Windows Live Messenger 2011: New and improved

The convergence of different technological platforms for communication between network´s users is improving day after day. An example of this is the latest development that this new version of Windows Live Messenger 2011 brings, that as main new feature, offers the possibility of integrating and synchronizing Facebook and Windows Live Messenger 2011 accounts.

The developers of this new version of Windows Live Messenger 2011 have made a total hit in the subject, both esthetic and as in the functionality of this new version. As regards the development of the interface, Windows Live Messenger 2011 definitively changed the old design this classic application has, even changing the aspects of the emoticons, now much modern.

Another change regarding the esthetic aspect is that the chatting window is no longer showed in separate windows, but integrated into different tabs. This allows users to scroll through Windows Live Messenger 2011 conversations in a simple way.

While this esthetic change is important, certainly the most important innovation Windows Live Messenger 2011 brings is the convergence with Facebook. This integration allows user to know in detail and right away the updates of their contacts in Windows Live Messenger 2011 or their friends in Facebook. It also allows us to share data with our contacts or post them on Facebook in a friendly way.

This new functionality of Windows Live Messenger 2011, allows, either, send messages to users who are online in one site or another. Also, this platforms convergence makes easier to interact with users through mobile phone, either in Windows Live Messenger 2011 or in Facebook.

How to add services to Trillian Astra, the ultimate multinetwork client

The new version of the best-known multinetwork messaging client brings new functions and support for extra platforms, and most important, a clear intention of simplifying its use. Let’s see how to add services like Twitter, Facebook, Windows Messenger MSN, etc. to our Trillian Astra.

Those who are taking their first steps in Trillian Astra will be aided by the excellent settings assistant by means of which they can add their accounts to combine the profiles of the several social networks in one single program. Or, if you have already used Trillian Astra and you want to add an account, like for instance your Facebook profile, this is what you need to do.

From Trillian Astra’s main interface you must access the option ‘Trillian’>> ‘Manage connections’ in the menu bar on the top. There you will see all the accounts associated to Trillian Astra up to now, but you can also add new connection using the button on the right bottom corner of the window. Another window will appear where you must indicate the service you want to add, such as Facebook in this case. Then fill in the fields ‘User name’, ‘E-mail address’ and ‘Password’ and click on ‘Connect’.

This is all you need to do to add a new service to Trillian Astra. In this way, you’ll be able to access it together with other services, like Twitter, Google Talk, ICQ, Windows Messenger MSN, all of them together in the same window.

Windows Live Messenger 2009 14.0.8089.726 update released

Celebrating its 10th birthday, Microsoft recently launched a new update of the most popular instant messaging client in the world; MSN Windows Live Messenger. Although many users are eager to get their hands on the long-awaited MSN 10, this upgrade doesn’t present any major features, since it was mainly released to fix critical security holes.

The most critical aspect of the Windows Live Messenger 9.0 (2009) 14.0.8089.726 upgrade is the fact that the release is designed to patch a number of vulnerabilities affecting versions 8.1, 8.5 and 14.0. Microsoft has published the Microsoft Security Advisory 973882 detailing the security holes that have been plugged with the 14.0.8089.726 Build.

Starting with August 25th 2009, Microsoft began to serve optional upgrade notifications to Windows Live Messenger clients’ versions 8.1 and 8.5. In mid September, the upgrades will become mandatory. Users are advised to deploy the Windows Live Messenger upgrade as soon as possible and to patch security flaws in Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL), which could allow for remote code execution in the eventuality of a successful attack. This vulnerability was also fixed for Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player as well.

Even though no major updates were release, the latest release of MSN Windows Live Messenger 2009 presents some minor features. Among them: a new interface featuring Aero Windows to match Windows Vista look. Moreover, Windows Live Messenger 2009 is now is fully compatible with Windows 7. On the other hand, our contact´s personal updates known as “What´s New” will be shown on each conversation window. This new version also integrates Bing –Microsoft search engine- into its interface. However, the most important feature is the possibility of importing friends/contacts from Facebook, MySpace, Linked In and Hi5, among others.

According to Microsoft , here is what’s new in Windows Live Messenger 9.0 (2009) 14.0.8089.726:

• Personalization. Add a profile picture or video, display a personal scene in the chat window, update the status message with your news, add a favorite link, or add what song you’re listening to.
• Integration of ‘What’s New’ feed. With the ‘What’s New’ feed in Messenger, you can stay in touch with the latest updates from your circle of friends at a glance, without any need to log in across multiple destinations.
• Photo sharing. Photo sharing lets you share and comment on pictures while you’re chatting.
• Favorites. Identify your most important contacts and they will appear at the top of your Messenger window, for easy access. It’s like speed dial for your Messenger contacts.
• Groups. Create groups on the fly and chat simultaneously with up to 20 members at the same time.

As you can see, the new MSN Windows Live Messenger 2009 update was released to fix critical security issues. Whether users like it or not, they will have to download the new Messenger 2009 in order to keep using the most used and most popular IM client in the world. Only in early October 2009 will version 14.0 of the IM client also receive optional upgrade notifications, which will become mandatory by the end of that month. Users that will not upgrade to Windows Live Messenger 9.0 (2009) 14.0.8089.726 will no longer be able to sign into the IM client.

Messenger Plus! Live, the most fully-featured add-on for MSN

Nowadays anyone with a computer and access to the internet who enjoy chatting has used Windows Live Messenger at least once. Messenger Plus! Live (MsgPlus! for short) is an add-on for Windows Live Messenger that adds new features and enhancements to the popular instant messaging client from Microsoft.

Among its features, Messenger Plus! Live enables users to customize the chat window along with different types of fonts, colors, effects and more. Moreover, Messenger Plus! Live adds new sounds as well as the ability to create new ones.

To enhance even more the use of this instant messaging client, Plus! enables polygamy (use multiple accounts) and lets you customize your connection status. It´s also possible to save conversation logs in txt format. Another interesting feature is the Anti-Boss hotkey, which hides Messenger´s window quickly and without leaving any trace whatsoever.

At first glance, Messenger Plus! Live doesn´t seem to make any significant changes to the interface, but if you look thoroughly in the Plus! tab you will an incredible amount of new amazing features and functions to improve your instant messaging experience.

Due to the above-mentioned features, we can state that Messenger Plus! Live is without a doubt the best add-on for Windows Live Messenger . Most features are incredible useful and once you get used to it you won´t want to use Windows Live Messenger without installing Messenger Plus! Live.

What better way of being constantly in than using the most popular instant messaging client service? We are talking about Windows Live Messenger, the most fun alternative to chat with any user all over the world.

Windows Live Messenger

Microsoft, the creator of Windows Live Messenger – the most popular and well-known instant messaging service in the world – has released the beta of version 9 of its application, the final version of which is expected for 2009.

This release doesn’t introduce any big changes to the graphical interface but does expand upon the program’s possible uses.

Perhaps the most important innovation of this new version of Windows Live Messenger is the ability to connect to several sites at the same time. Also worth a mention is the new support for using animated GIFs as your displayed picture, the incorporation of customized sounds that your contacts can hear when you connect, and the ability to assign a different sound for each of your contacts.

Windows Live Messenger also added integration with Google Talk, (in the same way that Messenger works with Yahoo!) and it is hoped that support for users of the AIM and ICQ messaging services will be offered soon. Another interesting addition is the ability to report a contact as a source of SPAM, recognising the recent proliferation of contacts that pretend to be someone you know in order to send you ads. This is definitely a useful feature since we can keep our account safer, away from any threat or ads that may results harmful or annoying.

However, if all these new features have you tempted to start downloading it right away, you should first know about the one big problem that Microsoft has reported concerning this beta version: it currently has more than 1,000 bugs and errors, both in terms of security and stability, making it a very vulnerable program which we cannot recommend over the previous, stable version.

To sum up, this Beta version offers users a collection of small but significant improvements over the traditional Messenger, but, considering the large number of errors it still has, only advanced users – rather than beginners – are recommended to give it a try just now.

For The multimedia additions are ideal for entertainment, especially among younger users.

The ability to mark unwanted contacts as SPAM. Against According to the developers, it currently has more than 1,000 errors that need to be corrected. It is not a definitive version.

Download Windows Live Messenger

Windows Live Messenger comes with many features and options for customizing the program according to your personal tastes. The good thing about this is that, as well as being able to choose from the elements provided by the program, you can also import new items such as winks or emoticons or customize them make instant messaging a more pleasant experience.

Windows Live Messenger's winks and emoticons

For example, you can add an unlimited number of emoticons to your copy of the program. Not only can you choose between those images offered by the program, but you can also import any photo that you have on your computer and set it to be the image to display. Lastly, Messenger allows you to download winks, which can also be used during chats. This last feature is perhaps the most fun since it displays, within the chat window, an animation to both you and the contact to whom you’re talking.

How to add an emoticon

Once Windows Live Messenger is running, open the “Tools” menu on the menu bar at the top of the screen. From the menu that opens, select “Emoticons…”. Now click the “Create…” button.

Now, select “Find Image…” and browse through your PC until you find the image that you want to set as an emoticon (an image that you already have, or one that you’ve downloaded from the Internet especially for this purpose). Next, enter the keyboard shortcut that will be used to trigger the emoticon. From now on, during a conversation, the emoticon in question will appear every time you type in this shortcut. Lastly, and optionally, give a name to the emoticon. Once you’ve gone through these three steps, click “OK” and the emoticon will automatically be created.

So now, when you’re chatting to a friend, the emoticon will appear alongside the others one that are shown when you click “Select an emoticon” in the chat window.

Windows Live Messenger also allows you to take an emoticon that another contact uses during a conversation and add it to your collection. To do so, right-click on the emoticon and, from the menu that will appear, select “Add…”. At this point, a window will open:

In the field labelled “Keyboard shortcut”, enter the code you want to use to trigger this emoticon, and enter its name in the bottom field. Now, after clicking “Add”, the new emoticon will be saved with the others.

How to change the window background

For this task, once again open the “Tools” menu and select the “Backgrounds…” option. Here you will see the available backgrounds that come with the program. You can either choose one of these or use the “Browse…” option to use any other image that you have stored on your computer. Once you’ve chosen the image that you like the most, click “Set” and the program will do the rest.

How to change the display picture

Once again, open the “Tools” menu and, this time, click “Change display picture”.

Here you can also choose between one of the images that comes with the program or, using the “Browse…” button, you can select any image stored on your PC. Once again, choose your favourite image, click “OK”, and this image will now be displayed in the chat window every time you have a conversation.

How to download winks

For this job, select the option “Select a wink” the next time you have a chat window open. This will open up a menu.

Now, click on one of the winks that appears in the upper part of this pop-up screen, under the heading “Featured winks”. Your chosen wink will be automatically downloaded and will appear alongside all the other winks that are already available to send to your contacts.

Windows Live Messenger is extremely easy to manipulate and set up. Almost all aspects can be customized to suit your needs. Take a pick and customize all the features according to your liking. As for the rest, continue chatting and share stuff with your friends.