Skinning Windows Live Messenger has never been an easy task. Most people struggle to understand what is going on when you make and skin and do not know where to start. I created open live to try and help those new skinners out and to give experienced skinners something to save them a bit of time.
Open Live is a special version of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 that has been edited to make a skinners life a lot easier. The key features of open live are as follows:
- No MSNRLE images, all images are normal png, jpg, bmp, ico and gif
- Easy one line edits for things such as text colors and spacing of buttons
- All images are named and labeled to show what they do and are also in organized folders
- Comes with guide images and source images for animations and those tricky images
- Comes with pre-made and pre-translated options and about windows
This is yet another step forward in skinning Windows Live Messenger.
Download Open Live Visit the official websiteon Tue 01 Apr 2008 (14:46 GMT) (1914 views)
Well there we go boys and girls we finally have a reason for the delay in the next build of Windows Live Messenger 9.0. Microsoft has been working on a new feature which will change things drastically in the skinning world. Just a couple of minutes ago I received an email from the Windows Live Messenger team which has invited me to test the upcoming Windows Live Messenger 9.0 beta version which will feature none other than skins.
Ill share these details now since they didn't say that I couldn't post this but I'm sure they'll catch on soon enough and I will have to remove this post. So listen up!
Microsoft has been watching skins closely for quite some time now, in fact they started observing my stuff when I released the first version of Ev0 (yeah its freaky people at Microsoft actually tried something that breaks their own EULA..... irony).
Anyway after seeing Messenger Plus! 4.50 launch they saw how much interest there was in skinning and decided to try and implement an official system. At this point their system is apparently working and a new version of WLM 9.0 beta will be offered to butterflies within the next 2 weeks.
But don't think it is good news now, because there is more to this than meets the eye. Whilst official skins may be coming they come at a cost. Yes a cost. Microsoft will be implementing the same system they used for Winks and Dynamic Display Pictures where only developers who pay the license fee for the digital signature will be able to create skins.
So could this mean skinners could implement flash content into their skins? Quite possibly. But sadly this means the average person will not be able to make skins (apparently I will be able to get my hands on a license though because of my history with skinsBig).
Furthermore new "Premium skins" will also be introduced for paying customers which will feature a Windows Live Messenger without ad's.
Yep thats right Microsoft has been keeping tabs on how people remove ads and have come to the conclusion that people want a client without ad's. So they have come up with this new premium Messenger system to allow this (but hey we will get around that too huh Tongue)
So how does this affect Plus! Skinning? From what I have been told, the next Windows Live Messenger 9.0 is built from the ground up so all the techniques I know will be obsolete which could possibly impact the current skins dramatically.
Anyway I will be talking with Microsoft later today with regards to me trying out this new system. All I can say is they better have Aero implemented
My opinion is that IF Microsoft are creating a skinning feature, it would be rushed and poorly implemented like most features of Windows Live Messenger thus making Messenger Plus! Live's engine superior. But what's the point of me even having an opinion on this day, it could be made up. Then again I believed the Windows Live Messenger 8.0 design was a fake. I guess we will just have to wait.
Source: Design EvolvedI'm happy to announce that sometime this year, a big skinning contest will be organised, benefiting both developers (prizes) and users (new, better skins). Details will be announced when appropriate but as of now, something new and cool has already been put in motion in the world of skins: Will Ingles, the creator of popular skins such as Ev0, as agreed to dedicate some of his time to the creation of new skins inspired by movies and music groups.
Your Messenger experience will never be the same, that's guaranteed, and you'll probably never want to go back to the original interface once you've tried a couple of skins either. Also, if you enjoy switching from one look to the other regularly, or, if you just don't want to miss the release of a skin related to a movie that you've been waiting for, sign up to Messenger Plus! Skins Alerts to get instant notifications.
All this news sounds very interesting, especially the upcoming skinning contest. Stay tuned for more information when it's available.
View Patchou's post View a screenshot of the new skinsEv0 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! LiveSkins 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! LiveWindows Live Messenger has changed all of this. The resources were dramatically modified, PNGs were changed into Microsoft's dreaded .rle extension, something which cannot be edited. Although progress towards solving the extension is currently under way, it's still not going to be perfect. This huge change to how Messenger works has gotten rid of the small time skinners will big ambitions.
Skinners who know their stuff, kept on going. But it was hard. PNGs had to be manually coded back in, a chore which was just ridiculous, and made skinning Messenger well over twice as long. This made some give up, me included - it simply was not worth the effort.
Despite all the problems Windows Live Messenger gave, there were some signs of hope. Some skins did appear, mainly one got the attention of the pubic, that being Vista Live Messenger. Others that were in development seem to have disappeared, and well, skinning Messenger seems to be dying, and it soon will be gone.
Unless something changes ...
The 1.1 update allows more compatibility with Messenger Plus! Live, but the most exciting feature now allows you to change skins without restarting Messenger! It's a great idea and a great program, let's hope some good skins come out for it soon.
Visit the MemSkin+ websiteToday the last piece of the puzzle was found; Monkey posted how he found a way to fix the slicing up of the buddy icons, which previously could not be skinned due to the format they were in and how they were coded into the uifiles. Now with this, skinning is 100% possible to do again, that's right no setbacks to what MSN Messenger was.
That being said skinning is much harder than it used to be. You need to learn some important stuff to achieve skinning and coding the images back in will take much longer than before thus meaning there will probably be less skins and they will take longer to release. Nevertheless, the skins released will be by the best skinners around so quality is going way up for sure and it is quality over quantity. When the first skins are released you can be sure to get them right here.
Messenger Stuff
