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How is it Microsoft could benefit from whatever decisions the DOJ or EU decide? I, Cringely explains.

Last week, Microsoft was slapped by the European Union with sanctions and a $600+ million fine for anti-trust violations. Readers have been asking me what this really means. But Microsoft's troubles extend beyond Europe. There are signs of strain in last year's DoJ v. Microsoft anti-trust settlement. And while Redmond has settled many private and class action anti-trust lawsuits, several more are continuing. This would seem like not a good time to be Bill Gates. On the contrary, this is a VERY good time to be Bill Gates, because Microsoft is winning every case. Not only are they winning, in fact they've already won. Sure, the verdicts aren't all in, and in some cases, the jury hasn't even been chosen, and there is even the very real prospect that some verdicts will appear to go against Microsoft, but that doesn't matter: Microsoft has already won, by which I mean that Microsoft literally can't lose. It's just that until now they are the only ones to have figured this out.

There was a time, years ago, when I actually worked for a living. I did a little software, did a little hardware, and while I wasn't the best at any of it, I got by primarily on, of all things, my skills in geometry. Something of an idiot savant, I was so bad at math and so good at geometry that, of course, I reduced everything I could to a geometry problem. And it turns out that geometry, at least as I practiced it back when I did practice it, was particularly useful for understanding the timing of digital circuits and the biorhythms of software. I believe that in today's world circuit libraries and object-oriented code such timing is something of a lost art, but the results back then were that my efforts, crude as they were, often got to the finish line first just because in computers, as in comedy, timing is everything.

News source: I, Cringely

Let's start with the beginning. The install screen. Upon startup of the installation, this beautiful splash screen pops up while the installer extracts all files:



Next, comes the usual install screens which has been slightly revamped (but I felt needed to be included!):



There are several new features to do with setup:

Firstly, this new version of Plus! is much more friendly to polygamy patches as it closes all sessions of Messenger running in windows, and even in other sessions, which also means that your chat logs are now intact. The installations is much more versatile, as you can now install Plus! using silent switches (SilentInstall and /SilentInstallNoSponsor) which do not bring up the confirmation webpage and/or sponsor respectively. There is also the /NotAdmin setup switch which forces the installation of Plus! when the user logged in is a non-administrator.

Lastly, another impressive feature of the new setup is the locale detection, as Plus! will now detect the language of the Windows machine it is installed on, and will use that language as default. Some further complications which existed with the Hebrew/Chinese languages have also been fixed in this release. I also almost forgot to mention the cool progressbar which can be seen during setup :-)

But, enough about setup now. Onto the meaty stuff!

Once installed, the true ingenuity of Plus! can really be seen. Starting with a totally redesigned preferences panel interface which is truly beautiful and requires several screenshots:

The general screen:



This new interface just looks much more professional as a whole, much cleaner and blends in very well with Windows XP themes. Also to note the Reset to defaults and Save/Load preferences which allow a user to go back to defaults, or have their custom configs which they can load onto any machine running Plus!, which makes a lot of sense when sharing machines, or travelling.

Next on the list is the Contact List tab:



The usual as we have been used to see in Plus! 2, with a totally redesigned interface. New feature wise, in Patchou's words "Added "DockingKeepsWidth" registry setting. You can use it if you won't want the width of the contact list window to be modified when you dock it"

In Instant Messages:



A great new feature which I perticularly find very useful is the ability to automatically accept any type of requests, such as file transfers, webcams, voice chats, games etc. instead of hitting accept every time. This can also be customised on a per contact basis, which is very useful as you know which contacts you trust on your list.

The enhanced messenger Plus! features are twofold:

In your contact list, the Plus! menu icon is displayed when hovering over a contact:



In chat windows, Plus! menu icon is displayed in the toolbar when there are no other icons present at its location



In Patchou's own words: "These menus are designed to bring some of the Plus! features, nicely, to any user. Text in those menu is very descriptive, many of you will probably notice older features they never saw (or used) before"

The usuals which we have all loved throughout Plus! like custom commands, IRC commands etc. are of course still very much there. Sound commands have also had a few additions: /sapplause, /swoow and /syawn, and /snoexcuse has been revamped, so be sure to try those out when you get a chance to look at Plus! 3.

A brand new feature in Messenger Plus! 3 is the ability to now filter words, on both inbound or outbound text. There are many ways of customising this new feature, such as to only filter a screen name in chats, or the actual text in the conversations. This has two important uses, firstly for aliasing, and secondly to filter unwanted language from your contacts. These settings are saved in your own Plus! config file, and so you can keep those with you on the go!

A screenie of this new marvel:



Next on the list are message helpers:



There is the usual Quick Texts (which have now been increased to 50 - 20 more than previous!) and Text Recall functions which we have grown to love, but new on the list are 'Quick Icons'. When holding down the '(' key in a conversation window, this brings up the emoticons window which is now customised thanks to Plus!:



You are able to have up to 5 different custom emoticon panels, and each one can be configured independently of the others, and you can use the F1 to F5 keys in order to quickly switch between different panels. The Quick Icons panel has also been entirely redesigned for ease of use.

A new great feature in Plus! 3 can be seen when the '/' character is pressed in a conversation window. The following window comes up:



Which has just about every built-in Plus! command that allows you to quickly select whatever command (or plug-in commands which show up there too) you wish to use. A new feature which allows great ease of use when in a hurry.

For those of you who enjoy remote assistance, the '/assist' shortcut has been added.

The personalised Away Status has also changed:



This includes a greatly anticipated new feature, Personalized Status Customization, which allows a user to choose which contacts see your status message by clicking on 'Filter' in the window. For those on unstable connections, this next feature is a true gem. If you disconnect from Messenger, as long as you sign back on within 1 minute, Plus! 3 will keep your personalized status and messages, meaning you won't have to do it all over again!

A new feature also is the ability to expire come back messages:



This means that you can set a message which you want to send to an offline user when he/she comes online, but if the user doesn't come on within a set period of time, then the come-back message expires.

The Boss Protection feature has also been improved and given a new look:



You can now use DLLs as a resource for the Boss Protection Icon, and the First Time window has been redesigned. Also, if Messenger hasn't been signed in at least once, instead of staying idle, pressing the Boss Protection shortcut combination will minimize all Messenger windows to avoid bad surprises.

A nice new feature of Plus! 3 is the Quote Sender:



This feature allows you to find a quote which was said by any of your contacts within a 6 hour time period. You can also search for specific words etc. to make the search easier. After quoting someone, a time stamp + colour formatting will be added to the message (colour settings and formatting can be easily changed in the registry.) You can easily access the quote menu from either the Plus! menu or by typing '/quote' in a Messenger conversation window.

Also, in the spirit of notepad, Patchou added a new search feature which allows users to search any text within a conversation window by pressing the usual CTRL+F or by selecting search within the Plus! menu:



The colour menu has also been redesigned:



As now 68 pre-set colours are displayed, and you have the ability to quickly choose any custom colour you wish.

The contact manager has now been re-dubbed Contact List Clean-Up:



It has much of the same features, but again has been entirely redesigned. The usual last chat etc. time periods are still easily viewable.

A new parent/administrator friendly feature is the ability to lock down the Plus! 3 Preferences panel with an administrator password which you can set, reset and disable from within the Privacy Administrator Settings Panel. This ensures that your preferences and settings are intact:



The POP3 email section has also changed quite a bit. There now exists the preference to choose the port for your POP3 setting in the advanced settings, and there also exists the option to add a fifth e-mail account to configure. There is a new registry value, "AlwaysNotifyPopEmail" which when set to 1 will always notify POP3 email, even if the count of unread emails hasn't changed since the last notification. Also, now the POP3 email count includes hotmail email. A screenie of this new wonder:



For those of you who are plug-in crazy, you can now manage all your different plugins within the main preferences window. This allows you to enable/disable plugins within the window:



In a conversation window, you can list all plugins by typing "(!PVER)".

Messenger Plus! 3 is a true example of hard work and dedication to a product which started only for a few enthusiast, and which is now the most widely used plug-in for MSN Messenger. All in all, a big well done is due to Patchou for this work, and we expect with enthusiasim the next version! To finish in Patchou's on words, "Let's just say that Messenger Plus! 3 is way better and way cooler :)"

Thanks for reading.