There are two possibilities to avoid losing messages.

Firstly, you can choose to have your old messages archived in a separate log file.

Secondly, you can always switch over to the chat history logger integrated into Messenger Plus!.  It will archive your messages on a monthly basis, so your log files can never grow too much.

How-to: Configure Messenger Plus! to log your conversations

1. Open your Messenger main window.
2. Click the Plus! icon, and choose Preferences & options.
3. Switch to the Conversations tab.
4. Choose the Chat Logging subtab.
5. Select the check box Enable chat logging by default.
6. Customize the other settings per your needs.  You can even protect your conversation logs with a password.
7. Press the OK button to apply your changes.

• The settings of your scripts and skins can now be exported from the preferences panel and re-imported back.
• The workaround for displaying long chat logs in the Log Viewer for IE8 has been removed, as the bug present in beta versions of IE8 has been fixed in IE8 Final.
• This release is contest-ready!
  • In this version, you will see a new golden icon in your Messenger toolbar. Those who participated in the contest 2 years ago will probably remember what this is.
  • A “Play and Win” menu has been added in the contact list.
  • The 2009 Contest is not open yet, it will be in about a week from now. Remember to give it a try in July!

Free download: Messenger Plus! 5.0.1.706

I will post more details on the contest as soon as they are approved to talk about publicly.

• I started with signing in to Live Mesh and testing if my account is still active.
• I had also installed the Live Mesh Windows client (XP/Vista 32-bit, Vista 64-bit, Mac Tech Preview: visit with your Mac) earlier.
• I went to the folder where Chat Logs are stored. If you are using Messenger’s own chat logging, this should be “My DocumentsMy Received FilesyournicknameYOURIDHistory”; if you’re using Messenger Plus! logging like me, it’s “My DocumentsMy Chat Logs”.
• Create a backup of the folder! I might avoid heart attacks if Live Mesh behaves unexpectedly.
• Given that the Live Mesh client is running and signed in, right-click the folder and choose “Add folder to Live Mesh…”.
• Confirm the new Mesh folder and wait for the logs to get uploaded – that’s it!
• You should now see the Logs folder within your Live Mesh Desktop.

We’re happy to announce that Windows Live Hotmail is integrating instant messaging capabilities within its web interface. With this functionality, you can get your email and IM all in one place! This feature lets you IM your Windows Live Messenger contacts from within your Hotmail inbox or People page without having to switch over to the Messenger client. […]

Send an instant message from anywhere – With this new feature, you’ll now have instant messaging capabilities when you use a public or otherwise shared computer, without having to download a client program. Already logged in to Messenger elsewhere? Not a problem – you have the option to sign-in (or sign-out) from Hotmail through the “Messenger” drop down menu even if you are signed into the client elsewhere.

You are wondering if your country is not supported? Windows Live Wire comments:

Customers in Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and USA will see this feature for the first time today (as usual, rollout to different individuals is gradual, so if you don’t see it yet, please be patient). This feature rolled out to users in France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and the UK last month. Not in your area yet? We will be rolling out web-based Messenger to more locations in the coming months.

Getting started with Messenger in Hotmail

1. Just browse your Messenger contacts.
2. At the top right, you see an entry “ Messenger”.
3. Click it, and choose “Sign in to Messenger (Web)”.
4. Then click any of your contact’s display pictures and choose “Send an instant message”.
   
5. A popup window opens, and you can start your conversation.

Some thoughts about the new service

It is a bit strange to see that Messenger in Hotmail is not realized with the new Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit, which seems to be predestined for such an implementation. You might also notice that the Web Messenger does not support all of Messenger’s core features. Here’s a list of what might be interesting to have:

• Send and receive Offline messages.
• Set your display picture easily.
  (I know, you can set it via your Windows Live profile, but that’s a bit complicated.)
• Change your display name and your personal message easily.
  (Same applies here.)
• See your contact’s Messenger scenes, and set your own.
  They might get integrated with the Windows Live headers?
• Send and receive files.
• Access chat logs.

What do you think of Messenger in Hotmail? Is there anything you miss or would like to have changed?

What is new/changed?

• Completely compatible with Messenger 2009

  The times when only 10% of Plus! were working with WLM2009, the times when you had to use dodgy tricks to get it plugged in at all are over. We got all features, including skins, and all interfaces – just what you were used to have in older versions of Messenger. Of course, Plus! 4.79 is also compatible with Messenger 8.5 and 8.1 (compatibility for the December 2007 build of 9.0 was removed as its users are anyways forced to update to the most recent beta these days).

  You might ask…

  “How to remove those dodgy Window frames on the contact list and chat windows? I liked the integrated style more, like 8.5 was…”

  There is no option in the Messenger Plus! preferences to revert the windows to the old style. However, skins do have the possibility to define window shapes. As soon as you apply a skin doing exactly this, Plus! will take care of the rest and remove the Aero frames properly.

  “Where is the Plus! button? I can only find 3 buttons in the toolbar.”

  Click the top toolbar expander to show the main toolbar. On its right side, next to the colorize icon, you will also find the Messenger Plus! icon. The rest of the Plus! icons are, as usual, in the formatting toolbar.

  “I would like to revert my contact list and/or chat window design to what it was like in Live Messenger 8.5.”

  Well, as the change of the user interface is a design change, there is not an option in the Plus! preferences. Nevertheless, you might consider using a skin to reconstruct the contact list and/or chat window. There is the technical possibility to create such a skin, and we will have to see who is the first to take the chance.

• Support for Groups

  Maybe you already noticed that the formerly called groups have been renamed to categories, making place for a new, more powerful feature: the Groups. Messenger Plus! 4.79 fully supports them, while displaying an appropriate icon on the tabbed chats bar and logging the contents in its own chat log file for each group.

• Enhanced display picture support

  Notifications about contact events, also known as toasts, now support the contact’s display picture. Furthermore, the Contact Info window as well as the notifications, support animated display pictures (GIF format) instead of only showing the first frame of the picture.

• Other improvements

  More new and changed things in Messenger Plus! 4.79 are not visible to the “normal” user. These include:

  • Enhanced copy/paste function lets Messenger handle images.
  • Skins: New element named “FrameCount” has been added to picture’s Metadata, allowing better animations.
  • When chatting with more than 2 people, the size of the header in chat logs is now reduced.
  • The Repair Wizard now ensures that the files in the Scripts and Skins directory have the proper security attributes.
  • Contacts from Yahoo! Messenger are now handled better by Messenger Plus!.
  • The Resource Extractor has been improved for Messenger 9.

You can read the complete Changelog for Messenger Plus! 4.79 on the Official Website.

Where can I download Messenger Plus! Live 4.79?

Plus! 4.79 is available for free download in 22 languages. Try one of the following locations:

• Download Messenger Plus! Live 4.79 (official download site), mirrored and load-balanced (4.7 MB)
• Download mirror by mynetx

Be sure to check out what additional downloads are available:

• Scripts to add even more, even specific, functions to your Messenger
• Skins, including anything from just a slight UI change up to a completely renovated Messenger look. Make sure the skin you download is compatible with your Messenger version; each download has compatibility info texts attached.

I have problems installing or using Plus! 4.79. How to solve them?

Probably it is the best to browse the Official community forums, located at www.msghelp.net. You are almost sure to get immediate help, usually within minutes, with any problem you might have. These forums are your best source for information and solutions concerning your Messenger and Plus!. And if you don’t find an answer to your problems: feel free to add me to your contact list and I will see if we find a solution together.

Have fun chatting in a whole new way!