Ok, now it’s Windows Live Photo Gallery’s (WLPG) turn. Read my views on other Windows Live Apps here.

Firstly, WLPG is a very refined photo management software. It’s interface is familiar to the Windows Explorer and let you perform most of the functions that you can perform on a folder through explorer.

Second, WLPG’s online uploads land in Windows Live Sky Drive, which means you have 25GB of online storage at disposal.

I am trying to compare it to Picasa, which is currently very popular and see where it stands:

So that’s a quick feature to feature comparison of WLPG, Picasa and Shutterfly. Lack of ability to upload to third party sites in Picasa needs to be plugged as soon as possible. I just wish it had a shorter name like Picasa. Anyway, there are few unique features that I want to highlight.

The photos uploaded on Sky Drive can be downloaded at one go, like Picasa. However with many other tools you need to download every photo separately. You can either download the entire album or download them as a ZIP file. Also the feature  to sync the whole library, will make it even simpler to keep your photos synced with Sky Drive. The Sync Library option is disabled right now and should open up soon, in the meanwhile you can publish pictures to Sky Drive using Publish option. While Picasa offers a similar functionality, it is a bit crippled by low free of cost space.

Talking about the online storage you have the standard share features and ability to order prints via HP Snapfish.

Finally I would say that, Windows Live Photo Gallery is a very good addition and is a must have on your PC for the ease of use and host of other features. Also, keep Picasa for those cool collages it can make.

Popularity: 77%

It’s time to review another product of Windows Live, after my previous reviews.

I have been using various online storage options for quite sometime. Before Yahoo shutdown its photos service and moved to Flickr, I was using Yahoo for my online photo storage. I later switched to Shutterfly, which offers unlimited photo storage.

For my document storage, I have mostly used my Hotmail and Gmail accounts. But sharing those documents stored there with someone actually meant forwarding them.

Windows Live Sky Drive (WLSD), might just help addressing such problems.

To begin with WLSD, like all Windows Live applications needs a Windows Live ID. As you soon as you have your ID, you already have access to 25 GB of online storage, free of cost.

You can visit WLSD at Sky Drive . The following are the features that WLSD provides.

• 25 GB of Storage
• File sizes up to 50 MB
• Folders, Permissions at folder levels
• Permissions at file levels
• Shared Folders
• Public Folders
• Access permissions within people network
• Photos Can be added directly from Windows Live Photo Gallery
• Order prints Directly from Sky Drive through HP Snapfish.

You can add files to the folder on Sky Drive Share them as single files, folders or for photos you can share them as album. The online slide show rendered in Microsoft Silverlight is excellent.

The best reason to switch to Sky Drive is its integration with Windows Live Photo Gallery. You can pick any photos folder on your computer and upload it to the Sky Drive directly. I will write more about Windows Live Photo Gallery in a separate post.

If you have multiple Windows Live IDs, you can link them all to avoid logging in and out multiple times and keep viewing all the files.

So say if you have two Windows Live IDs then you already have 50GB of online storage. Definitely worthwhile, while rest of the services like Picasa and Flickr are offering paltry 1GB and 100MB Monthly limits.

Go Explore!

Popularity: 27%

In my earlier posts I have introduced you to the Windows Live Applications Family and have reviewed Windows Live Writer.

In today’s post I would like to write my views on Windows Live Sync (WLS).

WLS was earlier called Windows Folder Share in its Beta. WLS uses a Windows Live ID and helps keep folders in sync between different computers. This is especially useful when you have multiple computers at home and need few files to be available on all of them, especially photos, videos and your CVs perhaps in these turbulent times .

What particularly enticing about WLS is that none of the biggies Google, Apple, Yahoo or others have a similar service available at this time and it is available for both PCs and Apple MACs.

Anyway, what WLS does is, helps you configured folders on each computer that can be shared and synced with other computers. What’s more, it also allows you to access these files from Internet, if the selected computer is online and you have granted the permission to do so. Cool ain’t it?

So, here’s how you can configure it:

1) Go to WLS software from Live Sync

2) Install it on the PC or MAC, once installed you will be prompted to enter your Windows Live ID. Enter it and you are set. You need to do this on all computers that you want to sync.

3) Go the sync website

4) Select a folder from the computer to sync

5) Then add computers which need this folder to be synced

You can also enable remote folder access, which means you can access contents of your hard drive from anywhere via Live Sync .

Sounds very simple and cool. Yes it is. As it stands I have 3 of my home computers on sync and web access enabled.

But is there a catch? Not really but a few limitations.

• Can sync up to 20 folders
• Each folder can only have 20000 files
• Max file size 4GB

Now I don’t exactly call those limitations for personal use.

Happy syncing!

Popularity: 19%

Before we get started a quick dope on Microsoft’s status in today’s Web 2.0-3.0 era. Google clearly had a head start. It is (un)common knowledge that Microsoft could not catch up with Google’s search when Google was still new, because it was busy sorting things out with DOJ (Department of Justice) regarding its lawsuits and was banned till 2007 from any anti-competitive behaviour.

By the time Microsoft was ready, Google was an Internet Goliath, which made a PC Goliath like Microsoft become David in this Internet war.

Microsoft appointed, Ray Ozzie, as it’s Architect for future and Live services is his brainchild. Live set of services are designed to complement PC functionality in Web 2.0 Era. All the applications in Live Services are Internet aware and designed to enable accessibility and get users into the center of cloud computing.

The Windows Live applications that Microsoft offers are following:

• Hotmail (Email)
• Messenger (Instant Messenger)
• Writer (Reviewed earlier)
• Photo Gallery
• Movie Maker (Vista and above)
• Toolbar
• Family Safety
• Sky drive (Online storage)
• Spaces (Blogging)
• Sync (File Sync Solution)

All of these are available as a single download from Live Home . All of these services need you to have a Windows Live ID, which is free.

As it stands today Live stands 4^th top used website after Yahoo.com (1^st), Google.com (2^nd), Youtube.com (3^rd). (source: Alexa.com)

I will share a review on many of these products and a comparison with a similar tool available in my next posts.

Popularity: 20%