Dec 16, 2010 15:23 GMT  ·  By

A new online destination promises to be a source of downloadable enhancements for three components of the Windows Live Essentials suite.

Microsoft announced the launch of the Windows Live plug-ins website on December 15th, revealing that the site is designed to grow into a hub for Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Movie Maker, and Windows Live Writer extensions.

Brad Weed, Group Program Manager Windows Live Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, and Writer noted that the Windows Live plug-ins website is set up to offer not only downloadable items for users, but also a space for developers to submit their own projects.

“From the new plug-ins site, you can download and add the Inkubook Photo Book Uploader to Windows Live Photo Gallery to create beautiful professional quality photo books, or get the Insert Video plug-in for Windows Live Writer, which allows you to insert videos into your blog posts from places like YouTube and MySpace.

“We’ve updated our submission process to make it easier for developers to contribute new plug-ins to the community, and we encourage you to create and upload your own plug-ins,” Weed stated.

At the time of this article there were just 11 plug-ins for Photo Gallery and only 3 for Movie Maker.

By far the most popular, at least in terms of the extensions available for download, is Windows Live Writer.

Customers using the Redmond company’s rich client for blogging are able to download no less than 177 plug-ins covering a range of areas.

“We’ve talked a few times about how important it is for you to be able to connect your Windows Live experiences to the other great services you use.

“You can connect Messenger to Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, Hotmail lets you bring in your email from Gmail and Yahoo! Plus, and WordPress.com powers a great blogging experience for Windows Live customers,” Weed stated.

The recently released Windows Live plug-ins website falls in the same category, enabling users and developers to kick up a notch Windows Live Essentials rich clients.

“We hope you find this new website helpful in keeping you connected to your services from Windows Live Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, and Writer,” Weed added.