Windows Live is the collective brand name for a set of services and software products from Microsoft, first announced on November 1st, 2005, as a part of Microsoft's software plus services platform. A majority of these services are web applications accessible from a browser and client-side binary applications. There are three ways in which Windows Live services are offered: Windows Live Essentials applications, web services, and mobile services.
Today, Windows Live services are used by over 500 million people every month. There has been a lot of discussion recently on what constitutes an “active” user of a service; for the purposes of this post this term refers to people who use Hotmail, SkyDrive, or Messenger at least once a month, meaning they send email, use instant messaging, or upload files to SkyDrive.
These services run at massive scale - Hotmail is one of the world’s leading web email service, with 350 million active users and 105 petabytes of storage; Messenger is also one of the world’s leading instant messaging service, with 300 million active users, and SkyDrive has over 130 million users with 17 million of these uploading files every month. Windows Live Essentials applications are among the most popular applications in their categories on Windows - including Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Movie Maker, leading in photo management and video editing, and Windows Live Mail, second only to Microsoft Outlook in mail apps.
While these results are certainly noteworthy, these numbers still did not meet Microsoft's expectations of a truly connected experience. Windows Live services and apps were built on versions of Windows that were simply not designed to be connected to a cloud service for anything other than updates. This created some amount of customer confusion, which is noted in several reviews and editorials. The names Microsoft used to describe their products added to that complexity: Microsoft used “Windows Live" to refer to software for user's PC (Windows Live Essentials), a suite of web-based services (Hotmail, SkyDrive, and Messenger), user's account relationship with Microsoft (Windows Live ID), and a host of other offers.
Microsoft believe that the users should have a choice and control over what services they use, what information they share with others and Microsoft, and how they access their services.
Windows Live Branding with Windows 8
Microsoft is doing away with the Windows Live brand. The Windows Live Essentials name for the collection of Windows add-ons - including Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Live Mesh and Family Safety - is going away. Other Windows Live services which were not part of Live Essentials - like Hotmail and SkyDrive - also are getting simpler names.
Microsoft account is the users' identity service for individuals who use Microsoft products and services. Users can use their Microsoft account to sign in to their Windows 8 PC, and then use the same account to check their billing for services like Xbox LIVE, Zune, and the Windows 8 app store. And their Microsoft account is connected to their Xbox gamer tag so they can track high scores and games. People can sign up for a Microsoft account with any email address, and provide additional verification information including mobile phone number and a list of their trusted devices. Windows will be rolling out the change in nomenclature from Windows Live ID to Microsoft account over the next several months across their product line.
When a user connects a device or service to his/her Microsoft account, the user is automatically provisioned with a set of cloud services, including a contact list, calendar, inbox, instant messaging, and cloud storage. Of course these services connect to the user's PC and his/her Windows Phone, they are accessible from any web browser, and they are accessible to different apps if the developer of the app implements Windows' API. Because these services are a part of the Microsoft account, they are shared across all Microsoft products and services. For example, contact list is shared across Windows Phone, Windows 8, Hotmail, Messenger, and SkyDrive, so when a user adds a contact in one place, it shows up in the cloud and on all of the user's other devices and services.
Windows 8 also uses cloud services to roam settings across PCs so users can log in to a new PC and pick up right where they left off. Along with a Microsoft account, everyone gets a SkyDrive, which is cloud storage for documents, photos, phone’s camera roll, and settings from PC. SkyDrive powers the Windows Phone camera roll, so every picture taken is automatically copied to the users' cloud photo album. SkyDrive makes it easy for users to share and collaborate on Office documents, either using Office Web Apps or Office client applications. And developers can use the SkyDrive APIs to provide an even deeper level of roaming and support in their apps if they choose.
Microsoft allows its users to connect their Microsoft account to other services. This means that if a user connect his/her Microsoft account to LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter, his/her contacts from these networks show up in the contact list. Microsoft also support 3rd party developers through the Live SDK, allowing developers to cloud-power their Metro style apps, or apps and services for other platforms.
Windows 8 is designed to be cloud-powered, so it comes with Metro style apps for communication, sharing, scheduling, photos, and videos. Preview versions of these apps come installed with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and include Mail, Calendar, People, Photos, Messaging, and SkyDrive. They are all powered by cloud services, with an account which merge other clients to enable the access of emails, calendar, contacts, messages, and shared photo albums in the user's apps.