*Windows Essentials 2012* may have shed its Live branding but it is still a
great starter pack of useful applications. Windows usually comes with a
dearth of apps out of the box but Windows Essentials 2012 solves this
problem. It's a *big download* but that's because it comes with Live
*Messenger*, *Photo Gallery*, *SkyDrive*, *Live Mail*, *Live Writer*, and
*Movie Maker*. Let's take a deeper look at each program. *Windows Live
Messenger* Windows Live Messenger hasn't seen much changed. There's tabbed
browsing, Facebook/Linkedin integration, and the ability to log chats. The
interface is almost exactly the same as Windows Live Messenger 2011. We would
have *liked to have seen some more changes* to make Windows Live Messenger
2012 relevant in this crowded space. See our full review of Windows Live
Messenger 2012 here. *Photo Gallery* Photo Gallery and Movie Maker are the
highlights of Windows Essentials 2012 as they received the biggest overhaul.
Both programs are now designed for Windows 8 in mind and feature the
Microsoft ribbon interface. You can now *tag people in photos in bulk*.
There's still great social network integration for quick, seamless sharing.
There is also a new '*auto collage*' feature which blends photos you choose
into one fluid picture. *SkyDrive* SkyDrive is perhaps the least exciting but
necessary app included in Windows Essentials 2012. Similar to Dropbox's
approach, SkyDrive creates a folder that syncs to the cloud and between
machines. Make a change to a document on one machine and every other machine
you have linked to your SkyDrive will update that document to the latest
version. *Integration is seamless* and you'll soon forget about it, which is
good. *Windows Live Mail* While competitors Apple has their default Mail
application, *Windows doesn't come with a mail client out of the box*.
Windows Essentials 2012 solves this by bundling Windows Live Mail. It is a
*solid mail client* that offers a good way to manage your mail on the
desktop. There's an *offline mode* but Live Mail offers little benefit to
those who want to manage their mail exclusively in a browser. The Outlook.com
redesign helps to make the web site feel like an app so Live mail might not
benefit users who prefer the web interface. *Windows Live Writer* Windows
Live Writer is the oddball of Windows Essentials 2012. It is basically a
writing app that integrates with your *Blogger*, *Wordpress*, *SharePoint*,
and other blogging services. You can write, attach photos, and edit the theme
of your blog from the application but its features are limited enough that
users may as well use the website to make changes. It's a *basic WYSIWYG
editor* that lacks features that would be useful for intermediate and expert
bloggers. *Windows Movie Maker* Last but not least, we have Windows Movie
Maker, which is the stand out application of Windows Essentials 2012. This
basic video editing tool remains great while offering a few new features.
Movie Maker now takes advantage of *hardware acceleration*, which will speed
up video exporting and encoding. There is also a new *video stabilization
feature*, which will be a boon to those with cameras that don't offer this
feature. Videos now *output to h.264 by default*. The interface of Movie
Maker has stayed the same for the most part but integrating audio is easier
as you can now look up music from services like AudioMicro, Free Music
Archive, and Vimeo Music Store. The video *timeline also features a wav form*
so you can easily see where audio is placed within the video. *Final Words*
*Windows Essentials 2012 is a great suite of applications that will satisfy
most Windows users. While some of its included apps struggle for relevance,
many included apps are actually very useful. Best of all, its free and you
can select which programs you want to install so you aren't forced to install
the entire Windows Essentials 2012 suite.*Download *Windows Essentials 2012
16.4.3503.0728* in Softonic
