Windows Live Messenger

MSN Messenger

MSN Messenger 7.5 logon screen on a Windows XP System. MSN Messenger Version 7.5
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Stable release	7.5.0311 / October 25, 2005
Operating system	Microsoft Windows XP
Type	Instant Messenger
License	Freeware
Website	messenger.msn.com

MSN Messenger is Microsoft's instant messaging client for Windows computers aimed toward the home user. Among its users it is often referred to as MSN, for example, "I'll send it to you over MSN," though in Latin America it is known as "el Messenger," as other instant messaging clients are virtually unknown there. MSN Messenger is often used to refer to the .NET Messenger Service (the protocols and server that allow the system to operate) rather than any particular client. The business oriented client for Windows, which also uses Microsoft's .NET Messenger Service is called Windows Messenger. It is possible for virtually any browser-equipped computer with an Internet connection and Windows XP to connect to the Messenger Service by using MSN Web Messenger, or one of the unofficial equivalents (which have advantages such as compatibility with browsers other than IE, but do not have an interface that mimmicks the familiar one of the MSN Messenger application). MSN Messenger 7.5 is the last version of MSN Messenger that will be released. This is because Microsoft is planning a replacement called Windows Live Messenger.

When MSN Messenger was first released it featured support for access to America Online's AIM Network. America Online continually tried to block Microsoft from having access to their service until eventually the feature was removed, and has not re-surfaced in any later versions of the software. [1] Now the software only allows connections to the .NET Messenger Service, requiring a Microsoft Passport Network account to connect.

The major use of the software is for instant messaging, although other features which now come as standard include support for voice conversations, webcams (MSN Messenger 7.0 and later feature full screen audio video conversations), transferring files, and built-in multi-user online games such as Tic Tac Toe. In a similar vein to many of MSN Messenger's competitors, MSN Messenger allows messages to be enlivened with graphical emoticons, sometimes called smileys, Flash animations called winks, animated display pictures, styled text, and many more with third-party add-ons such as MSNLiveDisplay.

Macintosh users have a combined home and corporate client dubbed Microsoft Messenger for Mac 5.0 rather than MSN Messenger for home use and Windows Messenger for corporate use. The Macintosh version has far fewer features than its Windows counterpart; Version 5.0, though released several months after MSN Messenger 7.0, does not offer voice conversations, webcams, online games, and several other features already introduced and popular with Windows users.

In August 2004, Microsoft introduced a browser-based version of the MSN Messenger client which can be used on any computer with a compatible browser and access to the Internet, without the need to install the Messenger software beforehand. This 'Web-messenger' is very limited, and can only be used to chat. It is also possible to use the Messenger Service on a mobile phone using Microsoft’s MSN Mobile service.

There is a large community of third-party developers who have created add-ons to extend the capabilities of MSN Messenger.

Version Overview

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An MSN Messenger conversation between two people

MSN Messenger 1

The first product release, released July 22, 1999. Claimed operability with AOL's AIM network. It included only basic features, such as plain text messaging and a simplistic contact list.

MSN Messenger 2

Released November 16, 1999. Included a rotating advertising banner and the ability to slightly customize the appearance of the chat window.

MSN Messenger 3

Released May 29rd, 2000. Included file transfers, PC to PC and PC to phone audio capabilities with Net2Phone, one of the first VOIP providers.

MSN Messenger 4.6

Released October 23, 2001. Included major changes to the user interface, ability to group contacts and support for voice conversations.

MSN Messenger 4.6 was based off Windows Messenger 4.0 and ran only on Windows 9x, ME, NT and 2000. Windows Messenger was provided for Windows XP.

MSN Messenger 5

Released October 24th, 2002. Included UPnP based file transfers and minor changes to the user interface artwork. This was the first version that was allowed to run alongside Windows Messenger on Windows XP, also Windows Media Player interface plug-in.

MSN Messenger 6

Released July 17th, 2003. MSN Messenger 6 was a major overhaul of the whole platform, from a simple text-based communication, to a whole new system for expressing oneself with friends. This version emphasized the ability to customise the software, with personalised backgrounds, emoticons and display pictures and is much like what we see today in current versions.

MSN Messenger 6.1

Released October 23rd, 2003. This version focused on the conversation window, enabling users to hide the window frame and menu bar, and also the ability to change the theme colour of the window. The theme colour can be set differently for each user, also linking to their toasts (ie. contact signs in, contact says). The protocol version was also updated to MSNP version 10.

MSN Messenger 6.2

Released April 22nd, 2004. This was the last version of the MSN Messenger 6 series, most notable changes were contacts with mobile capabilities were more distinguishable (including a dedicated Mobile group), a connection trouble-shooter and the Launch Site feature was renamed to Fun & Games.

MSN Messenger 7.0

Released April 7th, 2005. Brought along the winks features, which was previously only available in Three Degrees. This version also advertises items to sell to you including animated display pictures, emoticons and backgrounds. The contact list window style was also updated to match instant message windows.

MSN Messenger 7.5

Released August 23rd, 2005. Introduced an updated Passport creditentials system. New features are the Dynamic Backgrounds feature, Voice Clips and the msnim protocol handler, allowing Web sites to provide links which automatically add a contact or start conversations. The Voice Clip feature lets you hold down F2 and record a message for a limited time and send it to the recipient. The window for conversations changed slightly with a Video button and a different position for the webcam icon (under the display picture). However this version only runs on Windows XP.

MSN Messenger QFE Patch

With the release of version 7.5, MSN Messenger started using Windows Installer patches [2] for its auto-update feature. When a user selects yes to an update prompt upon sign in, the application will download a MSP file specific to updating that version to the latest and execute in the background. The largest patch thus far is 1.5MB, relatively smaller than downloading the entire MSI installation package, which can be up to 9.3MB.

MSN Web Messenger

MSN Web Messenger is a browser-based messaging program that allows MSN users to instant-message people on their contact list, from computers that do not or cannot have the program installed (ie public computers). Web Messenger was launched in August 2004, and is convenient for people who are using the internet away from home, or own computers that are some way incompatible with the MSN program. On the contact list for MSN Messenger users, the status of somebody using Web messenger is displayed as a globe ().

Windows Live Messenger 8

"Windows Live Messenger" is the new name for "MSN Messenger", separating MSN's "Content" division (MSN.com, MSN Money, etc) retaining the name "MSN", with their Service division (Hotmail, Messenger, etc), now known as "Windows Live").

Protocol

MSN Messenger uses the Mobile Status Notification Protocol (MSNP) over TCP (and optionally over HTTP to deal with proxies) to connect to the .NET Messenger Service - a service offered on port 1863 of messenger.hotmail.com. Its current version is 12 (MSNP12), used by MSN Messenger version 7.5 and other third-party clients. The protocol is not completely secret; Microsoft disclosed version 2 (MSNP2) to developers in 1999 in an Internet Draft, but never released versions 8, 9, 10, 11 or 12 to the public. .NET Messenger Service servers currently only accept protocol versions from 8 and on, so the syntax of new commands from versions 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 is only known by using sniffers like Ethereal. MSNP13 will be the protocol used in Windows Live Messenger 8

Games

Solitaire Showdown

MSN Messenger 7 contains this game (in the Games menu), based on the original Solitaire in Windows. It is online, 2 player, and features 2 decks. Each player must race to remove cards of a special 13-card pile, and put their cards on the shared pile (e.g. putting an ace of any suit on the pile, but putting 2's of a suit may only be possible after the ace of the suit is currently on the pile, not covered by any other cards).

American checkers

A standard two-player game of checkers.

Bejeweled

A two-player game where pairs of jewels on a playfield are switched to arrange three or more in a line of the same colour therefore removing them from the game. It is played in real time and individually, with scores being compared at the end.

Minesweeper Flags

In a twist on the original game, players must now locate flags and whoever has found the most by the end wins. If you find a flag you get to continue, otherwise it becomes your opponent's turn. Players get the one-off option to "bomb" a 5x5 area if they are losing, and get all the flags in that area.

A number of additional third-party games have also been made available through use of various patches (eg. MSN Custom Games Patch), which change where the game information is requested via HTTP by the client.

Applications

Whiteboard

It opens up a program that looks like paint, but it is shared through two users. They can see what each other draw. This Whiteboard also support different pages, to allow drawing across many of different pages.

Application Sharing

Remote Assistance

It opens up a program that allows two computers to connect together. At first it opens up a new conversation that on both computers. The expert has an additional feature of viewing the desktop of the other person’s computer. One person (the expert) can "take control" of the other persons computer after the non-expert has accepted the take control command. This allows both people to have complete control over whoever's computer asked for assistance. At anytime the persons computer that is being controlled can terminate the connection by pressing the Esc key on the keyboard. This is very useful when offering computer assistance to friends and family on other computers through msn.

Competition

MSN Messenger is not the only instant messaging program available. Its most significant rivals are AIM (from AOL), ICQ, Google Talk, QQ, Skype and a myriad of other Jabber based clients. As of October 13th, 2005, MSN Messenger and former rival Yahoo Instant Messenger will join forces to create the second largest instant messenger userbase worldwide.

For Windows and Linux users, an open source instant messaging client known as Gaim also exists. It does not yet have the level of functionality that MSN Messenger does, rather it focuses on more general things. Besides MSN, it is capable of supporting other chat protocols. Many third-party multi-protocol clients are based on Gaim using the libgaim library, for example Adium and Proteus (instant messenger).

Currently, Yahoo! have released a beta of their IM program which has some new features similar to those in MSN Messenger 7. Drag-and-drop photos to the messenger window is a typical example.

Also, AOL has been busy developing a new version of their AIM client, codenamed "Triton". Triton will later be referred to as AIM 6.0 when released to the public. The client is currently in its beta stages and highlights include tabbed chatting, a modernized interface, and Multi-party voice chat. It is also being completely rewritten from the ground up to support VoIP (a.k.a. IP Telephony or Internet telephony).

Recently, Google has entered the IM competition with its new Google Talk, first released as a beta version for only users with Gmail accounts. Google Talk uses an open protocol for the IM part and it encourages the use of clients other than their own in connecting to the Google Talk service.

In China, an instant messenger named QQ is predominantly used. Although used little outside of China, its domestic users number as many as 226 million. However, its popularity has recently been greatly weakened, since the entering into the Chinese market of MSN Messenger. Up to now, MSN Messenger has taken about 17% of the Chinese market, a figure which is becoming increasingly larger.

On October 13th, 2005, Yahoo and Microsoft announced plans to introduce interoperability between their two messagers 1, creating the second largest instant messenger userbase worldwide: 40% of all users (AIM currently holds 56%). The announcement comes after years of 3rd party interoperability success (most notably, Trillian (instant messenger) and criticisms from Google that the major instant messengers were locking their networks.

Criticism

The protocol is closed and Microsoft has made two attempts of locking out third-party clients by requiring data transformed by the use of hash functions when connecting. However, both algorithms have been reverse engineered. The winks have a digital signature, which the official client always checks. It will not play winks that are not signed by Microsoft.

Ever since MSN Messenger has been released, it has been targeted entirely towards Windows users, leaving Mac users with a limited featureless client, only allowing them to chat with other MSN users but with no additional ways to interact (e.g. webcam, ink, etc). Some believe that this is a way of forcing Macintosh users to use Windows, so they may use the complete MSN Messenger.

Users of Linux have also effectively been left in the dark, requiring third party software to log in and access their profile stored on the MSN Messenger servers. Such third party software is usually one of many alternative instant messaging clients, such as Gaim. Gaim is included in most if not all Linux distributions, supporting a range of other instant messaging protocols, such as the AOL, Yahoo and ICQ clients.

MSN Messenger contains an advert bar as standard, something other IM programs (Gaim, Trillian etc) do not. Critics consider the interface cluttered, with no options to edit it in an unmodified version.

Lastly, there have numerous recent reports (only speculation at this point) that the MSN network may be blocking certain phrases. However, it's not the phrases one would expect to be blocked, it's strings such as "download.php", "gallery.php", and links to certain sites. The only sense anyone can make of this at this point is that these are string frequently used by computer viruses, but that seems fishy. Rumours have it that because it's the .php extensions that are being blocked, Microsoft is trying to hurt the PHP language which is a direct competitor to its own Active Server Pages (ASP) language.

See also

• List of instant messengers
• Comparison of instant messengers
• Messenger Plus!
• MSNLiveDisplay

External links

• The official MSN Messenger site
• Hypothetic Old MSN protocol analysis
• Mess with MSN Messenger First and most popular MSN Messenger fansite
• msnfanatic MSN Messenger programming and news
• MSNPiki (unofficial) MSN protocol wiki
• MSN Web Messenger