Last week it was announced a competition was coming soon attempting to promote Messenger Plus! and give away some fabulous prises. However the news of the new 4.21 build under works was hardly noticed, so I hope to shed some some light on specific details coming with the update.
First thing, again there are no new features coming to the program, it simply improves on existing ones and adds more to the scripting functionality. There is a lengthy changelog, so I'm just going to sum up the main changes:
It alls sound pretty good, but the focus is going to be on the competition, then hopefully Patchou will unveil some new features, as it has been since September 2005 before we last saw a new feature to Messenger Plus! with tabbed chatting (that and of course Messenger Plus! Live itself).
First thing, again there are no new features coming to the program, it simply improves on existing ones and adds more to the scripting functionality. There is a lengthy changelog, so I'm just going to sum up the main changes:
- You can now customise your chat logs using a custom stylesheet.
- The chat logs font now matches your system's default.
- The script editor will contain a search function to find text and the window remembers the size and position you last placed it in.
- Event notifications have the option to display notifications about contacts you are currently chatting to.
- Scripts have a variety of new text controls to make editing text in Plus! windows ridiculously customisable.
- Plus 24 other nitty gritty details I decided not to mention, but they all add up to make the program so much better. There are a lot of bug fixes, mainly focusing on scripting.
It alls sound pretty good, but the focus is going to be on the competition, then hopefully Patchou will unveil some new features, as it has been since September 2005 before we last saw a new feature to Messenger Plus! with tabbed chatting (that and of course Messenger Plus! Live itself).
Patchou has announced that the next release of Messenger Plus! Live, version 4.21, will be arriving next month with a brand new contest celebrating a Messenger Plus! anniversary.
The new contest, Patchou said will be a 'Game Luck' and everyone will have an equal chance to participate and win one of the many prizes, which are, Xbox 360 Elite, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, Wide LCD Computer Screens and hundreds of Messenger Plus! merchandise.
More details will probably be revealed next month, so until then we can only jump with excitement.
Read the announcement thread
The new contest, Patchou said will be a 'Game Luck' and everyone will have an equal chance to participate and win one of the many prizes, which are, Xbox 360 Elite, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, Wide LCD Computer Screens and hundreds of Messenger Plus! merchandise.
More details will probably be revealed next month, so until then we can only jump with excitement.
Read the announcement thread Themes for Messenger have been in a downward spiral for a while now, and the classic skinners have disappeared. Windows Live Messenger has started to develop a boring look. Most skinners have great ideas, but they rarely come together well, there are often flaws at the end result, in fact I have only found 3 skins which I deem to be a good quality. They are Vista Live Messenger, Messed Skin and EvO.
EvO has been out for a few months now, but it came out just before Windows Live Messenger 8.1, and the skin was only compatible with 8.0. This affected its popularity. Today Willz, the creator of the skin released the 8.1 compatible version, and it does not disappoint.
The skin is so easy to use, its NSIS installer is impressive and gives you a lot of choice. This makes it so much more user friendly, and will hopefully same me and my admins having to reply to a flood of emails I get about installing skins.
It has the simplicity of a Mac, but with great attention to detail. You can certainly tell this is not a rushed project. However I have to be picky about the contact list, my contacts appear very cramped together, some padding between them will really make this skin shine. Also the background colour in the conversions is a little too much. That being said this is a very good skin and I highly recommend it. Enjoy!
Download EvO
View our selection of screenshots (White edition with Sky Blue)
Visit the official website
View our selection of Windows Live Messenger skins (just updated)
View our skinning tutorial
EvO has been out for a few months now, but it came out just before Windows Live Messenger 8.1, and the skin was only compatible with 8.0. This affected its popularity. Today Willz, the creator of the skin released the 8.1 compatible version, and it does not disappoint.
The skin is so easy to use, its NSIS installer is impressive and gives you a lot of choice. This makes it so much more user friendly, and will hopefully same me and my admins having to reply to a flood of emails I get about installing skins.
It has the simplicity of a Mac, but with great attention to detail. You can certainly tell this is not a rushed project. However I have to be picky about the contact list, my contacts appear very cramped together, some padding between them will really make this skin shine. Also the background colour in the conversions is a little too much. That being said this is a very good skin and I highly recommend it. Enjoy!
Download EvO View our selection of screenshots (White edition with Sky Blue) Visit the official website View our selection of Windows Live Messenger skins (just updated) View our skinning tutorialPatchou has released Messenger Plus! 4.20, carrying build number 262. This release contains improved compatibility for Windows Vista and the 9 winning scripts that won the scripting contest in January.
Overall the improvements may not be noticeable, but there are many, and when you add them up you will notice a better experience of Messenger. You can find out more about the new features and improvements by reading absorbation's previous news post.
Download: Messenger Plus! Live 4.20
View Change Log
Read and discuss Patchou's news announcement
Overall the improvements may not be noticeable, but there are many, and when you add them up you will notice a better experience of Messenger. You can find out more about the new features and improvements by reading absorbation's previous news post.
Download: Messenger Plus! Live 4.20 View Change Log Read and discuss Patchou's news announcementMessenger Plus! Live 4.20 has more changes than you may think
on Sat 24 Feb 2007 (18:49 GMT) (3251 views)
on Sat 24 Feb 2007 (18:49 GMT) (3251 views)
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.
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.
Patchou told the public and beta testers today that an update to Messenger Plus! Live is coming, planned for release by the end of the month. The update will focus on full Windows Vista compatiblity and include the winning scripts of the scripting contest. Despite the initial release in July, no new features have been mentioned since. Patchou sure is taking a nice long break.
View Patchou's announcement
View Patchou's announcementPatchou has posted the results of the scripting contest that has been going on for a while. There were a total of 120 entries to the contest in a bid to win up to $500. The winners are as follows:
Full featured scripts (big scripts):
Simple yet useful scripts (small scripts):
Most original scripts:
Patchou has also disclosed that there has been about 230,000 installations a day of Messenger Plus! Live since last month. Congratulation to everyone that had their scripts accepted! Remember, everyone that got accepted will be getting a free Messenger Plus! t-shirt.
Patchou's Forum Post
Full featured scripts (big scripts):
- 1st Prize - Screenshot Sender
- 2nd Prize - Music Now Playing
- 3rd Prize - UNeed Script
Simple yet useful scripts (small scripts):
- 1st Prize - SendTo
- 2nd Prize - ReadThis
- 3rd Prize - WLM Preview Box
Most original scripts:
- 1st Prize - Stickynotes
- 2nd Prize - YouTube Viewer
- 3rd Prize - Plus Mapper
Patchou has also disclosed that there has been about 230,000 installations a day of Messenger Plus! Live since last month. Congratulation to everyone that had their scripts accepted! Remember, everyone that got accepted will be getting a free Messenger Plus! t-shirt.
Patchou's Forum PostDon't worry if the title confuses you. It is simply what a new Messenger Plus! Live script does, which logs certain details about you and your contact's activities on Messenger, then presents them to you. The script is a great idea, and it has been managed extremely well, in fact I just felt I had to post about it.
You may or may not know, but Messenger Plus! Live has held a scripting competition over the past few weeks, and people have been making new and fresh scripts in a bid to win a t-shirt or even $500. I've been meaning to post about some of these scripts, and now that all entries have been submitted, expect me to discuss some that stood out for me.
What I love about this script is the fact how well a wonderful idea has came together. It logs how many times you and your contacts have signed into Messenger, how long you have spent on Messenger altogether and even logs personal message and display name changes. The script has so much, and it's rather cool looking back at the statistics when they eventually build up.
I don't want to nag on, I suggest viewing the screenshots, they speak for themselves. Try out this script today, I believe it's one of the best out there.
View some screenshots of Stat Center
View the official thread
Download Stat Center
Messenger Plus! Live website
You may or may not know, but Messenger Plus! Live has held a scripting competition over the past few weeks, and people have been making new and fresh scripts in a bid to win a t-shirt or even $500. I've been meaning to post about some of these scripts, and now that all entries have been submitted, expect me to discuss some that stood out for me.
What I love about this script is the fact how well a wonderful idea has came together. It logs how many times you and your contacts have signed into Messenger, how long you have spent on Messenger altogether and even logs personal message and display name changes. The script has so much, and it's rather cool looking back at the statistics when they eventually build up.
I don't want to nag on, I suggest viewing the screenshots, they speak for themselves. Try out this script today, I believe it's one of the best out there.
View some screenshots of Stat Center View the official thread Download Stat Center Messenger Plus! Live websitePatchou has just released version 4.11 of his highly successful Messenger addon. The new version contains no new features but instead fixes bugs such as compatibility issues with things like SimpLite-MSN and Windows Live Mail, and fixes a few bugs with the scripting API.
He has also announced details of the new Messenger Plus! script contest which can be found in his news post from the link below.
Download Messenger Plus! Live 4.11
Patchou's news post
He has also announced details of the new Messenger Plus! script contest which can be found in his news post from the link below.
Download Messenger Plus! Live 4.11 Patchou's news postThe highly waited Messenger Plus! Live 4.10 has been released to the public, the build number is marked as 4.10.250.
This version has many key improvements which include:
- Support for Windows Live Messenger 8.1 beta
- Scripts Engine improvements
- Supported internal registry settings documented on msgpluslive.net
- Many bug fixes and internal improvements
Download Messenger Plus! Live 4.10
Announcement
Discussion
View Full Change Log
This version has many key improvements which include:
- Support for Windows Live Messenger 8.1 beta
- Scripts Engine improvements
- Supported internal registry settings documented on msgpluslive.net
- Many bug fixes and internal improvements
Download Messenger Plus! Live 4.10 Announcement Discussion View Full Change Log
Messenger Stuff