Microsoft plans to open source its Windows Live Writer tool in the coming months.

The application, once included in the Live Essentials bundle along with Live Messenger, SkyDrive, and various other defunct or rebranded Microsoft apps, provides a convenient word processor-style WYSIWYG editor that can post directly to a number of blogging platforms. While Microsoft hasn't updated the app for some time—its last major update was in 2012—it has nonetheless retained a loyal following of devotees who continue to use it on a regular basis.

This user base became a lot more vocal when the ability to post to Google's Blogger platform from Live Writer stopped working late last month. Blogger changed something, probably with its authentication process, and Live Writer could no longer post to the platform.

While that issue has since been resolved, it highlighted for many the problem with using software that isn't actively maintained, particularly when that software depends on online services. When those services change, for example to remove old API versions or insecure authentication systems, the software is liable to break.

At the time of the Blogger issue, Microsoft's Scott Hanselman said that the software "may" be released as open source. Hanselman has long championed the cause of releasing the code to Live Writer, and today he confirmed that this will in fact happen.

There's no timeline on when it will happen, with Hanselman previously suggesting that the timeline would be months rather than days, but the news is sure to be welcomed by Live Writer's fans.

Update: We've heard that while internal moves are afoot to open Live Writer, the process is not as complete as Hanselman's tweet led us to believe, and there's still a chance that this might not happen.