MS to remove Windows Essentials 2012 download on January 10th, 2017

[vwestlife]

If you use Windows Essentials 2012 or any of its components (such as Windows Movie Maker), download it NOW even if you already have it installed! Beginning tomorrow (January 10th) you will no longer be able to download it in case you ever need to reinstall it. And don't trust third-party sites to provide it -- older versions of Windows Essentials are notoriously difficult to find, and the 2012 version will probably be no different.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17779/download-windows-essentials

Microsoft says "Windows Essentials 2012 suite will be available for download until it reaches its end of support date on January 10, 2017."

Here is the full download of the offline installer: http://g.live.com/1rewlive5-all/en/wlsetup-all.exe

Microsoft has said they will be introducing a new version of Windows Movie Maker soon, but it will probably no longer be free, and will almost definitely only be for Windows 10 users.

Edited January 9, 2017 by vwestlife

[ppgrainbow]

Are there any older versions of Windows Live Essentials for Windows Vista and Windows XP as well?

I still have a copy somewhere on my USB hard drive.

[dencorso]

MSE v. 4.4.304.0 runs perfectly on XP SP3 and 7 SP1 Ultimate x64, so I'm confident it ought to run perfectly also on Vista.
It's relatively easy to find, and signed by MS, so it's trivial to verify the copy one downloaded is authentic and untampered with.

Here's some info on the EN-US (aka ENU) language version of them:
MSE v. 4.4.304.0 x86 is 11,125,072 bytes long, has MD5 = F406BAC9CFB876EFF01314F18CDA746C
and is Digitally Signed by MS on Thu, Oct 24, 2013 5:26:44 AM
and
MSE v. 4.4.304.0 x64 is 13,670,584 bytes long, has MD5 = D2F12B426A7DC6848AD91ADE1FAB2B52
and is Digitally Signed by MS on Thu, Oct 24, 2013 5:26:30 AM
 

It's quite possible that v. 4.6.305.0 also work right for Vista, but since it is the 1st to nag XP, that is far from certain.

[Mcinwwl]

Dropping WE 2012 by M$ triggered some harvest amongst program users, for the benefit of malware/scam creators.

Today, friend PM'd me saying:

I guess you should know. Movie maker is freeware, right, so why is it asking to get the licence? I installed it form the Microsoft site...

Well, first I thought he mentions the EULA, that pops up at first start, but it occurred that it requested the licence when trying to export the movie. And proceed to this site :

Spoiler

Potential scam below, beware!

http://www.windows-movie-maker.org/windows-movie-maker-purchase.html

No https, no Microsoft logo... I told him that MS does not support the download anymore.

He tried to uninstall the software and install 'real' Microsoft security essentials from @vwestlife link (digitally signed this time ^^), but system responds that the software is already installed.

According to whois domain is there for quite a long time:

Quote

Creation Date: 2010-12-19T17:13:42Z
Updated Date: 2012-11-06T18:31:12Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2017-12-19T17:13:42Z

But with official download cancelled, we can expect to hear more about this right now...

Edited February 6, 2017 by Mcinwwl
fixes

[steven4554]

Just tested the direct download link, and it still works beyond the EOS deadline. MS doesn't support WLE2012, but will leave the downloads active for a few more years, for those that still want to use programs that still work like Photo Gallery or Writer.