End of week one: Messenger still not blocked
Despite Microsoft’s constant urging over the past few months that Messenger would not be accessible after April 8th, the desktop clients continue to work one week later.
Of course the honest truth is that Microsoft has indicated that the “retirement” would begin April 8th for “English-speaking countries” and should finish by April 30th with Brazilian Portuguese users being last.
So, let’s put this information to the test to see how they’re doing. As I’ve been supporting Messenger for 12 years, somewhere down the line I started creating accounts with the various locales so I could understand the different country-specific features I was being asked about. Therefore I already have most of the accounts already created and luckily been in existence for a quite a few years. Additionally, (thanks to some friends) I also have the opportunity to test my accounts from several of the different countries so they can be tested from a local IP. For the purposes of this experiment, I will use Windows Live Messenger 2012 (16.4.3505.0912) on Windows 7 SP1 64-bit.
UPDATE (April 23, 2013): Microsoft suddenly blocked all the accounts at once. I guess they didn’t bother with their announced rolled out server changes. To bypass the block and continue to use Messenger, use my Messenger Reviver 2 tool.
UPDATE (April 24, 2013): Spoke too soon, apparently some accounts are still active, just not any of mine. However, they’re all around the world and not limited to a specific country. This is the typical way they’ve done forced updates by not doing all servers at once.
UPDATE (April 25, 2013): Apparently they’ve overloaded Skype with Messenger logins…
| Country registered | Old/New account | Messenger accessible from Canadian IP | Messenger accessible from local country’s IP |
| Australia | Old | Yes | N/A |
| Brazil | New | Yes | N/A |
| Canada | Old | Yes | Yes |
| France | Old | Yes | N/A |
| Netherlands | Old | Yes | N/A |
| United Kingdom | Old | Yes | Yes |
| United States | Old | Yes | Yes |
Based on this test data and that none of my contacts elsewhere in the world (in countries not tested above) have experienced a block, I conclude that Microsoft has not even begun the process. Considering the original date of this “retirement” was March 14th, it seems that the date is being delayed even further.
If you believe your account is being forced to upgrade to Skype:
Please come over to the live chat, leave a comment here, or contact me personally.
Messenger love still great
A friend of mine discovered the following on Friday. It sure seems there’s plenty of Messenger love around!
Posted on April 16, 2013, in Messenger, News, Skype. Bookmark the permalink. 29 Comments.
Jonathan Kay, MessengerGeek 
I still have an operating MSN but the video doesn’t work. I hung on to an older version because I like the way video was handled. My friends kept updating. I tested new version and would return to the oldest version that would install. It could be possible the video issue is because my contacts have all sold out and are Skype.
I dislike Skype video and other annoying aspects of it’s bells and whistles messenger. Yahoo messenger served me well for a few years
but the changes they made to the video plus the ever increasing hacker stealing passwords problem has ruined it..
As usual Microsoft does their thing without consideration to the millions of users.
I would appreciate help to find the ultimate internet messenger. I tried a few. Isn’t it quite a study in human behaviour to watch how costly hype created the rise of inferior products like Skype and sidelining MSN and Yahoo … of course we all know the story of the great social site, MySpace being pushed out by Facebook. How sad.
Good to see some MSN surveyors.
Larry
Greetings Larry. If you’re using a version prior to QFE3 of 2009 that has the “Webcam” function (as opposed to “Video Call”), Microsoft long ago blocked that server-side. Video Call between both 2009, 2011 and 2012 clients should be working normally though. I just gave it a go and had no problems. There was an interface initially that supported video calls between Messenger and Skype but I never saw it work and it seems to have disappeared now. I guess they gave up.
I don’t really think the ultimate messenger exists right now. Messaging-wise for me personally besides Messenger, I’m now having regular conversations with Skype, Facebook Chat, Google Talk, Whatsapp, Steam Chat plus the die-hard stuff I’ve had going since the 90s (IRC, AIM, ICQ). Of course none of these can talk to one another (ICQ/AIM notwithstanding) and they all have different feature sets.
An ultimate messenger might exist if Microsoft were to take Messenger, Skype and their Lync products complete feature-sets and combine them, open up their protocol to allow any client to connect and develop some truly nice phone applications to match. I really don’t think they have much interest though and no one else seems to be interested in “feature rich” instant messaging either.
My apologies for the novel, I have quite a lot to say on such topics 🙂
Hi Jonathan,,
I’ve got your E-mail, to seperate Skype account from Microsoft acount on skype. How do I do this?Right now I can login to skype by both accounts eather or.
thanks Yoram
If you go to this link: https://secure.skype.com/portal/account/settings, sign in with your Microsoft account, you’ll find the ‘Unlink’ option there.
Hi, Jonathan,
I went to the link, signened in with M$ account , bur didn’t find any “unlink” option, wanted to upload a snapshot but didn’t find here such an option.
Heyo,
Just got home from being away for a coupe of hours. When I left I was signed into Windows Live Messenger (2009), and now when I turned on my PC and tried to sign in, I get extremely annoying message from WLM saying “A newer version has been downloaded and is now avaible. You must install the new version to continue. Do you want to do it now? Yes [X] No [ ]”
I did a short attempt at ResHacker to get around it, but I didnt succeed. You look to be my best hope for the moment…
/Atlas
USE THIS! https://messengergeek.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/use-messenger-reviver-2-to-bring-back-messenger-and-beat-skype/ IT WORKS! I’M ON MSN AGAIN. HURRAY.
oh. SORRY! I commented on the wrong page! YOU ARE AWESOME FOR CREATING THAT PROGRAM!
Hello! I also regret seeing MSN down, especially this way. I downloaded the Reviver, but when I try to run it I get the following notification: “To run this application, you first must install one of the following versions of the .NET Framework: v4.0
v2.0.50727
Contact your application publisher for instructions about obtaining the appropriate version of the .NET Framework”
I would appreciate your help a lot!
Greetings Tatiana. This just means you need either the .NET Framework 4 or one of the prior versions. I’d actually suggest you install 4.0 as it’s smaller and quicker to install than the others. Here’s a direct download link to the .NET Framework download on the Microsoft Download Center.
My apologies for not making this part more automatic. It’s one of those things that I didn’t quite get around to refining before Microsoft starting blocking the clients.
Oh, Jonathan! THANK YOU A LOT!!!!!!!!! I am so happy to receive the messenger back, with all my custom emoticons and even the last conversations saved! I have no idea how I can return your favour! *HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY*
THANKS, a lot, I am a spanish user, but I do it and it work!!! WONDERFULL and congratulations realmente funciona, y me atrevo a dejar este comentario Jonathan, si pudieras escribir en español seria formidable este blogs
Thanks Jonathon, superb result, it worked so easy for an old dimmer, so it will work for any one, so QUICK as well.
Can’t get English on the menu’s though, my messages ok, just Menu’s on messenger ???? any comment….
Greetings George. So Messenger is in the wrong language? Out of curiosity, what language did you end up with? Regardless, there’s actually a neat little applet Microsoft added for this purpose for Messenger versions 2011 and 2012. To get to it, head over to C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\Installer (it’ll be Program Files (x86) if you’re using 64-bit Windows) and run LangSelector. It’ll ask you to which language you wish to use and then download/install the language you prefer. If you’re using version 2009, you’ll unfortunately have to uninstall Live Essentials from the Control Panel and reinstall with the language you want (you can use Reviver for the installation if you like as you can select from all supported 2009 languages).
Hi Jonathan, many, many thanks for your prompt reply. The resident language turned out to be DANISH !! As it happens messenger works perfectly, with exactly right notification sounds, and my old settings. I will sort out your action as soon as Spyhunter & Reghunter have done their clean up, I don’t want to move in just yet. I will come back to you ASAP, maybe tomorrow….once again you have made an old man a happy man !!!!!
Hey Jonathan, your fix was absolutely spot on and worked like a charm, all systems are solid peace and happiness now reigns with me.
Once again many many thanks. Regards George.
Cool George, thanks for the follow up 🙂
Hey Jon, I’m from Israel , Revive messenger 2.2 works fine, I’m back using msn messenger 2012, with no problems what so ever.I thank you very much for your blessed initiative, and may god bless you. Best regards YORAM
Hello i would like to ask if will be possible to play games against my friends, with this new one is not possible, it wants still some passwords…..I used to play game with my friend solitair showdown, now is not in list.
Greetings. Unfortunately Microsoft has taken away the games server, rendering all the games useless and unplayable. There really isn’t anything that can be done about it sadly.
thanks for sad reply they had funny easy games
BJOUR JONATHAN
JE SUIS COMME BEAUCOUP J AI TELECHARGE SKYPE MAIS JE N ARRIVE PAS A RECUPERER MESSENGER HOTMAIL BIEN QUE J AI TELECHARGE MESSENGER REVIRER 2 MAIS DEQUE JE CLIQUE DESSU RIEN NE SE PASSE JE SUIS UNE GRAND MERE ET JE VOUDRAI POUVOIR RECUPERER MES MESSAGES ET CONTINUER A ECRIVE MERCI DE VOTRE REPONSE
CORDIALEMENT ANGELIQUE
Bonjour Angelique. Hopefully you can understand me. When you say that nothing happens, are you not seeing the Reviver window as shown on this web page or is it simply not working correctly? Any additional details would be great. Additionally, knowing what version of Windows you are using and Messenger version you prefer would be handy too.
Seperate your Skype account and your Microsoft Account. This way they can’t force you to upgrade to Skype, because you don’t have a Skype account at all. I’m using WLM 2012 now, it works!
hola vivo en CHILE y uso Messenger desde sus comienzos y por ningún motivo lo dejare por ahora funciona muy bien a pesar de que Microsoft me aviso que el 1 de julio debo cambiar si o si a Outlook, saludos y gracias
Sr Jonathan una idea, podríamos unirnos ya que cada correo es nuestro unico y nuestro y salir de ellos y que se pueda usar los que quieran que son muchos y que ellos sigan con su correito que nosotros trabajamos y seguimos con HOTMAIL.
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