Today marks the premiere of a new program named Health Tech Today, which features informative interviews with some of the world's top health leaders; compelling health-related personal stories; and the latest new technology and IT innovations.  The show is hosted by Dr. Bill Crounse and the premiere episode features an interview with eHealth adovcate, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

So what does this have to do with Messenger and why are we writing about it on the MessengerSays blog?

Besides being a great show on a topic that many of us feel passionate about, we’re happy to say that Windows Live Messenger was used to conduct all of the remote video interviews.  A few weeks prior to the recording of the first episode we were approached by the producers asking if we thought the Messenger video call functionality would work for the live interviews they wanted to conduct with guests from all around the world.  We said ‘of course’ and after a quick discussion it was clear that Messenger would indeed meet all their needs.

The producers explained to us that they would typically have to transport the guests to a studio and pay a hefty fee to setup a live satellite-link.  They were very excited at how simple it was to setup a video call and not only did they save money (free!), but the guests didn’t even have to leave their homes to do the interviews.

This was a great win-win situation for everyone (except maybe the satellite-link owners) and the team is looking forward to hearing about more instances where our technology was used to bring things like this together.

Check out the episode for yourself at http://www.microsoft.com/industry/healthcare/healthtechtoday 

Try a video call yourself!

Thanks,
Tolga & Lonn
Windows Live Messenger Team

In September, we began asking users on 8.1 clients to upgrade to the latest version of messenger to ensure that they had the most up to-date and secure release.  (see post)

Starting today, users on version 8.5 will also be required to upgrade before they can sign-in to the service.  Starting on the November 9th, users on Messenger 2009 (version 14) will need to upgrade their clients too.  Users who have already installed the latest version, which was released Aug 18th 2009 (Build: 14.0.8089.726),  will not be required to upgrade.

If you are using Messenger 2009 and are curious what version you have, you can go to the Help –> About Menu.

If you have any issues or questions during the upgrade process, here are the places you can go to get some answers.

Note: Users on Windows XP will need to ensure that they have installed Service Pack 2 (SP2) or higher, otherwise the upgrade will not work.  Instructions to install the latest Service Pack (SP3) can be found here.  Additionally, here is more information about the system requirements.

Thanks for everyone’s continued support.

Sincerely,
The Windows Live Messenger Team

Over the past few weeks we have been asking customers using previous versions of Windows Live Messenger to upgrade to the latest version in order to ensure they had the most up-to-date and secure release.  If you’d like to learn more about this upgrade and why we’re doing this, please see the previous blog post, Upgrade Windows Live Messenger.

Starting today, if you are using version 8.1, you will be required to upgrade before you will be able to sign-in.  After upgrading you will be able to sign-in and if you’re interested in learning more about the new release, please visit the Windows Live Messenger information page.

We’ve seen comments from a few users stating that they have had some trouble signing-in after the upgrade and wanted to provide a few resources.  The following links can help you in case you’re having an issue.

Update: Users on Windows XP will need to ensure that they have installed Service Pack 2 (SP2) or higher, otherwise the upgrade will not work.  Instructions to install the latest Service Pack (SP3) can be found here.  Additionally, here is more information about the system requirements.

Thanks,
The Windows Live Messenger Team

We are currently experiencing technical issues that may cause you to have trouble sending IMs.  We are working quickly to fix this issue and apologize for the inconvenience.

-The Windows Live Messenger Team

Update: 3:10pm PST

We’ve fixed the issue and things are returning back to normal.  Thanks for your patience.

We are committed to providing a safe, secure and positive experience for our more than 300 million customers across the globe using Windows Live Messenger every month. To deliver on that commitment, beginning on August 25, we started asking our customers using versions 8.1, 8.5 and 14.0 to upgrade to the newest version of Messenger. The upgrade will provide customers with the latest software updates including code fixes and feature enhancements, as well address vulnerabilities discussed in the Microsoft Security Advisory 973882 that existed in previous versions of Windows Live Messenger.

The upgrade process will take place in a phased approach over the next several weeks:

First Phase, Optional Upgrade:
The optional upgrade will happen in two stages:
Starting Aug. 25, customers using versions 8.1 or 8.5 were asked to upgrade their client.
Starting early Oct., all customers using versions 14.0 (but not the latest release 14.0.8089) will be asked to upgrade their client.
The upgrade at this time is optional. Customers who haven’t upgraded during the optional phase will be required to do so during the second phase. 

Second Phase, Mandatory Upgrade:
The mandatory upgrade will happen in three stages:
Starting mid-Sept., all customers using Messenger 8.1 or 8.5 will be required to upgrade their version of Windows Live Messenger.
Starting late Oct., all customers using Messenger 14.0 will be required to upgrade their version of Windows Live Messenger.
To ensure that we are protecting customers, those who do not administer the upgrade will not be able to sign in to Messenger after this time.

Please Note: It will take several weeks for the upgrade process to be completed, as the upgrade will be rolled out to customers over the course of several weeks. 

Below are some examples of the prompts that you will encounter during the upgrade process. 

Notification to upgrade.

Want to upgrade now?  You don’t have to wait for the notification. In fact, we encourage you to download the updated version of Messenger right now by visiting http://download.live.com .

If you aren’t sure which version you have, you can go to the Help menu and select About Messenger.  Help –> About Messenger.  If you have a version that is lower than 14.0.8089 you will need to upgrade.

New Features and Improvements

There are a ton of great new features and improvements in the current version of Windows Live Messenger (14.0.8089) that we know you will be impressed with. In fact, Windows Live Messenger won both the Editor’s Choice distinction by PC Mag as well as a 2009 Webware 100 award from CNet honoring the people's choice for the best Web 2.0 apps and services. Learn more about all the new features in Windows Live Messenger here.

Users upgrading from 14.0

Customers currently using Windows Live Messenger 14 are already enjoying the new features of the latest version of Window Live Messenger. We’re doing our best to minimize the impact this upgrade may have on our customers and apologize for any inconvenience it may cause.

To answer any questions you may have, we’ve provided a short FAQ about the upgrade process below.

Thanks,
The Windows Live Messenger Team

FAQ – Windows Live Messenger update

What are the changes with the new upgrade?
The changes vary depending on which version of Windows Live Messenger people currently have on their PC. The process will upgrade customers of Windows Live Messenger 8.1 or 8.5 to our latest version. Separately, customers who installed Windows Live Messenger client 14.0 before August 19, 2009 will receive a code fix, but there will be no visible feature changes. 

What is new in the latest version of Windows Live Messenger?
With the current version of Windows Live Messenger, several new, socially oriented features and an entirely new look and feel were introduced:
• Personalization. Add a profile picture or video, display a personal scene in the chat window, update the status message with your news, add a favorite link, or add what song you’re listening to. 
• Integration of “What’s New” feed. With the “What’s New” feed in Messenger, you can stay in touch with the latest updates from your circle of friends at a glance, without any need to log in across multiple destinations.
• Photo sharing. Photo sharing lets you share and comment on pictures while you’re chatting.
• Favorites. Identify your most important contacts and they will appear at the top of your Messenger window, for easy access. It’s like speed dial for your Messenger contacts.
• Groups. Create groups on the fly and chat simultaneously with up to 20 members at the same time.              

Who will receive the upgrade notification?
All Windows Live Messenger clients with versions 8.1, 8.5 or 14.0 will receive the upgrade notification. Beginning August 25, customers of Messenger 8.1 or 8.5 were prompted to upgrade their client. Customers who installed the latest Windows Live Messenger client (14.0) before August 19, 2009 will start receiving an upgrade notification in September 2009. Customers of older versions of MSN Messenger on Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 95, Windows Me or Windows 98 will not receive an upgrade notification.

Update (Aug 28 6:30pm PST) 

Hi everyone, we’ve had several comments about what happens if you are running an operating system on which you cannot install the latest version of Messenger.  In this case, you will NOT be prompted to upgrade and can continue to use the version you currently have.

To clarify, if you are running Messenger 8.1, 8.5 or 14.0 on the following operating systems: Windows XP 32bit, Windows Vista (32bit/64bit), Windows 7( 32bit/64bit) or Windows Server 2008, you will receive the upgrade notice.  See this link for the system requirements of the latest version. http://download.live.com/SystemRequirements

10 years ago today, MSN Messenger v1.0 was released to the world and users all around the world began downloading it via their 28.8/56.6k dial-up modems. :p.

Over the past few weeks we received an overwhelming number of fascinating stories from all of you on topics ranging from “How to propose using Messenger” to “How to use Messenger as a security camera”, all of which reminds us about why we love working on this product.

Windows Live Messenger is where it is today because of YOU, our users.  We couldn’t have done it without you and in return, we thought about hosting a party, but with 330 million of you to invite, I couldn’t convince any of the team members to hold it at their place. :)  Instead, you’ll have to settle for the next best thing… a homemade celebration video (nicely pasted to the left for your viewing pleasure).

Hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.  Thank you for all your support over the past 10 years, and here’s to another 10! :)

After you’ve checked out the video, here are some things you can do to celebrate Messenger’s 10th anniversary with us:

• Visit our Messenger anniversary celebration site in the US or in the UK and download a special anniversary gift pack with free themes and emoticons.
• Send a Happy Anniversary IM to at least 10 of your friends and let them guess whose anniversary you’re celebrating (you can use a 10 Year Anniversary emoticon to make it a bit easier for them) 

Fun Fact – did you know that…

Messenger users come back to log-in to Windows Live Messenger on average 3 times a day. That is about as often as the average person would sit down to have a meal.

And when they log-in they send a *LOT* of messages to their friends and family! Let’s come back to our space travel example from yesterday:

People are trying to estimate how many stars we have in our galaxy, the Milky Way. The current estimate is approx 300 billion. For Messenger we don’t have to estimate, we have the numbers – could you have imagined that the average 9.4 billion messages that are sent per day add up to about 290 billion messages every month, which pretty much equals the estimated number of stars in our galaxy?!

Looking back to the early days of Windows Live Messenger – here is how one of our users remembers these days:

 Steve (USA): Early Days Experiences

I remember first using MSN Messenger back when I signed up for the MSN dial-up internet service in 1999.  At that time, I only had one friend who used MSN Messenger, and we would chat on the computer from time to time.

Shortly thereafter, as we got older and entered high school, so many more of my friends started signing up for Hotmail and MSN Messenger.

 One of my fondest memories is in my eighth grade year, when my friends had a study hall in the computer lab for the last period of the day.  We'd all get on MSN Messenger and have group chats.  Since at that time there was a limit as to how many people could be in one chat (I'm not sure if there still is or not), it was always a race to join the chat, and almost a privilege to be included in the conversation.

Chatting with each other while we all had headphones on listening to music, sharing links and transferring songs back and forth really made that study hall a blast.

Steve, USA

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY EVERYBODY!!!!

We have a special treat for today - Ten years ago tomorrow, Microsoft launched one of its most innovative communication services – Windows Live Messenger (then known as MSN Messenger). Throughout its many stages of evolution over the years, Windows Live Messenger – with 330 million users – has become the most widely used free instant messaging service in the world. To celebrate ten fantastic years, we asked Danny Glasser (Partner Development Manager, Windows Live), one of the founding members of the Windows Live Messenger team to share how Microsoft decided to launch Windows Live Messenger. Here’s his story:

In 1997, while working on Microsoft NetMeeting, Danny was dealing with a flaw in the product. Users of NetMeeting, an audiovisual communication client, were having trouble finding the people they wanted to talk to. This wasn’t exactly ideal for a service that billed itself as a collaboration tool, so the team set out to find a fix. The proposed solution: Enable NetMeeting users to maintain a list of the people they cared about, to be able to see when those contacts were online, and to be able to initiate NetMeeting calls easily with those contacts. It was dubbed the “Buddy List” project.

NetMeeting is no more, but what the team came up with ultimately became the world’s number one instant messaging service. Ten years ago today, MSN Messenger made its debut. “It definitely felt like we were working on something special,” said Danny. “I don’t know that I could have predicted accurately the number of people who would use it, but we had a feeling it would be a big thing.”

Looking back, Danny said he’s amazed at how huge Messenger has become. At the outset, scalability was one of the team’s biggest concerns. Inside the hallway of a building on Microsoft’s RedWest campus the team put up a real-time counter showing the number of simultaneous online connections (SOCs) around the clock. They started with tens of thousands and hit the 1 million mark after a year; today, Windows Live Messenger sees about 40 million SOCs.

“To see the influence we have had, not just at Microsoft and with customers, but the way it has affected people's lives, I’m very gratified to have played a part in it” says Danny.

Amazing work indeed! Happy anniversary and congratulations (and thank you) to the Messenger “v1 team” and everyone who has worked hard to make Windows Live Messenger what it is today!

It’s interesting to note that although NetMeeting is no more, people across the globe use Windows Live Messenger to chat during business meetings. Nearly a quarter (21 percent) of Americans recently surveyed use Messenger during business meetings; of those people, roughly 83 percent say they IM “fairly often” during meetings to make after-work plans.

While it’s interesting to visit Messenger’s beginnings it’s exciting to think about how far the product has come.  Over the past year,  Messenger has delivered a host of fun ways to communicate and share including new ways to share photos, personalize how you chat and stay up to date with what your friends are doing across the web, including on Facebook and Flickr.

Care for a fun fact for the anniversary?

(This one is also in honor of the 40th anniversary of the lunar landing.)

Imagine if a single-page letter was mailed for every one of the 1.6 billion Messenger sessions that happen every day. The individual pages lined up one after another would stack up to the moon within a day! The weight would weigh 33 times more than the Endeavor Space Shuttle (with boosters and tank).

And by the way, using Messenger instead saves 2.8 million trees every day.  :-)

The following story is a small example of what happens in the 1.6 billion sessions shared every day on Messenger.

Amanda (USA/Holland): a long distance love story

My name is Amanda and I live in Ohio. My Windows Live Messenger story starts in January of 2004.

I met a guy on a website and we swapped Windows Live Messenger screen names. Using chat and voice chat we talked for over 40 hours in just 4 days! It was the perfect way to stay in touch especially since I was in Ohio and he was in Den Haag Holland. The phone bill would have been insane without the messenger!

We talked each day using Windows Live Messenger and finally met face to face in April 2004 and we immediately got engaged. When he had to return to Holland we continued to keep in touch almost strictly using Windows Live and Hotmail.

In September 2004 he moved from Holland to Ohio so we could get married. I'll never forget how excited and happy I was when he told me he was finally going to move! It was the best day in both of our lives at that point!

We got married on November 20th, 2004 and had a daughter Prudence February 7th, 2006. This year we celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary and none of it wouldn't have been possible without the connection we made thanks to Windows Live Messenger!

We easily logged thousands of hours of chat, voice chat, and webcam between the time we met online and the time we were finally together!

Over 6000 miles separated us but the distance didn't seem quite so big when we could see and hear each other every day.

- Amanda (Ohio, USA)

That’s the question we asked Windows Live Messenger community celebrities Sunshine (Netherlands), RebelSean (USA), Kip (USA), Jonathan (Canada), mynetx (Germany) this week as part of our Messenger 10th Anniversary blog post series.  These guys (and girl) not only strive to help make the product better through participating in betas and providing enormous amounts of valuable feedback, but also generously volunteer their time to help other users on forums/IRC etc, or even through their own blogs.  And I repeat, they don’t work for Microsoft, but do it out of the goodness of their . All also happen to be Windows Live experts and established industry bloggers.

It’s always great to speak with Messenger enthusiasts and we will definitely need to follow-up with more in-depth interviews in the future, but for today, I’ll just share with you a few questions/answers from our conversations.

Q. Why do you use Messenger?
mynetx says: I love Messenger because it enables me to stay in touch with my friends continuously, whether they are living in my neighborhood or on the other side of the world. Messenger allows me to chat, to help, to think, to share, to meet my most dear friends, regardless of their actual location, and without me having to leave the house.

sunshine says: it’s indispensible to keep in touch with all those online friends (uhuh, can't you tell I'm a geek...lol) and to talk to co-bloggers of course, imagine having to call everybody, and the time differences…!

Kip: I was not a messenger user until I got involved in betas. I was kind of dragged into it by the other LiveSide members, but now I find it indispensible, I use Messenger every day, it's the best way to ask a quick question

Q. Why do you beta test?
RebelSean says: There were lots of reasons why I became a beta tester. The main reason I'd say is because I wanted to see Messenger grow and become more functional. I believe I and every other beta tester over the years have shaped WLM into what it is today. Another reason would be is the fact that I enjoy testing software and finding bugs and incompatibilities. I do remember one (bug), it was some sort of random key combination that instantly crashed Messenger and BSOD'ed my XP machine. Was confirmed by almost everyone on Connect (Connect is the Beta forum)

Q. Why do you help people with their Messenger issues?
mynetx says: I think sharing my knowledge about Windows Live Messenger is the least I can do. I find it odd if somebody has knowledge about a certain product, yet does not share it—you cannot make best use of Messenger unless you connect to its users and find out what is in their mind.  People often have problems with Messenger, but that is not always caused by the program itself. Thus I help to detect the real cause for errors and thus encourage people to get to know more Messenger features.

A few fun facts:
- Jonathan once had a 24 hour Messenger audio call (he left the computer a few times during that time period but the call was connected the entire time).  Somehow the call was disconnected and he ended up being unable to reconnect to the internet until the other computer was turned off since it was flooding his connection with requests. (this bug has since been fixed.) :)
- Sunshine turns her computer off at night incase it short circuits and catches fire while she is sleeping! :)
- Jonathan uses the emoticon on average 1.4 times per message.

So in the end, what was their favorite emoticon?  Here are the results. How about you? What’s your favorite emoticon?  Leave a comment with the characters… like :) or (@)
RebelSean-    mynetx -   Jonathan -   Kip -   Sunshine -

I asked everyone what they would write on a birthday card for Messenger, and here’s what they said.

Today’s Messenger story comes from RebelSean himself.  I’ve cut and paste the story from our chat below.  Enjoy.

Using Windows Live Messenger as a security system :),
RebelSean, USA.

RebelSean says:
Lets see, a story regarding Messenger. Last year when we were on vacation in Chicago, someone called my mom's cell phone from our house phone. Knowing that my entire family was in Chicago at the time, someone was obviously in our house that shouldn't be. So I thought and thought, is there anyway I can somehow hack into my computer and open my webcam to see if we can see anything. Then I remembered that we had left the computer on and I had left Messenger signed in. So using MPOP and a virtual desktop connection I got my webcam up and running.

Apparently my neighbor had heard my dog was making very loud noises like it was hurt, and broke into the house to make sure he was ok. He had gotten stuck under our couch in the den and couldn't get out, so she saved his life.

Lonn says:
oh wow, that's an awesome story, so did you actually see anything on the webcam?

RebelSean says:
We saw our neighbor leaving the house as for our desk in the living room is a corner desk across the room from our front door.
So we knew something had to be wrong for them to come into the house, and we called her and she explained the situation.

So that’s how you use Messenger as a security system… ;)

Fun Fact of the day:
Messenger connects people worldwide with their friends and family – did you know that with a IM category reach of 60%* Windows Live Messenger is the most widely used free instant messaging service in the world. All over the world 6 out of 10 instant messaging users choose Windows Live Messenger to chat with their friends.

Less than 1 week until the 10th Anniversary!  Thanks for reading…

- Windows Live Messenger Team

*Source: Comscore May 2009

12 more days until the big day - Messenger’s 10th Anniversary! 

Messenger Fun Facts:
1) The typing indicator ()seems trivial today, but actually it was a tricky problem back in the early days – how could you show that someone was entering a message without showing every single character (and their typos). The Messenger team invented the typing indicator for that purpose, which today is used by every chat client.

2) The nudge was introduced with MSN Messenger 7.0 on April 7^th 2005. Since then it is even easier to get attention from your favorite chat partner - even if they might not always appreciate your nudges! ;-)

I didn’t even know that the Messenger team invented the “typing indicator” until today, but I don’t know what I’d do without it! :)  

Before I share today’s user submitted story, I wanted to quickly introduce you to the Messenger program management team.  This team, led by Steven, works with several other teams such as design, usability, development , testing, etc to help bring Windows Live Messenger to your computer. They have a challenging but rewarding job. Look for posts from them in the future!  Special thanks to Sameer for putting this post together.

Meet the Messenger Client PM team

Now for today’s user story, in his own words…

Lenin (Ecuador): “Loving the Sound of new messages coming in”

Hi, this is Lenin, writing from Cuenca, Ecuador.

Technology has been one of my passions for my whole life and since Internet appeared I haven’t gone away from my computer. I spent hours in the IRC channels until someone had the genial idea of creating MSN Messenger (in those faraway times).

It was the best thing that could have happened to chats, in all chats and IRCs, people were typing: “Use the Messenger", and everyone was speaking of its big usefulness. After spending a week chatting with someone, it was: "Give me your 'Hotmail' so I can add you to mess".

And since that era, 1999, in all the cybercafés it was heard the nice wav sound: "new message" at every moment. Everyone was using it, times changed, years passed, there were new versions released with new features and in every computer it was essential to have Messenger.

And now, 10 years after, being called Windows Live Messenger and having the chance to change the sound for new messages or nudges, but I don’t do it because I’m used to that "toorooroon", it is part of my life. All my contacts are there, I’ve changed my Passport something like 5 times, but my buddies remain, all my life is there.
Greets...! ;)

---
Thanks for that submission Lenin!  (BTW, anyone know when the sound for incoming messages was first introduced? What’s your guess?)
-Windows Live Messenger Team

The 10th Anniversary of Windows Live Messenger is less than 2 weeks away.  As part of the celebration, we’re posting fun/touching stories from users and today’s Messenger story is from Cindy, who works in the Microsoft China office.  It’s a great story, let us know if you’ve tried this yourself and what your results were. :)

A quick Messenger fun fact:  Windows Live Messenger is available in 76 countries and 48 languages –Messenger users can say “I love you” not only in English, Spanish, German and Japanese (the initial 4 languages) but also Chinese, Estonian, Thai, Catalan, Hindi and many more. (How many languages can you say ‘I love you’ in?  Try it out… I could only get to 5… :))

Tips on how to propose via Windows Live Messenger
(Sent in by Mr. Zhang in China) 

A few days ago a coworker of mine successfully proposed to his girlfriend via his Windows Live status message. It caused such a commotion around here that everyone and their dog knew. For those of you who are still digging around in your brains for a creative proposing strategy, let me share with you his little success story.  Let’s start off from the beginning. One regular afternoon at work, he suddenly changed his Windows Live Messenger status message to: “Today I am proposing. Everyone, please help me send a text at 19:00 that says: XiaXue, please marry Liu YunShan!” At first we thought he was just playing around, but he told us he was being serious!

So for the whole day, he kept signing in and out, in and out. It was impossible for anyone who was on Messenger with a pair of eyes to not see his message. It immediately became the hottest topic on Messenger as everyone became interested in helping him out.

Right after work, we all found a good place near the main entrance to hide and watch “the show.” I even borrowed our company’s video camera to record that special moment. As planned, the lucky lady appeared at around 6pm. Completely clueless, she walked into our building as we bombarded her with our paparazzi-like photography skills. Before she knew it, he appeared right there in front of her, down on one knee. In his hand was a bouquet of 99 fresh red roses. At that moment, everyone in the entire building melted.

Just when she thought things were over, her cell phone began to ring. One ring after another, the Messenger proposal volunteers’ messages all came flooding into her cell phone. OMG, it must have lasted for at least 5 minutes. She burst into tears as she read the proposal messages:

“Speaking on behalf of the entire company, I strongly ask that you marry XiaoShan! He has been nominated as the best employee for years! With him, at least your stomach will always be filled!”

“XiaoXue, please take good care of XiaoShan”

“XiaoXue, marry XiaoShan! He is mature, stable, career-driven, has a house, almost has a car… Wait, this is what I’m looking for in a husband! PS: he has sexy legs :) Marry him!”

“Sister in-law, please pay mercy to XiaoShan, he has been singing Single Love Song every day, we’re all about to explode. If he sings that again, beat him up! Hehe, wish you guys the best!”

“Beautiful XiaoXue, marry XiaoShan!”

“XiaoXue, marry the beasty XiaoShan!”

…

So touching *sniff*.

The proposal strategy was successful: the couple went and registered the next day.

One of my friends heard about this success story and decided to follow suit. He, however, did not ask for help. He just went ahead and proposed to his girlfriend in his status message:

“My dearest Lan, here are 999 roses, please be my beautiful bride, will you marry me?”

After crying her eyes out, Lan agreed. Sure, it was pretty cheesy, but a few days later they registered too. We must admit that this strategy works, and it works pretty darn well.

From these two experiences, I have derived a few key points that I would like to share with all the clueless men out there.

1. When proposing, if you are asking for help (XiaoShan’s case), make sure your words are succinct. This will attract more eyeballs and thus increase your success rate. If you are proposing in your status message (Lan’s case), then you gotta be cheesy. Some cheese and corn will do it best. Below is my friend’s plan. Unfortunately, he has nobody to say it to. Notice how he used a lot of roses?

2. You must sign in and sign out at least once per minute! Make sure everyone in your list sees your message!
3. Choose your sign in time wisely. Best time is during working hours when everyone is on Messenger. ;)

Thanks, and good luck! :p

Windows Live Messenger provides a great deal of freedom in how you can communicate and with whom, but I’m sure we all know people that like to push the boundaries of Messenger-etiquette…

Here’s a quick look the top 5 Messenger etiquette offenders:

1. The YELLERS	CAPS-LOCK IS APPARENTLY ALWAYS ON FOR THESE USERS AND THEY HAVE A STRONG AFFINITY FOR THE EXCLAIMATION MARK!!!  REGARDLESS OF THE TOPIC, YOU CAN COUNT ON A LOUD RESPONSE!!!
2. Emoticon overload
3. Indecisive typers	That’s what it looks like when I ask my co-worker Alfons a question on Messenger.  He’s either slow, indecisive or both.  Either way, I’m sure we all know someone like this.  The best part is that after 5 minutes all you get is a one word answer. :p
4. Status Ignorers	Your status is set to busy and your message says  “DND – Do Not Disturb.  Delivering a mission critical demo or presentation.”  Not only will a Status Ignorer disregard your message and IM you anyways, but they also tend to start their conversations off with a less than ideal sentence such as: “HeY DuDe, R we going Partying all wknd again?” …which of course, everyone in your demo/presentation will see.
5. Never ending chat	These are typically people that you genuinely care about, an old friend, your mom/dad, a long lost relative etc… You have a great 30 minute chat, which then drags into a 3 hour chat.  Every time you say '”bye”, they start a new topic or ask you a question. This is somewhat parallel to the co-worker who keeps talking to you, even as you leave their office.  Then you have to come back and as ‘what was that?’… they tell you, then you try to leave again, and they again keep talking to you…

TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH THESE TYPE OF PEOPLE AND HOW YOU WOULD DEAL WITH THEM.  I’ll write up another post down the road that integrates all of your wisdom along with some of my own thoughts. :)  Just post a comment.

On that topic, as we continue to lead up to the 10th Anniversary of Windows Live Messenger, here are 2 GREAT stories submitted by our user’s about what NOT to do… I was LOL the first time I read them.  Enjoy and thanks Jonathan and Tariq.

Jonathan (UK): The Invention of Group Chat (and Group Feedback)

“A couple of years ago, a new middle manager started working in my department. For the first couple of weeks he didn't make the greatest impression. He looked like he was falling asleep in meetings and generally looked fairly uninterested.

I found out that he'd come from a company that a good friend of mine works for, so I opened up a chat with my friend on Messenger to see if he knew this guy and what he thought of him. I said about the falling asleep in meetings and other negative things that had been discussed around the cooler about him.

My friend said that he didn't know the guy personally, but that some of the 80+ people that he was sharing his screen with in an internal conference obviously did because they were falling about laughing!”

Jonathan, UK

Tariq (USA/Brazil): Not the best Way to introduce a Girl Friend to Mom

“Junior year of high-school my Brazilian girlfriend, Marina, moved back  to Brazil with her family. We used messenger video chat to keep in touch every week (as we do to this day – she is my best friend still).

One day, after a lot of deliberation, she decided to get a tattoo and pinged me excited to show it off. So we opened up a video chat session. The tattoo, a red tropical flower that wrapped around her left side, was hard to see with the shirt she had on so she took it off to provide a better view.

Naturally, my mother walked in at that moment to see an extremely embarrassed, shirtless Marina on my monitor. I reacted the only way I knew how, “Mom, have you met Marina?”. We laugh about the encounter to this day.”

Tariq, USA/Brazil

Thanks again to everyone that submitted a story.  We’ll continue to post them leading up the big 10th anniversary day (July 22nd) so continue to check back.

Today’s Fun 10th Anniversary Fact:  The average chat session is 5 mins long. In the US, chat sessions tend to be shorter with an average 4 mins, while people in China take on average 8 mins for each of their sessions.

Interesting… so where is my father counted in this??? (My dad is a ‘Never ending chatter"’)… :)

Thanks for reading.
The Windows Live Messenger Team

As we mentioned last week, Windows Live Messenger is turning 10 very soon and as part of our celebration, we will be sharing, here on our blog, different stories from our users, tips/tricks and fun facts, leading up to big day, July 22nd 2009.  We’ll also have special guest posts from people that work on Messenger and from around the community.  It’s going to be a great month so stay tuned.

Today’s Fun Factoid
If Windows Live Messenger was a country, it would be the third largest country in the world (behind China and India, and before the United States) and almost 10 times the size of Canada.

Today’s Messenger user story
Thanks everyone for the stories.  We’ve gotten an overwhelming number of funny, touching and odd stories and there is still time to submit one.  If you want to share your story and let others participate in your special moment with Messenger, please send your short story in English to IloveMessenger@live.com by June 28th.

Our first story comes from Clem from Canada.

“I had just met a really cute girl and we started exchanging IMs on Windows Live Messenger.  Even though we were on IM, I was still pretty nervous (yes, lame i know) but of course, tried to keep it cool.  Things seemed like they were going pretty well and we chatted for a little while until she said she had to go, to work on a finance homework problem that she was stuck on.  Being the helpful guy that I am, I offered to help… (limited finance knowledge, but hey, I had to try).  She sent me the problem over IM and I was in luck, a good friend of mine, Jon, was online.  He’d know the answer.  Quickly, I drafted the IM…

“Yo Jon, I’m trying hard to impress this really cute girl I just met, do you have a moment to help me figure out the answer to a finance problem so I can send it on to her.  You need to help me out, she is so hot!”

…then hit send.  It would probably take him a moment to respond, so I went back to the conversation with the girl… I read the last message and saw my message to Jon posted there… oh I guess I hadn’t switched windows, so I doubled checked… and that’s when I realized that I had posted that message to HER instead of Jon by accident.  My jaw hit the ground and stomach fell out.  I can’t really explain how embarrassed I was, and although I didn’t look in the mirror, I could feel my face heat up and I’m sure I was glowing with embarrassment like a tomato…

I didn’t know what to do… I wished you guys had built in an ‘undo’ at that point. :)  All I saw from her end was ‘Jen is typing’… but no message… then ‘Jen is typing’ but no words… that went on for about 4-5 minutes, then finally, she said something like “I have to go to bed, bye” and went offline.

We actually ended up becoming friends but nothing beyond that.  We never mentioned that ‘incident’, but my friends still get a good kick out of telling the story to people (yes, I have great friends) ;).  Anyways, I hope you enjoyed that and keep up the great work.”

I actually LOL’ed when I read that the first time.  Thanks for sharing Clem.  I bet many of us have done something similar. :)

Tip/Trick – Create your own custom emoticon
Did you know you can make your own emoticons from your own photos/images?  This has been around for a little while and is a nice way to be creative and have some fun in Messenger.  Here’s how.

	Step 1 – Click on the ‘Show Menu’ button Step 2 – Click ‘Tools’ Step 3 – Click ‘Emoticons’ Now the Emoticon window will pop up.
	Step 4 – Click ‘Create’ Step 5 – Pick a photo/image to use. *Note: it can be a bmp, jpg, png or even an animated gif. Step 6 – Type the keys that you want to use to bring up the emoticon.  In this case I’ve picked ‘woof’ because it’s a picture of my dog.  *Notes: You can pick any keys you’d like.  Just make sure it’s not something you type too often or it will keep appearing in your sentences. :) When you are done hit OK.
	Step 7 – Now scroll down to see your ‘Custom emoticons’ Step 8 – Your emoticon now shows up and you can use it.
	I open a chat with Dharmesh, since he loves dogs and I send him the emoticon just by typing ‘woof’.  Once it shows up in his conversation window, he can right click and add it to his collection. Have fun.

Thanks for reading.

The Windows Live Messenger Team

Wow, who would have thought that it has been almost 10 years since Messenger was launched. Windows Live Messenger (called MSN Messenger back then) was released to the public on a warm, sunny Seattle day on July 22nd 1999.

With more than 330 million active users every month, Windows Live Messenger has grown quite a bit over the last 10 years! But for a 10 year celebration it’s not all about the numbers – even more important is how Messenger enabled friendships, changed lives or just brought a lot of fun to a quick chat with a good friend or family member.

We want to learn about those very personal stories and moments and we would ask you to share your story with us. What was your funniest, most unexpected or most emotional moment with Messenger? If you have a great story and you would like to share it with others, please send it to us! Please note that we will publish the best anecdotes in our Windows Live Messenger marketing or public relations communications. Of course we will do that anonymously, only mentioning your first name and home country (and maybe a related picture if you decide to add one).

If you want to share your story and let others participate in your special moment with Messenger, please send your short story in English to IloveMessenger@live.com by June 28th. Please add your first name and home country – you can also add a related photo if you like. We will share the best stories during the month of July, right here on the blog.

We’re looking forward to reading your personal Messenger story!

The Windows Live Messenger Team

Disclaimer:

By submitting your Messenger story and/or photo you agree that your entry only includes material that you own, or that you have permission from the copyright/trademark owner to use.  By submitting your entry, you agree to allow your entry, in its entirety, to be exhibited on the internet and in other media, without compensation.  You further agree to allow your first name, likeness and country to be used in connection with your entry, including exhibition on the internet or in other media, without compensation.

Earlier today, Messenger customers may have received an instant message that looked like this:

We sincerely apologize, but this was accidentally sent out.  If you received this notification today, please ignore it.  You will be able to continue to use your current e-mail address, and there is no reason to make any changes.

These service notifications are only used for urgent issues but unfortunately, somebody made a mistake that caused this message to be sent out.  We will definitely be reviewing our process to make sure we avoid such mistakes in the future.

If you have already clicked the link, there is no harm to you.  You should have been told that your “Windows Live ID can’t be changed at this time” because there is no need for the change.

Again, we’re very sorry for any confusion that may have been caused. 

- Windows Live Messenger Team

We all know that it is sometimes difficult to understand the intent of an instant message without hearing the tone or seeing a person's facial expressions.  This is particularly difficult for sarcastic people who have to constantly rely on adding smiley face emoticons to the ends of their sentences.

Automatically determining a user's mood is something we've always heard as being important for Windows Live Messenger but knew that the technology was years away from being ready.  In WLM 2009, we even took a nice first step introducing Dynamic Photos, which let you manually associate a photo with an emoticon/mood.

We're happy to announce that due to the great breakthroughs from Microsoft Research, we have an alpha version working that monitors your real-time physiological state and translates that into a mood (happy, sad, anxious, etc), such that you would never have to enter an emoticon again.  At the core of this technology is the patented Human Attitude Heuristic Algorithm, which uses simple instruments, such as a body heat monitor, webcam and keypad pressure sensor to automatically determine your mood and appropriately insert emoticons/phrases directly into your IM conversations… saving you both time and energy.

Here's an example that currently works on the alpha prototype we have in the lab.  Using facial tracking technology, Messenger would know that you were laughing at a joke and appropriately place an  emoticon into the conversation.  If you stuck out your tongue, we could track that and type a for you.  If you laughed out loud, your laugh would be picked up by the mic on the webcam and immediately the text 'lol' would be inserted.  If your laugh exceeded the threshold of 95 decibels (~Subway Train at 200ft), you would see 'LOL!’ instead.  If you fell out of your chair and were laughing hysterically on the ground… we would insert ‘ROFLMAO’… and so on.

With the special keypad sensor we can also measure the speed and pressure you exert while typing, which can translate into a relaxed or angry state.  The sensor pad has not yet been integrated but you can expect that we'll have a release with full Automatic Mood Detection support, by early April 2010.

Hope you are as excited as I am about this new feature! <- (this was inserted automatically)  Let us know what you think.

[Note added: April 3rd]
Happy April Fools Day!  It was great to see the light hearted responses and also to see that this is a feature that some people might actually like. :)  From now on, only real features will be discussed... until maybe next April 1st. ;)

Thanks,
 
Lonn
Windows Live Messenger Team

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’ :)

The latest version of Windows Live Messenger (14.0.8064.0206) is now available for free download here.

Over the next month, if you’re still running versions 8.1 or 8.5, you’ll get a prompt encouraging you to upgrade to the latest version of Windows Live Messenger. If you accept the optional upgrade, the installer will launch and start your free upgrade.

While Messenger is installing, you’ll be given the option to install other new applications that are part of our suite of Windows Live Essentials. You can click each program to get more info about it before you decide which ones you want, but they’re all great additions to your Windows PC, and they are all free.

And if you already have older versions of any of these programs installed (ex. Windows Live Mail, Photo Gallery, or Toolbar), they’ll be automatically upgraded to their latest versions along with Messenger.

There are tons of new features and improvements in the new, 2009 version, and we really hope you’ll try it out. From improved video and audio calls, to new “favorite” contacts, dynamic display pictures, and a fast and easy new way to share photos, we’ve worked hard to bring you the best release of Windows Live Messenger yet. So good that it got the Editor’s Choice Award from PC Magazine!  If you haven’t seen it yet, check out this demo of the new version of Messenger:

Try it out and let us know what you think, either here in comments, or through our feedback site at http://feedback.live.com.

All the best,
- Sameer, Lonn and the Windows Live Team

P.S. If you have difficulty signing in to Messenger after the upgrade, please visit http://messenger-support.spaces.live.com/.
For help with webcam connectivity in Messenger, see this blog post: http://messenger-support.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!8B3F39C76A8B853F!14323.entry

Posted by Sameer

Some users seem to be getting an error 8100030d when they try signing into Windows Live Messenger, in some cases after they have upgraded to the latest version. This error can be caused if the cache files get corrupted and the solution is to simply delete the cache.

Click the following link for complete troubleshooting instructions for this error http://messenger-support.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!8B3F39C76A8B853F!13937.entry. (Special thanks to Jonathan)