Microsoft Download Center Archive
 | Windows Live Essentials |
Windows Live Essentials was a suite of free add-on software from Microsoft. It replaced many built-in features of Windows XP and Windows Vista.
 | Windows Live Family Safety: Help keep your kids safer online. With Family Safety, you decide how your kids experience the Internet. You can block or allow certain websites and contacts, and monitor where your kids are going online. |
 | Windows Live Mail: With Windows Live Mail on your desktop, you can access multiple e-mail accounts in one program, plus your calendar, newsgroups, and feeds. And it’s part of Windows Live, so you can view your calendar online, and see when Messenger contacts are available to chat. Replaces Outlook Express included with Windows XP, and Windows Mail included with Windows Vista. |
 | Windows Live Messenger: Send instant messages to contacts or groups, play games, share pictures as you chat, and see what’s new with people you know. Formerly known as MSN Messenger. The Windows Live Messenger online service is no longer available. |
| Windows Live Messenger Companion: See and comment on links your friends have shared as you visit websites in Internet Explorer. The Windows Live Messenger online service is no longer available. |
 | Windows Live Movie Maker: Add and arrange video clips and photos, add a soundtrack, preview your movie, and then publish it to one of several popular video sites. Replaces Windows Movie Maker included with Windows XP and Windows Vista. Requires Windows Vista or later. |
 | Windows Live Photo Gallery: Easily edit, view, organize, and share your favorite photos. You can also tag people in photos, stitch photos together into panoramas, and more. |
 | Windows Live Writer: Create great-looking blog posts, including photos, videos, maps, events, and tags, and publish them to almost any blog service—Windows Live, WordPress, Blogger, Live Journal, TypePad, and many more. Requires support for Windows Live Writer from your blog service, which may no longer be available. |
 | Bing Bar: With Bing Bar you can search Bing anytime, instantly access Hotmail, Facebook, news, weather, and more. Formerly known as Windows Live Toolbar. |
 | Microsoft Outlook Connector Pack: With Outlook Connector, you can use Outlook 2003, 2007, or 2010 to access and manage your Windows Live Hotmail or Office Live Mail accounts, including e-mail messages, calendar and contacts for free! |
| Microsoft Office Live Add-in: Save your documents online for free. The Office Live Add-in for Microsoft Office lets you open and save documents directly from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to your online workspace. |
 | Microsoft OneDrive: Keep your files, photos, and videos automatically backed up and available on all your devices. Formerly known as SkyDrive. Replaces Windows Live Mesh. This older version is no longer functional. |
 | Microsoft Silverlight: Enhance your experience with photos and videos on Windows Live and MSN, including rich slideshows and high-definition video. In addition, enjoy a superior browsing experience across many popular news, sports, and entertainment sites powered by Microsoft Silverlight technology. |
In Windows 8, and further in Windows 10, most Essentials apps were replaced by apps included with Windows, or available from the Microsoft Store.
Note: Support for the Windows Live Essentials suite ended on 10 January 2017. Features that rely on online services are likely to no longer be available.
A graphics card supporting DirectX 10 or later is recommended. To use Windows Live Movie Maker and Windows Live Photo Gallery on an “N” or “KN” edition of Windows, install the Media Feature Pack. Burn to DVD in Windows Live Movie Maker requires Windows Vista or Windows 7 with Windows DVD Maker installed. Importing MPEG-2 content on Windows 8 or 8.1 requires Windows Media Center or a third-party MPEG-2 codec. Windows Live Essentials 2011 and 2012 require an SSE2-capable processor.
The downloads below are archives provided by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine from the Windows Live website.
Windows Live Essentials 2009
Also known as “Wave 3”. Final version released for Windows XP.
Includes:
 | Windows Live Family Safety |
 | Windows Live Mail |
 | Windows Live Messenger |
 | Windows Live Movie Maker |
 | Windows Live Photo Gallery |
 | Windows Live Toolbar |
 | Windows Live Writer |
| Microsoft Office Live Add-in |
| Microsoft Office Outlook Connector |
 | Microsoft Silverlight |
Operating Systems: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
Windows Live Movie Maker requires Windows Vista or later.
Windows Live Essentials 2011
Also known as “Wave 4”.
Includes:
 | Windows Live Family Safety |
| Windows Live Mail |
 | Windows Live Mesh |
| Windows Live Messenger |
| Windows Live Messenger Companion |
| Windows Live Movie Maker |
| Windows Live Photo Gallery |
| Windows Live Writer |
 | Bing Bar |
| Microsoft Office Live Add-in |
| Microsoft Outlook Connector |
| Microsoft Silverlight |
Operating Systems: Windows Vista, Windows 7
Windows Essentials 2012
Also known as “Wave 5”. This is the final release of the Windows Essentials suite.
Includes:
| Windows Live Family Safety |
| Windows Live Mail |
| Windows Live Messenger |
| Windows Live Writer |
| Windows Movie Maker |
| Windows Photo Gallery |
 | Microsoft OneDrive |
| Microsoft Outlook Connector |
Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1
Under Windows Server 2008, Service Pack 2 and the Platform Update Supplement (KB2117917) must be installed. Windows Vista is not supported.
Windows Live Family Safety requires Windows 7. The feature was integrated into Windows 8.
Requires .NET Framework 4.0 or later. To avoid receiving “An unknown error occurred” with error code 0x80040705, install .NET Framework 4.6.1 or a later version before installing Windows Essentials 2012.
Open Live Writer
 | Looking to run Windows Live Writer on Windows 10 or 11? Open Live Writer is an open source fork of Windows Live Writer, maintained by the .NET Foundation to run on modern versions of Windows. |