Download Windows Live Essentials to restore common Windows apps

If you’re a Windows XP user who has just migrated to Windows 7, you’re likely to notice a few old friends missing: notably, a mail client (Outlook Express) and Windows Movie Maker. And if you’re using Vista, the Windows Mail, Movie Maker, and Photo Gallery apps might be conspicuous by their absence in 7.

In Windows 7, Microsoft has moved these programs off-OS and made them part of a downloadable package of apps called “Windows Live Essentials.” (Why, if they’re “Essentials,” they’re not included as part of the OS is another story, though.) This is the Live Essentials page; the download link is below (click the page image to go there now, if you like):

You’ll need to sign up for a free Windows Live account to download the lot. (You may well already have one.) You may or may not need Live Essentials, depending on the e-mail client you tend to use and whether you already own some favorite photo- and video-editing software, but we think the download is worth the trouble, regardless. For one thing, the Windows Photo Gallery app has been bulked up a bit from Vista’s; it now has more editing functions, so it can be a time saver versus launching a full-featured photo editor. And Windows Movie Maker, as in Vista, incorporates the ability to burn a DVD Video direct from the app, so no need to fire up Nero, Roxio, or another big burning app for straightforward jobs. Check out the Live Essentials pack at http://download.live.com.