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The Windows Live team has started notifying anyone who was using the Windows Live Mesh beta that they should be thinking about moving to the final version before March 2011.

If you recall Windows Live Mesh became known as Windows Live Sync during the Live Essentials 2011 beta period.  It was ultimately decided that the software’s name would return to Windows Live Mesh shortly before Windows Live Essentials 2011 was released.  If you installed Windows Live Essentials 2011 and selected to install Windows Live Mesh along with the other programs of that suite then your Windows Live Sync/Mesh beta was upgraded and your in good shape.

If for some reason you did not upgrade to the final version of Live Mesh then you should follow the instructions in the email below which is being sent to all previous Windows Live Mesh beta users.

Dear Live Mesh beta participant,

You’re receiving this message because you used the Live Mesh beta from Microsoft. On March 31, 2011, the beta of Live Mesh will end, and the Live Mesh beta will stop working. After March 31, you won’t be able to access any files stored online in your Live Desktop or connect to your PCs remotely using the Live Mesh software. Your files will also stop syncing between your computers and your Live Mesh online storage. Please read below for actions we recommend you take.

With the new release of Windows Live services, we’ve made a series of changes and improvements across the products. We realize they will have an impact on you and we want to make that as easy as possible for you. We thank you for your continued support of Windows Live services.

Why is this happening?

To deliver a better product for all our customers, we combined several services into a new product called Windows Live Mesh. Windows Live Mesh has several performance and reliability improvements compared to the Live Mesh beta, and with Windows Live Mesh, you can also sync your program settings for Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office. Learn more.

What you need to do before Live Mesh beta shuts down

To prevent loss of any of your files, please sync all files from your Live Desktop so that you have them on your computer when the Live Mesh beta service is shutdown. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On your Live Desktop, right-click any Live Mesh folders not yet synced with your computer, and then click Sync with this computer. Make sure all the folders on your Live Desktop have desktop shortcuts.

2. Select where you want each folder to sync, and then click OK. If a folder has a lot of files, this might take a while. Open each folder and make sure all the files are downloaded.

What you can do moving forward

If you enjoyed the functionality of Live Mesh, we encourage you to install the new Windows Live Mesh. You will first need to uninstall the Live Mesh beta, and then go to http://explore.live.com/windows-live-mesh to get the latest version of Windows Live Mesh. Before you do this, note the folders that you’re syncing on each computer and if they’re shared with anyone. After you download Windows Live Mesh, you can set up these folders to sync again. Learn more about how to upgrade

Thank you for participating in the Live Mesh beta. We hope you choose to move to Windows Live Mesh.

Sincerely,

The Windows Live team