How to Install Windows Live Essentials 2011 Tools

Microsoft has launched at the end of September Windows Live Essentials 2011 - a package of 10 free programs: Messenger, Photo Gallery and Movie Maker, Mail, Writer, Family Safety, Windows Live Mesh, Messenger Companion, Bing Bar, Outlook Connector Pack and Microsoft Silverlight. You might have used many of these tools in their older incarnations. With this pack you get the latest version of these programs, enhanced with lots of new features. In this article I will show all the steps you need to go through in order to install the tools in this suite and also share which are the system requirements.

System Requirements

The first thing you need to know before installing Windows Live Essentials 2011 is if your computer meets the requirements: Windows 7 or Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 installed, a minimum of 1.6 GHz processor, 1 Gb of RAM memory or higher, at least a 1024x576 screen resolution. In order to use Windows Live Movie Maker you should also have a video card that supports DirectX 9 or higher and Shader Model 2 or higher. I know it might sound like gibberish, so let me simplify. If you have a computer with Windows Vista Service Pack 2 or Windows 7 installed and your computer is not older than 2 years, most probably all the tools in this pack will work. If Windows 7 runs fine on your computer, these tools will work as well.

Upgrading from Windows Live Essentials 2010 to 2011

Our readers highlighted the fact that, upgrading from the 2010 version to 2011 via Windows Update doesn't work very well. It is best to uninstall the 2010 version, restart your computer and then install the 2011 version using the instructions below.
For more information on this topic, check out the comments below the article.

Install Windows Live Essentials 2011

Go to the Windows Live website and click Download now.

Double click the wlsetup-web.exe file that was downloaded to begin the installation. You can choose to either install all the Windows Live Essentials tools or choose a specific subset, according to your needs.

If you select the option 'Choose the programs you want to install' you will see the list of all the available programs. Check the box in front of a program if you want it installed and uncheck the boxes for the programs you don't want to install. If you already have one or more applications installed, they will be automatically updated. Press the Install button after you selected the applications you want.

You can see the installation progress in the window below. The installer will first download the applications you selected and then install them. Therefore, depending on your network connection speed, this can be a short procedure or a long one.

Click on the 'View details' button to see the installation percentage and the application that is currently installing.

You will be required to restart your computer when the installation completes. Save your work and close all applications before restarting your computer.

You can now use the applications included in Windows Live Essentials 2011. Go to Start -> All programs and you can find the shortcuts for: Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Movie Maker and Windows Live Photo Gallery.

If you go to Start -> All programs -> Windows Live, you will find the shortcuts for Windows Live Family Safety, Mesh and Writer.

NOTE: Microsoft Silverlight will also have its own folder in the Start Menu. Messenger Companion, Bing Bar and Outlook Connector Pack do not have shortcuts in the Start Menu. If you selected them and the installation processes completed without errors, it means they got installed. More information about these tools will be provided in future articles.

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