Live Essentials Update

Once again, in almost complete silence, Microsoft has updated the Live Essentials series of programs. For those of us in English speaking areas, the revision level is 14.0.8089.726 en. It is a minor update, and I would have never known about it, except that someone on Betanews had put up new installers for the Live Messenger and Live Mail products. (I put up a note there wondering aloud how it was they knew.)

If one goes to the Live! site, a download stub can be gotten (or the entire installer can be downloaded, about 141 MB), which updates all the programs to the same revision level. The Live! site is, however, starting to look as though Microsoft is losing interest in this, so I wonder how much longer these products will continue.

Though I would like to be able to tell you about the changes in the products, I cannot, as it appears to be another Microsoft secret. If hard pressed, I’d probably say that the changes are last minute tweaks, to fix problems with Windows 7 integration, as I see absolutely nothing different on two machines running Windows XP SP3.

Though I fully get that these are free, I do believe that we, as consumers of this stuff, have the right to know what is happening with these products, yet Microsoft, in usual fashion, chooses to leave us in the dark. There is no list of changes after the install. There is no preface to the install, giving a heads up about changes. Also, there is nothing on the Live! website, nor is there anything in the Windows Live team blog – where, as a matter of last resort, one might expect to find at least a paragraph or two about this.

Alas, there is nothing. Instead, we find a self-congratulatory barrage about the Windows Live Movie Maker product, accompanied by a rather lame excuse about why XP was left out of the party.

Microsoft has a long time tradition of never admitting any faults that have not been pointed out from outside Redmond. I’m guessing this is going to continue to be a tradition for as long as Mr. Ballmer is at the helm.

Someone there (in Redmond) needs to be made aware that people like to know what has changed, what fixes have been made, and that admitting mistakes is not a bad thing. Everything touched by humans has mistakes, and the fact that mistakes are caught inspires confidence that work continues to improve things for the consumer.

Microsoft, thanks for several programs that work fairly well. (I am writing this using Windows Live Writer) Sincerely. But a big, long raspberry for no change list, or other means of letting us know where things have changed, and allowing us to know where we need to ask for change in the future.

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p.s. Mr. Ballmer, just because I think Internet Exploder stinks does not mean I don’t like many of your products. If you could see your way clear to stop dancing for a short time, and level with us, we would all be much happier. (In the words of John Lennon) Gimme some truth!

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