Windows Live Messenger 8.1 is out of beta and ready for you to download. Consider this the “next generation” messenger that’s suitable for Windows Vista. This version of messenger is available in 8 new languages like Romanian, Thai, and Ukrainian, just to name a few. Here are some changes that you’ll probably notice:
- Yahoo interoperability – now you can chat to your Yahoo Messenger friends from Windows Live Messenger
- Your display name, status and personalization roam with you to any computer(Roaming Identity)
- Improved sign-in performance
- Redesigned contact cards – Updated look
- A bonus of 2 free VOIP calls
- And it runs on Windows Vista!
- SMS phone book – Quick way to send SMS to a phone number of add phone numbers for contacts.
- Improved usability
- Vista presentation mode – When you’re in presentation mode in Vista, your messenger will change status to say “busy”
- Personal contact invitations – when adding a contact, you can now leave a message so the person isn’t left to wonder who you are.
There have been quite a few improvements with this version of Messenger, one of the biggest being that your flash player will no longer crash (this happened in Beta). Essentially, this version is just improvements on everything that you already had plus a few additions.
System Requirements:
- Supports Vista, and XP
- Pentium 233 MHz (500 MHz recommended)
- 128 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended)
- Up to 50 MB of hard disk space for installation, 15 MB to run the program
- Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 SP1 or later
- 800 X 600 or higher screen resolution
You can download version 8 here.
Thanks for the link Ashley
Your welcome
If only they finally made [tech.cybernetnews.com]
I wonder when these companies will realize that inter-op will benefit everyone. AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, and the other should stop see the other guys as competition and o fined a way the leverage each other to their own benefit.
Let’s face it, most of us have a preference on messenger clients are not going to switch just because a friend of our uses a different one.
@CoryC: I just don’t think the companies like to work together. Honestly, I’m still in awe that Microsoft and Yahoo managed to work together to get their messengers working together. I guess sometimes competition outweighs consumer benefits.
Here’s an easy fix for all of the companies. Pick a protocol (one universal protocol), and then make it so that all of the IM clients use that protocol for basic, unformatted text. Then, have each of the companies build a proprietary layer on top of the base protocol, to allow things such as formatted text, file sharing, and video and voice chat, but so that only users of the same service could use it. That way, they would not be inconveniencing users if they absolutely had to text each other, but they would be offering an incentive to use their service.
In fact, this could actually be a very good marketing scheme. Let’s say person A uses Google Talk, and person B uses AIM. Persons A and B would both be very excited and happy when they found out that their two clients would be cross-compatible. After a while, though, they would both become thoroughly annoyed because they could not, say, share files. Then, they would have to decide on which client to both use in order to have that compatibility, and would then decide based on the clients’ merits. Whichever client they chose would then have one more member. And, since it would be easy for them to switch over to the other client if that other client suddenly became so much better, it would then be possible for one client to grab the majority of users after a major release. The client’s popularity would then slowly decrease over time as other clients released their new versions, but would spike again as the client released its next version. Theoretically, if none of the clients were ever released around the same time, all companies involved could make a lot more money. Something to think about.