Today is an incredibly exciting day for our team as we finally get to talk about what we’ve been working on and to let you know about some of the future plans for our product, especially as Windows Live Hotmail just launched.

In just a few short weeks, a beta release of our new consumer email client – Windows Live Mail – will be available for download!  No longer will there be any such thing as WLMd – that’s all in the past!  Time to look forward… J

I know many of you have been wondering what the team has been up to since we haven’t posted on the Blog or provided a new Beta build to you for a number of months…  Well, hopefully this post will help answer some of those questions for you.  Here’s a small glimpse into what you can expect from the upcoming Windows Live Mail builds…

Name Change

I’m sure one of the first things you’re going to notice is the new name.  But, it’s more than a name – it’s a step forward.  We’re bringing in features from OE, Windows Mail AND Windows Live Mail desktop.

I know some of you saw this coming after WL Hotmail announced their name change from WL Mail.  Back then I couldn’t comment on what the new name would be, but now we can talk a little more openly with you.  The WL Mail team is very psyched about this new name – if for no other reason than it’s just a lot less wordy. ;-)

What You Can Expect

If you’re wondering whether or not all this time we’ve been keeping quiet was just due to the pending name change, I can assure you it’s not.  We have been working hard and the upcoming release will contain a number of new features, as well as some updates to the ones that already existed. 

Windows Live Mail will include all the great features that were available to you in WLMd, plus:

• ·               New and improved UI:  Cleaner design, and now with Aero support!
• ·               Setup and account migration improvements:  Smoother experience overall - you will now have fewer steps in order to get started with the client.
• ·               More parity with OE and Windows Mail:  S/MIME and LDAP support are just two of the features that we’ve been working on for WLM which will bring us more parity with our other free Mail clients.
• ·               Performance and stability:  The new product will be faster and more robust than WLMd.
• ·               No Ads:  Yes, it’s true – there will be no graphical ads in the WLM beta build.

Availability

After all this build-up I bet you’re wondering when you can get it and how…  The download will be available in another few weeks – but it’s not too far off on the horizon!

I can still give a few specific details though so you will know where to go when the build actually is ready…

• ·               WLM downloads will be available from http://get.live.com/betas. 
• ·               Just like WLMd, we will support install on XPSP2 and Windows Vista.

That’s all folks!

I guess that’s about it for this Blog post!  Keep your eyes peeled for install info.  You won’t have to wait very long, and once I have more details for you I will be sure to send out an update…

We are really excited to be getting back out there with a new product and can’t wait to hear what you think!  We have re-enabled “comments” on this blog, so tell us what you think!

See the press release for Windows Live Hotmail which also mentions Windows Live Mail: WL Hotmail Press Release.

Bye for now!

--Tanja