Remember Windows Live? Forget it.

02.05.2012
offers a range of services such as email and messaging under the banner of Live, but that is about to end, shifting instead to a tight integration with Windows 8 that will drop the Live name and become an invisible part of Windows 8.

In a blog post, Microsoft acknowledges that the current way of offering Windows Live services seems disconnected from the operating system and its , but that changes with Windows 8.

TEST YOURSELF:

Windows Live consists of Hotmail, SkyDrive and Messenger, but these will be better integrated via applications that appear as part of Windows 8, according to Chris Jones, VP of the Windows Live group, writing in the .

In the post, Jones admits that Windows Live seemed cobbled together. "Windows Live services and apps were built on versions of Windows that were simply not designed to be connected to a cloud service for anything other than updates, and as a result, they felt 'bolted on' to the experience," he writes.

Plus the name Windows Live was applied willy-nilly, causing confusion. "The names we used to describe our products added to that complexity: we used 'Windows Live' to refer to software for your PC (Windows Live Essentials), a suite of web-based services (Hotmail, SkyDrive, and Messenger), your account relationship with Microsoft (Windows Live ID), and a host of other offers," he writes.