Windows Live Essentials 2011 brings good, bad in equal measure

[DorsetBoy]

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/10/windows-live-essentials-2011-brings-good-bad-in-equal-measure.ars

The final version of Windows Live Essentials 2011 is now available to download. The all-in-one bundle of mail client, instant messenger, movie editor, blog editor, and more, runs on Windows Vista and Windows 7—Windows XP users need not apply.

We've already had a detailed look at Messenger and Live Mesh (which at the time was called Live Sync). The positives are much the same now as they were then; Messenger's social integration works well, its Facebook chat is useful, and its tabbed chats extremely welcome, if overdue.

Unfortunately, criticisms leveled at those products in the beta are just as valid in the final version.

Messenger has lost widely-used features like one-way webcam chats, the ability to hide that you have a webcam installed (especially popular among teenagers and children, who might want to use their camera but don't want to advertise that they have one), and the ability to have nicknames. Microsoft claims that the webcam features were ditched as part of the development of HD video calling. I don't doubt that HD video calling works, but I don't have the hardware to use it; nor does anyone on my contact list (though Microsoft's HD webcam does look appealing). As such, it seems a bitter pill to swallow. The distaste is exacerbated by the fact that the new video calling appears to place considerably greater demands on my processor than the old webcam feature, enough to cause noticeable slow-downs.....(more)

Given the comments about the changes to Messenger, this will be an update we won't allow.

[Niall]

Seems a bit pointless removing the ability to have a nickname, especially considering the vast majority of people online use them. I can't think of a reason to do this, other than they want kids to see the real name of people they're talking to, which is also pointless as you can create an account with a fake name

[pctech]

I've given up using Messenger as one of my contact's machines got a virus and I got showered with spam so I've closed the ports on the router and uninstalled it.

[Niall]

Over reaction much?

Inform the contact, block the contact, job done.

[Technical Ben]

Nope. Not really. I don't get viruses when I use skype. I don't get them when I use Steam (friends list) or facebook. Messenger seems to always be a culprit.

[DorsetBoy]

It's not Messenger that is to blame so much as the idiots that use it and do not have their machines correctly protected. Messenger has the settings to scan all files received by either your own AV system or by using the freely available MS Family Safety options. Some AV's like avast! have shields for popular Messneger/Skpe/P2P systems which give full protection.

It comes down to one thing only..... stupidity  , no protection in place and no common sense about what is accepted and opened.

[Niall]

I agree. I always set my AV to scan any and all files received via msn. That being said, I only get sent ogg files from my mate when he's recorded his latest guitar tracks, so I know it's safe, but I still scan them all the same