Windows Live Messenger is sprinting to the finish line now as a new build crosses our paths. The team say this is like a final beta, just to see if anything major is going wrong and guess what anyone can have it. So what has changed from the recent braches build? Well, not much at all really, a lot of bug fixes have been made thankfully, and now it is tying up all those loose ends before it can be officially released.

Messenger Plus! Live is not in a good point at the moment. Patchou is leaving for 2 weeks, so yes, you will have to wait a little longer before you can get it, but that's life. Can I remind you if you want your bug fixed in Windows Live Messenger, don't complain about it, report it, the feature is there (I think by reporting your bug you can help improve the product, remember you are testers!).

There is also a competiton for testers, thanks to .lou on this find. (Only for connect testers)



Personally, I don't know how the beta is going to turn out, there still maybe serious bugs in there and remember your friends and family are going to be totally confused by such a change from MSN Messenger to Windows Live Messenger. I can't say too much, not much has changed from the 8.0.0683.00_Branches build, but looks as if things are finally coming together.

>> Download Windows Live Messenger 8.0.0689 (from our mirror)
>> Download Windows Live Messenger 8.0.0689 (English) (from Microsoft)
>> View MessengerSays blog post
>> Report a bug to the Windows Live Messenger team
>> Give other feedback to the Windows Live Messenger team
>> View release notes for Windows Live Messenger 8.0.0689

UPDATE:
There currently seems to be some issues with the new build of Windows Live Messenger. As explained on the messenger team blog by Leah it is not communicating properly with the servers and therefore has lead to such problems as the sharing folders icon being missing, beta invitations appearing to have vanished and entry points for the messenger phone feature being lost.
However, do no panic! Nothing has been lost except for the entry points, with which there is only a temporary problem. The team are currently working to figure out the problem and fix these issues.
We'll tell you right here as soon as the problems are fixed.
For a quick solution try signing out of messenger and then back in again. This may or may not work.
If this problem is still not fixed for you (after signing out and back in again) then try exiting messenger (by completely closing msnmsgr.exe) and opening it again and signing in. If the problem is still not fixed for you wait for at least 30 minutes and try again.