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As part of its three-pronged quest for worldwide Internet domination—via MSN, Live Search, and Windows Live—Microsoft has unleashed a bundled download of its installed desktop Live software: Mail, Photo Gallery, Writer, and OneCare Family Safety. Also included is a slightly redesigned version 8.5 of Messenger, which intimately ties in with the rest of the suite; for example, starting up when you run Mail.

In line with that strategy, this release brings enhancements to popular services such as Windows Live Hotmail, Messenger and Spaces, while introducing new services for sharing digital photos, planning and sharing events, publishing to the Web, and staying in touch with people, Hall said.

“This is the first release that really pays off on that. It pays off with a suite of Windows applications that not only work well with Windows Live but also work with many other popular online services,” he said. “You can have your AOL Mail, Gmail and Yahoo Mail—if you have POP access—all coming in to one client. We are also releasing support for 64-bit Windows this week.”

Not all the products that had been in beta are in full release, however, Hall said. Two services will remain in beta and will be released in final versions at a later date, he said. Those are Windows Live Skydrive, an online file-storage service, and Windows Live Calendar. “They’ll be ready when we feel like the quality and scale is there,” he said.

Microsoft will continue to release new Windows Live services in beta form over the next year as it does quarterly updates to its current round of services. The company will do another major release of services when a new wave is ready, Hall said.