Oct 1, 2010 07:30 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has released Windows Live Essentials 2011, the free consumer apps pack that connects your average PC to the cloud, so that you can stay connected to your friends, share and create online, control data across devices and have an amazing Windows experience.

Yesterday, Chris Jones, senior vice president of Windows Live, announced that the Windows Live Essentials 2001 suite is finally available for download, and it will be the final touch to the ultimate Windows 7 PC experience.

In the same announcement he said that the first company to ship PCs with Windows Live Essentials preinstalled, is Dell.

Essentials includes Windows Live Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Messenger, Mesh, Mail, Family Safety, and Writer.

Jamie Cannon, group product manager for Windows Live, says that people spend more time in the cloud and Windows Live Essentials is what brings them there.

“We’ve brought together the best of Windows with the best of the Web,” Cannon says.

“People are spending more time in the cloud, and as a result it’s where people communicate, connect and share, and so, we believe that bringing them together in a seamless way allows consumers to bridge the power of both.”

Thanks to this new suite, people can share their photos and movies, organize their e-mail, and stay in touch with those that matter the most, regardless of the means of communication they use - social networks, chat or traditional e-mail.

You can also have access to your documents from anywhere over the Internet because, as Cannon says, “every Windows 7 PC [will be] connected to the cloud with Windows Live Essential.”

“With Windows and Windows Live, you’re connected to your people and your networks whenever and wherever you want – from your PC, devices and phone.”

Windows Live Essentials 2011 for Windows 7 and Windows Vista is being released in 48 languages, and if yours is not yet available don't worry, it will soon be, according to officials.

And thanks to all the beta testers, Microsoft announced that over 95% of all bugs reported were fixed.

Windows Live Essentials 2011 was designed for Windows 7 from the very beginning, and as proof, you can pin your applications to the taskbar and use jump lists to quickly get to common tasks.

Thanks to the ribbon you can have your common tasks to the front, filter your photos, change your font, or publish to your favorite services in a single click.

Other features of the suite are very useful, like the Windows Live Family Safety, which helps parents keep their kids safer on the Internet.

If you own more than one PC, or a PC and a Mac, Windows Live Mesh will help you sync your files and folders across your PCs and connect back to your PC from virtually anywhere.

The idea behind this suite is that it allows you to stay connected to the services you use every day, like Windows Live Photo Gallery which helps you share photos with your friends on SkyDrive, Flickr, SmugMug, Facebook, and more.

With Windows Live Movie Maker you can create a video and publish it immediately on YouTube, and the new Windows Live Messenger keeps you in touch with your friends on Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace.

You can use Windows Live Writer to update your blog on Wordpress.com, Blogger, TypePad, and many more blogging services, and Windows Live Mail to keep track of your email from Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, and more.

Before you download and install Windows Live Essentials 2011 suite on your PC, make sure you’re running Windows Vista or Windows 7 and you have the latest Windows updates installed, reminded Chris Jones, Vice President, Windows Live Engineering, on the Windows Live blog.

If your computer is still running Windows XP, you can, continue using the current Windows Live Essentials software and upgrade to Windows Live Essentials 2011 once you have passed to Windows 7 or if you get a new PC.

You can download the features of the Windows Live Essentials suite here: Windows Live Family Safety Windows Live Mesh Windows Live Photo Gallery Windows Live Movie Maker Windows Live Messenger Windows Live Writer Windows Live Mail The Bing Bar Silverlight Outlook Connector Pack

If you are curious, you can watch this presentation of some of the new features:

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