We have been seeing a lot of rumors surrounding Windows 8 getting some sort of integration with Windows Live, but now Windows8Beta.com has received a picture from an anonymous source with even more evidence of such a feature.

The most revealing part of this supposed screenshot is the text: “You only need a single online ID and its password to log on to your computers that are running Windows 8.”

This is all just a rumor, so don’t give it to much thought, but this would not be a surprising move. We may finally be seeing a consolidation of Windows Live and Windows itself for once, which will be awesome.

Image Credit: windows8beta.com

A week ago I posted about a some information obtained from leaked builds of Windows 8 which would allow you to use an email account as a Windows account, which could have the possibility of logging you in on any computer running Windows 8.

Now it appears that someone has uncovered some new options in the Windows 8 Control Panel called Roaming Options, which allows you to choose what data should follow you around when you link an account to an email address. It is most likely the email address would need to be a Windows Live ID, but seeing as any email address can be a Windows Live ID, that’s not such a big deal.

The following information could be chosen to “roam” with you:

• Personalization – This would be things such as your desktop background and Aero glass color.
• Accessibility – Your options in the ease of access control panel, and magnifier, on screen keyboard and speech recognition settings.
• Language Settings – Your language profile, text prediction preferences, and IME dictionary.
• Application Settings – Application settings and search history.
• Windows Settings – Taskbar, Explorer, search and mouse settings.
• Credentials – Wireless network profiles and saved website credentials.

There are two other options under Network options, which allow you to choose whether or not your settings will roam on paid network and on networks with low bandwidth. Not too sure what the first one would be, but it might prevent syncing on 3G and 4G networks, which could cost you quite a bit of money. Then as for the low bandwidth option, Windows might detect whether or not the Internet connection is fast enough to not be a pain in the behind when syncing all the roaming data for your user account.

While this is a rumor, and nothing is set in stone, I can’t help but feel excited. After all, I use two computers: my desktop and netbook. It would be great if all my preferences and other application data would be in sync. Also, if anyone ever bought a new computer, whether it replaces an old one or not, all you would do is log in (either with your Windows Live ID, or you attach it to it) and your data is synchronized on your new computer. Wouldn’t that be nice?

One would assume for the applications themselves, a Windows Marketplace application would handle all of that, simply remembering which applications you own or have downloaded and installed, while Windows itself would sync all application settings. We know absolutely nothing of a Windows Marketplace for the next version of Windows, because what was previously thought to have been a possible “Window 8 App Store” screenshot, turned out to be a fake.

Thanks to the image by Long Zheng at istartedsomething.com

Did you know you could save notes on your Windows Live Profile? Did you know you could send private messages on Windows Live? Whether or not you answered yes or no to those questions, the fact of the matter is, these features have been removed, according to LiveSide.net.

LiveSide reports that the notes feature ended was discontinued yesterday, April 21. Anyone attempting to use the feature will see a lovely message like the one above. It is suggested you either use email or IM in the absence of this feature.

However, there are many other options for keeping notes, such as OneNote on Office Web Apps, OneNote in Microsoft Office, OneNote on Windows Phone, and even OneNote for the iPhone, which can all be synced to Windows Live SkyDrive.

LiveSide discovered that the private messages feature on Windows Live is also being shut down May 2011, though at least this time users are given prior notice.

Though this is no surprise for the private messaging feature. I personally never understood why Windows Live needed a private messaging system, after all, is Windows Live’s biggest (and most used) feature Hotmail? Is email not just a global messaging system? Why they ever added private messaging is beyond me.

In a recent Windows 8 M1 leak, it appears that some new interesting information about the next version of Windows has cropped up. From some text in files, it seems as though email accounts will be able to be used as Windows accounts, allowing you to synchronize things such as settings, favorites, and other content, according to Softpedia.

Seeing as this is information coming from a leaked build of Windows 8, no one can say what it means for sure, but it would be no surprise if these features did come to Windows 8 as Microsoft is beginning to move into the cloud.

I have to wonder though, will such synchronizing services be free? Sure, currently Microsoft gives Windows Live users 25GB of online storage with SkyDrive, but right now only 5GB of that limit can be used to synchronize files with Windows Live Mesh.

Maybe Microsoft will bump up the limit to the full 25GB and offer that for free, but any more than that would cost extra. Who knows, Windows 8 could even be an operating system that you don’t pay a license fee to use Windows, but a subscription fee for your Windows 8 account. Then if you don’t pay your fee (monthly, yearly, whatever) you couldn’t log on to your account.

After all, Microsoft is moving many of their services to the cloud and having subscription fees. A couple examples would be Office 365, with which you not only get the online services, but also the full-on Office suite attached to the subscription itself, and if you fail to pay, the Office suite on the desktop turns into Office Starter (not all Office 365 subscriptions come with the Office suite for the desktop, not the cheap plans, anyways). Another example is Windows InTune, for managing Windows from the cloud, and with the service you also get upgrade rights to Windows 7 Enterprise.
The best part of using such subscription services is when a new version of Office or Windows comes out, you get to upgrade to the newest version without forking over any massive amount of money. Sure, it is covered by the subscription fee, but it is not a huge upfront cost.

All of what I just said though is complete and utter speculation with no sources, but I can dream, can’t I?

HTML5 Hotmail

Mary Jo Foley has a contact which tells her that the next version of the Windows Live service (Wave 5) would feature an HTML5 Hotmail.

This may not sound too interesting, except for what her contact had to say: “The Softies are working on an HTML5 version of Hotmail with something that few people understand the consequences of: offline storage…. They are planning on replacing the Windows Live Mail client with it.”

Now wouldn’t that be nice? No longer would you need to install the desktop application, yet you could continue to access your email even while offline. Nothing amazing or revolutionary, just evolutionary, but nice nonetheless.

Hopefully Windows Live Hotmail won’t be so ugly in the next “wave,” either.

On March 1 Dharmesh Mehta, Director of Windows Live Product Management, announced that Windows Live Mesh hit an important milestone: they are now connecting over 5 million devices, with 3 million users syncing over 2.2 petabytes of data.

Windows Live Mesh was first launched on September 30, 2010, and uses SkyDrive to store the data. Currently SkyDrive is being used by over 70 million people, to store their documents, pictures, and any other files they want to be able to keep saved in the could.

That certainly is a lot of data, there is no doubt in that, but the announcement also mentions that the 2.2 petabytes includes not only the data synced from one device to another, but also data synced through SkyDrive online as well.

Don’t have Windows Live Mesh? If you don’t have the Windows Live suite of software already, you can get it for free from get.live.com.

With Windows Live Mesh you can choose folders to sync, and with what devices to sync them to. You can also sync Internet Explorer bookmarks, along with syncing Microsoft Office settings such as styles, templates, custom dictionaries, and email signatures.

Another great feature of Windows Live Mesh is the ability to quickly gain remote access to your computer, no matter where you are.

I myself use Windows Live Mesh, and use it to sync my documents folder, which is useful when I am working on a school project on my desktop, then I can get access to it on my netbook without having to email it to myself, putting it on a thumb drive, or using Homegroup (which is fine, but that doesn’t work well when your computer is at home, and you are at school).

There are a few things Microsoft could do to make Windows Live Mesh better, as currently you can only sync up to 5GB of data through the service. 5GB might sound like quite a bit (other services like Dropbox [though not directly comparable, as there are more options] only give you 2GB for free), but the SkyDrive service itself allows you to store up to 25GB, which seems as though you ought to be able to use that entire space for syncing files, but oh well.

It would also be nice if Microsoft created an API for the SkyDrive service (there are none now, and applications such as SDExplorer use the service in a very strange way), or even for Windows Live Mesh itself, so other applications could sync their settings and information across devices. Hey, when did this become a wishlist? Oh well.