Download Messenger Plus! Live 4.79,353 beta

Messenger Plus Live is an add-on for Windows Live Messenger and is available for Windows XP and above. It adds all kinds of features to make chatting easier and more enjoyable. For example, it supports quick texts, word filters, desktop contacts and it is possible to log in with multiple accounts. An extensive overview of the possibilities of Messenger Plus Live can be found on this page are being found.

Patchou is the developer of Messenger Plus! Live and does not normally release beta versions. However, he makes an exception for the second time in a row with the release of version 4.79.353 beta, which adds support for Windows Live Messenger 2009 with its functions and capabilities. The list of changes looks like this:

Version 4.79.353 Beta:

• This version is entirely compatible with the final version of Windows Live Messenger 2009 (build 1202). Yes, that includes chat logging, emotion sounds, skins, scripts and so on :-).
• The new UIB encoded versions of the windows’ styles and definitions are completely supported by Messenger Plus!.
  • For skinners, this means that Messenger Plus! will decode the files automatically when extracting the resources and will re-encode them automatically when added in a skin. For everybody else, this means Messenger Plus! will still rock in 2009! :-).
  • Notes about UIB decoding: in order to make things as simple as possible for the skin developers, Messenger Plus! generates definition files and style files almost identical to what you used to see in Messenger before. One of the differences you’ll notice is a tag on top of each file: do not remove it or alter it.
  • Skins: if you used to write some strange exotic syntax in your windows’ files which was previously accepted and parsed by Messenger, Messenger Plus! may not be so tolerant. The opposite is also true as Messenger Plus! may accept things that Messenger did not (like character escaping in strings such as “\n”). In the end, most developers won’t ever notice a difference though.
  • Skins: although Windows Definition files and Windows Styles files can still be included separately in your skins, it is recommended to include both files for each window you skin when creating skins for Messenger 2009. If one of the two files is missing, Messenger Plus! will have to decode the internal UIB file in order to get the missing piece before re-encoding everything, slowing down the loading of Messenger.
  • Skins: the skin trace file will now include more information when a loading error occurs as Messenger Plus! is doing the parsing itself. Also, note that if a window file cannot be parsed properly, the original one from Messenger will now be used instead.
• Information for all add-on and patch developers working on Messenger: in order for you to keep on working on your software, I have decided to allow you to encode and decode UIB files for your own use.
  • “MPTools.exe”, which is available in the Messenger Plus! directory, will take care of your UIB needs. All you have to do is specify the source and destination files and MPTools will do the rest.
  • You have two ways to use this feature: if your add-on/patch requires live modifications to the windows files based on some user options, Messenger Plus! will need to be installed on your users’ computers and your software will need to call MPTools before and after you modify the file. If you only need fixed changes to be applied on one given version of Messenger, you can decode, modify and re-encode the files yourself and distribute the final UIB file which won’t require Messenger Plus! to be installed.
  • Although both solutions will work perfectly fine, doing live encoding and decoding with MPTools will always be the recommended for many reasons, the first one being that your add-on will benefit from all the future update automatically and will stay compatible with the next versions of messenger. Note that MPTools.exe cannot be redistributed and used on its own though, Messenger Plus! needs to be installed for the tool to work (you can either link it from your software or download/install it automatically, with the /Silent switch or not, you decide).
  • Check out the new “Encoding and Decoding UIB” section of the skinning documentation for more details.
• Skins: the Resource Extractor now supports the new resource types introduced in Messenger 2009 (which are used transparently while consolidating the windows data).
• Skins: the color map file generated by the Resource Extractor now specifies “ref” for color ids that are references to other colors.
• Skins: the number of encrypted RLE files the Resource Extractor was not able to process fell from 158 in the last beta to 2 in Messenger 2009! (and it’s because those two produce an empty result so for now, I prefer considering them as un-processed). This special kind of RLE file has a variable size, the content is generated dynamically with the size requested by Messenger at any given time. Once decrypted, “_var” is attached to the name of the file to make sure you don’t forget about it when modifying the resource (if you replace those by pictures, make sure your pictures are big enough to avoid looking pixelized).
• Compatibility for the previous public Beta version of Windows Live Messenger 9 has been removed.
• skins. Fixed: in Messenger 2009, the shape is not always properly applied in Vista.
• And more… will be listed in the final change log of version 4.80.