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
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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
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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)
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I think a 'whoo-hoo' is in order here. I have added the big list of skins that I had on the liveskins page of this website into the downloads database. This means you won't find any broken URL's, and you can browse a large variety of skins ready to customise Windows Live Messenger.

I have also been searching hard for new skins, and the database is now up-to-date. There are also some very goods skins out at the moment. Enjoy!

View skins for Windows Live Messenger 8.0
View skins for Windows Live Messenger 8.1
View our skinning tutorial

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

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

Skins, they are still there, just about. A few months ago I created a page containing a list of skins I found for Windows Live Messenger. Today I updated that page listing the two skins I have found for Windows Live Messenger 8.1. Check it out if you want to change the look of your Messenger. Enjoy!

Skins for Windows Live Messenger

There used to be literally hundreds of skins for MSN Messenger, it was simple to skin, and there were many installer scripts around. With Windows Live Messenger comes slightly harder skinning and the loss of Jamach, the guy who would complier most installers. This resulted in less skins being made.

The skins I have found only work on certain builds. They all should work on any of the non-beta releases of Windows Live Messenger 8.0. Some come with an installer, others require you to overwrite a file:

You simply have to copy and paste msgres.dll into C:Program FilesMSN Messenger overwriting the current file. Make sure you close Windows Live Messenger down first and make a backup of the old msgres.dll file beforehand, just in case you want to remove the skin.

Well here are the skins. Enjoy!

Vista Dark Blue Messenger
WLM Ixtli Skin
WLMBlackVista
Serbian Live Messenger
Windows Live Black Vista
Vista Live Messenger
Wlm Zex [screenshot]
Mess With Messenger
WMP 11

View 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