We've noticed a few questions from users about the changes to the Sharing Folders functionality in the new version of Windows Live Messenger and thought it was a good time to post a follow-up to our initial December posting.

Background
The Sharing Folders functionality was removed in Windows Live Messenger 2009 and replaced with integrated access to Windows Live SkyDrive.  If you are interested in reading more about the changes, here’s a link to the full post from December: Sharing Files with Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live SkyDrive.

What's different?

• You can now share files in the following ways:
  • Publically
  • Only to pre-defined/custom group of people
  • or just with your contact.

You have full control over the permissions of the file(s) you share.

• In the past, files would only synchronize when both users were online.  Now, when you publish files to Windows Live Skydrive, those files upload right away and are accessible whenever your contact logs in, without having to worry about syncing.
• If you are on vacation or on a computer where Messenger is not installed, as long as you have a web browser and an internet connection you can still sign in with your Live ID and get to your files.

What is the same?
You can still transfer files in real-time with a contact who is online.  That has not changed at all.

What happens to my Sharing Folders when I upgrade to the new Windows Live Messenger?

Nothing, your files will not be deleted or last.  When you upgrade to Windows Live Messenger 2009 you will see a prompt the first time you try to access/view or publish files online explaining the change and a link to your folder.  A shortcut is also created for you, and placed in the Documents folder. If you do not have Sharing Folder files locally on the machine you are signing in on, you will not see a migration dialog.

If you still can't find your files, you can look here:

<AppDataLocal>\Microsoft\Messenger\<User Sign In Email>\Sharing Folders\

For example:
C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Messenger\MyAccount@live.com\Sharing Folders\

If you are still having problems finding your files, make sure that you are actually on the same machine that had the files on them locally.  Several users have mentioned that were still having problems finding their files.  Please keep in mind that, it's likely in this scenario, that the files had never been synchronized to that specific machine, even though you may have had a sharing relationship with that contact.  If that is the case, you'll have to go to the machine that has the files on them locally.

Thanks,
The Windows Live Messenger Team

Dharmesh talks about this in more detail on the Windows Live Team Blog, but I thought it was cool enough for a quick MessengerSays specific post. :)

This week at Mix09 we released the Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit which are controls and libraries that connect people who use Windows Live Messenger together no matter where they are from the browser to anywhere Windows Live Messenger runs (PC, Phone, Xbox and Mac).

In other words, we’ve made it very easy to integrate Windows Live Messenger directly into a website using only a few lines of javascript.  Not only does this help make the surfing experience more social, it means that as long as you have a web browser and internet connection, you can still have a great Windows Live Messenger experience.

Here’s a screenshot of the web bar.  You’ll notice that your full contact list and categories are available, you can chat with multiple people at once and you have all your favorite emoticons handy.

The team has done a great job with this and I predict that we will begin to see this toolkit being used on more and more websites going forward.

There is a lot more information on the Messenger Developer blog and I encourage you to head over there if you’d like to learn more about how to add this to your site.

Lastly, here’s a video of Keiji and Steve on stage at Mix09.  Where they show how to add IM to a site with the Windows Live Messenger Library and UI Controls.  We also have an Interactive SDK which allows you to code and learn at the same time.

Have fun with it.
Lonn
Windows Live Messenger

Last week, 1500 of Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) from around the world descended on Microsoft Campus, here in Redmond, Washington, for the annual MVP Summit. Among those were MVPs on technologies ranging from .NET and Silverlight, to Zune and Windows Live.

Taken from the MVP site:

Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) are exceptional technical community leaders from around the world who are awarded for voluntarily sharing their high quality, real world expertise in offline and online technical communities. Microsoft MVPs are a highly select group of experts that represents the technical community's best and brightest, and they share a deep commitment to community and a willingness to help others.

The Windows Live Messenger team held several sessions with Windows Live MVPs throughout the week to hear their thoughts on the latest version and anything else that was on their mind.  We had some great discussions and appreciate the preparation that the MVPs did in advance to help facilitate productive meetings.

After a breakout session on Wednesday afternoon, we were able to sit a few of them down in a room and catch some of their comments on video. Here's a video of our quick chat with Jonathan (Canada), Kurt (Belgium) and Chris (Netherlands).

The level of dedication and passion these guys have for the product is only out matched by their passion to help people. On behalf of Windows Live we thank Jonathan, Kurt, Chris and all the other Windows Live MVPs for the great work they do.  If you are a passionate user and love to help people, you can learn more about the MVP program here: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/.

Sincerely,

- Lonn, Sameer, Marisol
- Windows Live Messenger

p.s. Sameer and Marisol have a cameo in the video… ‘Hi’ :)