It was very similar to Google Pack in that it allows users to discover, install, and maintain a number of Windows Live application programs.

This should allow more frequent updates to the Windows Live Essentials applications outside of major operating system releases.

[4] On December 15, 2008, the "beta refresh" versions of Windows Live Essentials applications were released.

[8] Microsoft updated Windows Live Essentials Wave 3 on February 13, 2009[9] and again on August 19, 2009,[10] when Windows Live Movie Maker was released out of beta and significantly updated with additional features since the beta version released in December 2008.

Microsoft released a public beta for the next major update for Windows Live Essentials dubbed "Wave 4" on June 24, 2010.

For Windows Live Mesh, the application has been rewritten to be based on the previous Live Mesh and will allow PC and Mac users to keep their documents, pictures and music in sync across multiple computers.

It was also announced that Windows Live Toolbar will be discontinued and replaced by the Bing Bar.

[13] In addition, the ribbon user interface was incorporated into Mail, Photo Gallery, and Writer.

Microsoft released the final version of Windows Live Essentials 2011 on September 30, 2010.

These two programs have also received several updates and enhancements since their 2011 release, including video stabilization, waveform visualizations, new narration tracks, audio emphasizing, default save as H.264 format, and enhanced text effects for Movie Maker; as well as AutoCollage integration and addition of Vimeo as a publishing partner for Photo Gallery.

[26] Microsoft announced that the suite would be officially retired on January 10, 2017, and would no longer be available for download, and that after the end of support date applications already installed would continue to work but with "an increased security risk associated with use of unsupported products past their end of support date.