Vista Live Messenger is probably the most popular skin for Windows Live Messenger. We have covered a range of news posts on it (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and I'm happy to announce it has been updated to work with Windows Live Messenger 8.1.

The skin has some small changes to it, and simple things really make it blend in with Microsoft's new operating system, Windows Vista. The skin deserves credit, it is rare we see a skin of such good quality. I highly recommend this using it.

Download Vista Live Messenger from Deviantart
Download Vista Live Messenger in-house
View our skins database

You may remember the new version of the popular Vista Live Messenger skin that is currently being in development for Windows Live Messenger 8.1.

Yesterday another screenshot was posted by Stianu, one of the creators, showing recent work made on the skin. This skin just keeps getting better, I wonder how long it will be until it is released?

View the new screenshot
Download Vista Live Messenger (for WLM 8.0)
View our skins database

Here is some quick news, fresh in. Vista Live Messenger is a skin currently out for Windows Live Messenger 8.0, and is in development to update it for 8.1. The skin is based around the Aero theme of Windows Vista.

This skin is very popular, and I know you guys love it. Stianu has just released another screenshot showing exactly what they have been doing the past few weeks.

View the screenshot
Download Vista Live Messenger (for WLM 8.0)
View our skins database

The highly popular skin Vista Live Messenger started development again today, with the 3 creators Stian, Willz and iPab springing into action changing Messenger to look and feel like Windows Vista.

The skin has proved to be very popular, and I'm constantly being emailed about installing it as well as people requesting an update. Now the skin is now being designed for Windows Live Messenger 8.1 (finally) and the future looks even brighter. Just take a look at the image below:



Discuss the new skin in our forums
Download Vista Live Messenger (for Messenger 8.0)
View skins for Windows Live Messenger
Learn how to skin via our skinning tutorial

In early August I told you about a upcoming skin for Windows Live Messenger called Vista Live Messenger. The skin was designed to make Windows Live Messenger look and feel like the Windows Vista Aero theme, a popular concept for many skinners now.

A few hours ago a beta was released to hopefully gather opinions for the finishing touches to the skin. It looks great and hopefully you will like it to. Of course talking about a design is useless, you have to try it for yourself.

Note: The skin does not contain an installer at the moment. You simply have to extract the archive, copy and paste msgsres.dll into C://Program Files/MSN Messenger overwriting the current file. Make sure you close Windows Live Messenger down first and make a backup of the old msgsres.dll file beforehand, just in case you want to remove the skin.

Download Vista Live Messenger for Windows Live Messenger 8.0
Download Vista Live Messenger for Windows Live Messenger 8.1
View our guide on installing skins
Download Vista Live Messenger beta
View a screenshot Vista Live Messenger beta

Since we first saw the beginning of Windows Live Messenger skinning changed. The PNG format had been replaced by the .rle extension, totally turning the skinning world up-side down as there were no images we could edit. Over time people like TheSteve learnt a lot about the .rle extension and started to crack it or certain parts of it. Still a 100% solution has not been found and skinning therefore has become harder, much harder, leaving skinners to manually code the PNG's back in. However, over the past few weeks I have seen some great new skins, and here is one of them ...

Vista Live Messenger is a stunning skin made by Stian and Blue Eyes, designed to make Windows Live Messenger look and feel like Vista's Aero theme. The graphics made by Stian are amazing, it takes real talent to come up with great ideas and then make them alive, it can be seriously hard work.

Skinning is not just about images, no, far from it. There are some nasty things called uifiles, but if you know how to use them your skins can become something special. Blue Eyes has used these well, things have been moved around, bloated parts of Windows Live Messenger have been removed, and some funky menu's etc have been added. It takes a lot of time to get the effect he has, and using the skin myself all I can say is wow.

Vista Live Messenger is just one of the skins I have seen. Other great skinners are working on some fantastic skins as well and you can look forward to them to. You can't really talk about skins too much, the screenshot will speak for itself and when Vista Live Messenger is out, you can be sure to see it posted right here.


Download Vista Live Messenger for Windows Live Messenger 8.0
Download Vista Live Messenger for Windows Live Messenger 8.1
View our guide on installing skins
View a screenshot of Vista Live Messenger
View msgstuff's skinning tutorial