Tag Archives: 2009

Get the old Windows Live Essentials (2009) back – Messenger, Mail, Writer etc

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Update 23/03/2014, 20/08/2015: It still amazes me how much traffic this page gets (by far the most popular post on this site) – people still want Windows Live Essentials 2009! A few things to note… first of all, Windows Live Messenger is no longer supported by Microsoft and it’s now built into Skype, so use that instead. Additionally, the rest of the software still works fine (including Windows Live Mail which is the most requested item), but do bear in mind that the 2009 version isn’t designed for Windows 8/8.1/10, so you may have limited success (not tried it myself). Best of luck!

If, like me, you’ve tried Windows Live Essentials 2011 and dislike it – you’ve come to the right place.

I can’t stand the new Windows Live Messenger or the fact that Windows Live Mail now seems to display an error every time you download a new email. Microsoft clearly didn’t put enough work into this one. So until they fix the issues with it, I’m back with 2009.

Sadly, however, Microsoft have removed the download links for Windows Live Essentials 2009 which is quite annoying. You can still get the web installer from some sites on the internet, but I suspect Microsoft will remove the resources for this soon.

Have no fear though. GEEK! has the full installer which you can download and install to get the 2009 version back. You must uninstall the 2011 version first completely, and then install this version again.

Download now
File size: 134.85 MB

File is on Google servers. You will get a warning that the file can’t be scanned for viruses by Google – this is just because it’s too big for them to scan. Please see the disclaimer below.

Disclaimer: GEEK! has made every effort to ensure the safety of this download by scanning it for viruses and uploading it to a reputable server. However, GEEK! is not responsible for damage to you or your equipment through use of this download or software. Use at your own risk. This download has been provided purely for historical version provision purposes and is not in any way an intention to breach copyright.

Music industry still suffering from P2P – is there still light at the end of the tunnel?

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The BPI (British Phonographic Industry) recently released the 2009 music statistics for sales across the UK. In the report, it mentions how our music industry has coped with the rush of illegal downloads.

From what they say, sales of albums have declined slightly through 2009, but this has been the trend since 2005 when sales of albums started to fall. I suspect this is due to the fact that people can now save money if they only pick the tracks that they want online – they no longer need to purchase the whole album. In any case, it now stands that 128.9 million album sales were made in 2009 compared to 133.6 million in 2008.

Sales of singles have rapidly increased in 2009. The total number of singles sold in 2009 stands at 152.7 million, compared to 2008’s 115.1 million. The increase in sales of singles started in 2003, but 2009’s increase is the biggest seen so far.

Bear in mind that that only mentions sales and it is unclear how many pirated downloads were made – but it is still believed that the proportion of illegal downloads is much bigger than the proportion of legal purchases.

I believe that 2010 will be the year for music streaming rather than downloading (or purchasing in a shop). With more and more of us gaining access to the internet, it is becoming easier for us to legally stream music from the internet. I think services such as Spotify will rapidly grow in 2010 as it primarily free – the company makes money from an advert being played after every fifth or sixth track.

Spotify (as far as I’m aware) hasn’t revealed how many streams were made in 2009, but it would be interesting to know. I believe that free music streaming is the only way to get people of P2P.

Credit for information to the BPI and the Official UK Charts Company.

USB 3.0 to be shipping with PCs by end of year!

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It’s good to know that USB 3.0 is expected to start arriving on PCs and laptops from the end of this year.

The new Superspeed USB means that transfer speeds will rise from 480mbps to a whopping 5gbps. That means that if you are constantly transferring big files to USB drives, you’re in luck.

It’s being predicted that the new USB format will start shipping towards the end of the year, with it being available in a few high-end PCs. From 2010, it’s expected that about 26 million PCs will ship with USB 3.0. And by 2012, it’s expected that the number of PCs with USB 3.0 will be way over 300 million.

I’m very excited by the news, but it does mean that my laptop and PC will probably need upgrading. I can probably just upgrade the motherboard in the PC, but in the laptop it will be a bit more difficult. In addition, all of my USB 2.0 devices will seem horribly slow after USB 3.0 arrives.

Ah well, no worries for now. But you know, it’s a bit of a pain when you have so many outdated USB devices that transfer really slowly. Never mind.

PC sales to fall in 2009… except for netbooks.

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Gartner has today announced that PC sales are set to fall across 2009 by 11.9% (per cent) to around 257 million units. The company has said that this is going to be “the sharpest decline in history”.

According to Gartner, the PC industry is facing extraordinary conditions due to the economic downturn. When it seemed as if PC and notebook sales were increasing rapidly in 2008, we are beginning to see how the credit crunch is affecting the PC industry.

However, Gartner have also said that they are expecting an increase in the sales of laptops and notebook – more specifically the new mini-laptops or netbooks. 

So we’ll have to see what happens to sales over the course of this year, but it looks like many brands could be in trouble. I would like to hope that the rush of new technology might help ease the pain of the economic downturn on computing, but we’ll have to see what knock-on effect the downturn has this year.