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MSN Images, Save Profile Pictures Of MSN Contacts

Martin Brinkmann — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 20:29:51 +0000

Microsoft’s instant messenger, which is currently called Windows Live Messenger, offers no option to directly save profile pictures to the local computer system. While it is possible to use a screen capturing software for that, it is a lot easier to use a program like MSN Images for the task.

The free software program offers options to browse through all contact profile pictures independently from Microsoft Messenger.

Profile pictures can be saved to the local hard drive. Why would someone want to use a program like MSN Images? The profile pictures can for instance be used in other programs, for instance email clients or voice over IP software.

MSN Images is a small and easy to use application that is able to display the pictures of your contacts from Windows Live Messenger.
You will be able to browse through all the pictures of your contacts and even save them on your computer.

The application may need to be run with administrative privileges, that was at least the case on the Windows 7 64-bit test system.

MSN Images furthermore requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. The download is offered at the Portuguese developer website.

Windows Live Messenger 9 Ad Removal

Martin Brinkmann — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:14:52 +0000

Windows Live Messenger 9 is the latest installment of the Microsoft Instant Messenger. It can be downloaded freely from Microsoft. Installation should not pose a problem either as long as you select only the applications that are offered that you would use anyway.

Windows Live Messenger 9 displays advertisements that is changing frequently in the main program interface. This can be quite irritating at times. There is no obvious way to disable the advertisement from withing the Instant Messenger which means that the only way to get rid of it is to use third party tools.

Some tools patch the Windows Live Messenger 9 files directly which will be a problem when updating to a newer version. A far better solution is to leave the Messenger files would be one that would not tamper with the Windows Live Messenger 9 files itself and that is what Live Advert Removal (via Technix) does.

Above is a screenshot of Windows Live Messenger 9 with ads enabled. Live Advert Removal manipulates the Windows host file so that the advertisements cannot be loaded. It still means that a static Windows Live Messenger logo will be displayed at the exact same position but it means that no advertisement will be loaded from the Internet and that there will be no rotation.

The second screenshot displays the results of the host file addition. Using the Live Advert Removal software program is straightforward. It comes as a zip file that contains files to remove and to enable ads in Windows Live Messenger 9.

Experienced users can manipulate the host file manually for the same result. The host file can be found in system32/drivers/etc. The following line has to be added to get the same result: 0.0.0.0 rad.msn.com

Make sure to enable the option in Windows to see hidden and system files to be able to locate the host file.

MSN E-Fix another tool to fix MSN Errors

Martin Brinkmann — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:27:08 +0000

The MSN Messenger seems to be highly popular in Italy because this is already the second tool, the first was MSN Repair, that I’m reviewing that is fixing MSN Messenger errors that was developed in Italy. Which leads to the conclusion that the MSN Messenger could be popular in Italy, or that the Italian version of MSN could be buggy or that Italian users are causing those bugs, hehe. Whatever it is MSN E-Fix fixes several error messages that MSN users can encounter while using the instant messenger.

MSN E-Fix can be run from any location and it actually comes in four different language versions which is surely an improvement over the other program that I reviewed some days ago which was only available in Italian. It was not hard to use though but I still prefer a program in a language that I understand to avoid errors. The supported languages are English, Italian, French and Spanish with Dutch scheduled to be included in one of the future releases.

Once started the program displays a list of error codes on the left side that can be checked and a Go button that should be pressed once all errors that should be fixed have been checked. The author send me a message where he compares his software to MSN Repair. I have no way of checking those claims because as you might know I do not use an Instant Messenger which is one reason why I will not publish them here.

Anyone with MSN Messenger and some errors who would try them out is welcome to let me know about the results though.

Windows Live Messenger 8.5 leaked

Martin Brinkmann — Mon, 28 May 2007 20:56:49 +0000

If you can’t wait to use the upcoming Windows Live Messenger 8.5 you could try and download the leaked version of it which is not official of course. The language of the leaked Live Messenger 8.5 is Spanish but you could download the English language file as well to change the language to English.

The program itself got a complete new user interface better suited for Windows Vista plus additional changes which have not been announced yet. Windows Plus users should download the msimg32.dll and place it in the appropriate directory to add plus functionality again. Not everything will be working though as of now.

I would probably make at least a complete backup of my system before I would install this leaked version. The above version appears to be without the adware that was added by the initial leaker. You should still scan the downloaded files before you execute any of them.

You should also note that support for plugins (add-ins) has been dropped.

Update: The above download links are not working anymore, try the following mirrors:

Windows Live Messenger 8.5 Mirror 1, Mirror 2