Making Windows Live Applications work on Server 2008

After rebuilding my laptop back to Server 2008 32bit I wanted to install Windows Live applications (just Live Writer and Messenger). However the installer for these applications fails on the OS Check, stating the OS is not supported. I tried running the installer in compatibility mode however that didn't work either. After a little research I found a few posts saying that Messenger 8.1 worked on Server, so I went and downloaded it from here and installed it. It works like a charm.

Live Writer was a different story. There is not standalone installer for Writer as there is for Messenger. In my former life (many years ago) I was a support engineer so I started thinking about ways to get this app installed (I like it for Blogging). I run a Windows Home Server and had a backup from the an older system that was successfully running Writer. The first thing I wanted to do was look at what was in the program folders, so I did a restore of the %Program files%\Windows Live\Writer to the same path on my new system. Just out of curiosity, once the restore was complete I ran the .exe for writer and it launched with no problem. I did no installation (as it failed) I simply copied the program files from one machine onto another and launched the application.

Read the complete post at http://david-stclair.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!112A71B19678F08D!302.entry