Live Mesh will be a big help for solving one of the inconsistencies in the Windows Home Server offering. As I’ve noted in the past, Live Mesh users are able to remotely access any modern version of Windows. However, Windows Home Server can only grant remote access to professional versions of Windows.

Hopefully, Microsoft will implement this in a transparent manner. Meaning, the Home Server Connector will simply install Live Mesh, and assist with creating your personal Mesh network. Finally, logging onto the Windows Home Server webpage (your Home Server’s webpage) will list all your computers, and re-route you to the Mesh Remote Desktop system.

My big concern at this point is in ease of use. Setting up Live Mesh is easy… for me. But, it may be confusing for the basic users that Microsoft is hoping to win over.

Anyways, LogMeIn and Windows Live Mesh both updated their Windows clients today. Just run the update check functions for each on the systray.

Oddly enough, neither has posted a changelog… so I have no idea what was improved on either update.

Update: Some have had problems with the October 9th Live Mesh update. Namely, computers aren’t showing up as being available for remote access. This was caused by two problems, and Microsoft fixed the one on their servers. Microsoft now says that if you are still having the issue, restarting the affected PC should fix it.

But, I did within a few seconds come up with a much better error message, you can read it below:

Unfortunately, we’re way behind the times. Apple came out with QuickTime VR, like, 10 years ago! Now that everyone is doing the VR thing, we’re still scratching our heads to figure out how to glue photos together. When we finally do, we’ll try to make it work on Mac.

Well, there are a few reasons. First, and foremost, Live Mesh is really the first tech preview that the public can see, for Windows 7. From interface to targeted features, Live Mesh is a taste of things to come.

What’s so Windows 7 about Live Mesh? Let’s start with the interface. Gone is the constant reliance on glass-style graphics. In fact, even when using it with Vista, Live Mesh doesn’t use a drop of glass. Next up, is Windows Live is now actually part of the Windows platform. It’s not some array of me-too features to answer Google. Actually, Live Mesh doesn’t touch one of Google’s features. But, the point is, Live Mesh will be pre-installed on every Windows 7 system (along with all the other Windows Live suite apps).

And, then there’s the cloud. Windows Live Desktop (part of Live Mesh) is the first version of Windows that exists purely online. From the server, to the AJAX graphics being drawn, it’s all Windows. So, will you someday boot Linux and log into Windows online? Probably not, but Microsoft wants your desktop to be portable… and Live Desktop is building that infastructure.

Finally, Live Mesh is updated dynamically. There’s no “CP1, RC0, RC1, RC2, RTM, SP1, SP2… yadda yadda”. They’re using version numbers and releasing automatically. It’s almost like, dare I say, a Mac.

Did I mention that Live Mesh is coming to Mac (eventually)? Microsoft is following Apple’s lead, and is going to match apps on multiple platforms. Silverlight started this, but Expression apps and Live apps are going to continue that commitment.

So, as you can see, LogMeIn and Live Mesh are similar feature-wise. However, the goals and promise for the apps are on completely different parallels. Live Mesh shows the future of Windows, and that future actually isn’t pointing towards a quiet drift into the night.

And yeah, I do use LogMeIn alongside Live Mesh. I find LogMeIn to be better in terms of cross-platforming, but Live Mesh has the better growth potential. Oh, and when you’re using two Windows machines… Live Mesh works much better too.

But, now, times appear to be changing. As of the latest update to Live Mesh, you can now install on Windows Server 2003, and it appears 2008 as well. I verified this with my own Windows Home Server. However, support is unofficial; Microsoft has not acknowledged Live Mesh works with Windows Server.

What does this mean for you? Well, if you have a Windows Home Server, I would suggest signing up for Live Mesh on all systems. Doing so will essentially replace the Home Server remote access backbone, but will enable you to now connect to all your systems. Ideally, the next version of Home Server will integrate Live Mesh into the platform… something I’ve suggested in the past.

It also means that if you have a Windows Server, such as 2003 SBS or 2008 Standard, you now have a much easier way to access all your servers… practically zero-configuration.

And, that brings me to one of the things I’d like to see in Live Mesh; Zones. I would like to group computers based on what I want to do with them. For example, I might want to have a zone with my home computers, a zone with my office computers, and a zone with family member systems.

Then, I could toggle features on and off. For example, on my family member systems… I just want remote access to help them out and install updates and such without having to bother them. On my office circle, I might want both remote access and synchronization. And, on my home systems, I might want the same settings as my office zone, but I may want them on a different tab just for organization.

Granted, you might be asking how many systems I have… but let me give you a typical scenario.

I have around four computers in my household. I have a Windows Home Server. I have a laptop that travels to the office, and a desktop there. At my office, I also have a Windows Server 2008 system. And, I have three family members that I maintain away from home remotely.

That’s about 10 systems right there. You can see why being able to group systems, and assign permissions to a group, is important for Live Mesh.

It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense why the Live Search application was not integrated into Windows Mobile 6.1. Sure, lots of top-tier carriers are doing it at the request of Microsoft, but if Microsoft wants to make it ubiquitous, why not just make it a mandatory component for the system.

Yes, the Voice Recognition feature is still in beta. Fine. Ship a version with devices that doesn’t have voice search enabled. When it goes final, it will be updated automatically, or else a user can go online and opt-in if they want to.

Live Search’s lack of inclusion is just one more indication of the lack of strategy that Windows Mobile 6 continues to suffer from. We haven’t seen a single Windows Update push, and we’re already on 6.1. It’s almost as un-functional as the hidden Update control panel that dates back to late versions of Pocket PC 2002.

I’d like to see Microsoft get their act together for Windows Mobile 7. And, I think they may just do that. But as it stands right now, you have to download several apps from Microsoft just to get a Windows Mobile device up to speed… and that’s now how things should be. Windows Live should just be there. After all, that was supposed to be a cornerstone of the upgrade from Windows Mobile 5.0 to 6.0.

Now, here’s the catch… the installer may be out of date. So, you may need to enable UAC in Vista, reboot… then install Live Mesh. Finally, let it get up and running and then disable UAC. I haven’t tested a complete uninstall and reinstall yet.

Also untested: If Windows Server 2003 and 2008 were added yet.

P.S. It would be really nice if Microsoft would let people know what is being changed when Live Mesh is updated. At the very least, post a blog entry simultaneously with every update. That way, people can… be better informed about Live Mesh.

Update: Late yesterday, the team sent out an email. Here are the official major changes:

· Live Mesh is now available in all English-speaking countries (not just the U.S.)

· Removed the User Account Control (UAC) requirement when installing and using Live Mesh with Windows Vista SP1

· Index for Desktop Search now works with Live Mesh folders

· Fixed bug where an underscore in a Hotmail account name returned an “Invalid Hotmail Address” error

· Fixed bug with Silverlight 2 Beta 2 failing to load in Silverlight Media View

· Fixed bug where the notifier tooltip incorrectly indicated that Live Mesh Remote Desktop was unavailable for a computer running in non-admin mode

· Fixed bug where the Live Mesh folder icon was not displayed in the e-mail inviting someone to share a folder

· Fixed one of the bugs that caused Live Mesh to fail to start

· Fixed problem with Live Mesh returning errors when waking from sleep/hibernate

With Windows Home Server, you can log into your Home Server URL, and access all the Remote Desktop computers on your home network. Great. Problem is, any XP Home, or Vista Home systems… don’t have Remote Desktop, so they can’t be remotely accessed.

But, for some reason, Live Mesh scoffs at this restriction. With Live Mesh, you can Remote Desktop to XP Home and Vista Home systems. Microsoft finally realized that the lack of consumer Remote Desktop access was hurting them.

So why, oh why, does Windows Home Server not commit to adding this functionality? Power Pack 1 is in beta, but the lockout on Remote Desktop with consumer Windows is still there.

And no Microsoft, this should not be a selling point for the next version of Windows Home Server. The WHS team has taken pride in claiming that this was a first-gen product that doesn’t immediately scream flawed (except for that data corruption bug, oops). Let’s get WHS back on track, before the world tunes it out completely.

And the answer? Well, considering there’s a blog post… it shouldn’t surprise you that it didn’t take long. I went into the new Video Store (formerly Marketplace), and browsed around until I found a video I already downloaded. But, it said I only downloaded the SD copy, and not the HD copy.

So, I told it to play or download the HD copy (whichever its PowerPC heart desired). And, it started to play. So, I hit stop, figuring it was just an interface glitch. Nope, it wasn’t, because then the whole console went Black Screen of Death. I could still hear the interface respond, just couldn’t see anything.

Hopefully this is just an isolated incident. Hopefully Microsoft didn’t focus too much on the “glorious” cross-bar media interface and Xbox Originals to forget about stability. But, since you have to update to stay on Live… it really doesn’t matter, because your going to get the update either way…

What are they doing? The December Xbox 360 Update, set to be released at 2 AM Pacific tomorrow, will automatically publish your list of Xbox Live Friends to everyone. Oh, and your friends will be published even if you don’t update.

Now, how hard would it have been to simply prompt users post-update and say “Hey, we suggest you show friends to the public, do you want to?” Not hard at all, especially with the Live API. This is an end-run around people not wanting to do that, by simply defaulting them to revealing all their gaming contacts. After all, if people have to effort to change something, they’re much less likely to actually do it.

Because of this, I’m suggesting everyone go to Xbox.com/fof and immediately change their friends settings (from “Everyone” to “Friends Only” or “Nobody”). If everyone did this, Microsoft would get the message about privacy… they’d have to since their servers would be jammed by people being proactive in fixing their privacy settings.

Tsk tsk Microsoft… I could name names like Major Nelson, but I’m not going to bother… they know who they are. This isn’t the mere principle of the matter, with so much social networking going on haphazardly by consumers… someone has to stand up and point out that you probably don’t want the universe knowing exactly who is your Xbox Friend (or Facebook Friend, or MySpace Friend… you get the idea). Dropping a note quietly in people’s Xbox inboxes just isn’t enough, especially when it would have been so easy to do a post-update prompt.

In fairness to Microsoft, people under 18 are not automatically set to publish friends to the world. Still, I’m sure there are enough adults with professional lives that this is simply not enough warning. Again, how hard would a post-update prompt have been? Trivial…