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Completely Remove Windows Live Messenger From The Computer System

Martin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:55:50 +0000

There are situations where users are stuck with a version of Windows Live Messenger on their computer system that they cannot uninstall or update. This might have been caused by data corruption, a computer virus or other malicious software or the deletion of files or configuration entries. Manual removal is usually a solution but it requires lots of time with the danger of deleting data that is still needed on the system.

There are a few programs that can completely remove Windows Live Messenger from a computer system. These programs work in a similar fashion like the antivirus software removers that remove files and Registry entries from installed antivirus solutions from the computers system.

Here are the programs that can completely remove Windows Live Messenger:

Zap Messenger

Zap Messenger is a portable software program for the Windows operating system. It can not only uninstall Windows Live Messenger but also MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger 5.x. Zap Messenger requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0.

With all this in mind, I developed ZapMessenger – the one step tool to completely remove Windows Live Messenger, MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger 5.x. The first thing ZapMessenger will do is attempt to cleanly uninstall Messenger normally and if that fails for any reason, it will forcibly remove Messenger from the Windows Installer engine allowing you to reinstall at your leisure without hindrance.

Windows Live Messenger Uninstaller

Windows Live Messenger Uninstaller is another software program to remove Windows Live Messenger from the computer system. The portable program supports Windows Live Messenger and MSN Messenger installations which it can uninstall from the system.

Windows Live Messenger Deep Clean

The third program that can remove Windows Live Messenger is a tiny script which can be downloaded from Rapidshare. It will uninstall Windows Live Messenger and the Sign In Assistant including data and program folders, objects, contact store data, temp files and Registry keys.

Tags: portable software, windows live, windows live messenger, windows live messenger uninstaller, windows software, wlm deepclean, zap messenger

Windows Live Messenger Contacts Manager

Martin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:30:48 +0000

Windows Live Messenger is a popular instant messenger for the Windows operating system that gets constantly improved (and renamed) by Microsoft. Live Contacts View is a portable software program by one of our favorite developers Nirsoft that can be used to manage the contacts in Windows Live Messenger. Manage in this context meaning to display the contact information of all Windows Live Messenger contacts and the ability to export them into various other formats.

Live Contacts View is therefor useful in situations where Windows Live Messenger might not be accessible, where contacts need to be sorted and accessed quickly and where contacts need to be exported into other formats for further processing.

The software program will automatically recognize the default Windows Live Messenger account and has an option to select another account just in case that is needed. This also might come in handy when running one Windows Live Messenger profile and accessing the contacts of another without having to switch accounts or running a software to run multiple instances of Windows Live Messenger next to each other.

Live Contacts View displays various information about each contact including nickname, email address, names or phone numbers. Some or all of the contact information can be exported into various formats including csv, txt, xml or htm. Live Contacts View is compatible with most Windows operating systems including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Tags: live contacts view, live messenger, nirsoft, portable software, windows live messenger, windows software

Windows Live Messenger Uninstaller

Martin — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:50:18 +0000

Microsoft has renamed its instant messenger client several times in the past ten years or so. Windows Messenger was the name of the program under Windows XP. Windows Vista users on the other hand worked with Windows Live Messenger on the other hand. Both programs came preinstalled with the operating system. The Windows Live Messenger Uninstaller has been designed to completely remove Windows Live Messenger from the operating system.

The program can be used to uninstall the initial version of Windows Live Messenger from the Windows operating system or uninstall another version of the instant messenger even if it is broken or otherwise damaged.

WLMUninstaller is pretty easy to use. Only one button needs to be pressed to uninstall Windows Live Messenger from the computer system.

The program will start uninstalling Windows Live Messenger once the uninstall button has been pressed. It will display information regarding that process in the interface.

Windows Live Messenger Uninstaller is a tiny portable software program. It can be downloaded straight from the developer’s website.

Tags: portable software, uninstall windows live messenger, windows live messenger, windows live messenger uninstaller, windows messenger, windows software

Microsoft Windows Live Messenger Contacts View

Martin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:33:35 +0000

Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger stores contact information in a database file called contacts.edb. The file is locked by Windows Live Messenger if it is running and contains all the contact information that are accessible in Windows Live Messenger including the contact’s name, first name, last name, mobile phone number and every other possible information.

There might be a situation where the contact information need to be accessed although Windows Live Messenger is not available or cannot be opened. The Live Contacts View program has been created for this purpose as it allows users to view the contact information if Windows Live Messenger is installed and close and even if Windows Live Messenger is not installed on the computer system at all but the contacts.edb file is available (this does require the esent.dll (Server Database Storage Engine) to be installed on the computer system though).

Live Contacts View is a portable software program that can be executed right after the download. It is compatible with all versions of Microsoft Windows Live Messenger and will display the contents of the contacts database immediately if the file is available and not locked.

Contact information can be exported in txt, csv or html files to be processed or imported into other applications. It is also possible to copy the information to the Windows clipboard and paste it from there into another software program. Live Contacts View is another quality Nirsoft release.

Tags: contacts.edb, live contacts view, microsoft windows live messenger, nirsoft, portable software, windows live messenger, windows software

MSN Live Messenger Antivirus Script WLM Safe

Martin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:04:19 +0000

Windows Live Messenger, which is also called MSN Live Messenger or just MSN, is one of the most popular instant messengers for the Windows operating system. This makes it a target for all kinds of malicious software and spam. WLM Safe has been developed to specifically protect the Windows Live Messenger from these threats.

To install WLM Safe users need to install the popular Messenger Plus extension for Windows Live Messenger first and add the script then in the options of the extension. WLM Safe comes with several modules that protect all aspects of Windows Live Messenger. The modules are:

Anti-Virus: detects and blocks infected links sent by virus in conversation windows.
Anti-Phishing: detects and blocks phishing links sent by virus in conversation windows.
Anti-Spam: blocks annoying spam messages sent by your contacts.
Anti-Flood: detects flood attacks and block the authors.
Anti-Freeze: block messages that make old messenger’s versions crash.
Anti-Copy: notifies you if one of your Messenger’s contacts copy your Nickname.
Anti-Bot: notifies you if you’re chatting with a Bot.
Anti-Hackers: notifies you if you’re chatting with an Unsafe contact.

The security program for MSN Live Messenger comes with several additional functions that might be useful for some users. It is for example possible to reduce the memory usage of the program, clean its cache or take a look at all processes of the operating system. Other options include locking MSN Messenger from being used by other users and to prevent the uninstallation of scripts in the instant messenger.

Expert users might be able to live without most of these modules while beginners might be best protected if they enable all of them. WLM Safe (via JK Web Talks) is an interesting security program for Windows Live Messenger.

Tags: live messenger, msn, msn live messenger, msn security, windows live messenger, windows software, wlm safe

Messenger Live Skin Avalon Concept 2009

Martin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:22:56 +0000

If you use the instant messenger Messenger Live regularly you might also have looked around for customizing it further. Customizing meaning removing or adding options to the software program or changing the looks and feel of it. Avalon Concept 2009 is a Messenger Live Plus skin for Windows Live Messenger 2009 that can do all that. It requires an up to date installation of Windows Live Messenger and of Windows Live Messenger Plus.

The new skin for Windows Live Messenger can be downloaded here. It is supplied as a .plsk file that can be double-clicked to add it to Windows Live Messenger. The new Windows Live Messenger skin adds many customization options to Windows Live Messenger. These changes can be divided into changes to the interface itself and to the visual display of Windows Live Messenger.

The Messenger skin provides the means to hide many of the buttons that are displayed in Windows Live messenger like the games, video call or voice clip button. It can furthermore move selected toolbars or buttons to a new location or align them differently in the instant messenger.

The second group of changes can be made to the visual appearance of Windows Live Messenger. It is possible to select different kinds of backgrounds for several windows including the logon, contact list anc chat window. Then different fonts and colors can be selected for various textual displays in Windows Live Messenger.

The skin provides the means to change the look and feels of Windows Live Messenger. It lists all the options in one window to make them easier accessible.

Tags: instant messenger, live messenger, live messenger plus, live messenger skins, messenger skins, windows live messenger, windows live messenger plus, windows software

Windows Live Messenger Content Retriever

Martin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:23:38 +0000

If Windows Live Messenger is your instant messenger of choice you might like the idea of retrieving all the content that you have accumulated over time including custom emoticons, avatar pictures, backgrounds, deluxe display pictures or dynamic backgrounds. Creating a backup of the multimedia contents of MSN Messenger can be useful if the data has to be transferred to a new computer system or if someone else wants to have access to it.

Windows Live Messenger Content Retriever (ConCon Retriever) is a portable software program for the Windows operating system that is compatible with Windows Live Messenger 8.1, Windows Live Messenger 8.5 but also the beta of Windows Live Messenger 9.

The software program displays the registered Windows Live users of a computer system and the different types of contents in a list. The file list is displayed next to that initial display containing all the files that are available to the selected Windows Live Messenger user.

A preview image of the content is displayed in the same interface as well. It is possible to open the content in the default viewer of the computer system or select a different application from a list of installed software programs.

A click on Backup will backup all selected contents of a user account with the option to restore the contents at a later time.

The settings can be used to access the contents of a different Microsoft Messenger installation on the computer system. Windows Live Messenger Content Retriever is an interesting backup utility for users who like to save their Windows Live Messenger multimedia files.

Tags: backup windows live messenger, live messenger, messenger, msn messenger, portable software, software, windows live messenger, windows software

Completely Uninstall Microsoft Messenger Variants

Martin — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:24:59 +0000

Microsoft Messenger variants, such as MSN Messenger, Windows Live Messenger or Windows Messenger, sometimes cause difficulties during uninstallation throwing error messages such as “Another version of the product is already installed”, “Your computer has a newer version of MSN Messenger than the one you are trying to install”, ““Your computer has a newer version of Windows Live Messenger than the one you are trying to install” or “The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable”.

It can be quite frustrating to discover the root of the problem especially when the user wants a clean uninstall to install a newer version of the product again. Keith over at Techie Buzz discovered the Zap Messenger application which can completely uninstall MSN Messenger, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Messenger from a computer system.

It solves all kind of problems that prevent the uninstallation of those products and is not limited to the ones mentioned in the first paragraph. Zap Messenger is a portable application that does require the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0.

The author is not listing the operating systems the software program is compatible with but it seems that it should run fine on Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Tags: instant messenger, msn, msn errors, msn messenger, uninstall msn, windows live, windows live messenger, windows messenger, zap messenger

aMSN: Winks and webcams on Mac and Linux

Joe — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 15:16:34 +0000

Adium and Pidgin, the popular multi-network IM clients popular on OS X and Linux, lacks support for many features of MSN Messenger, such as webcams, ~~audio conversations,~~ voice clips and winks. This can prove to be annoying if the other party of the conversation wants to conference but lacks software such as Skype.

aMSN is an open-source intant messaging client available for Linux, OS X, FreeBSD and Windows (if you dislike the proprietary client) which supports many features specifically on the MSN network which Adium and Pidgin do not.

The client can handle most features which WLM can, excluding MSN Zone Games. aMSN is much more customisable than Windows Live Messenger too, with dozens of plugins and skins being available.

aMSN lacks the ability to connect to networks besides MSN but if you are in Adium and Pidgin and a situation arises when you may want to use a webcam, aMSN does not take long to load and it is much quicker than booting into Windows.

Update 19th October: aMSN does not yet support audio conversations

Tags: amsn, Linux, mac, msn, msn messenger, Open Source, os x, windows live messenger

Run Multiple MSN Messenger Instances

Martin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:46:56 +0000

The Instant Messenger MSN Messenger prevents a user from starting multiple instances of the application. Running multiple instances might be useful for users who want to use different accounts for business and private contacts or two separate businesses.

It would be possible to use two different clients, for example MSN Messenger and Meebo to connect with two different user IDs but that would mean to cope with two different applications. A more straightforward way is offered by the MSN Messenger tool Polygamy (via Technobuzz) which patches MSN Messenger so that it can be run in multiple instances.

The software is able to patch various versions of MSN Messenger and Windows Live Messenger including the latest official releases and several beta versions of the Instant Messenger clients.

The MSN Messenger patch comes basically with two switches, one for enabling multiple logins and one to disable the feature again. All the user needs to do is to make the selection and click on the Patch button to patch the file.

Tags: instant messenger, msn messenger, patch msn messenger, polygamy, windows live, windows live messenger

Windows Live Messenger 9 Ad Removal

Martin — 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.

Tags: im, instant messenger, microsoft live, microsoft messenger, msn, windows live messenger, windows live messenger 9

MSN Repair

Martin — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:56:43 +0000

MSN Repair is a small utility developed by the Italian software developer Valentino Marangi. MSN Repair 2 is the successor of the first version of MSN Repair which was already downloaded more than 50000 times. Version 2 soon topped that and was already downloaded more than 200.000 times which leads to the question if you should use an instant messenger that seems to be problematic for many users..

Still, MSN Repair 2 (Italian) fixes problems and common errors in Windows Live Messenger and MSN Messenger. Valention kept the user interface simply which is really the best design for repair applications in my opinion. First, there is the button repair which repairs Registry settings, program libraries and files that have been altered since installation of MSN Messenger or Windows Live Messenger.

The second option is to correct specific errors by clicking on the Select Errors link in the program window. In total 13 common errors can be selected from the list which will then be repaired by MSN Repair 2.

Here is the list of errors that are fixed:

Error 81000314
Error 800b0001
Error 81000370
Error 80040111
Error 800401f3
Error 80048820
Error 80048883
Error 80072ee6
Error 80072efd
Unable to send / receive sounds (Plus)
Incorporates Windows Messenger (version already installed on Windows)
Not accessed but not by errors
Unable to add contacts

Tags: instant messenger, messenger error, msn, msn error, msn messenger, msn repair, windows live messenger

Windows Live Messenger 8.5 beta 2

Martin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:05:26 +0000

Beta 2 of Windows Live Messenger has been released today and can be downloaded from the official Microsoft Live Messenger website. The successor of MSN is available in more than 30 languages and can be installed with several additional products such as Writer, Mail, Photo Gallery, Toolbar and Family Safety.

Writer lets you publish content to your blog, Mail check all mail accounts in one place, Photo Gallery organize and share photos, the Toolbar is used for searching the web and Family Safety tries to protect family members. Installation does take some time, maybe because of the run on the Microsoft download servers.

Read More:

Windows Live Messenger Download
Changes between 8.1 and 8.5

Tags: instant messenger, microsoft, msn, software, windows live messenger

Messenger Plus Live

Martin — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 03:24:02 +0000

Messenger Plus Live is an add-on for the Windows Live Messenger which adds a multitude of new features to the main program. Messenger Plus Live works with Windows Live Messenger 8 and 8.5 and can be used on Windows XP and Windows Vista.

The new Messenger 8.5 for instance is missing several features that the previous versions had included and Messenger Plus! Live adds them again to the software. Besides offering the build in functionality it also supports user created scripts and offers hundreds of them on the official website.

The main features of Messenger Plus Live are Tabbed Chats, Quick Text, Custom Sounds, Colors and Formatting options, Messenger Lock, Contacts on Desktop, HTML Chat Logging and Personalized Status. Several of them are pretty useful already but the real beauty are the scripts that can be installed as well.

It would be probably a good idea to start with the coolpicks category in the scripts directory which contains more than 20 preselected scripts chosen by the developers of Messenger Plus Live.

This is a great tool for anyone who is using Windows Live Messenger 8 or 8.5.

Update: Make sure you do not install the Sponsor by clicking on I refuse to give support..

Tags: messenger 8.5, messenger plus live, windows live messenger

Windows Live Messenger On Screen Display

Martin — Fri, 04 May 2007 14:08:25 +0000

Netking sent me an email earlier today with a link to a nice software program that I did not know before. The author itself calls it a Windows Live Messenger – On Screen Display. This plugin for the Windows Live Messenger displays all incoming messages right on your desktop. This is indeed a very neat feature because messages are displayed without opening a chat window at all. You can stay up to date by reading the latest messages right on your desktop, very useful if you are currently working and don’t have the time to open the messenger. You could still read everything and react on important messages at once and all other later on.

Installation is not complicated at all. Download the plugin from the official site and install it. Make sure you close the Windows Live Messenger application before you install the plugin. Once installed open Windows Live Messenger and select Tools > Options from the menu and click on Addins. Click on Add to Messenger and browse to the location where you installed the on screen display and select WLM_OSD_Plugin.dll.

Activate the plugin from the status menu which is the last step of activating the plugin. Once activated you can go back into the Addins menu and click on Settings to configure the plugin further. You can set transparency settings, the position and how many messages should be displayed.

Tags: messenger plugin, on screen display, windows live messenger

gHacks technology news » windows live messenger

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