Have you downloaded the new Windows Live Messenger beta yet? Lots of great new features and exciting design changes, which Steven A. blogged about here last week. The Messenger team has just published another new blog post about creating dynamic display pictures that change with your mood. He’s even got a video that shows exactly how to do this.

Keep an eye on the Inside Windows Live Messenger blog for more details about this and other new features of the Messenger beta.

- Antonia

There have been a lot of questions in the blogosphere lately about Microsoft ChoiceGuard. What it is, and why it’s being installed when you install Windows Live Betas… So, here are a few answers.

Microsoft ChoiceGuard is a lightweight software component that enables the choices you make—like what you want to set as your default home page and search provider—during the Windows Live Beta installation process.

If you choose to do so (and ONLY if you choose to do so), Microsoft ChoiceGuard will set your home page and search provider in both Firefox and Internet Explorer. Typically this is a simple task. However, several of our competitors install a "service" that is always running on your computer that prevents your Internet Explorer search defaults from being changed, even if you requested the change yourself. So Microsoft ChoiceGuard looks for the presence of those applications that might be preventing your choice from being carried out, and works around their block to set the default.

It turns out that if you use Firefox, you have to install an add-on to do this. Since there is no point in having the ChoiceGuard add-on on your computer after setting your defaults, ChoiceGuard immediately sets itself to uninstall. That’s why you will see “Microsoft ChoiceGuard” in the Firefox add-on list, and that’s why it also says it will be uninstalled the next time Firefox restarts.

The good news is that Microsoft ChoiceGuard only sets the defaults once. If you choose to change these settings later, either programmatically or manually, Microsoft ChoiceGuard won’t get in the way.

I hope this clears things up a bit. Keep sending us your feedback—We’re listening!

- Hua Ai and Mikko Ollila, Live Search team

[Update, November 7, 2008]: Thanks for your thoughtful comments and questions! We're listening, and we've posted answers to many of your questions here.

It’s late September already, and time for that inevitable question: what did you do on your summer vacation? Well, this summer, the Hotmail team and I were hard at work on a new version of Hotmail, and we’re super excited to start rolling it out to you very soon.

Here’s a sneak peak at some of the changes.

• A great new look – We’ve done a little remodeling, and we think Hotmail looks much, much nicer and is easier to use. We did a lot of testing around the world to see what people liked and didn’t like. We’re really excited about the final results, and we hope you like it too! There’s also a whole new set of vibrant themes that replace our old color schemes.

• Classic & Full, together at last! – Our clever developers figured out how to take the performance of the Classic version of Hotmail, and combine it with features of the Full version, in a single experience. Now everyone gets the same features. You don’t have to trade off speed for functionality or decide which version is better for you. If you have been using the Full version, you’ll see much faster page load times, and if you have been using Classic, you now get to use the reading pane, drag & drop, and other features formerly limited to the Full version.
  
• A contact list that’s more than just contacts – Our contact list is now much more useful. Besides a new layout and improved look, we added features that are both fun and time-saving.
  • Fun - If your Messenger contacts have a display picture, that picture will appear in your list.
  • Time-saving - When you view a contact, you can see recent e-mail they’ve sent you, send them a message from right in the contact page, and view items from across Windows Live that you’ve shared together.
• Now THAT’s something to write home about! – We completely redesigned the experience of composing a new message. We have brand new auto-complete functionality for e-mail addresses, and a new contact picker that even detects commonly misspelled addresses. There is a new way to attach files and a new spell-checker that we think are much easier to use (especially if you were using Classic – no need to go to a new page to attach files anymore!). The text editor is completely rewritten, and we fixed a bunch of bugs – right-click now works!
  
• Updated Calendar beta – If you aren’t using the Calendar beta yet, now’s a great time to try it. Calendar sharing, an automatically generated birthday calendar for people in your contact list, a holiday calendar, iCal subscriptions to public calendars, to-do lists, and much, much more await you. Go to http://calendar.live.com, or go to Hotmail and click Calendar under “Related places” to sign up.

There is more to this release that I haven’t yet mentioned, including greater speed and more powerful spam fighting, and even more improvements coming soon (but I’ll save those for a later post that my boss is going to do.)

If you haven’t used your Hotmail account in a while, check out the changes at http://mail.live.com. You can also sign up for a new account from there.

I think this version is a big improvement in both appearance and performance, so I hope you love it! And, now that it’s done, I can finally take *my* summer vacation and kick back for a bit…

- Mike Schackwitz, Lead Program Manager, Windows Live Hotmail

[Update, November 7, 2008]: Thanks for your thoughtful comments and questions! We're listening, and we've posted answers to many of your questions here.

Have you downloaded the new Windows Live Photo Gallery beta yet? Very cool. Rodger Benson from the Photo Gallery team just posted on the Windows Live Photo & Video blog with details about all the features packed into this beta release. Take a look. And let us know what you think!

- Antonia

Hello, I’m Steven Abrahams, Lead Program Manager for Windows Live Messenger. I want to tell you about some of the thinking that’s gone into the new Windows Live Messenger beta, and the new features. Be sure to also check out the Messenger blog for in-depth posts on each of the new features of this Messenger beta.

When we started planning the next version of Messenger, we wanted to continue providing a great user-centered, hand-crafted experience for instant messaging, but we also wanted to bring in some new features that connect you with the rest of Windows Live.

We are truly excited about this beta release of Messenger, and so I’d like to give you an overview of some of the improvements you’ll see.

Some of the changes you’ll notice right away:

Glassy: The new Messenger, like the other Windows Live beta programs, is now framed in beautiful Windows Vista “glass,” similar to what you may have seen in Windows Vista.

Clean: We simplified the main window by removing the top toolbar and moving tabs from the side to the bottom. We found people really weren’t using the top toolbar buttons except for Mail, so we found a new spot for Mail, and removed the other toolbar buttons. We also really cleaned up the conversation window, made the toolbars there more streamlined, and gave you more room to IM. 

People, people, people: You told us you wanted to see real pictures of people. So, now you can display your contacts’ real display pictures in your contact list. You can choose from 3 different picture sizes, or, no picture at all.

People and web search: You can now search for people and web pages from one field. If you type in someone’s name, we first look to see if they are in your contact list. If they aren’t, you can try searching for their profile on Windows Live, or for other info about them on the web. You can also just type in Movies in 94118 and click web search, and we’ll take you directly to the Internet search results.

Categories and groups: What used to be called “groups” is now called “categories.” The old “groups” were really just categories of your Messenger contacts. This change makes room for a new, more powerful groups feature that you can use across all of the Windows Live services. We’ll talk more about that below.

We’ve received a lot of feedback from our over 300 million customers, and we’ve responded with some great new features. Let me tell you about a few of them in more detail.

Favorite people at the top

It turns out that despite how many people you know, there are only a few that you  keep in touch with really often, and want to see at the top of your contact list. Favorites is a new category in Messenger—think of it as your speed dial for friends, family, or anyone you just want to keep in view.

You can add and  remove people from your favorites list and re-order them up and down. It helps you keep a select group of people easily accessible. I have my wife, friends that I frequently IM, and the folks on my team in this category. You can add as many people as you like to your favorites , or if you prefer to have everyone in one big list, you can also hide the favorites category.

What’s your scene?

Some of you who use Messenger a lot have been asking to be able to skin and colorize windows to meet your personal aesthetic or to match your mood. Well, now you can select the scene that appears in your main Messenger window, and your contacts get to see it in the conversation window too.

You start by selecting a picture, either one of the default Windows Live scenes, or any photo from your own collection. When you drag the photo over the top of the Messenger contact list, the pictures is painted across the header of the Messenger main window. Pretty cool, huh?

The other cool thing is that when you’re chatting with a friend, your scene appears in their conversation window, and their scene appears in yours.  

Now your friends get to see not only your display picture and personal message, but when you’re chatting, they also get to see your scene.

Dynamic display pictures

Dynamic avatars built through our partners have been around for a while, and lots of people love them. But now, you can make your own dynamic display picture that can “react” to the emoticons you use in your IM conversations. And you can make short video clips for each of your moods.

Try it out. Click your display picture and select Tile with moods. Then, pose 5 times for your webcam (like in a photo booth), and make a fun dynamic display picture to show your friends.

What’s new with people you know

If you’re like me, you have a huge contact list, and it is nearly impossible to keep track of what everyone is up to. You and  your friends are doing all kinds of things on Windows Live -- posting photos, blogging, changing their personal messages - but unless you check their space or they send you a message telling you about it, you may not see the new activity.

Well, we understand what you’re up against, and so we’ve made it easy to see the latest activities from lots of different people and services all in one place: Messenger.

Messenger has a new module at the bottom of your contact list called “What’s new.” When your friends meet up for a Windows Live event, update their display picture, or post photos, comments, and blog entries on Windows Live, you see it all right there in the What’s new module. You can read updates, click through to the actual item, or move on to the next update.

New conversation window  

A lot of thought has gone into the new conversation window. In fact, I have a team of developers dedicated to just that: making the conversation window rock!

One of our big improvements is to infuse your conversations with more of your personality. When you open a conversation window with a friend, the window frame allows you to instantly see their mood, what scene they’ve set, and what their personal message says. Granted, if you are a purist and just want to IM, you can, still do that too. We’ve made it super simple to hide a lot of the personal bells and whistles if that’s what you prefer.

By the way, if you use Messenger for video calls, and you have a computer and webcam capable of VGA video, you’ll want to check out the new full-screen VGA 640x480 video calls through Messenger. It will feel like you are watching TV. I am not kidding. You have got to see it to believe it.

Photo sharing in Messenger

Every day, millions and millions of files and pictures are shared through Messenger. In this latest beta release, we’ve made photo sharing a richer part of the conversation.

Now you can drag a single photo or a bunch of photos right onto the conversation window, and your photos show up right there. You can keep sending IMs back and forth while you and your friends click through the pictures. The photo sharing is synchronized, so if your friend clicks to the next picture, it changes on your screen as well.

I use this feature every day to send screen shots to people, and share photos of my daughter with family and friends. I think you’ll quickly see how it becomes a great new type of conversation.

Chatting with groups

Up to now, Messenger had been mostly about 1-on-1 conversations. But now we’ve added groups into the mix.

The new groups are lists of people who can IM with each other all in one conversation window. The group could be your family, a peer working group, book club, your Friday night poker buddies, or your home owners’ association.

Imagine you are working on a project with two or three other people, and you need to communicate frequently with everyone. Maybe it’s just about fielding a quick question, maybe you want to pull together a working group to discuss a topic, or maybe you just want to see if anyone is ready to take a break and meet up for coffee.

In the new Messenger beta, you can create a group and invite people to join. As members join and come online, the group lights up, and you can start chatting with anyone in the group who is online. By expanding the group in the main window of Messenger, you can see the list of members, and even start a conversation with someone you don’t know yet. Groups are a great way to collaborate, but also to meet new people or deepen your relationships.

What, no green guy anymore?

Messenger has always been about putting people at the center of your experience. The  new design for showing your online status makes it easier than ever to see when the people you care about are available for chatting.    

You can choose to display your contacts using one of 3 display picture sizes, or just show a small colored square that indicates the online status of each contact. We’ve also color-coded the display picture frames, which makes it easy to see when contacts are available (green), busy (red), away (yellow), or offline (gray).

And yes, we have set the green buddy icon free from the online status system. He and his blue pal are still at the center of our brand, logo, and Messenger icons, and they’ll always be with us. But we think the new design is cleaner, less ambiguous, and works well across all of Windows Live.

What do you think?

There have been a lot of changes in this version of Messenger. We got rid of a lot of things that had been hanging around for a while and weren’t getting the kind of use we’d like to see. We hope this has made the experience a lot cleaner, easier, and more fun to use.

We’d love to hear your feedback on the new design and experience, so we can continue to improve. And we’re looking forward to the full release, and hope that you are, too.

- Steven

We at Microsoft couldn’t help but notice there’s been a lot of news around personal e-mail accounts this week. Don’t worry – we’re ready to help all the candidates, but it may require switching parties: to Windows Live Hotmail.  

With all the travel demands of campaigning, we realize it’s hard to keep in touch with friends and family. That’s where we come in: we want to help you keep your life in sync. Now is a great time to go get Windows Live IDs for you and your entire family.  We’re even willing to help outfit your entire campaigns with Windows Live IDs! Go ahead, get creative. We did! Here are a few of our team’s favorite suggestions:

maverick4pres@live.com
hockeymom4veep@live.com
Barackandroll08@live.com
justbidenmytime4VP@live.com

With a Live ID, you’ll be able to stay connected via Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Photo Gallery, and Windows Live for mobile. Don’t worry, it’s easier than ever to transfer your contacts to Windows Live. This is one party switch that you won’t regret! 

Best regards,

Walter Harp

As promised, the public betas of the latest version of the Windows Live suite of PC applications are now available for download.  Go to http://download.live.com/ and get the newest Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Toolbar, and Family Safety.

Hope you enjoy the latest Windows Live enhancements, and we look forward to hearing your feedback.

Chris

To those of you new to our blog, let me first say welcome! And for those of you who’ve been here before, it’s great to meet you. I’m Chris Jones and I lead the program management team for Windows Live. We’re hard at work on the next major release of Windows Live, and in the coming weeks and months we will be updating this blog with more details about the new features and design goals of our products.

Before we get to the future of Windows Live, I’d like to cover where we’ve been and where we are today. Our goal with Windows Live is to build a suite of software and services that help you get to your information from any device and keep up with the people you care about, using a variety of services. We recognized from the start that this journey would take several years to complete, and would require coordination across our products in a new way to bring them all together. As a result, we decided to plan and release updates to Windows Live in waves. A wave generally spans anywhere from a few months to more than a year and is a coordinated release of web-based services, PC software, and mobile experiences. Of course we regularly update our products throughout each wave, so you’ll often see new features show up, not just at the end of a wave.

Our first wave, completed in 2006, focused on bringing together several existing online services including Hotmail, Messenger, and Spaces – into a single Windows Live release.

Our next wave focused on creating a suite of PC software to enhance the Windows and Windows Mobile experiences, designed to work best when connected to our suite of web-based services. We brought the Photo Gallery and Mail applications for your PC into the Windows Live family and created a new blogging tool called Windows Live Writer, all part of a desktop suite. We also introduced a number of new web services including Events, SkyDrive, Calendar, and Family Safety. We released updates to Hotmail, Messenger, and Spaces and brought all of our web services together with a common header (a set of links at the top of the page) and a new home page (http://home.live.com). And finally we introduced Windows Live experiences for mobile phones including downloads for Windows Mobile devices and browser-based services for web-enabled mobile devices. This wave of releases completed in 2007.

We have spent the last year working on our next major wave of releases for Windows Live. This wave is part of our ongoing work to build a great set of communication and sharing experiences that help keep your life in sync. This wave includes significant updates to our software applications for your Windows PC, and in the next few hours, we will release public betas of the latest version of the Windows Live suite of PC applications, including Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Toolbar, and Family Safety. You’ll find new features across the products and most notably, Windows Live Messenger has been almost entirely redesigned. I’m sure many of you will have questions, and, over the coming weeks, we’ll have individuals from the engineering team share more about what we have built and why we made the investments we made. Our intent is to post regularly to this blog, and if there are topics you think we should cover, please leave a comment or send me an e-mail at chris.jones@microsoft.com.

One thing we know will be important to all of you will be the “feedback loop” - where you can offer suggestions and we take those suggestions and improve our products. We are avid users of Windows Live ourselves and we’re always combing blogs, newsgroups, and articles that are highlighting feedback and usage of Windows Live. We’ve enabled comments on these posts and our plan is to read and treat everything as input into our designs. We will also participate in the comments, but we can’t answer every single request. In addition to this blog, our products are all part of the Customer Experience Improvement Program, an anonymous, opt-in, and private mechanism whereby we can learn about how customers really use our products. We pay very close attention to this data and will talk more about it in posts in the future. You can help by opting in to share this information with us.

With that, I’ll sign off for now, and I look forward to continuing our discussion about Windows Live. I encourage you to download the new betas from http://download.live.com later today and start using them immediately so that you can enjoy the latest Windows Live enhancements. And of course, please send us your feedback as we’d love to hear what you think.

Chris

You can get translations of this blog in many languages through the Windows Live Translator service.