Windows Live Writer is a discontinued desktop blog-publishing application that was developed by
Microsoft and distributed as part of the
Windows Live 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 the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
fork of Windows Live Writer was released as
Open Live Writer on December 9, 2015.
Functionality
The software featured
WYSIWYG authoring, photo-publishing and map-publishing functionality, and was compatible with
Windows Live Spaces, SharePoint blogs,
Blogger,
LiveJournal,
TypePad,
WordPress,
Telligent Community
Telligent Community is a community and collaboration software platform developed by Telligent Systems and was first released in 2004.
Telligent Community is built on the Telligent Evolution platform, with a variety of core applications running o ...
, 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,
WordPress, 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
WordPress 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
APIs enabling custom extensions by weblog providers, automatic synchronization of local and online edits, integration with
Windows Live Gallery, and support for "Blogger Labels".
On December 15, 2008, Windows Live Writer version 2009 was released as part of the
Windows Live Essentials 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 mater ...
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. ''Essentia ...
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
A
free and open-source
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
fork of Windows Live Writer, known as Open Live Writer, has been released on
GitHub 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
Blog client software
Free software
Microsoft free software
Formerly proprietary software
Windows-only free software