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Wow – some amazing news today from Microsoft and WordPress.  It had been rumored that Windows Live Spaces was on its way out as Microsoft’s public blogging platform but I am not sure many were prepared for this announcement.

Windows Live Spaces will close down and all the Spaces blogs will be moved over to WordPress.com – that is about 7 million blogs!  The transition is already active and users with blogs on Windows Live Spaces can start the move already.

When you log into your Windows Live Spaces as of today you will see a lot of information about this move and have a choice to make about starting your move to WordPress.com.

They do provide a couple of caveats and options about the process:

  • Download your blog to your PC to keep an offline copy.
  • Delete your Windows Live Spaces site.
  • Go on to your Windows Live Spaces site and worry about the move later.

Don’t wait until too much later though:

  • March 2011 will be the cutoff to move and get your material from Windows Live Spaces.
  • Starting in January 2011 you will no longer be able to add content to your Windows Live Spaces site.

After the move what then?

  • Text, Photos, Videos and comments all get moved to your new WordPress.com blog.
  • Your visitors will be automatically redirected to your new WordPress.com site, including any old permalinks.
  • No changes to your Windows Live Profile, Contacts and SkyDrive photos.
  • If you connect your new blog with Windows Live using Messenger there will be a link on your WordPress.com blog.

What gets left behind:

  • Draft posts, your theme, gadgets, guestbook and lists.

So if your wondering what this move is like I thought I would share with you my Windows Live Spaces transition to WordPress.com so you can see what the process will look like if you are making the same move.

Find this link on your Spaces site to get started:

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That takes you to a confirmation page where you are warned that the action can not be reversed.  So make sure your ready to move.  You will also be encouraged to go back and download your site just so that you have a copy offline before the move.  This is a good idea and I recommend it as well.

Once you have downloaded your offline copy of your Spaces site then your ready to continue with the upgrade.

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You will need a WordPress.com account to make this upgrade.  Your old one will work as well and WordPress.com supports multiple blogs on the same base site so you can select to either create a new blog or merge with an existing one.

You have to click the Connect button in the above dialog to connect to Windows Live.  A pop up windows will ask you to connect WordPress.com to Messenger at this point:

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Once you enter your password and click Connect you will then be moved to Step 2 which is to create your new WordPress.com account:

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Once you fill in your username and password click Next.  As long as that username is available you will be moved along to Step 3:

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Here you are provided your new WordPress.com sites address which is your username.wordpress.com.  There is a spot to name your blog, select its primary language and to select whether you want this to be a public, private or blocked from search engines. 

The last block is to tie this new site to your Messenger status/updates to share with your contacts there.

Once your all done click Signup.

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Now your at the final stage of the move from Spaces to WordPress.com.  As you can see you are given a link to your new site at WordPress.com and can see the progress in importing your former Spaces site to WordPress.com.  There is a link to migration support and a link to help you set up Windows Live Writer to access your new blog.

I tested my old site and it was already redirecting to the new WordPress.com site as soon as this upgrade was complete.  You will need to do some additional tweaking and sorting out your new home and explore all the options you have in WordPress if you have never used it before.  It is a superb blogging platform and is what this site is published with.

So congratulations on your new home and welcome to WordPress.