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Quote:Microsoft Wednesday announced plans to integrate disparate Windows Live products for instant messaging, e-mail, blog authoring and photo sharing into a single downloadable suite for consumers.

Meanwhile, the company also announced two new Windows Live products, including the long rumored Windows Live Folders file sharing application and Windows Live Photo Gallery for photo sharing. Windows Live has been a confusing brand for many, so a downloadable suite could bring some much needed commonality.

The new suite of applications will include Windows Live Messenger for instant messaging; the currently beta Windows Live Mail for unified e-mail that could include Hotmail and any other standard e-mail service, Windows Live Writer for blog authoring and Windows Live Photo Gallery. Further down the road, Microsoft hopes to add Windows Live OneCare, the company's consumer security service. There will also be a mobile version of the suite...

Quote:Microsoft has slowly been releasing pieces of its Windows Live Services over the last year, and on Wednesday a couple more betas hatched onto the web. Windows Live Photo Gallery is intended as free upgrade to Vista’s Photo Gallery (it also works on XP) and Windows Live Folders is the long awaited “Live Drive” backup storage solution. For now both services are in limited beta test phases.

Windows Live Folders is currently a managed beta and accounts are limited to 500 MB of storage, but that restriction will be lifted as the product moves out of beta. To use the new beta, you’ll need a Windows Live ID, but otherwise the service works quite seamlessly. There are a number of options for sharing files, including options to allow access to the whole web, selected users or keep them totally private...

Quote: Today Microsoft is announcing the final product name for what was previously known as Windows Live Folders. Windows Live SkyDrive gets not only its final product name but also a few new features and enhanced UI reflecting changes coming across many of the Windows Live services including Windows Live Spaces.

So what's Windows Live SkyDrive? Windows Live SkyDrive is a brand new Windows Live service that gives users 500MB of web space for the storing and sharing of files. Think of it as a personal "harddrive" on the internet - or "the cloud". By default, you get several protected directories which you can store your files in. These directories are completed protected from the public. Only you can view them. However, Windows Live SkyDrive allows you create or choose specific folders to share with everyone (Public folders) or specific people on your Windows Live Contacts list. You can set specific permissions for those viewing your folders as well - such as someone who can contribute (add and remove files) or someone who is simply just a reader. Your Public folder allows ONLY reader permissions for the public in viewing files within the folder. No need to worry about people maxing out your account with files....