Windows Live Writer is a discontinued desktop blog-publishing application that was developed by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

and distributed as part of the

Windows Live Windows Live is a discontinued brand name for a set of web services and software products developed by Microsoft as part of its software-as-a-service platform. Chief components under the brand name included web services (all of which were exposed ...

suite of apps. The last major release of Windows Live Writer came out in 2012 ( end-of-life), and the software was completely discontinued in January 2017. An

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods either to h ...

of Windows Live Writer was released as Open Live Writer on December 9, 2015.

Functionality

The software featured

WYSIWYG In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for what you see is what you get, refers to software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web ...

authoring, photo-publishing and map-publishing functionality, and was compatible with Windows Live Spaces, SharePoint blogs,

Blogger A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

LiveJournal LiveJournal (), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary. American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, as a way of keeping his high school ...

, TypePad,

WordPress WordPress (WP, or WordPress.org) is a web content management system. It was originally created as a tool to publish blogs but has evolved to support publishing other web content, including more traditional websites, electronic mailing list, ma ...

, Telligent Community, PBlogs.gr, JournalHome, the MetaWeblog API, the Movable Type API, Blogengine, Squarespace, and all blogs that supported Really Simple Discovery. Windows Live Writer introduced the Provider Customization API that enables both rich customization of Windows Live Writer's behavior as well as the opportunity to add new functionality to the product. Windows Live Spaces,

, and TypePad had all taken advantage of this API to expose additional service-specific features within Windows Live Writer. Windows Live Writer was localized to 48 different languages.

History

Windows Live Writer was based on Onfolio Writer, a product Microsoft obtained from the acquisition of Onfolio. On November 6, 2007, version 2008 was released. It includes inline spell checking, table editing, ability to add categories, page authoring for

and TypePad, support for excerpts and extended entries, improved hyperlinking and image insertion, and a new "Paste Special" function. Also improved integration to SharePoint 2007 support, new

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

s enabling custom extensions by weblog providers, automatic synchronization of local and online edits, integration with

Windows Live Gallery Windows Live Gallery (codenamed ''Customise'') was a part of Windows Live range of services. It was a center for gadgets, extensions and add-ons for Windows and Windows Live services. Windows Live Gallery was officially retired on October 1, 201 ...

, and support for "Blogger Labels". On December 15, 2008, Windows Live Writer version 2009 was released as part of the

Windows Live Essentials Windows Essentials (formerly Windows Live Essentials and Windows Live Installer) is a discontinued suite of Microsoft freeware applications that includes email, instant messaging, photo sharing, blogging, and parental control software. ''Essent ...

suite. Released on September 30, 2010, Windows Live Writer 2011 introduced the new

Ribbon A ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily as decorative binding and tying. Cloth ribbons are made of natural materials such as silk, cotton, and jute and of synthetic mate ...

user interface. On August 7, 2012, Windows Live Writer 2012 was released as part of the

Windows Essentials Windows Essentials (formerly Windows Live Essentials and Windows Live Installer) is a discontinued suite of Microsoft freeware applications that includes email, instant messaging, photo sharing, blogging, and parental control software. ''Essenti ...

2012 suite. Version 2012 became the last major update to both the Windows Essentials suite and the Writer app. On January 10, 2017, Windows Essentials 2012 and all its apps, including Windows Live Writer, reached the end of support, meaning it would no longer receive new features, bug fixes, and security updates. The software itself is also no longer available for download from Microsoft.

Fork

free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...

of Windows Live Writer, known as Open Live Writer, has been released on

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

on December 9, 2015. The latest release of this fork was in 2017 and the last change on the source code was in 2019. It has since been abandoned.

Gallery

File:Wlwriter1.jpg, Version 1.0.141 (Beta 1) File:WLWriter.jpg, Internal version featuring the original ''Flair'' design File:WLWriter.PNG, Windows Live Writer 2008 File:Windows Live Writer.png, Windows Live Writer 2009

References

External links

* {{Windows Live Windows-only freeware

Writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

Blog client software Microsoft free software Formerly proprietary software Windows-only free software