1 will start downloading.
Install YouCam and enter the following license key when asked for it during installation
YD7J321981532392

I hope this software will add some fun effects to your webcam and your life. What are your experiences about this software? Mind sharing some of your creations with YouCam? 🙂

December 2, 2011

Yahoo Messenger 11.5 Offline Installer Download

UK Software list, Skype, windows live, yahoo messenger 0 Comments

Yahoo has finally released the new version of Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo Messenger 11.5.0.192 with a lot of new features and improvements over the previous versions. My opinion about Yahoo Messenger has been that it was a great product in the beginning but then it was overshadowed by not coping with the competitors mainly Skype and the amount of spam. In my opinion, Yahoo receives more spam than any of its competitors including Skype, Windows Live and Google. But still Yahoo Messenger hasn’t lost its space and is being used by millions of users.

There are a lot of improvements in Yahoo Messenger 11.5 which will give a more attractive and smooth experience to the users. Let’s look at what is new and what has been improved.

Tabbed IMs – This has been the greatest improvement in Yahoo Messenger 11.5. Now there will be less screen clutter as all the IM windows will be encapsulated into one main window. Skype has already implemented this feature a while ago. The IM tabs are located at the bottom of the windows instead of top which seems to be default in all other messengers. Logically it’s good because this ensures less eye movement on the screen making it easy on eyes and a bit more productive. You can also separate one tab as a window by right clicking it and selecting Separate from Tabs or by using the keyboard short Ctrl+Alt+S.

Better spam management – The Yahoo team claims that now the Y! IM has a better spam management system. Now you can ignore multiple add requests with a single click but I think this is not enough. The Yahoo team should do a lot more in this area.

Recent Contacts – Skype includes a separate tab for recent conversations. Now Yahoo Messenger has added a similar functionality by adding a group at the top of contacts list which will include all the recent contacts with which you had conversations. Another smart feature that will make Y! Messenger more helpful.

Smiliies and emotions – Yahoo Messenger had a lot of smiley emotions but not all of them were shown in the smiley pop screen. Some of the were hidden and their shortcuts were available on the web for use. This made it harder for users to remember the shotcuts of their favorite smilies. Now all the emotions are available and you can cycle through the available emotions by using the forward and back buttons. Yahoo Messenger also remembers your recently used smilies so you don’t have to browse through the emotions window again and again.

These were some of the major improvements in Yahoo Messenger 11.5. You can download the latest version from below:

[download id=”10″]

Download Yahoo Messenger 11.5 from Yahoo servers directly.

Update: Yahoo Messenger 11.5 has been updated. Please download the new and latest Yahoo Messenger 11.5.0.192 from here.

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