gHacks technology news » microsoft messenger http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:24:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Windows Live Messenger 9 Ad Removal http://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/24/windows-live-messenger-9-ad-removal/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/24/windows-live-messenger-9-ad-removal/#comments Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:14:52 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=7192 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.

windows live messenger 9

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.

windows live messenger 9 ads removed

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.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/24/windows-live-messenger-9-ad-removal/feed/ 14 MSN E-Fix another tool to fix MSN Errors http://www.ghacks.net/2008/04/19/msn-e-fix-another-tool-to-fix-msn-errors/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/04/19/msn-e-fix-another-tool-to-fix-msn-errors/#comments Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:27:08 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=3857 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.

msn fix

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

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/04/19/msn-e-fix-another-tool-to-fix-msn-errors/feed/ 2 Windows Live Messenger 8.5 leaked http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/28/windows-live-messenger-85-leaked/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/28/windows-live-messenger-85-leaked/#comments Mon, 28 May 2007 20:56:49 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/28/windows-live-messenger-85-leaked/ 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
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