Windows Live Writer

Windows Live Writer is a powerful application designed to enable you control your blog and publish new posts straight from your desktop, providing all the necessary tools to successfully replace the web-based platform.

Since it's designed by Microsoft, it's no surprise that Windows Live Writer looks pretty good, since it's based on the now popular ribbon interface.

Thanks to this, you can easily format text, photos, videos and the whole content you wish to publish on your blog, but the application has many more goodies beside these.

First of all, the program comes with native support for WordPress blogs, but it's also compatible with SharePoint, Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, TypePad and others. The configuration process is very intuitive because it only asks you for blog address, username and passwords.

Besides the fact that it provides excellent control over the text, photos, videos and links you wish to publish, Windows Live Writer comes with dedicated tools to show you a preview of the upcoming blog post, but also with a source tab for more advanced users.

The comprehensive settings menu has all the options you need regarding editing, accounts, spelling, automatic linking, plug-ins, web proxy, ping servers and Trust Center.

Of course, you don't need a super computer to run Windows Live Writer, but older systems may need more time to load the application, while publishing certain file formats may slow down the computers.

Overall however, Windows Live Writer is one of the best blogging tools on the market. It’s accessible, easy to use and addresses all user categories.