Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

If you haven't already checked out the new Windows Live Essentials Beta (also known as Windows Live Wave 4), you should - it's definitely worth a look.

The new Windows Live Mail client is a quantum leap forward - the speed improvements they made to IMAP accounts alone make it worth the upgrade. Windows Live Movie Maker is also much-improved, with Zune HD, Windows Phone, and custom output profiles. Windows Live Sync, what I believe is the most underrated part of the Windows Live suite, has finally received a huge update that's long overdue. Year after year, Windows Live Sync - formerly known as Foldershare, created by Byte Taxi and purchased by Microsoft in 2005 - limped along with nary an improvement to the user interface in sight. That's finally changed...but not all of it is good. Read more...

Ding ding ding! Come and get it! You can now download the new Windows Live Essentials Beta (a.k.a Wave 4), which includes a bunch of good stuff, including new versions of Live Messenger, Live Mail, Live Photo Gallery, Live Movie Maker, Live Sync, and more.