Windows Live Essentials 'beta' out now!


Recommended Posts

Wish MS would stop moving everything to the Web... To change your name... You have to use the Web Inferface... Now even to change contact details! (Like add phone numbers etc) instead of doing it in app, you have to go to the Live Site...

I hope they add back some sort of "Nickname" functionality simply for WLM. Sometimes I really want to come up with something unique for my display name, but keep everything else the same across WL.

Care to give reasons?

I think it's the best, mainly due to the new social pane and other social features, the animations and the removal of custom display names.

What if we want to have the choice of custom display names?

In the past versions if you didnt like display names you could add a custom name to each one of your contacts, everyone happy.

I would like to try the 'β', however I cannot get it to install.

I downloaded it from a legit source, (Microsoft) so that should not be an influence that inhibits an install.

Can you descirbe the error that happens when you try to install it. If it doesn't install I might suggest that you delete all evidence of Windows Live programs being on your computer.

wtf, i just noticed the removal of custom display names cuz of your post.

Thats horrible, they better put that back in on final. Almost makes it worth not using.

Why would they even expect me to want my full normal name to be displayed? That's crap.

Although i was already using my real name anyway, i think removing display names was a little too harsh. They could limit the number of characters and block certain characters to get rid of those annoying tags that look ridiculous to anyone without plus. :blink:

I don't mind the change, but many people will be mad.

^I noticed it when I had closed it and later wanted to start it up again. It would instantly sign me in instead of showing me the sign in dialog. I hope this is going to get fixed once Wave 4 goes final :p

For those with multiple instances of msnmsgr.exe do you have apatch with the polygamy setting applied by any chance?

I've used it to patch away the ads but haven't enabled polygamy :)

My messenger (this version) shows 0 online contacts nowadays, not sure why.. It was working great before and I didn't apply the a-patch, it's the beta vanilla version. Now switching to meebo.com again at home til there is another update

I've found that this usually occurs when contacts have recently gone offline but were on your online list only a few minutes before, therefore it doesn't update the list properly. It's fixable I believe my collapsing the list and then opening again, which isn't very convenient though.

Not sure whether it's already been mentioned, but I've also discovered another bug where you cannot talk to people when you're appearing offline? If this is deliberate, I'm not happy..although I don't think this happens all the time so..

I've found that this usually occurs when contacts have recently gone offline but were on your online list only a few minutes before, therefore it doesn't update the list properly. It's fixable I believe my collapsing the list and then opening again, which isn't very convenient though.

Not sure whether it's already been mentioned, but I've also discovered another bug where you cannot talk to people when you're appearing offline? If this is deliberate, I'm not happy..although I don't think this happens all the time so..

Yeah well, collapsing doesn't fix the issue. And on the appearing offline msging -- i also got that bug, I can't talk to anyone when I'm appearing offline, I hope this is not intended on the new messenger because then it's gonna suck very bad.

  • 2 weeks later...

Hi there ! I used the leaked versions of wave 4 and I had those great fade in animations you see in the messenger social view. On my laptop, don't see these anymore, but my girlfreinds laptop and my desktop uses it. What the hell happend ? I had this and I can't have it anymore ? Is it a bug or something ? I reinstalled windows yesterday but still nothing. Could be related to my intel x3100 ( dx10 capable ), but my girlfriend has an x4500...

Is there a way to turn those effects on ? Anyone else having this ?

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • How many other companies will follow Ford's lead? Or, have they already gotten lazy and become enslaved to AI--and now can't figure out how to get out of that mess.
    • Why would any self-respecting intelligent person follow any recommendation by Donald's GOP administration? With almost two years of fabrications, deceit, and blatantly illegal behavior, why believe them now? They had best be gone after the November 2026 election, so we'll wait and see.
    • AltSendme 0.4.1 by Razvan Serea AltSendme is a minimal, cross-platform application designed for fast, secure, and private peer-to-peer file transfers. It allows users to send files or entire directories directly between devices without relying on cloud servers, accounts, or any personal information. Everything is encrypted end-to-end using modern protocols like QUIC and TLS 1.3, ensuring both strong security and low-latency performance. Transfers are verified with BLAKE3 for data integrity, and interrupted downloads automatically resume, making the experience reliable even on unstable connections. You can transfer anything—images, videos, documents, and more. Integrity checks are performed on both ends, so your files are automatically verified for correctness during both sending and receiving. AltSendme works seamlessly across local networks or long-distance links, capable of saturating multi-gigabit connections for extremely fast delivery. With built-in NAT traversal and encrypted relay fallback, it connects devices almost anywhere. The app integrates with the Sendme CLI and will soon support mobile and web platforms. Fully free and open-source, AltSendme offers a lightweight, privacy-first alternative to traditional cloud-based services, removing size limits, upload costs, and unnecessary data exposure. AltSendme 0.4.1 changelog: Release Highlights Self-hosted relays: Run your own iroh relay so transfers don't rely on public infrastructure. Includes a full deployment template in deploy/relay/ with Docker Compose for a VPS and configuration examples for production use. Fly.io support: One-click deploy template for Fly.io, including a quick-start config (fly.dev.toml) for testing without a custom domain, plus production setup with Let's Encrypt and your own hostname. Relay settings UI: New Settings → Network panel to choose how AltSendme connects: automatic public relays, custom self-hosted URLs (with optional auth token), or disabled. Test connections, verify latency, and see live relay status in the footer. Disable relays: Turn off relay servers entirely when you only need same-network transfers (e.g. LAN). Direct connections only. No relay hop required when devices can reach each other. Android graduates from beta: Android is now part of the regular release cycle alongside desktop. APKs ship with each version (universal, arm64, and armv7). Other improvements Private relay access control via shared auth token Relay fallback notifications when a custom relay is unreachable Broadcast mode toggle in sharing settings Android release build fixes (split-per-ABI APKs, universal APK preservation) UI polish: mobile safe-area insets, dropzone layout, transfer progress animation Bug fixes for minification-related serialization issues and system tray icon loading What's Changed feat(relay): add relay status functionality and settings UI (a120cdf) feat(relay): implement custom relay server configuration and verification (51276c7) feat(relay): add configuration for private relay access and enhance observability features (48fbabf) feat(relay): enhance relay URL validation, display connection status (d4fffa0) feat(relay): add RelayChangeGuard component and enhance relay-related translations (16ba514) feat(broadcast): add toggle setting for broadcast mode in sharing UI (ca6d977) fix(relay): correct QUIC discovery port, pin image, templatize fly.dev (52a2ba5) fix: More broken serialization due to minification (67491a9) fix(android): preserve true universal APK across per-ABI builds (e9f256f) fix(ui): conditional safe-area insets padding on mobile (1182f0e) refactor(transfer): CircularRing component animation fix (944572b) chore(android): drop x86 and x86_64 release APKs, keep universal+arm64+armv7 (34ada0b) Download: AltSendme 0.4.1 | ARM64 | ~9.0 MB (Open Source) Download: AltSendme for MacOS | Android Links: AltSendme Home Page | GitHub | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • You are mostly right about the ephemeral nature of it. As I mention in the article, if you dont add a second device or take a backup of your account before uninstalling it, then yes you will lose access to your account. That said, in terms of actual user experience when you sync multiple devices your message history carries across and there's also a Saved Messages chat like there is on Telegram to send messages and attachments between your installs. But yh, what you point out are correct and its not trying to emulate Messenger or Telegram.
    • OK so SearXNG is a meta search engine that you can install locally or use via a public instance. It scrapes other search engines which you choose and then sorts the results. Not as complicated as multiple relays
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Woland13 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Woland13 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      bernmeister earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Week One Done
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      492
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      224
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      150
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      75
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      71
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!