Messenger Plus! Live 4.60.324 (19/03/2008)

• You can now filter yourself out from event logging.
• Mobile Device chat windows are now fully supported by Messenger Plus!.
  • Features like Quick Texts, commands, smart tags and previous message recall are now accessible the same way as they are in normal chat windows.
  • Logging is fully functional.
  • Mobile chat windows are now tabbed too. If you prefer keeping your mobile chats separated from one another, you can use the new TabMobileChatWnds registry setting.
• If too many Plus! notification popups try to be displayed on screen, Messenger Plus! queues the extra windows to be displayed later, when possible (so that notifications aren't displayed out of screen).
• WMA sounds can now be selected for event notifications.
• Fixed: some animated GIF display pics (Messenger 9) display improperly in the Contact Information windows.
• Fixed: /font does not work in Messenger 9 Beta.
• Fixed: some of Messenger Plus!'s own resources are loaded before the currently enabled skin, preventing them to be modified.
• Fixed: a couple of bugs that could cause Messenger to crash in some specific occasions. More stability! always a good thing.
• Fixed: external libraries distributed with scripts that need registration on import (OLE or .NET) fail to register in Windows Vista with UAC on. Messenger Plus! also makes absolutely sure now that the libraries are properly registered before trying to start the script for the first time.
• Fixed: notification popups from Messenger Plus! may steal the focus.
• Fixed: notification windows from Messenger Plus! don't animate depending on your Windows settings.
• Fixed: Messenger may not lock or unlock properly when using several Messenger accounts (polygamy) with the same shortcut specified for locking or unlocking.
• Scripts: a new function called Interop.GetCallbackPtr() has been added. It allows the creation of callback parameters for Windows API calls to functions like EnumWindows.
• Scripts: mobile chat windows are now supported. The following property has been added: ChatWnd.IsMobileChat. A new MENULOC_MOBILEWND enumeration has been added to OnEvent_MenuClicked() and OnGetScriptMenu().
• Scripts: you can now upload files to FTP servers using the new MsgPlus.UploadFileFTP() function. Success or failure is indicated through a call to OnEvent_UploadFileComplete(). This new function can also be used to check an FTP connection without uploading anything.
• Scripts: a new PlusWnd::Button_SetElementText() function has been added to change the text of text elements defined in "custom look" buttons, check boxes, and radio buttons.
• Scripts: added a new PlusWnd::GetElementPos() function to get the current position of an Element (such as a Place Holder) in a window.
• Scripts: some small improvements made to the new built-in editor.
• Scripts: MsgPlus.DownloadFile now accepts two additional parameters: Username and Password. They can be used when downloading files from ftp servers that need authentication.
• Scripts: added a new MsgPlus.ExtractFromZIP function to allow easy extraction of files from a ZIP archive.
• Scripts: you can now set Messenger.MyDisplayPicture to an empty string to remove the display picture of the current user.
• Skins: the Metadata\File element for replaced images now works properly (replaces resources of type 4006).
• Skins: a new DateRange restriction type has been added.
  • You can use it to make your skin change automatically depending on the current day, month, or year.
  • Remember that the date is analysed only when Messenger starts.
  • It is recommended to use the PlusVersion restriction as well to prevent the date restricted groups to be automatically included in older versions of Messenger Plus!. You can also set the top level "Version" attribute of "SkinInfo" to 2 to prevent the whole skin from being loaded in older incompatible versions.
• Skins: extracted pictures placed in Graphics\Pictures are now named differently if the picture is actually a reference to another one. This mean that for example, picture 4000_91_ref600.png is a reference to 4000_600.png and that only the later needs to be modified in Messenger's resources.
• Skins: a new "Colorize" boolean element has been added to RGBA "Color" resources. It allows more advanced users to enable colorization for a given color instead of specifying an intensity (useful so that the default associated color does not end up being grey).
• Skins: a new top-level "Fonts" element has been added. You can now distribute custom font files with your skin and use them in your definition and style files. These fonts are not installed system wide, they are only made available to Messenger and Messenger Plus! windows.
• Skins: gradient colors can now be specified in "Color" resources. These colors are to be used in backgrounds only. Note that in the current version of Messenger 9 Beta, horizontal gradients will be displayed vertically.
• Skins: a new "Rectangles" resource type has been added in "Replace". You can use it to replace rcrect styles more directly.
• Skins: additional flexibility and features added for custom option windows:
  • Any number of link controls can now be added in custom option windows. The caption of the control is used as link, http and https is supported. Note that the caption can only contain a link, no extra text is permitted for the web site's address to be detected.
  • You can now add a button or a link control with id "AboutWnd" to trigger the display of a second, separate about box for your skin. To id of your about box windows are defined in SkinInfo, OptionInterface\AboutIds elements.
  • The About Box window cannot contain any option control. It can, however, contain link controls (as specified above).
• Skins: A new "Environment" kind of <*PlusSkin*> tag is now supported. It allows conditions based on the current version of Messenger or Messenger Plus!, or the language of Messenger.
• Skins: the interface color used by the current user can now be reset to any custom color of your choice when a skin is enabled. This can be specified in the new Options\Messenger\ResetUserColor element of skininfo and is useful if your skin looks better in a given color. If the skin supports colorization, it is recommended to keep blue as the default in your files and use this setting to choose the substitute a default color on installation.

Messenger Plus! Live 4.50.312 (15/12/2007)

• Updated language files included.
• You now get a clear message when importing a skin that's not compatible with the version of Messenger you're currently using. A message is also displayed if an incompatible skin is enabled in the Preferences panel.
• The script editor is now LTR even with if Hebrew or Arabic is selected.
• Fixed: some preferences are not re-loaded properly when different users sign-in without restarting Messenger.
• Fixed: the Resource Extractor does not properly extracts the resources of Messenger Plus! when asked.
• Some small last-minute issues have been taken care of.
• Scripts: a new ImageId optional parameter has been added to Combo_AddItem(). This allows you to insert items with a picture in combobox controls.

Messenger Plus! Live 4.50.310 (09/12/2007)

• The look of all the Messenger Plus! windows has been updated, we hope you'll like the changes! :-)
• Brand new feature: Messenger skinning. Change the face of Messenger!
  • This new feature allows skins to be applied directly in the memory of Messenger. No file is changed, several skins can be installed and each of them is safe to use: no more installation or update problems caused by hard-patched skins. No more need to patch DLL files, everything is done in a single XML file.
  • Installation of new skins couldn't be easier: download a Skin Pack, click on it and press Import. The same distribution method used for scripts is used for skins.
  • The Messenger Plus! skinning engine is fully documented in more than 30 pages of documentation. Skin developers: all you have to do is read the first sections of the documentation to get started! it is accessible from the new Skins sections of the Preferences panel.
  • Messenger Plus! skins bring many new features previously unavailable to skin developers: user modifiable options, multi-language support and even a way to re-shape the windows of Messenger! all the advantages, for both developers and users, are listed in the "What's a Skin in Messenger Plus! ?" section of the documentation.
  • Messenger Plus! extracts all the pertinent resources of Messenger with a single click, organizes the files in categories, decrypts most of the RLE encrypted pictures, creates maps of which picture is used by which window and rebuilds windows definitions and styles files to include most of the de-referenced data directly inside the file (like color codes, texts, ...). In less than a minute, you'll get everything you'll ever need to customize anything you want in Messenger.
  • Messenger Plus! itself can now be skinned with this system.
  • A new skin database has been added to msgpluslive.net. If you create a skin that you're proud of, submit it to us and show it to the world! be among the firsts to provide new looks for Messenger to millions of users all around the word.
• Some sections of the Preferences panel have been reorganised, everything is clearer now.
• Compatible with the current Windows Live Messenger 9.0 Beta.
  • Unless you're an official tester of WLM9, registered on Connect, it is highly recommended that you do not install this new version of Messenger until Microsoft releases something more suitable for general public use. Things like personal message links and custom sign-in sounds are already available in Messenger Plus! anyway.
  • Keep in mind that compatibility with beta versions is never perfect. For example, you won't be able to decrypt RLE files in WLM9 and you may receive an error message about wlcomm.exe when installing Messenger Plus! or restarting Messenger. This is all part of the joy of using beta versions.
• You can now insert a previously sent message in the text you're typing instead of replacing everything: just keep the Control key pressed when selecting the message in the Previous Messages panel.
• The Contact List Clean-Up window now has two modes: one that displays information about contacts who are in your list (like before) and another one that shows every contact who have you in their lists, even if you don't have them. From this mode you can add the contacts back in your list or block/unblock them when needed.
• Added a new "Display event notifications in information area" feature. Enabled by default, this feature notifies you of your contact events in the chat window themselves, in the area where "user is typing" is generally displayed. This is mostly visible if you're using Messenger 8.5.
• Added a new "Additional Options" link in Messenger's contact cards (Messenger 8.1 and above only).
  • Allows easy access to some of the Messenger Plus! features that related to contacts.
  • This new way to access the features is also a good workarounds if you or your contact specified different emails in the contact's information. This causes most options to be greyed out in the right-click menu of the contact list but every options will work fine in the contact card's menu.
• You can now record a password hint in your encrypted log files. This hint will be visible to anybody trying to open the log and should be meaningful only to yourself. The hints will be saved in newly created chat log files (or re-encrypted ones) and because they are an integral part of the files, you can count on them even after a computer reformat.
• Added a new event notification choice for auto-accepted requests.
• Some general purpose event notifications are now created by default for every user (only when no notification already exists). Currently added: auto-accept requests and contact signs-out when chat is opened.
• One old-fashioned Quick Text (/slap) is now added by default for every user (when no quick text already exists).
• The uninstaller has been improved in many ways:
  • Every window is clearer, bigger, and displays more informative text.
  • Added a new "Repair Messenger" feature for maintenance. People can now use this instead of uninstalling Messenger Plus! to do some selective clean-up in case of a problem. The panel allows you to: reset/disable scripts, remove any skin customization, and reset all the Messenger Plus! user preferences. If missing or damaged, the loader is also copied back into Messenger's directory. Note that most repairs only apply to the current Windows user account, you'll need to log in your other Windows accounts to repair Messenger accounts accessed from there.
  • Users with limited privileges who require elevation from a different user with administrator privileges can now erase their Messenger Plus! preferences through the maintenance wizard (complete uninstallation would not erase the current user's preferences in that particular case as the current user is technically the administrator performing the uninstallation).
  • Only some options now require elevation in Windows Vista. This means that the uninstaller can be launched without a UAC prompt and if more privileges are needed for some operations (like a complete uninstallation), the system shield icon is added next to the appropriate buttons.
• Some global options have been moved to the GlobalSettings registry key, including the AlwaysReloadInterfaces and DisplayWizardFirstStart registry settings. Check the updated online documentation for more details.
• The setup is now faster in Windows Vista.
• Added a "Name Filter" edit box in the Emotion Sound Export wizard to find the sounds you want to export more easily.
• Added a new option to prevent "User is typing" notifications to be sent to your contacts.
• Added an (!SVER) tag to list the scripts that are currently installed.
• Added two new filters for the auto-accept feature: "send webcam" and "view webcam". The preferences panel allows these filters to be selected on their own, to combine filters, check the documentation of the new AutoAcceptReq registry setting.
• The options to add Plus! icons in the contact list and the chat windows are now properly represented as global for every user. This will fix the problems related to icons not showing when several users sign-in on the same computer with different preferences.
• Added 4 new registry settings to customize the buttons displayed by Messenger Plus! in the Messenger windows: ScriptIconContactList, FormatIconChatWnd, SoundIconChatWnd, ScriptIconChatWnd.
• If some scripts are installed but a third party software is blocking JScript or the scripting engine of Windows is damaged, a warning message is displayed when opening the script preferences panel.
• You can now disable personalized status auto-messages in specific chats from the main window's Plus! menu. Note that auto-messages are automatically re-enabled for every chat windows when a new personalised status is activated.
• Added an option to automatically separate the chat logs of different accounts by creating a subdirectory with the user's email address.
• Added an /exit command to close all the current chats and exit Messenger.
• New random sounds can now be added directly from the Sound Library window. Categories are picked at random in that case.
• Internal material related to the 6th Anniversary Contest has been removed.
• Emoticons inserted with Messenger's emoticon selector window (when clicking on the emoticon button in the toolbar) are now properly handled by various Messenger Plus! functions (thank you Matt :).
• Optimizations were made in the way Messenger Plus! handles some of the text sent and received during a chat (less memory and cpu used).
• Floating windows do not lose their position when Messenger is disconnected and reconnected while playing a DirectX game that changes the resolution of the screen.
• Added a "AllowDirectXCheck" registry setting to fix errors caused by invalid codecs installed on a system (causing error message boxes to appear before notification popups are displayed, known to happen with some versions of Real Player).
• The destination folder for log files is automatically reset to its default after a preferences import if the imported setting is not accessible.
• The cursor does not scroll automatically to the end of the text anymore when closing the "find text" window in a chat.
• Automatic word wrap in plain text chat logs has been improved to prevent words from being cut in half.
• Many improvements made in the log viewer to get an overall better experience with the software.
  • A default instruction page with the Plus! logo is displayed when the log viewer is opened.
  • The log view box can be enlarged to cover the controls on the left side for maximum visibility of the log files on screen.
  • When opening a chat log from Messenger Plus!, if a log viewer is already showing the same log, it's activated and refreshed to prevent multiple windows to display the same thing.
  • Added a "Print Preview" menu.
  • The viewer opens much faster on slower systems. Sub-directories are now analyzed asynchronously after the main window has been displayed.
  • 4 levels of directories are now supported. Special icons associated to files or folders are also always properly displayed in the list.
  • You can now perform a file search to find what you're searching for more rapidly. The search is done on plain text files, html log files, xml files and also works with encrypted files (both old and new systems). You can search in specific directories only and you can do multiple searches on the same result subset for precise filtering. Search is multithreaded so if you have an hyper-thread of multi-core processor, results will be displayed faster (note that searching in lots of encrypted files can take a very long time).
  • If a file cannot be accessed because of its security attributes, a proper error is displayed instead of a blank or error page in the IE control.
  • Clicking on the same file to refresh its content re-actualizes the log's sessions as well.
  • Event Log files use a new XSL translation file which displays events from the oldest to the newest (older versions displayed newer events first). Event Log files display much faster with the new XSLT and display properly in every language (some additional text will always be written in English when viewing the logs). Sessions are recognised properly and are now displayed in the log viewer's session box instead. Note: the new XSLT file is compatible with old event files and can be copied in your old log directories ("current user" events won't be formatted differently in the old logs though).
• Compatibility fixes in tabbed chats for people who use software like WindowBlinds.
• Custom sections created for the Quick Icons panel can now be rearranged to be displayed in the order of your choice.
• The Personalized Status window now allows the selection of any status (with the exception of Appear Offline). Some tooltips have also been added to help users who are not familiar with this feature.
• Internal improvements in the way chat windows are managed. Messenger Plus! is now more resistant to future unknown Messenger versions as well as patches that do important modifications to the layout of chat windows.
• Added two previously registry-only options in the tabbed chats preferences: "close button closes all tabbed chat windows" and "display contact emails instead of names".
• Added "disable sign-out confirmation when chats are opened" option in the Customize section of the preferences.
• A new SafeHook registry setting is now documented (moved from HKLM to HKCU). It can be used to force Messenger Plus! to hook the functions it needs, even if another software or driver is already hooking them in an incompatible manner.
• A new option has been added in the "Software Not Loaded" window. If a program installed on your system causes incompatibilities with Messenger Plus!, try enabling "Disable safe mode" and restart Messenger (it will enable the SafeHook registry setting). Note that this window is accessible from the main Plus! menu of your contact list only when a loading error occurred (no Plus! icon is added in this case).
• Events recorded in event log files can now be filtered by contacts as well. The filter is different from the one used in the Event Viewer.
• When a personalised status is set from the window that automatically appears after changing one's status to away, the previous status is properly restored after the specified timeout (if any).
• Personalised statuses are now accessible from the systray menu.
• Chat logs for anonymous Messenger users (when using the new Messenger web applet) are all saved with the save file name.
• The setup never restarts Messenger in Windows Vista anymore. This fixes problems some people have when Messenger is launched with admin privileges from the setup (like "current media" not working properly).
• The Contact Information is now more useful.
  • The window can now be resized on both sides and maximized.
  • The information displayed in the window can be refreshed.
  • You are now notified if the contact doesn't have you in his list or if you do not have him in your own list.
• Various improvements to the internal Messenger Plus! interface sub-system (the thing that displays all the Messenger Plus! window) :
  • Transition animations in Windows Vista now work properly everywhere when a Messenger Plus! window is shown or hidden. This also fixes similar but less visible graphical limitations in Windows XP.
  • Resizing operations are smoother.
  • The title bar of the window becomes visible when the window is maximized (similar to Messenger's own behaviour).
  • Less problems caused by software that do global changes to every popup window displayed in the system.
  • Windows are now centered more conveniently (on the screen that has the mouse cursor) in multi-monitor configurations.
  • Pictures can now be re-colorized to blend more with the rest of the background when needed (scripts can use this in their own windows as well).
  • Child windows are displayed transparently over their parent window.
  • The saturation, brightness and hue of the colors used in the windows are computed more accurately. Variations on the base color can now be done with powers as well as percentages.
  • Better RTL support for some controls so that windows look as good in RTL than they look in LTR.
  • Added a TitleBar\DefaultBackground option in interface files. It allows people who want to create customized interfaces for Plus! (skins or scripts) to prevent the drawing of the default gradient background in Messenger Plus! windows.
  • And more... scripters: check the updated documentation and make sure your interfaces are up to date (see below).
• The following command line options can now be specified for msnmsgr.exe (Messenger) :
  • /PlusSkin="name of skin". Launches Messenger with the specified skin loaded
  • /PlusEnabled=0. Launches Messenger without loading Messenger Plus! into it.
• Fixed: corrupted encryption containers are not properly deleted causing some systems to become unable to encrypt/decrypt files (I'd love to know who at Microsoft got the wonderful idea to create a CRYPT_DELETE_KEYSET definition that has a different value than CRYPT_DELETEKEYSET... fellow developers: be careful with IntelliSense!).
• Fixed: pressing the Control key when closing tabbed chats sometimes leaves one of the chats opened. Also, now, pressing Ctrl+Shift when closing a tabbed chat group closes all chats except the current one.
• Fixed: sounds can't be sent from the Emotion Sound panel when commands are disabled.
• Fixed: some special keys (such as Home or Delete) cannot be used to register global shortcuts for features such as Messenger Lock.
• Fixed: "Contact added you" windows still show when Messenger Lock is enabled.
• Fixed: in some rare occasions after signing-in or after experiencing connection problems, the wrong status is displayed for some contacts in windows such as desktop contacts and tabbed chats. This fix applies to Windows Vista and above only.
• Fixed: some complex combinations of text formatting and color tags are not properly written in XHTML chat logs. Some optimizations have also been made to minimize the quantity of html code written for each tag and improve xhtml compatibility.
• Fixed: sometimes, contacts added to a chat are not properly detected by Messenger Plus!.
• Fixed: when "Show custom emoticons" is unchecked in the Messenger preferences, the option can be re-enabled automatically when some special messages are sent, such as emotion sounds. Note that custom emoticons will still be re-enabled automatically in the current chat if normal emoticons are displayed (until the chat window is closed). This is caused by a bug (or rather, a limitation) in Messenger itself.
• Fixed: the rounded borders of Messenger Plus! windows may be altered after moving a window.
• Fixed: the text displayed in desktop contact windows may sometimes disappear.
• Fixed: some events may be recorded by mistake in chat logs when signing-in with opened chat windows or offline messages (the information reported was accurate except for the fact that this was not an event generated at this time).
• Fixed: script/sound import windows don't properly get the focus when the import is performed from the shell.
• Fixed: the automatic reset delay is not properly applied when a personalised status is activated from the status menu or with a keyboard shortcut.
• Fixed: the last character of ANSI coded script files is ignored when loaded in the script editor.
• Fixed: auto-accept floods the chat with errors if a file is sent in a multi-contact chat. In this case, auto-accept is disabled for the file.
• Fixed: script commands are not properly executed in the current window when combined with /all.
• Fixed: imported emotion sounds don't keep their originally assigned language.
• Scripts: the built-in editor is now much more professional with lots of new features.
  • Better overall editing experience.
  • Files load much faster than before and the current position in the editor is remembered when switching from one file to the other.
  • New option to display debug information right in the editor window (you don't need to display the Script Debugging window if you don't want to).
  • New "Show Line Numbers" option to display line numbers in the left margin.
  • New Outlining feature, give it a try! note than when enabled, an Outlining submenu is also accessible from the right-click menu of the edit control for more options.
  • Errors displayed in the Script Editor window provide a link to quickly highlight the line where the error occurred.
  • New Replace Text feature accessible from the Options menu and with Ctrl+H.
  • New Go To Line feature (shortcut: Ctrl+G).
  • For those of you editing scripts with multiple files, remember that you can use Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab to switch from one file to the other.
  • Ctrl+S can be used to save all the files and restart the script silently.
  • New rudimentary IntelliSense feature. A window automatically pop-ups to help you find global function and property names (no helper is displayed for non-static objects such as Contact or ChatWnd).
• Scripts: all the functions that take enumerated values as parameter can now use name enumerations directly in the code. For example, you can use STATUS_BUSY instead of 4. All the enumerations are accessible with InteliSense and the documentation has been updated accordingly.
• Scripts: added MsgPlus.LoadScriptFile to dynamically add new JScript code in the global scope of your script.
• Scripts: the included HTML documentation of the Interface Windows schema file has been updated with the latest version of the schema. Attributes are now fully documented as well.
• Scripts: the description of each script is now displayed in the preferences panel, in tooltips.
• Scripts: added PlusWnd::Browser_GetInterface() to interact with browser controls placed inside your interface windows (change the current page, go back, etc...). This means that your scripts can now display web pages integrated in their windows for whatever reason you may need.
• Scripts: added ChatWnd::DisplayInfoMessage() and ChatWnd::ResetInfoMessage() to allow scripts to display their own event notifications in the "information area" of chat windows. Check the documentation for more details.
• Scripts: ComboBox controls can now display images along with their text label.
• Scripts: this version of Messenger Plus! got a serious face lift. Full compatibility with previous interface files is guaranteed, however, your windows may need to be rearranged a little to look better in this version and future ones:
  • When using colors based on the background color of Messenger, make sure the results still looks good on the new background (the hue/brightness/saturation formulas have been improved internally, you'll most probably have to change your adjustements).
  • It is highly recommended to use the new ClientWidth and ClientArea attributes to specify the size of your windows. This will shield your windows from possible future updates made to the frame created by Messenger Plus!. To keep backward compatibility with older versions of Plus!, you can specify both Width/Height and ClientWidth/ClientHeight. Old versions will only read the former and new versions will prioritize the later.
  • If you were referencing pictures from the Messenger Plus! resources, make sure they are still present in this version (most are, they were updated and kept the same name).
• Scripts: fixed a problem causing singleton windows to be mixed up with Messenger Plus! windows or other scripts' windows that use the same window id.
• Scripts. Added Debug.ClearDebuggingWindow().
• Scripts: fixed messages being overwritten with their original version when OnEvent_ChatWndReceiveMessage is called and processed by multiple scripts.

« Previous Versions