As Messenger Plus! is getting more and more popular, there are an increasing amount of sites trying to scam you in to paying for Messenger Plus!, fooling users by making their site look similar to the real site.
Some of the sites are asking you to pay some money using text messaging in order to receive a code to unlock a modified setup program of Messenger Plus!
Patchou, Messenger Plus! creator, has posted a thread on the Messenger Plus! forums warning users of this. Patchou recommends the following:
View: Patchou's post in full
Official download: Messenger Plus! Live
Some of the sites are asking you to pay some money using text messaging in order to receive a code to unlock a modified setup program of Messenger Plus!
Patchou, Messenger Plus! creator, has posted a thread on the Messenger Plus! forums warning users of this. Patchou recommends the following:
- Only download Messenger Plus! from the official site, which is msgpluslive.net or its localized language domains. The official site will never ask you to pay for Messenger Plus!
- Check the setup files digital signature, which can be found by right clicking the setup file and selecting properties, it should be signed by "Patchou" with a VeriSign Class 3 certificate. If it doesn't, it was not approved by Patchou, therefore shouldn't be trusted. A screenshot of what the digital signature should look like can be seen here.
View: Patchou's post in full Official download: Messenger Plus! LiveIn case you didn't already know, I used to skin MSN Messenger. It was fun and it got me into software design. Back then I had no idea how I taught myself, I just compiled lots of old tutorials from around the web. I then decided to make a tutorial myself, it was basic, but provided all you needed if you took your time. But since Messenger Plus! Live 4.50 came to exist skinning has been flipped up-side down.
Ev0 skin creator Willz has created what I believe to be a highly detailed, highly accurate polished guide going through step by step every little detail that is involved in skinning Windows Live Messenger. The full guide is not completed yet, but the published documents are all you really need. Any future tutorials will just take you into the advanced side of skinning.
So are you interested in skinning Windows Live Messenger with Messenger Plus! Live? View Willz detailed skinning guide at the Messenger Plus! community forums.
View the skinning tutorial
Download Messenger Plus! Live
Ev0 skin creator Willz has created what I believe to be a highly detailed, highly accurate polished guide going through step by step every little detail that is involved in skinning Windows Live Messenger. The full guide is not completed yet, but the published documents are all you really need. Any future tutorials will just take you into the advanced side of skinning.
So are you interested in skinning Windows Live Messenger with Messenger Plus! Live? View Willz detailed skinning guide at the Messenger Plus! community forums.
View the skinning tutorial Download Messenger Plus! LiveI have been putting this post off for a while now. My excuses are exams and the fact this post probably needed time to get a good list together. I am a bit of a Messenger skins fanatic and I have been chatting all about Messenger Plus! Live 4.50 in recent weeks, which revealed a big new feature: a Messenger skins manager.
The skins I have chosen are ones I have found to be well designed, unique and most of all ones with attention to detail i.e. completed fully, polished. Yes, this means no Vista skins!
Ev0
This Messenger skins has been around a while, and its creator was able to get his hands on an early build of Messenger Plus! Live 4.50 so he could get this skin out by release. Its clean design, with unique ideas is complimented by the various colour themes available. To date it has had nearly 200,000 downloads and is probably the best skin available for Messenger Plus! Live.
Download EvO
Beaver and Steve
Honestly Nile, this skin is rather ugly; its bright colours and the cartoonish look are not desirable, but it is these things that make it unique, charming if you will. More importantly it uses shapes therefore making it the first skin released to manipulate Messenger's windows. Nile has put a lot of effort into this skin and there are lots of customizable options meaning you can remove things from Messenger until you are happy. I'm actually surprised he didn't try and plug it himself ...
Download Beaver and Steve
SkyLines
This skin is very stylish and well made. Looking over all the little details you can see a lot of effort has been put into making this skin. This skin is compatible with Windows Live Messenger 8.5 and 9.0, so what are you waiting for? Add SkyLines to your skin library.
Download SkyLines
Nightfall
A dark skin is the best way to describe this. Its simple, but I like simple and I think this is just the start for its creator. The skin is customised for green, red, blue and black colour themes.
Download Nightfall
RoyaLive!
Similar to Nightfall this skin uses soft gradients well. It has its flaws, but overall it is a good skin.
Download RoyaLive!
Office07
This skin is all about basics. It shows that all you need to do is take your time and perfect the images you want to skin. The colours in Office07 compliment Messenger well, but more importantly its creator designed this website, so I'm forced to think it looks great.
Download Office07
Nao Messenger
This skin users colours well in my opinion. The theme of green and blue suits Messenger when used in this way. It adds fun to Messenger, but at the same time good enough to use everyday. It may not be perfect, but Nao Messenger is better than most.
Nao Messenger
I hope you liked my list. If you have a skin of your own and want to share it send it our way. Remember these are just a selection of the skins available, view the entire database for more. If your skin is not on the list, there is a chance I missed it, but more probable is I didn't like it.
The skins I have chosen are ones I have found to be well designed, unique and most of all ones with attention to detail i.e. completed fully, polished. Yes, this means no Vista skins!
This Messenger skins has been around a while, and its creator was able to get his hands on an early build of Messenger Plus! Live 4.50 so he could get this skin out by release. Its clean design, with unique ideas is complimented by the various colour themes available. To date it has had nearly 200,000 downloads and is probably the best skin available for Messenger Plus! Live.
Download EvO
Honestly Nile, this skin is rather ugly; its bright colours and the cartoonish look are not desirable, but it is these things that make it unique, charming if you will. More importantly it uses shapes therefore making it the first skin released to manipulate Messenger's windows. Nile has put a lot of effort into this skin and there are lots of customizable options meaning you can remove things from Messenger until you are happy. I'm actually surprised he didn't try and plug it himself ...
Download Beaver and Steve
This skin is very stylish and well made. Looking over all the little details you can see a lot of effort has been put into making this skin. This skin is compatible with Windows Live Messenger 8.5 and 9.0, so what are you waiting for? Add SkyLines to your skin library.
Download SkyLines
A dark skin is the best way to describe this. Its simple, but I like simple and I think this is just the start for its creator. The skin is customised for green, red, blue and black colour themes.
Download Nightfall
Similar to Nightfall this skin uses soft gradients well. It has its flaws, but overall it is a good skin.
Download RoyaLive!
This skin is all about basics. It shows that all you need to do is take your time and perfect the images you want to skin. The colours in Office07 compliment Messenger well, but more importantly its creator designed this website, so I'm forced to think it looks great.
Download Office07
This skin users colours well in my opinion. The theme of green and blue suits Messenger when used in this way. It adds fun to Messenger, but at the same time good enough to use everyday. It may not be perfect, but Nao Messenger is better than most.
Nao MessengerI hope you liked my list. If you have a skin of your own and want to share it send it our way. Remember these are just a selection of the skins available, view the entire database for more. If your skin is not on the list, there is a chance I missed it, but more probable is I didn't like it.
Patchou has released a minor update to the newly released Messenger Plus! Live 4.50. This version fixes some small bugs found in the initial release of 4.50, which are:
Download: Messenger Plus! Live 4.50.312
View Patchou's Announcement
View Messenger Plus! Live Skins Database
- Updated language files included.
- You now get a clear message when importing a skin that's not compatible with the version of Messenger you're currently using. A message is also displayed if an incompatible skin is enabled in the Preferences panel.
- The script editor is now LTR even with if Hebrew or Arabic is selected.
- Fixed: some preferences are not re-loaded properly when different users sign-in without restarting Messenger.
- Fixed: the Resource Extractor does not properly extracts the resources of Messenger Plus! when asked.
- Some small last-minute issues have been taken care of.
- Scripts: a new ImageId optional parameter has been added to Combo_AddItem(). This allows you to insert items with a picture in combobox controls.
Download: Messenger Plus! Live 4.50.312 View Patchou's Announcement View Messenger Plus! Live Skins DatabaseAfter 6 months of development Messenger Plus! Live 4.50 has been released to the public. The main update was the introduction of a Messenger skins manager, improvements to existing features and WLM 9 compatibility.
You can download the build from the offical website and add skins from the database. I suggest reading this article if you want to give skinning a go, which we be building useful links of skinning tutorials.
In the next few months you can expect a huge amount of skins to arrive. The learning curve is small and just about anyone can create a skin. Some will be fantastic, and some will just be plain awful. We will be hosting any that catch our eye in our skins database, giving you a selection of the best.
Download Messenger Plus! Live
View Patchou's announcement of the release
You can download the build from the offical website and add skins from the database. I suggest reading this article if you want to give skinning a go, which we be building useful links of skinning tutorials.
In the next few months you can expect a huge amount of skins to arrive. The learning curve is small and just about anyone can create a skin. Some will be fantastic, and some will just be plain awful. We will be hosting any that catch our eye in our skins database, giving you a selection of the best.
Download Messenger Plus! Live View Patchou's announcement of the releaseThis is just a quick post telling you Patchou has just been announced that Messenger Plus Live! will be released in the next 24 hours:
The update contains a system for managing Messenger skins, tweaks to current features and Windows Live Messenger 9.0 compatibility.
Source: Messenger Plus! Live Community Forum
Messenger Plus! Live official website
Plus! 4.50 along with its updated web site will be released this weekend, this hasn't changed, but there's still about 36 hours until the end of my weekend ;). Alright... let's say Plus! will be released no later than within the next 24 hours.
The update contains a system for managing Messenger skins, tweaks to current features and Windows Live Messenger 9.0 compatibility.
Source: Messenger Plus! Live Community Forum Messenger Plus! Live official websiteJust a quick post here to tell you Messenger Plus! Live appears to have a release date set for this weekend. Testers have been given the final set of builds over the past couple of weeks and the last minute suggestions and bugs are being dealt with. Skinners are also working hard to reveal their skins ready for the official release. Compatibility with Windows Live Messenger 9.0 is also fully integrated, with just a few minor issues present. You definitely should be looking forward to this release.
Last week we revealed the big new feature coming to Messenger Plus! Live: skinning! It appears some things are unclear so I just want to go into the specific details of skinning and some of the things Plus! does to enchant it.
Skins are edited within XML files
No more resource hacking or other odd methods. You can create simple skins with just a few lines of code. This works well and allows even the most novice of skinners to create good skins. You can replace everything including text strings, images, uifiles and even the Messenger Plus! design itself.
Shaping Windows
One thing that has never been possible is changing the shape of Messenger's windows. Messenger Plus! Live now allows you to manipulate windows thus opening a wider range of possibilities within Messenger's set in stone design.
Skin Options
Skinners can now set options within skins. Directly implementable in uifiles, you change just about change any aspect of Messenger with a touch of a button. I've been creating a soft patch using this method which you can view in the screenshot below:
Skins may be compatible with several versions of Messenger
Depending on how a skin is designed, it may work across many versions of Windows Live Messenger thus meaning it is not tied to a specific build (like it currently is).
No Limitations
Whatever was possible in skinning in MSN Messenger is still possible. RLE files are back to PNGs and extra features such as shaping windows and advanced options really make skinning the best it has ever been.
The learning curve is also very low. Some of the stuff above may looks daunting, but it isn't. Skinning is not complicated and just about anyone can create an advanced skin, never mind a basic one. Yes you can create your own Messenger skin within minutes!
Download the current release of Messenger Plus! Live
Skins are edited within XML files
No more resource hacking or other odd methods. You can create simple skins with just a few lines of code. This works well and allows even the most novice of skinners to create good skins. You can replace everything including text strings, images, uifiles and even the Messenger Plus! design itself.
Shaping Windows
One thing that has never been possible is changing the shape of Messenger's windows. Messenger Plus! Live now allows you to manipulate windows thus opening a wider range of possibilities within Messenger's set in stone design.
Skin Options
Skinners can now set options within skins. Directly implementable in uifiles, you change just about change any aspect of Messenger with a touch of a button. I've been creating a soft patch using this method which you can view in the screenshot below:
Skins may be compatible with several versions of Messenger
Depending on how a skin is designed, it may work across many versions of Windows Live Messenger thus meaning it is not tied to a specific build (like it currently is).
No Limitations
Whatever was possible in skinning in MSN Messenger is still possible. RLE files are back to PNGs and extra features such as shaping windows and advanced options really make skinning the best it has ever been.
The learning curve is also very low. Some of the stuff above may looks daunting, but it isn't. Skinning is not complicated and just about anyone can create an advanced skin, never mind a basic one. Yes you can create your own Messenger skin within minutes!
Download the current release of Messenger Plus! LiveCrashed Messenger? Recover conversations with SessionSaver
on Tue 20 Nov 2007 (11:55 GMT) (4972 views)
on Tue 20 Nov 2007 (11:55 GMT) (4972 views)
Windows Live Messenger has a habit of crashing for me. It doesn't like me sending files or opening too many conversations before it gives up and I am forced to close it. I then lose all my open conversations, which can be frustrating.
SessionSaver helps make this annoyance more tolerable. SessionSaver is a Messenger Plus! Live script that can restore your conversation windows:
Additionally, it will also keep track of group conversations you are in. If any group conversations are open when Messenger crashes, then a new option will be available on the Recovery Window, along with the 3 mentioned above – View group conversations.
The script works well, is easy to use and looks very professional. This is a must have script in my opinion, just check out some of the screenshots below:
Download SessionSaver
SessionSaver helps make this annoyance more tolerable. SessionSaver is a Messenger Plus! Live script that can restore your conversation windows:
This script automatically keeps track of all conversations open. If for some reason Messenger should crash, when you log back in a Recovery Window will notify you that conversations were open when it crashed, and will show you a list of them.
It gives the options of :
- Restoring all the chats that were open
- Doing nothing (i.e. opens no windows and closes the recovery window - the Close button will also do this)
- Choose from the list of contacts which windows it will re-open
Additionally, it will also keep track of group conversations you are in. If any group conversations are open when Messenger crashes, then a new option will be available on the Recovery Window, along with the 3 mentioned above – View group conversations.
The script works well, is easy to use and looks very professional. This is a must have script in my opinion, just check out some of the screenshots below:
Download SessionSaverMessenger Plus! Live 4.50 has been in beta testers hands for a few weeks now, and there are some significant changes. A new design, numerous tweaks and some impressive new features really make this release one of the best ever. Here are the main changes:
Skinning
Messenger Plus! Live's main new feature is fully integrated skins within Messenger! The program manages skins, allows skin creators to develop them easier than ever before (no more .rle issues) and customize Messenger's design to its full potential. It is seriously impressive and I bet more skins like the ones available for MSN Messenger. Skins will be made faster and in a larger quantity. Windows Live Messenger itself could not implement this feature better. Skinning also allows manipulation of Messenger's windows, something which was never possible before. You can see a basic example of this happening in the screenshot below:
Design
Messenger Plus! Live has fully integrated its design with Windows Live Messenger 8.5, but with additional tweaks that Messenger itself can benefit from. Check a look at some screenshots in our gallery and see the new design for yourself.
Changes to contact list clean-up
The new contact list clean up wizard has two modes: one for the contacts on your list and one for the contacts that have you on their list. This helps you know the people you have deleted that still have you in their contact list and who knows you may want to add them again.
Event notifications within conversations
Chat logging
The chat log viewer has had various improvements, which can make the script we talked about, Log Manager seem a little dated. However, new features such as a print preview menu, faster browsing their ability to search within multiple logs, reading over old chats is better than ever.
Scripts
A new debug window is present and the script editor window now has line numbers and the ability to close off certain sections. Basically the script editor is now more practical and similar to that of most modern code editors.
Others
I can assure you the changelog goes on and on and on and you will notice the various little tweaks for yourself. The list above are just the main changes. However, what you will really notice is the development of skins. If you are skinner don't think we have been skinning for long, testers only got it enabled as of yesterday, so you are pretty much in the same shoes as us.
View some screenshots in our gallery
Download the current release of Messenger Plus! Live
Skinning
Messenger Plus! Live's main new feature is fully integrated skins within Messenger! The program manages skins, allows skin creators to develop them easier than ever before (no more .rle issues) and customize Messenger's design to its full potential. It is seriously impressive and I bet more skins like the ones available for MSN Messenger. Skins will be made faster and in a larger quantity. Windows Live Messenger itself could not implement this feature better. Skinning also allows manipulation of Messenger's windows, something which was never possible before. You can see a basic example of this happening in the screenshot below:
Design
Messenger Plus! Live has fully integrated its design with Windows Live Messenger 8.5, but with additional tweaks that Messenger itself can benefit from. Check a look at some screenshots in our gallery and see the new design for yourself.
Changes to contact list clean-up
The new contact list clean up wizard has two modes: one for the contacts on your list and one for the contacts that have you on their list. This helps you know the people you have deleted that still have you in their contact list and who knows you may want to add them again.
Event notifications within conversations
This feature notifies you of your contact events in the chat window themselves, in the area where 'user is typing' is generally displayed. This is mostly visible if you're using Windows Live Messenger 8.5.
Chat logging
The chat log viewer has had various improvements, which can make the script we talked about, Log Manager seem a little dated. However, new features such as a print preview menu, faster browsing their ability to search within multiple logs, reading over old chats is better than ever.
Scripts
A new debug window is present and the script editor window now has line numbers and the ability to close off certain sections. Basically the script editor is now more practical and similar to that of most modern code editors.
Others
- An additional options menu has been adding to contact cards.
- Encrypted log files an now have an optional password hint.
- Event notifications such as when a contact signs out is enabled by default.
- The installer system has been improved with a bigger uninstaller menu and is faster on Windows Vista.
- An option has been added that allows you to hide your 'contact is typing a message notification', something we have already talked about in the past.
- You can show your currently installed scripts with the (!SVER) command.
- A /exit command has been added which closes all current chats and exits Messenger.
- There is now 'disable sign-out confirmation when chats are opened' option in the Customize section of the preferences.
I can assure you the changelog goes on and on and on and you will notice the various little tweaks for yourself. The list above are just the main changes. However, what you will really notice is the development of skins. If you are skinner don't think we have been skinning for long, testers only got it enabled as of yesterday, so you are pretty much in the same shoes as us.
View some screenshots in our gallery Download the current release of Messenger Plus! Live
Messenger Stuff
