Windows Live Messenger 2011 - Reduced features and functionality.

[Sanjay]

Why are usefull and important features removed for no good reason. The idea of a new version ought to be to increase utility and control, not reduce it. Why has Microsoft removed features under 'Privacy'? Specifically I am referring to the page where one could view the list of blocked contacts and also the one's who are allowed to contact you. Even more importantly where is the page where you could see the list of people who have you added to their contact list? I am presuming these have been removed for I certainly cannot find them.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Why would he need to make a group. all contacts you appear offline to automatically go in the "appear offline to" group.

and if you don't want messages from someone, just remove them.

What if he appears offline to everyone? For the sake of organization, it's better to make a specific group for "blocked" contacts. Also, I don't think removing someone would be enough. With WLM 2011, all of your blocked contacts from previous versions of WLM can see you online.

[HawkMan]

What if he appears offline to everyone? For the sake of organization, it's better to make a specific group for "blocked" contacts. Also, I don't think removing someone would be enough. With WLM 2011, all of your blocked contacts from previous versions of WLM can see you online.

if he's appearing offline to everyone it really doesn't matter, unless he's set some people to always appear online to, they'll be in their own group.

remove them properly and they shouldn't see you online.

[pcj]

remove them properly and they shouldn't see you online.

They're not in my contact list to begin with.

[Penryn]

What's Messsenger Companion use for ?

[HawkMan]

What's Messsenger Companion use for ?

I think it's the new name for the login assistant.

[sanctified Veteran]

Im seriously thinking to migrate to Trillian 5, while I understand some of the changes I dont like the new WLM in general.

[Calum Veteran]

In previous versions of WLM, I was able to send messages to my contacts while offline. I can't do that in the newest version. Instead, I get a window asking me if I want to appear online to the contact I want to communicate with. What's up with that?

I believe you still can by right-clicking on the contact and selecting "Send offline IM" or something. I'm not able to test it at the moment, but I believe the option is there.

I think it's the new name for the login assistant.

The Messenger Companion allows Internet Explorer (and perhaps other web browsers) to display any links your friends have shared when you visit a website; so, for example, if you visit YouTube, it will display any links shared by your friends - on Windows Live or any other connected service - in a toast at the top of a browser.

I like the feature :)

[amon91]

Im seriously thinking to migrate to Trillian 5, while I understand some of the changes I dont like the new WLM in general.

I did two months ago, very happy with it, despite the bugs here and there (it's still a beta after all). It has a slim and minimalistic UI, unlike WLM which really went over the top with this release. Reminds me of Adium (on OSX) in some ways :)

[GNRambo]

Is anyone else having problems seeing facebook contacts on their list?

I have the setting enabled on msn, enabled it via facebook and am appear online in facebook chat, I'm really stumped as to why it still doesn't work.

[Guest xiphi]

Is anyone else having problems seeing facebook contacts on their list?

I have the setting enabled on msn, enabled it via facebook and am appear online in facebook chat, I'm really stumped as to why it still doesn't work.

Sometimes FB chat works for me, sometimes it don't. It only seems to do this on my desktop, though.

[YounGMessiah]

How the heck do I change the color scheme/theme for people's conversations? Last WLM it was easy, now I cant find it..

[wellofsouls]

Useless features should be removed to avoid bloat.

well, the display name is certainly not useless, and I doubt such a small feature is "bloat".

Especially when I have contacts using different language systems, I don't want the displayed name to change between (surname) (given name) and (given name) (surname) on different systems, and I certain hate the blank space displayed between the surname and given name since that looks stupid for Chinese names.

[Kudo]

How the heck do I change the color scheme/theme for people's conversations? Last WLM it was easy, now I cant find it..

Right click the space at the top of the contact window and it will display the option "Show my contact's theme"

[YounGMessiah]

Thanks, but I thought I could change my conversation window as well?

[ChasFL]

Where did the individual backgrounds go for the individual contact window for when you are IM'ing with them. There doesn't seem to be any more background choices and only a white background default.

[ChasFL]

Right click the space at the top of the contact window and it will display the option "Show my contact's theme"

But how do you 'individualize' your contacts theme? In the last version you just had the option to change you individuals background. You can still individualize your contacts sounds, but the background option seems to have dissapeared.

[insanelyapple]

No features have been removed. Either they have been improved or have been replaced with a much better solution (e.g. the replacement of the Up button in XP with the Breadcrumb bar of Vista/7).

I'm loving Windows Live Essentials so far. Especially enjoying the fact that there's no XP version.

Har har har. Better solution is removing ability to use nicknames and pushing users to enter full name and surname? Adding giant square ad banner is also, much better solution?

IMO theyre forcing users to use full name because of facebook integration; its like "hey, you cant use nickname but we know that youre using facebook chat; so, how about sharing with us rest of your presonal info?" ;P.

I really hope that people responsible for Windows Live programs are reading this and other topics and they can revert all these "amazing" changes.

[Andrew Richards_26063]

Well to be fair there really is no reason for a block feature anymore. Do one of the following:

- Don't add people you don't know to your MSN, if you're worried about ****.

- Change your privacy settings

- Delete them from your contact list

So if you permanently want to block someone for w/e reason, just delete them from your list. If you want to temporarily block them, select "appear offline to this person"

Nice idea in theory- utter fallacy in practice. Let me tell you how that actually works when dealing with spammers. First off, you have to actually add spammers to your contact list to be able to "appear offline" to them. Then the moment you remove them from your contact list, they no longer "appear offline" to you and so you keep getting annoying spam messages from them.

Your post here is simply trying to defend the indefensible. Microsoft well and truly screwed up on this one.