News is slow and I have been very busy all week. Bah, bad week I guess. But now I have some free time to add some news, and it's something which may interest you. After testing the new Plus! builds over the past couple of days, I realised there are some very exciting stuff in the upcoming version.

Scheduled for release at the end of the month, Messenger Plus! Live 4.20 will contain full Windows Vista compatibly and will have the winning scripts of the scripting contest bundled with the installation. However there is a lot more in the update, nothing major, but when you add them all up, there is actually some exciting stuff coming in the new version.

First the Windows Vista compatibility. It is not just about fixing issues with Plus! and the new Microsoft operating system, it adds many things which Vista can offer to the program. Window animations, better looking drop down lists and smoother transition effects add up to a better looking Messenger. Plus! has also stopped all the annoying administrator privilege problems that often pop up when you attempt to add scripts and soundpacks. There is also a huge amount of bug fixes, most of which are small glitches.

There are some cool updates to the scripting interface. Bug fixes, more events added for window controls and a 'version' element in the ScriptInfo file to stop duplicate scripts being added. There is a nice new touch with a new scripting icon appearing on the toolbar on your contact list (view image at the end of this post).

Probably the best feature improvement for me is coping text in a conversation. Messenger does not copy things correctly, emoticons are replaced with white gaps instead of their shortcuts and the pasted text always have something wrong with it, which means you can't understand it correctly. Plus! has tried to fix this. It's still not perfect, but testers are reporting many things to improve it, but it makes a huge difference.

The sponsor is also being improved, with testers looking out for inappropriate material. Patchou often stresses to testers that anything that maybe unsuitable i.e. pornography be reported immediately.

I hope more specifics will help you appreciate the upcoming update. It is a huge improvement when everything is added together.