14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft should launch the final version of “Wave 4″ of its Windows Live Essentials 2011 suite of Windows add-ons, later today.
There are already several websites that announced the download will be available around 1pm ET, and things might actually turn out this way.
The Windows Live Essentials 2011 suite will include new versions of Photo Gallery, Mail, Movie Maker, Messenger, Writer – which is a blogging tool, Family Safety - parental controls, Live Mesh - which is the PC-sync tool formerly known as Live Sync, the Toolbar, Microsoft Office Outlook Connector, Office Live Add-in and Silverlight.
Users have the option of installing the entire suite or only choose certain elements, thanks to the custom install option from the compact installer.
There are a few months now, that Microsoft has started testing “Wave 4″ Windows Live services, and even after the new Hotmail rolled out in August, it continued to get new features and functionality in the weeks that followed.
The products in the Essentials suite are a mix of software and services and there are other Windows Live properties that are not part of the suite, like Hotmail and SkyDrive, which are Web services that do not install software on users’ machines.
Major changes were also made to the new Windows Live Messenger, that now looks and feels like Facebook, according to Mary Jo Foley.
But Microsoft engineers have thought of the more conservative customers are included a small button that can bring them back to the traditional small-panel Messenger view.
This complete package comes just over a month after a beta refresh was issued, on August 17, with Windows Live Essentials beta being released on June 24.
In order for the suite to take advantage of the Windows 7, all apps are now using the new ribbon UI and Jumplists.
So keep an eye out for the release!
UPDATE: You can download the Windows Live Essentials 2011 suite here!