Installing Windows Live Products on Server 2008
Having just installed Server 2008 64-bit on my laptop (mainly for Hyper-V) I'm now trying to make it as much like a desktop as possible. One thing that doesn't work straight away is Windows Live products, as the standard wrapper like installer prevents installation.
My workaround has been to bypass the wrapper installation you are generally forced to use by building a 64-bit Vista VM in Hyper-V and then copying the MSI installers from C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\WindowsLiveInstaller\MSI Sources. You need to show hidden files to see them.
Once you have them just run the MSIs on Server 2008 and all installs fine. It's not so easy to make out which product is which from the files names so below is the product and the first 4 characters of the GUID in the MSI file name:
Mail: 184E
Photo Gallery: 257E
Messenger: 508C
Writer: 9176
Sign-In Assistant: AFA4
Have so far tested Mail, Messenger and Live Writer and all worked OK. Of the installations give you notifications but some just run through with nothing to tell you it's done, so just check your start menu...