Windows Live Messenger (WLM)

Windows Live Messenger (WLM; formerly MSN Messenger) is the fastest growing instant messaging program, and currently ranks #2 behind AIM/ICQ. Regardless of what you think of Microsoft, WLM has one the best interfaces and is very easy to use. The design of WLM is clean and extremely functional. No, not perfect, but a very well-designed application.

Useful Links

• Download Windows Live Messenger
• Get help! Windows Live Messenger forums at BigBlueBall
• Express yourself! MessengerMods display picture gallery

Customizing the Animated Emoticons in MSN Messenger 6

MSN Messenger 6 introduced the ability to add your own, user-defined emoticons. Unfortunately, they don’t currently allow you to send animated images. You can specify an animated image as your custom emoticon, but MSN Messenger will only display the first frame of the animation.

MSN Messenger 6 does have eleven built-in animated emoticons, and with a little effort on your part, you can replace them with your own animation. Read more

Messenger Plus! 2

I’ve been using Messenger Plus! 2 for about a month now. It’s extremely simple to set up with a standard install interface, and it works beautifully from the start. Here’s a look at what this add-on offers.

Logging

Messenger Plus! 2 (or MP2) adds some wonderful little features. One of my favorites of which is the option for automatic logging of messages. I know I have conversations containing useful information, or things that are just plain funny. I’d be willing to bet that others could get similar use out of it.

There is also an event log, so you can see when your friends login, logout, and change their status.

Modify the Interface

You can turn off the ad banner in the contact list or control the transparency of your chat windows.

Custom Away Messages

Another of the useful and fun features is the ability to set several different custom away messages, which allows for either serious messages to describe your reason for absence, or a humorous blurb to give the same information along with entertaining. You can also insert a code that counts down and tells them how long until you’ll be back.

Create Predefined Messages

MP2 also increases the amount of text that can be sent in one message, and you can set it to help through prompts when using emotes. You can create and store predefined messages. Use it for favorite quotes, helps, or just talking smack with your friends.

Notification Sounds

Messenger already can be configured to play a sound when a contact comes online, but Messenger Plus! lets you take that even further, assigning custom sounds to contacts.

Contact Manager

If you’ve used MSN Messenger for very long, you’ve probably got a long list of contacts. I’ve got people that I don’t even remember anymore, but MP2 makes it easy to clean up my contact list with it’s contact manager. This tool shows your entire contact list, with their last login date and the date of your last chat. I had some people who hadn’t logged on in over 60 days. A good indication that I can purge them from my list.

Message Formatting

Now you can mix text formatting (bold, italics, and colors) in your instant messages. MP2 also supports keyboard formatting shortcuts like CTRL-B and CTRL-I.

Controlling Preferences

Messenger Plus! has clean, easy-to-navigate interface for setting your preferences. It gives you very fine control over all of the options.

System Requirements

MP2 requires Windows 95/98/ME or Windows NT4/2000/XP, and either MSN Messenger or Windows Messenger. It’s compatible with versions 4.6 to 5.0. The installation package is 1.2 MB.

Summary

All in all, if you use Windows Messenger or MSN Messenger, Messenger Plus! it’s worth your while to download this add-on. It has something for everyone.

Useful Links

• Download Messenger Plus!
• Get help in the Windows Live Messenger Support forum