MSN Toolbar Beta now available for download
Microsoft has just released a new beta of its MSN Toolbar. Wait, wasn't it the Windows Live Toolbar in the last release? It's starting to look like Microsoft might have an identity crisis...The new MSN Toolbar beta is now powered by Silverlight, Microsoft's own cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering interactive applications on the Web, which has just recently reached version 1.0.
The Toolbar itself is what you've come to expect from Toolbars: a search pane with lots of extra links to content and sites run by the Toolbar's publisher. The MSN Toolbar uses Windows Live Search and includes customizable at-your-fingertips MSN content.
We wish we could tell you that downloading and installing the Toolbar was a snap. Well, it wasn't. Continuing Microsoft's maddening tradition of making its software nigh impossible to download, with the requisite WGA checks, and Live ID passports, etc...downloading the MSN Toolbar was anything but simple.
First, you'll need to download Silverlight if you haven't already. Luckily, they've included a link to the download right from the Toolbar page. So far so good. It's after you download Silverlight that you run into this list of instructions:
Sign in to the Microsoft Connect website with your Windows Live ID
In the left pane, click Available Connections.
Next to MSN Toolbar Beta, click Apply.
Click Continue.
Register with Microsoft Connect, if you haven't already done so.
Fill in the nomination survey, and then click Submit.
When your application to join the MSN Toolbar Beta program is accepted, you'll receive a notification e-mail.
On the Microsoft Connect website, in the left pane, under MSN Toolbar Beta, click Downloads.
In the list of download packages, click MSN Toolbar Beta Install, and then follow the on-screen instructions to install Toolbar Beta.
Easy as pie.
MSN Toolbar is currently in beta, and requires XP or Vista, and Silverlight.
[via Tech today]
