Windows Live Writer Beta 3 makes blogging easier

Microsoft has released the third public beta of its Windows Live Writer blogging application. The program is available as a standalone download or as part of the new Windows Live unified installer which will throw so many Microsoft applications on your machine you'll think the company owns you.

So what's new in this beta of Live Writer?

• XHTML support
• Insert videos using "insert video" dialog
• Upload images to Picasaweb when publishing to Blogger blogs (we weren't able to confirm this feature. Anyone else have any luck?)
• Support for 28 additional languages
• Better image handling
• A slew of bug fixes

Overall, it's a pretty handy blogging tool. But one thing that we really don't like is that Microsoft tries to cram every Windows Live service down your throat when you install Live Writer. Even if you download the standalone installer, a window pops up during installation asking if you'd like to add Windows Live Mesenger, Mail, Toolbar, and other applications. If the answer was yes, we probably would have downloaded the unified installer, now wouldn't we?

Tags: windows live, windows live writer, WindowsLive, WindowsLiveWriter