So perhaps this images could show us the real deal,and it seems that microsoft has given us a step further to the perfect customization Heaven,to be honest i'm quite glad seeing this screenshots,the interface seems much more better polished than the version 14.0.3921.717.

Hope this is Real...

They are real.
Only thing I'm not happy about is the display picture reposition, but it's fine.

glad they are using the aero window border now.

Looks very nice, hopelly it be like that

Wow, that looks a lot better then 8.5 and the previous beta. The only thing that I honestly hate about this new design is the green display picture frame. Why the hell did they make it green? The display picture frames from WLM 8 where perfect and would perfectly fit this new design. Having the avatars in the convo window on the left will need some getting used to. Also, for the first time they're using totally different status icons inside the contactslist.

I also see another new thing inside the contact list. There's a personal message AND and "The listening to" feature, both separated from eachother. In 8.5 you can only have a "listening to" thing, and when you're not listening to anything there's a personal message.

I think colors vary depending on your status:

Green = Available
Yellow = Away, Out to Lunch, etc...
Red = Not Available

That looks pretty good!

The photo update message on the bottom: I'm guessing that's for Live Spaces?



That makes sense (looking at the contact list with one green and one yellow), but they could've chosen a less saturated shade of green.

EDIT: Before anyone screams "SOURCE?!!" here it is.

Looks really nice in my opinion although I agree with Capricorn about the green frame, it's so bright!

I think it's better with the avatars on the left just makes sense

(BTW it's the same damn way on neowin!)

Oooh smexy. Too bad I'm on a mac =(

Looks good, optimized UI for Vista I can see

The beta thats out (leaked) looks more or less like that except for the scene feature so I guess these are real

I don't like it. So much of the screen is occupied with stuff nobody cares about. The contact list has this massive thing at the bottom for advertising. For a rather large conversation window you really can't see much of the...erm...conversation. Why is there such large gaps between elements? Why do I care if she has uploaded 9 photos? Does that need to be in the conversation window?!

It's not all bad. I like the use of colours for statuses, and I like how What I'm Listening to and your Personal Message are seperated. Favourites looks useful, as does groups. But beyond that, I'm kinda disappointed

That looks good. When will WLM9 be released?

I think it makes much more sense to have the display pictures on the left, as the left is the first thing you look at. It will just take some getting used to.






The display picture borders do now indicate a person's status. I think this is a very good feature. Maybe the green will look better for you when you have it on your actual computer, rather than just from a screenshot? Again this will take some getting used to, but a nice feature nonetheless. Also, I love the fact that the buddy icons are now gone. A coloured square seems so much better & so much more professional.

I love the new bigger mail icon. That is another nice change. As is the Favourite contacts, the new Groups feature & the fact that we can have a personal message & what we are listening to.


Again guys, this isn't the final version, these are screenshots of the M2 build, so the beta may be different & things may be added/missed out. The beta should be similar though


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I can't wait till they care about the Mac Messenger. Seriously. No video?

Oh they're definately real LiveSide confirmed that with their post about the new Windows Live Messenger: http://www.liveside.net/main/archive/2008/...s-expected.aspx

They're just screenshots of the M2 build, so the beta may be different.




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Agreed. phpBB recently moved away from putting the avatar on the left in favor of putting the content on the left instead. This was done on the logic that the post is more important than seeing what someone looks like. Yet Microsoft are doing the opposite. Hopefully they'll make it optional which side you want the avatars, and at the very least APatch will allow you to swap it back if Microsoft choose to impose their design decision on people.

im just tryin this out now. does anyone know how to chnage the background of messenger. i can download them but cnt seem to apply them

Looks Sexy...

Far too cluttered. I want to hold a conversation with someone, not play "who can avoid hitting one of the millions of buttons dotted all over the place".

Note here,it's very customizable in my opinion,you have to see those screenshots as a sample,not as the rigid configuration that Messenger impose you.

Wow, that looks great - a definite improvement.

That looks appauling! I'm still on MSN 7 and the interface is the best of all versions, would prefer MSN 5 but 7 does me well. And doesn't run slow as hell either!

The eye candy, for me, is irrelevant. I need an improved speed so webcam videos are smother and less laggy and run at 30fps or more. You would have thought with Microsoft's cash reserves they could invest a dollar or two in faster/more capacious servers.

That looks awesome. I kind of remember somebody saying you would be able to sign in with multiple times with one account say a 360 and on your computer, is that true?

Have they updated the sounds in the beta? The one thing that grates me is the new message alert - I've had to turn it off.

I love the UI! Its just, I find it really absurd to have ads in this already, yahoo messenger for vista doesn't have ads, of course its going to get them, but this early in the beta is absurd. It still has the messenger feel it always had, and its because the ads and the big bold sized ads on the bottom of the window in the IM, they need to mix things up a little bit. The UI is a start for Windows Live Messenger to become different but some stuff needs changed for it to be the best yet. I mean AIM Triton and Yahoo Messenger for Vista both looked completely different from their predessors but this milestone of WLM9 looks like it was built on top of the old versions and that its just another version, the UI is insane but some stuff is still there and needs to be done a different way. The ads and some old MSN stuff needs rebranded and put in other places. They could take all the ads in WLM out and just put in a nice small ad in the contact list window. AIM used to have stocks and all this game ****, all of it disappeared in AIM 6.0, the only stuff left is an ad in the buddy list and a few nice games. I think the WLM team needs to work a little bit harder on WLM9 concerning the ads and the way they take up so much space using there game menus which are all branded MSN still for some reason...

The green color is to saturated compared to the rest IMO. Also, they should definitely change the shadow behind the new mail icon. It kinda looks out of place the way it's looking now.

Looks like they are adding "Groups" of stuff we don't need from the screen shot, but I could be wrong...

Thank god for a-patch

The beta phase won't last long, so it's expected to ship in early December .



That's a whole different division my friend .




Not that I can tell, but we'll have to wait and see the final product .


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One thing to remember guys, and I can't stress this enough. These builds and screenshots that are circulating are older builds that date back to March of this year. Development is in full swing, so anything can change . Keep that in mind. As far as build numbers go, what you're looking at now is M2.

I really can't wait for this now! I'm looking forward to it more than any Beta in the past - probably because of the vast amount of new features & UI changes!

I hope they release it this week sometime!

So you've got the leak version of this one? O_o Gimme!

i would think that webcam data is p2p and doesn't pass trough any microsoft server at all

Whatever connection it uses, it sucks. I'm on a capable cable line yet I get info bars telling me my connection speed is too slow for webcam.

Bleh...

Where do you find the personalise main window options?

All leaked versions are just beta lol i used to always get the downloaded ones from sites but was no fun as no one else had the same version, so now i wait for offical release plus MSN PLUS gets updated for new msn!

That looks pretty sexy, like the favourites idea

hopefully this comes out soon

Wait until you have a friend dropping by to your house and find out that he/she's not on your favorite friend list lol