Microsoft is making readily available the beta bits of its subsequent Windows Reside Essentials Wave 4 suite as as of Thursday, June 24.Once the beta is released on June 24, it'll be out there for download here through the Microsoft Live.com site.This beta of Windows Reside Essentials (for those who will need a refresher on Microsoft;s complicated nomenclature) is actually a subset with the Windows Reside Wave 4 companies. In contrast to some of the Windows Live solutions, these inside the Essentials family members contain both a software along with a services element. The Essentials suite is bound with each other by a common installer.Members with the Essentials family members include the new Photograph ##############,
Windows 7 Code, Movie Maker,
Buy Office 2010, Reside Sync (which includes Reside Mesh),
Windows 7 Starter Key, Writer and Mail. The Windows Reside Wave four consumer software will not work on Windows XP.Microsoft is positioning the new Essentials suite as its means of “connecting
Windows 7 to the cloud”and also as its competitor to Apple;s iLife suite.
(Speaking of
Windows 7, Microsoft also announced this evening that it has sold 150 million
Windows 7 licenses since October 2009.)The Live Essentials team has been talking up the Essentials family since earlier this summer,
Office 2007 Professional Plus Key, declining to provide specific beta or final ship targets. It has been rumored for a while now that the Essentials suite would go to beta this week, but Microsoft officials wouldn;t confirm that until June 23 via this blog post. Windows Reside team members also are not saying when to expect the final,
Windows 7 X86, other than before the end of 2010. According to one tipster who;s been pretty reliable around the Windows Live rollout schedule, Microsoft;s current plan is to deliver the final Essentials release in September 2010, which already is really a month later than originally planned.Microsoft delivered the beta of Windows Live Wave 4 Hotmail on June 15, noting it could take numerous weeks for customers to get the beta bits, as it takes a while to get that code deployed on Microsoft;s servers.The rumored final name of the new Live Essentials suite is Windows Live Essentials 2011. Microsoft has yet to confirm that name officially.As soon as any interested testers have a chance to try out the new bits, I;d be interested in hearing what you like and don;t….