If you live in India, the Philippines, or Spain, new Windows Live Hotmail addresses have just become available.

• India: You can now get @live.in e-mail addresses, in addition to @hotmail.com addresses.
• The Philippines: You can now get @live.com.ph e-mail addresses, in addition to @hotmail.com addresses.
• Spain: You can now get @hotmail.es addresses, in addition to @hotmail.com addresses.

To sign up for a free new Windows Live e-mail address , go here.

Through your feedback, we’ve learned that many of you have more than one Windows Live ID. You may use different IDs for different online identities (if, for example, you have a couple different blogs), for different activities (one for sharing photos with your family on Spaces, and one for sharing documents with co-workers on SkyDrive), or for different groups of friends (your family, your friends, your professional contacts).

To make it easier to switch between these different identities, we recently introduced linked IDs. You can now link up to four Windows Live accounts together, and switch between them without a password.

What you get with linked IDs

• Sign in once to access all your accounts. Once you've signed in to one account, you can instantly switch between all your linked accounts.
• No need to sign out, no need to enter another e-mail address and password. Just click your name in the sign-in area in the upper-right corner, and then click the ID you want to switch to.
• Easier switching between accounts from anywhere within Windows Live—Hotmail, Spaces, SkyDrive, whatever you use most.
• Easier management of multiple identities that you use for different purposes or with different groups.

How to link an ID

You can easily add or remove linked IDs by going to Windows Live Account (https://account.live.com), or by using the link in the sign-in area on any Windows Live webpage.

To link a Windows Live ID from any Windows Live page:

1. Sign in.
2. Click your sign-in name in the upper-right corner, and in the drop-down menu, click Link other accounts.
   
    
3. One the resulting page, enter:
   1. The password of the account you’re already signed into
   2. The Windows Live ID you want to link
   3. The password of your soon-to-be linked account
4. Click Link.

Change your mind?

You can easily unlink an account, without deleting or closing it.

1. Sign in.
2. In the sign-in area, click View your account.
   
3. On the account summary page, click Manage your linked IDs.
   
4. On the Manage Linked IDs page, click Unlink next to the account you want to remove.
   

We hope you enjoy this new flexibility. And as always, your feedback is welcome!

Miriam Daniel
Windows Live Account team

I was excited when I found out I could get a new @live.com account. Hotmail has been around so long (since 1996!) that a lot of the good e-mail names were taken already. With @live, I got to pick out just the e-mail address I wanted.

I didn’t have any problems switching over to my new account in Messenger, Hotmail, and Mail. (There are some pretty thorough instructions here.) But I have to admit that I didn’t catch on right away to the fact that I’d also be “getting a fresh start” on Windows Live Spaces. I didn’t have a lot of stuff on my old space, mostly photos and a looooong book list, but I was pleased with it and didn’t want to have to create it all over again.

Luckily, moving my photo albums from one space to the other was fairly easy, thanks to Windows Live Photo Gallery. I didn’t have to sort through all the photos on my hard drive to find the ones I wanted to publish again. Instead, I downloaded whole albums from my old space, and then uploaded them whole to the new one.

Here’s the detailed how-to:

1. Go to your old space, click a photo, and then click Download and Download album.
2. If you don’t have Windows Live Photo Gallery installed, you’ll be prompted to do so. It didn’t take me long to install.
3. If a message box appears, click Allow, and then sign in again with your (old) Windows Live ID, and click Download.
   
   
   
   
   

   Downloading all the photos in an album

   
   Photo Gallery creates new folders in your Pictures\Downloaded Albums folder, so you can easily tell which album and space the photos came from. The file names are the same as when you published the photos the first time (but unfortunately, it doesn’t save the captions).
   
4. To finish the transfer, sign in to your new space, click Add album, and name the album. Click Add photos and browse to the downloaded album you want (Pictures\Downloaded Albums\Your Space Name\Album Name). Click Select All, enter the photo captions, and then click Upload Now.

If you really do want to start fresh

An alternative to this whole routine is to simply keep the old space as a kind of archive, start a fresh new space with your new Windows Live ID, and check both spaces until the old one starts to become less useful. Here are a couple ways you can make the transition a little easier:

• If you’re the only one who needs to see both spaces, you can link your Windows Live IDs and quickly switch between them.
• If you want to make sure visitors can easily find both spaces, you can add a custom list module to each one, with a link to the other space.

A custom list module with a link to my other space

Here’s how to add the custom module:

1. Click Customize, and then click Add modules.
2. Click Custom list, click Close, and then click Save.
3. In the new custom list, click Edit list, and then click Add item.
4. Enter the link text you want and the web address of your other space. Then click Save.
5. To change the title of the module, click Edit list information.

Have fun, and leave a comment to let me know how this works for you!

Kaarin Shumate
Writer, Windows Live

For the last couple of months, we’ve had so many new Windows Live releases that the blog has become mostly a place for announcements, with little room to really talk about how we (and you) use Windows Live in our own lives, which is where I think it can get a lot more interesting. 

Over the next few weeks, guest bloggers from all over the Windows Live organization will share the ways they use Windows Live, and hopefully tell you a few things you don’t know yet. We’ll also try to address some of your frequently asked questions. We hope you'll respond and send us comments about ways YOU use Windows Live, cool features you've come across, and of course, how you think we could improve.

If you have ideas for how you want a specific Windows Live service to change, an even more direct way to make your point is to use the feedback form (those comments go straight to the people who decide where to go next with each product).  And if something doesn’t work the way it should, you can always get help here, or contact support, and we'll do our best to fix the problem. 

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Antonia Blume
Windows Live Wire

Some of you have been speculating about this for months, and finally I’m allowed to tell you about it! The Windows Live Calendar beta is now live and available to the public.*

You can enroll in the new Windows Live Calendar beta by going to http://calendar.live.com, and signing in with a Windows Live ID. 

What’s new?

What does Windows Live Calendar beta have that you didn’t see in the old MSN Calendar? Some of the changes may look subtle at first, but behind the scenes, a lot has changed. For one thing, it uses AJAX, a cool technology that lets you do stuff like drag and drop things on the page, or right-click for quick options. And the platform that the new Calendar runs on is completely new, which allows it to integrate better with other programs and devices (like your mobile phone).

Easier ways to organize your time

• You can add an event in seconds--just click a date and start typing.
• Lunch date changed? Drag it to a new spot on the calendar.
• Print your calendar using the easy-to-read Agenda view.

Share your calendar (or not)

• You can keep multiple calendars. Have one for your private use, one to share with family, and another to share with friends. You decide who sees what.
• View several calendars together. You can color-code them, so when you have a different calendar for each family member, it’s easy to see who is going where, when.

Get reminders when and where you need them

• Get calendar reminders via text message, e-mail, or Messenger.
• Use RSS feeds to get information from your calendar automatically sent to Microsoft Office Outlook, or to an RSS reader.
• Import schedules from a sports team or community group directly into your calendar.

You can learn more about the new release on the Windows Live Hotmail blog. Try out the new calendar and let us know what you think!

Antonia B.
Windows Live team

* For now, this beta release is available only to customers in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, China, India, France, Germany, Spain, and Russia. We’ll let you know when it expands to other regions.

Today we’ve released the next generation of Windows Live! You can get all the new products now at the new WindowsLive.com. You can install everything in one download, or pick just the products you want.

Everything coming out today is designed to work with the Windows Live services you’re already using, like Windows Live Spaces, Hotmail, Messenger, and Windows Live for mobile, but of course, they add a whole slew of new features into the mix.

Today’s release includes:

• Windows Live Mail — This desktop mail program lets you see all your e-mail accounts in one place (including Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, or any other IMAP or POP web e-mail account), and adds all kinds of features you don’t normally get with web mail.
• Windows Live Messenger (update) — The popular IM program has a new upgrade, including improved contact cards, file sharing, video calling, and VOIP capabilities.
• Windows Live Writer — A WYSIWYG editing program for bloggers that makes it easy to add photos, maps, tags and more to your blog, and publish directly to Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, TypePad, and many other blogging services.
• Windows Live Photo Gallery — Helps you find, organize, fix, and share your photos and videos, stitch together panoramic photos, and upload them all directly to Windows Live Spaces or Flickr.
• Windows Live Toolbar (update) — Easy access to Live Search and Windows Live, custom buttons, and security features that help you block suspicious websites and pop-ups.
• Family Safety from Windows Live OneCare — Tools to help you protect your children from inappropriate websites and contacts. You decide how much control you want for each child.

Where to begin?

There are too many new features in this release to describe in one blog post, so I’ve got a (somewhat random, and very incomplete) list of 10 things you can do with Windows Live, to get you started. Most of these features are brand new today; a couple of them are not entirely new, but they’re a little more polished in the new release, and I think they’re worth pointing out.

1. Get a new @live.com e-mail address

This one isn’t on the list of products because you don’t need to install anything, but it’s definitely new, and long anticipated! Go here to create a cool new e-mail address ending in @live.com. You can access your new e-mail account via Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Mail, or Microsoft Office Outlook Connector. 

2. Automatically rotate and group your photos  

Windows Live Photo Gallery automatically figures out which photos need to be rotated and does it for you as you import them from your camera.* You can also automatically group your photos based on when they were taken, or by using tags you add.

For more cool stuff you can do with Windows Live Photo Gallery, check out the Microsoft Photo blog.

*Auto-rotation may not work with some older models of digital camera.

3. Add maps, videos, or pictures to any blog post 

Spice up your blogs with pictures, maps, and videos. With Windows Live Writer you can easily format your blog entries to look the way you want them to, and add photos, videos, maps from Live Search Maps, files from Windows Live SkyDrive, and lots of other stuff.

1. After installing Writer, enter the web address of your blog or space.
2. Writer automatically detects the formatting and other settings you use on your blog, and formats your new entries to match.
3. Click New at the top of the Writer window.
4. Use the buttons in the right pane to easily insert maps, videos, and more.

4. See all your new mail at a glance

When you install Windows Live Mail on your desktop, you can manage multiple e-mail accounts in one program. To take that a step further, quick views are virtual folders that show you categories of mail from all your e-mail accounts grouped together in one place. No more switching between accounts and folders!

You can get quick views of all of your unread mail, all unread mail from your contacts, all your sent mail, all flagged mail, etc. To add the quick views you want:

1. In Windows Live Mail, right-click Quick views in the folder list.
2. Click Select quick views.
3. Select the quick views you want to see in your folder list.

Learn more about more Windows Live Mail on their blog.

5. Send an SMS to a mobile phone from Windows Live Mail

Sending text messages (SMS) from Windows Live Mail is a great example of how Windows Live programs work together to give you more than the sum of their parts. You can send text messages from Windows Live Mail to any contact who's set up Windows Live on their mobile phone. Look for a telephone icon next to the names of people in your contact list who have it.  

To send a text message from Windows Live Mail:

1. Click the arrow next to New.
2. Click Mobile text message.
3. Select the person you want to send it to.
4. A Messenger window opens, and you can start texting as if you were on your mobile phone (only easier, because the keyboard isn’t so tiny).

6. Add a voice clip to your text conversation

Text messages, voice messages, instant messages--the lines are all starting to blur. If you use Messenger on a Windows Mobile phone, now you can include voice clips in your SMS conversations.

1. Open Windows Live on your Windows Mobile phone, and start an SMS (text message) conversation in Messenger.
2. On the Menu, select Voice clip.
3. Click record.
4. When you finish recording, hit Send.
5. The voice clip will show up as an icon in your conversation, and your friend can click Play to hear it.

7. Make a button to add to your toolbar

You can customize your Windows Live Toolbar with buttons from Windows Live Gallery, or you can create your own. It took me about 2 minutes to create a button that shows my local traffic information, and it was kind of fun! And when you're done, you can submit your button to Windows Live Gallery so other people can use it too!

1. On Windows Live Toolbar, click the arrow next to the Gallery button.
2. Select a button from those featured on the menu, or click Make a button.
3. Fill out the simple form to create your own button that links to a favorite website, add a dropdown menu—you can even include a specialized search function.

8. See who your kids are talking to online

If you have children, you worry about them. With Family Safety from Windows Live OneCare, you can feel better about what they’re doing online, and especially, who they’re meeting. A built-in contact approval system lets you know who your kids are talking to on Windows Live services, including IM, e-mail, or Windows Live Spaces, and you can approve or reject anyone new. 

Family Safety also blocks specific websites or content categories that you choose for each child. If they want to see a site that you’ve blocked, they can use the software to ask you for permission.

9. Make a difference with i’m in Messenger

If you already use Windows Live Messenger to IM your friends, why not raise some money for a good cause at the same time? If you join the i’m initiative, every time you start an IM conversation, Microsoft shares a portion of the program's advertising revenue with a social cause that you choose from our initiative partners, including great organizations like the Red Cross, UNICEF, and the Humane Society.

In November and December, Microsoft is doubling its contributions to the i’m initiative. There’s no cap on the amount Microsoft will donate to each organization, and there’s no charge to you, so you can put Microsoft’s money where your mouth is.

10. Smile, and help children around the world

Windows Live is partnering with Operation Smile to get people to share their smiles and help make a difference in the lives of children around the world. To participate, go to windowslive.com/smile and share pictures of your own smiling face. Your photos might be posted on the site, or they might show up on big screen displays at Windows Live events going on in New York and Los Angeles today and tomorrow.

Whether or not you get your 15 minutes of fame, share your smiles using Windows Live. Microsoft's donation to Operation Smile is based on ad revenue from Windows Live Spaces for November and December. So, the more photos you share on Windows Live Spaces, the more money will go to Operation Smile.

Do you have other favorite things you like to do with Windows Live? Try it out and let us know what you think is cool, what confuses you, and what you want us to blog about next.

Antonia B.
Windows Live team