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I have been using version 7 for a long time, no text ads and I have yet to see a message telling me about any premium services. Don't know what Messenger you were using but it certainly wasn't this one. If you think otherwise please feel free to post screenshots to prove me wrong.

umm exactly, ive been a beta tester for msn messenger 7 since the start. I can tell you this much, there is premium content but there not flaunting it in the messenger YOU the user have to click it in the menu in order to get it. Far as ads with text there are zero.....

That bar at the bottom of conversations has yet to be used for text ads. The only thing it's been used for so far is to provide a link to the Halo 2 website when using the Halo 2 Pack. The original reason it had "ADVERT BAR OMG NOES!!!1123" screamed at it was because it's referred to as an adbar in the code...

It might not be shoved in your face, but the fact that the only improvement you don't have to pay for is the (admittedly quite nice) UI tweaking puts me off. And winks suck.

Hmm ok, I was wrong. Just opened a conversation window and suddenly have a nice "Customize your MSN Messenger" link in that bar. Annoying.

And yes, winks do suck. They suck a lot. Nudges do, too. Just disable them. Feel sorry for us beta testers who had to test the damned things to ensure they worked etc ¬_¬

Even if that bar isn't displaying an ad, it's a waste of space and it looks ugly. The conversation window already is more bloated thanks to the new winks, nudges, and emoticon pack links listed above the compose box. Then there's the new tabs at the bottom for sending handwritting that apparently is for all PCs now instead of just Tablet PCs. Overall this adds a lot of clutter to the conversation window. There should be options to turn some of these "features" off.

As far as premium content being shoved in your face: Look at the new emoticon drop down list. In addition to standard and custom emoticons being listed, there's also links to buy emoticon packs. Very annoying and another waste of space.

I hope the rumors about Google IM are true. MSN is officially falling to crap. I hope they change things by the final release.

QUOTE

MSN is officially falling to crap

oh, yeah, because you say so.

Well, its still beta, you still have the opportunity to get changes made.

the worlds tiniest violin is playing softly in the distance. ads by google take up more space than the 1 line link that points you to a msn site, its just like adsense if you dont care, dont click it, its free for christs sake. And I do suspect that your precious google im will have those very same adsense waste of spaces.

The public beta carries the same build number as the most recent private beta build, (7.0.0425) and is available for all to download from Microsoft.

That means that I already have it...

I know!

lvback.gif is fixed again, but here's something new...you can now use animated GIFs for your main window background! That's kinda cool.

You can now drag and drop display pics directly onto the entry points in the main UI and convo UI, instead of digging down a valley of sub-folders. You can also drag-n-drop background pics directly into the convo UI, too.

Custom animated emoticons is new in 7.0, but you guys probably already new that one.

You can now see the last few exchanges from a previous IM session when starting a new conversation with that person. Probably would come in handy if one was suddenly logged off for whatever reason. Easy to turn off in the Options menu if you don't like it.

Hey, Options now has a button that allows you to go directly to your list of accounts and passwords, instead of having to go thru Control Panel->User Accounts->Advanced->Manage Passwords or whatever. That's quick and easy.

Automatic background sharing. Um, well, ok. Might be fun for some...

Advanced Connection Settings looks simpler.

Being able to remove the frame in the main window, so it matches the convo window. Wish we could change the color scheme to completely match, tho...

Of course, it's nice to finally have the ability to set my online status before logging on.

I don't have tabs, and Options has that pane grayed out. Maybe cuz I upgraded from v6.2 with tabs turned off.

Seeing someone's display picture in the alert that appears when they come online is kinda cool. I can change the size of my display picture in the conversation window. And if yours or a buddy's name has an emoticon in it, you get to see it in your contact list now, instead of just the shortcut...that's a nice touch.

If I highlight a word or sentence received in the conversation window, I can right-click it and search the web. That's easy.

Being able to draw like I can with a TabletPC is OK. Would like to be able to turn it off when I don't want it, tho.

Glad they got rid of that "I Want To..." section in the main window. I've always just had that thing collapsed, I never used anything from directly within those menus.

There's a few nice things here, and some ease-of-use improvements. Kinda wonder what the final version is going to be like...any word on more features they're going to add?

hahahaha...

What? We can't link to *removed*?

Looked for it and didn't find anything so I'm not sure what your talking about, I'm pretty sure it's not official yet but should be soon.

Your guess is as good as mine. Still waiting for it to go back up.

dont wait if you look its on microsoft.com download section thats public enough

Thanks

wat r u talking bout there isnt any ads in my 1

It's just a bar. Until you see an advert in it stop spreading false claims.

It can be removed by means of a patch, but that would be illegal.

Edit: Okay mine has text in it, today. It's not an advert though.

Last edited by 34569 on 02 Dec 2004 - 08:23

It's not much worse than 6.2 now. With the original beta of MsgPlus it was pretty awful, needing a restart every hour or two, but Patchou fixed the problem and all's well

Might be interested to know that Windows Messenger 5.1 was released today.

Check that out here: Windows Messenger 5.1

Thanks! i'll give it a try

I believe this may be a proxy issue. Go to Tools->Options->Connection->Advanced Settings

it's beta,seems that it isn't polished out,i hope they do this with the final version

I think that is a feature for you to enter information for your MSN Spaces blog.

same, it seems wierd, maybe they've taken it down again...