Read on if you are one of those Windows Live Messenger 2011 haters and wish to downgrade to an older version.

Uninstall Windows Live Messenger 2011
This part is vital. The installation of an older version of WLM later might be unsuccessful if WLM 2011 is not cleanly uninstalled.

Standard uninstalling procedure:

1. Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall a program
2. Select and uninstall Windows Live Essentials 2011

You are required to uninstall everything that comes under Windows Live Essential 2011, not just WLM 2011.

Install Older Version of Windows Live Messenger
Now that you have successfully uninstall Windows Live Messenger 2011, let’s source for the installation files of the older versions.

Download Windows Live Messenger 2009 installer from any of these sites:

• FileHippo
• Softonic
• OldApps (offline installer)

If you are looking for anything older than WLM 2009, go to FileHippo and select your preferred version on the right sidebar.

If you face error messages like “Your computer has a newer version of Windows Live Messenger than the one you are trying to install“, try uninstalling WLM 2011 using Revo Uninstaller, ZapMessenger, or WLMuninstaller for a cleaner uninstall. No guarantees though as I have not tried any of them.

If all else fails
If nothing works after following the above instructions, you still have one last option—to use a portable version of Windows Live Messenger. It works exactly the same as the normal WLM would, except you don’t have to install it, thus eliminating installation problems.

1. Download portable Windows Live Messenger from this site (versions available ranges from 6.2 to WLM 2009), or directly download version 2009 from Rapidshare
2. Place the .exe file in a folder of its own (portable WLM will create a new folder at the same location the .exe is located to store app data)
3. Launch the .exe file, and voila, you will now see the old familiar Windows Live Messenger 2009

This will almost certainly work. Since it requires no installation, you can even place the .exe on a USB flash drive and use WLM on computers that doesn’t allow installations.

©2011 SheepTech

How-To: Downgrade from Windows Live Messenger 2011

Another reason is that most of my contacts are using Live Messenger as well, therefore there is no need of a multi-protocol IM for me, and that I had tweaked Live Messenger so much to my liking.

Windows Live Messenger 2009 RC 1 had been released and made available for download in mid-December 2008. These are a few of the obvious changes from WLM 8.5 to WLM 2009:

A whole new conversation window interface

Display pictures are moved to the left. The frame color of display pictures indicates the status of the user:

• Green – Online/Available
• Orange – Away
• Red – Busy

Scene selection

You can customize the look of the messenger by selecting one of the 23 default scene, or you can personalize it by using any picture from your hard disk.

As of now, there doesn’t seem to be a way to delete or remove any scenes, meaning once it’s added it will be there forever, until there’s a fix (if there’s any) in a newer version later.

To delete or remove a scene, just click on the scene you wanted to remove, then click on the red “X”.

Grouped messages

By default, messages sent or received will be grouped together, just like how Chat works in Gmail. To separate those messages so that they would look how they would in WLM 8.5:

Go to Tools → Options... → Click on Messages tab → Uncheck the “Group sequential messages from each contact together” box.

Status options reduced to 4

No more unnecessary stuff like “Be right back” and “Out to lunch“. The remaining 4 options are:

• Available
• Busy
• Away
• Appear offline

Too bad, it is still not possible to have a custom status.

Animated .gif can now be used as display picture

The good is we can now have an animated or moving picture as our display picture. The bad is it might be abused, flashy bright annoying animated display picture anyone?

You like to, move it!
— — — — — —
And some customizing tips:

Remove Aero window frame in Windows Vista

In WLM 8.5, removing the window frame is just within a click. But in WLM 2009, there is no option to remove the window frame if you are running on Windows Vista with Aero enabled. However, this can still be done by tweaking the registry. Head over to Purple Indigo to learn more about it.

Remove Ads & Customize further with A-Patch

I had previously posted about A-Patch. For Windows Live Messenger 2009, there are only 10 tweaking options offered by A-Patch. But they are good enough in my opinion. They did what they are suppose to, which is to remove annoying banner and text advertisements, as well as remove nudge delay.

This is one of the reason I’m staying so long with WLM. WLM with ads is not my taste.

Download A-Patch according to your WLM version, which can be checked at Help → About messenger.

Color scheme for conversation window

Conversation windows by default will not follow the selected color scheme, but remain as the default blue color. To ensure all conversation windows remember and follow the selected color scheme, you have to configure it manually.

Here’s how:

1. Open a conversation window (any contact will do)
2. Click on the “Show menu” icon at the top right corner
3. Select “Tools” and click on “Use the default scene “

The alert notification behaves the same as the conversation window. It will not follow the selected color scheme, but remain in blue instead. I’m unsure how to fix this one, any idea?

Download Windows Live Messenger 2009

©2011 SheepTech

Windows Live Messenger 2009: Features & Customizing Tips

To disable Windows Live Today, simply follow the instructions below.

For Windows Live Messenger 2009:

1. Click on Tools, select Options
2. Click on the Sign In tab
3. Uncheck the Show Windows Live Today after I sign in to Messenger box

For older Windows Live Messenger or MSN Messenger:

1. Click on Tools, select Options
2. Click on the General tab
3. Uncheck the Show Windows Live Today after I sign in to Messenger box

Voila, the next time you sign into your Windows Live Messenger, the popup will not appear anymore and all you see is just your contact list.

Article updated on 19 May 09 to include guide for WLM 2009

©2011 SheepTech

[Live Messenger] Disable Windows Live Today Popup