A new Skype client for Windows users helps with login problems. A Mac OS X version is coming soon, too. With the new hotfix versions, users can spare the manual solution of the login problem that started on May 26, 2011. According to Skype, some users had problems with their data being corrupted so the client could no longer sign into the Skype servers. Users also reported software crashes.

The new Skype for Windows is available for free download, a corrected Mac client will follow. Linux users have to use the manual steps at the moment, to fix the problem.

In the official Windows Live blog, Microsoft’s Chris Jones informed that the Hotmail problems have now been fixed.  Since 30 December, more than 17,000 customers did not have access to their messages.  Jones explains:

Customers impacted temporarily lost the contents of their mailbox through the course of mailbox load balancing between servers.  We identified the root cause and restored mail to the impacted accounts as of yesterday evening, January 2^nd.

For the future, the Hotmail team is taking measures to avoid this error.

Compared to the total number of Hotmail users, relatively few people were affected.  Nevertheless, the incident created much bad press, as media around the world published the news about it.  Previously, Microsoft had invested a large budget into advertising the Windows Live offers, among them Hotmail.

In the last months, a hard competition has raised between Google and Microsoft, concerning the users’ favor.  Of course, incidents like this one decrease the user trust quite fast. What do you think?

The good news is that it was not you who caused this error. Several server-side factors have caused it to appear — the good news is that you can now just retry to launch Windows Live Mesh, and it will load successfully, as the server-side configuration of Live Mesh has been changed to avoid the error occurring.

You get a different error when trying to connect to Windows Live Mesh? Please let me know — add a comment below!

Since last week, there are quite a few users receiving Messenger error code 85ae000b when they try to sign in. Are you among them? Here is the explanation.

Reason 1: Your computer

The error code 85ae000b means that Windows Live Messenger has problems receiving (downloading) your current contact list from the Messenger servers. This might be related to some libraries not registered properly in your system. Let’s take a look at how you can fix this.

1. Delete your Windows Live contacts cache, as outlined previously.
2. Re-register your shared libraries like this: Open Start, Run (or press Windows+R).
3. Enter: regsvr32 softpub.dll.
4. Press OK.
5. Repeat these steps with:
   • regsvr32 wintrust.dll
   • regsvr32 initpki.dll
   • regsvr32 rsaenh.dll
   • regsvr32 mssip32.dll
   • regsvr32 cryptdlg.dll
   • regsvr32 dssenh.dll
   • regsvr32 gpkcsp.dll
   • regsvr32 slbcsp.dll
   • regsvr32 sccbase.dll
6. Retry to sign in to Messenger.

Reason 2: The Windows Live network

Microsoft is quickly preparing for the imminent launch of Windows Live Essentials Wave 4. This is causing the error code 85ae000b as well. Sadly, there is not much you can do about it. Solution: keep trying and wait. The issue will solve itself.

You can find more information about network issues at the Windows Live Service status website.

You’re getting the error code 800706ba when you try to sign in to Windows Live Messenger Wave 4 Beta? The fix is easy — you have to start a system service. This is how it works:

1. Close the Messenger sign-in window.
2. Press the shortcut Win+R. The Run dialog appears.
3. Enter services.msc, and press OK.
4. If prompted, grant your consent by clicking Continue.
5. In the Services list, search for the Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant service.
6. Double-click it, and set the Startup type setting to Automatic.
7. Press the Start button, then close the window by clicking OK.
8. Close the Services list, and retry to sign in to Messenger.

Eager to install Windows Live Wave 4? There are a few steps you should look through before installing the public beta released recently.

Windows XP: Not supported, sorry

For example, if you are (still?) using Windows XP, there is no chance you can try the Essentials Beta out. My personal tip: Get yourself Windows 7. All of your Windows XP programs will still run on it, and if it is via the Windows XP Mode.

Windows Vista: SP2 needed

Then, if you are Windows Vista-powered, you cannot run the Essentials Beta installer if you don’t have Windows Vista Service Pack 2. So, head over to Control Panel > Security > Windows Update, and install this major Windows update first.

Flash Player should be up-to-date

Finally, I tell you to make sure you are running Adobe Flash Player for Internet Explorer. You don’t know whether you got it already? Check it this way:

1. Open Start, Internet Explorer (not Firefox or Chrome this time!).
2. Navigate to www.adobe.com with it.
3. Click the red “Get Flash Player” icon on the right side.
4. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Respecting these tips, you should be able to install Windows Live Essentials Beta without hassle.
You keep getting error codes? Tell me about them and we can see how to solve them.

The problem – compatibility flags

When you use Messenger 2010 for the first time, it seems that your Windows Live ID gets some special flags in your profile data. Even if you remove Windows Live Wave 4 completely, you might see that your contacts cannot send you nudges or files. Instead, they might get the following message: “You cannot send a Nudge to your contact because he or she is using an older version of Messenger” or similar.

A possible solution

Currently, I only know of a solution that might work. There is no guarantee.

Attention: The price is that you lose all local Messenger settings.

1. Close all Windows Live programs.
2. Right-click your taskbar, and choose Task manager.
3. Click any process called msnmsgr.exe, wlcomm.exe, wlmail.exe, sync.exe, writer.exe, and End process.
4. Download and run the tool ZapMessenger by MVP Jonathan Kay.
5. Retry to install Windows Live 2009 from download.live.com.

Update: The problem was server-side and has now been fixed. Thanks for your patience!

• Open the Messenger status website at http://status.messenger.msn.com/Status.aspx . If you see a green check there, that means that the Messenger service is running, and you can continue with the next step. If the service is not running properly, check back later, until it is running. Continue with the next step then.
• Delete the Windows Live Messenger proxy settings.
  • Start Messenger.
  • Open the menu next to your display name, and click Options.
  • In the left column, choose Connection.
  • At Connection settings, click the button Advanced settings.
  • Delete the SOCKS entries.
  • Click OK, then again OK.
  • After you have deleted the proxy settings, retry to sign in to Messenger. If it still doesn’t work, continue with the next step.

• If you are using Windows Vista, disable the auto-tuning feature.
  • Click Start, All Programs, Accessories.
  • Right-click the entry Command Prompt, and choose Run as administrator.
  • When Windows prompts for your consent, click Continue.
  • Now enter the following line in the command prompt, and press Enter:
    netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
  • Note: using this command, you are disabling the Windows auto-tuning feature.
  • Now retry to sign in to Messenger.
  • If it still doesn’t work, re-enable the auto-tuning feature by repeating the preceding steps, yet typing this line instead:
    netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal
• If you are using Windows Vista and a router (e.g. made by Linksys, Netgear, D-Link) to connect to the Internet, visit your manufacturer’s website to check for updates to your router’s firmware.

If these steps do not resolve your problem with Windows Live Messenger error code 81000306, please refer to http://support.live.com/ to get further support.

Source: http://messengermaximal.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!40F43EC9BA81D814!5276.entry

For the past several hours, the Messenger servers have been showing the majority of contacts offline.  You can however still talk to contacts using offline message.  There were other similar issues earlier on in the day and the problem just seems to have progressively gotten worse.

This isn’t a new problem either.  Messenger has continually had these problems on and off for several months now.

If you use the Messenger web-based client within Hotmail, or clients which use the older protocol versions (like Windows Messenger on XP), you may get slightly better results, however for the most part there isn’t a lot you can do about it except wait for it to be corrected.

Wolfgang Hoelzel from Microsoft Germany stated:

We are currently investigating the cause of the problem internally.

Editing your user profile first name

1. Go to http://account.live.com/.
2. Sign in with the account in question.
3. Click the Registered information link.
4. Click the Change link next to your name.
5. Change the First name to something appropriate with no special characters or the ‘&’ symbol.
6. Click Save.
7. Attempt to sign in with Messenger again.

1. Thus, check your clock in the bottom-right corner of your task bar.  How?
2. Click the time display.
3. In the opening window, click Change date and time settings to change the settings.

If you are getting the error code 800702e4, that can be related to an Instant Messaging blocker in your antivirus software. Max Messenger has done some research and found notes that with the one or other antivirus program, you have to white-list Windows Live Messenger for it to work properly.

Thus, try opening your antivirus software preferences and look through its options to find a list of programs where you can add Windows Live Messenger.

If you have any further tips for specific antivirus programs, please leave a comment. Best thanks!

There has been an outage affecting customers of Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail.  It lasted about one hour; people could not sign in using Windows Live ID during this time.  The Windows Live ID team has kept people up-to-date via their Twitter account and published an explaining post afterwards on the Inside Windows Live Blog. Arthur de Haan, responsible for test  and system engineering at Windows Live, says:

Due to the failure of one server, Windows Live ID logins were failing for some customers, and this increased the load on our remaining servers.  [...]  We identified the root cause and fixed it in less than an hour, but it took a while to resolve the logjam that had built up in the meantime, and to redistribute the load to normal levels.

More information and Live status information

• Windows Live Twitter account (http://twitter.com/windowslive)
• Inside Windows Live Blog (http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowslive/)

1. Messenger problems: Resolving sign-in error 80072ef3 (24 July)
2. Plus!Patch 2.0.1 Beta for Messenger 2009: the first Patch Skin (11 January)
3. Messenger problems: Solving Messenger error code 81000306 at sign-in (14 July)
4. Phasing out Windows Live Messenger 8.1, 8.5 and 2009 QFE1 (28 August)
5. Messenger problems: How to solve error code 8e5e0713 (21 July)
6. Free e-book: Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition – Build a program now! (19 April)
7. Messenger problems: Sign-in errors 80072ee2 and 80072efd and their solution (23 July)
8. OneCare and Windows 7 (30 March)
9. Still on Messenger 8.5? You need to upgrade now. (6 November)
10. How-to: Minimize Messenger to the system notification area in Windows 7 (14 May)

As this list shows, Messenger users have experienced various error codes and couldn’t fix them on their own.  Of big concern was the upgrade to Windows 7, with OneCare not working and Messenger changing its minimize mode.

Will Windows Live Messenger 2010, currently in development, be more compatible with the users?

1. Thus, open your Control Panel, and look for the place where to uninstall programs.
2. In the list, find “Nvidia Network Access Manager” and uninstall it.
3. Reboot your computer and retry to sign in to Windows Live Messenger.

Be sure that you still have a firewall.  You can simply use Windows Firewall, located in the Control Panel as well.