In this article, we’ll talk about how you can download and install Windows Live Essentials.
As you might know, Windows Live Essentials (later named Windows Essentials) is no longer supported by Microsoft. The Windows Live Essentials suite has a good set of programs that includes Movie Maker, Photo Gallery, Mail, Messenger, Writer, and OneDrive. In January 2017, Microsoft discontinued the Windows Essentials and its no longer available for download. Microsoft removed all the download links from Windows Essentials’ official webpage.
But, thankfully, an archived copy of Windows Essentials 2012 suite is available on Archive.org. You can download it from there and install in on your Windows PC running Windows 7 or later. As this is an archive copy, not all the programs are working in this suite. Messenger service is discounted by Microsoft so, it doesn’t work at all. Mail works partially but there is a new Mail app in Windows 10. Writer and OneDrive have new standalone installers which you can download from their respective websites. The remaining programs, Movie Maker and Photo Gallery work just fine as before.
So, basically, if you are a fan of Windows Movie Maker and Photo Gallery and want them back on your Windows PC, you can get them in this suite.
Also read: How to Add Annotation to Video in Windows Movie Maker
How To Download, Install Windows Live Essentials?
To get the Windows Live Essentials on your PC running Windows 7 or later, follow this link and download the suite from the Archive.org. There, you’ll find 6 files, download the Windows executable file “wlsetup-all.exe” which is around 131 MB in size. There is also a torrent file for the same Windows Essentials suite, you can use that as well.
Once the file is downloaded, simply run it to install the Windows Essentials on your PC. When you run this file, it asks you to choose what you want to install. Since not all programs are working so, select the second option that allows you to choose the programs you want to install.
This Windows Live Essentials 2012 package contains the following programs:
- Movie Maker
- Photo Gallery
- Mail (support limited)
- Messenger (no longer functional)
- Writer (newer version available)
- OneDrive (newer version available)
The programs you can actually use in this suite are Photo Gallery and Movie Maker. You can also install OneDrvie, Mail, and Writer, but since all of them have newer versions available, installing an older version doesn’t seem okay to me.
So, just choose the programs you want and click the Install button to install them on your PC.
You can download Windows Live Essentials 2012 from here.
Closing Words:
By following this simple tutorial, you can easily install the Windows Live Essentials suite on your PC. With this suite, you can get the Movie Maker and Photo Gallery back on your Windows PC.
