Windows Live Writer Plugins

Everything to make Windows Live Writer even easier and better

How to manually install a WLW plugin

Posted by Cynthia August 29, 2006

A good number of Windows Live Writer plugins come as one or more files. Now what? How do you install a Windows Live Writer plugin without an installer? How do you install it manually?

Locate the Windows Live Writer folder

On most installations Windows Live Writer will be installed in C:\Program Files\Windows Live Writer\ (click to securely open this location on your computer).

1If you need to find out where Windows Live Writer is installed, find the shortcut to Windows Live Writer.

Right-click on it and choose Properties. The installation folder can be seen in two places (marked with a red border in the screenshot on the left): Target and Start In. Start In will give you the best path to the folders where Windows Live Writer is installed. Remember this location.

Copy the plugin files

2If needed, extract the ZIP or RAR file you downloaded. See if there are any instructions or caveats, often posted in a file named readme.

Highlight all the file, right-click and choose Cut.

Go to the Windows Live Writer plugins folder

3Using My Computer, navigate to the Windows Live Writer installation folder.

Once there, click on the Plugins folder. This is where the files you just “cut” need to be placed. If your system supports this action you can click on C:\Program Files\Windows Live Writer\Plugins to open the plugins folder right now.

Paste the plugin file(s)

Once in the folder, right-click in an empty space and choose Paste to put the files in place.

4

 

(Re)start Windows Live Writer

If Windows Live Writer was running during this process, close all Windows Live Writer windows.

Now click your shortcut to start Windows Live Writer. Most often your new plugin option will appear in the Insert menu in the sidebar and in the Insert dropdown. Sometimes, depending on what you already have installed, it will only appear in the Insert dropdown.

Other plugins may appear in other places in Windows Live Writer.

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17 Responses to “How to manually install a WLW plugin”

Comments

  1. Roger Nov 17 2006 / 12pm

    Does anyone know the name of the wordpress plugin that creates a list of your posts in a category instead of just displaying them one after the other? I want it so that when someone clicks on a category they just get a list of posts from that category.

    I'm sure Ive seen one…and sifting through the WP site is a nightmare

  2. Rodney Dec 12 2006 / 4pm

    What I want to do on my blog, is every few hours take the oldest post and move it to the
    front of the queue, all automatically. Anyone know if there is a plugin that can do this or
    a simple way to set up another plugin to do this (use my own feed perhaps)?
    Thanks.

  3. Ed Lee Feb 01 2007 / 11am

    Hmmmm, i’ve follwed all the steps and the plugin is in the folder, but WLW doesn’t seem to recognise it and the plugin doesn’t appear when i open WLW….

    Any trouble shooting tips?

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