MSN Messenger

Apart from all the anti microsoft reasons and things like because it's poo, are there any GOOD reasons not to use it?

Major security leaks that kind of thing?

None that I'm aware of. I don't use it a lot, but it's the only one I use. Most Firewalls/AV's have protection to protect against the odd virus which transfers via Messenger, but unless you're the kind of person who downloads things from people on MSN without them telling you they're sending you something and with no idea what it is, you won't get those anyway.

Nothing I know of. I've always used it over AIM, ICQ, YIM, etc. since it's easy to use and I've never had any problems with it.

One inescapably good reason is that it is damnably intrusive and distracting. Nothing wrong with the software, except of course it is the usual M$ bloat and will chew up 20+ million bytes of your RAM when it should really use less than 200K. It's the whole idea of the thing.

You install a program that says "woo hoo! Here I am! Come and chat to me and interrupt me whilst I'm coding, playing games and looking at pr0n".

I also hate telephones, just on the general principle of if I want to speak to someone, I'll let them know.

That'll do for me! Cheers guys. Just thought I'd check before installing stuff like this!

you are better off with one of these other programs that let you interact with all the IMs... like Trillion or whatever.. I don't use them...

I use AIM... I have yahoo and msn but only because others have required that I have them to talk to them...

I actually like most of AIM.. what I don't like is the ads... I've considered not using AIM anymore because of it... but I have to keep it for many reasons...

I used to use ICQ back when it was the only choice and for a while after that.... but now it is pretty much dead.

Use Trillian: www.trillian.cc

It's simple to use but like any MS product completely unreliable. It crashes, you never know if youre online, transfers never work, if some totally unrelated windows component crashes or doesnt work MSN might give up, the interface is ambigous and bad. Other than that its really great! ...

Completely opposite here.

-It's never crashed.
-I always know when I'm online.
-Transfers always work.
-Other stuff failing did not mean that MSNM would crash. In fact, it's always running fine.
-The interface is easy to navigate and looks fine.

You have to remember, these things aren't made for programmers who want to overcomplicate everything. They're made for normal people.

If you absolutely must have the MSN protocol I'd go for Trillian or Miranda-IM. If you just need AN instant messenger, Skype works well for me.

Why am I not using MSN Messenger? For starters it doesn't work *at* *all* from uni. Secondly it can't seem to figure out when two computers are on a LAN, so transfers can be sped up - all transfers have to go through the interweb (and back). Lastly on the TabletPC the latest version uses up so many resources that it's impossible to use the TabletPC for anything else, and the older versions crash all the time. Granted the TabletPC isn't the most powerful computer in the world, but I wouldn't have thought sending simple messages to other people on the Internet was such a demanding task.

I use MSN, it has never given me problems.

Downloaded and installed.

Flame, thanks for the advice but I have one computer at home, I don't go to uni anymore, don't have a home lan, don't have a tablet PC so I guess all those problems aren't valid for me. That said it's one to bare in mind for the future.

Thanks for all the advice guys.

I agree with VP, I dont need another taskbar app spending ages loading and interrupting me. I interrupt myself enough already!

GA: You... you... agree with me?

Just kidding ;)

Use Messenger! it's funny!

when transfers fail (all the time btw) it says things like it's your ISPs fault for 'disabling transfers'
:)

kinda reminds me of Windows RG (Really Good) Edition

VP: just this once ;-)

That's another reason I don't use MSN messenger - so people can't send me penis 'emoticons'. They are disturbing.

FD:

You can "Disable" them.

Personally i use GAIM because then i only have one IM program to do everything since everyone i know seems to like other protocols.

GAIM sucked the last time I used it (6+ months ago). Has it been sorted out now (i.e. crashed less often than MSN)?

Hasn't crashed at all for me.

Yeah, a few months ago when i first tried it it was pretty awful. it's not the best now but Trillian halts the CPU for about 1 second when i receive messages so GAIM got the download.

IRC owns any messenger by far, but some of my friends still uses that MSN garbage :/, so I had to download Miranda, its the best client. You can install only the module for MSN network so its very light.

http://www.miranda-im.org/

I have em disabled, Flameduck. The "fun" part I was referring to is laughing out when you get those professional-wannabe stupid messages ;) not the annoying icons, gestures or whatever

I've installed miranda and I'm liking its small-ness. Refuses to log me into AIM though (no great loss). I'm sure I'll get fed up of having an IM client installed again in a week or so.

I'm with VP on this subject, too. :P

The very idea of IM fills me with dred. Do people always know when you're online, or can you 'hide' from them?

Phones, too. I have a mobile but am seriously thinking of taking it to Mordor and throwing it into the Abyss... especially after the resultant debacle of Christmas eve which resulted in me spending most of the evening in A&E. :/

I use Exodus - a Jabber client through a private server that also provides ICQ, AIM and MSN gateways. One very small & streamlined client app. that enables me to talk to all of the major networks.

If I couldn't use it, I would use Trillian -- I wouldn't touch the 'official' MSN client with a ten-foot pole. It's way to obtrusive, and can't seem to leave other MS applications like Outlook Express alone either.

big10p: mobile phones are for exernal use only, no wonder you ended up in A&E. ;)

Ah, that's where I went wrong. :P

... I had it set on 'vibrate', too. :/

use trillian

I use MSN for experiment's sake : I am running as many MS products as possible in order to test whether my system will remain more stable =]

So far, it actually seems to be working. But transfers over 15meg in messenger are a no go for me. Still, last time I tried in ICQ I got nowhere at all.

So are .MP3 and .EXE files.

@Big10P: Pretty much all clients allow you to connect in 'invisible' mode, where you look off-line to others but can still send messages and choose to receive messages from others.
You can also have a list of a couple of trusted people who can see your invisible status if you so choose.

MSN can be annoying sometimes. Someone appears offline, but is infact online, etc. No reason to stop using it all together, but it can get frustrating. The file transferring is horrible at times.

xlsior: in that case this IM lark sounds like it could be useful. Thanks for the info.

On the simple premise that clicking anything in Windows XP results in MSN Messenger loading anyway it is the messenging program that I use. Unfortunately MSN installation policy means that any of several different versions can load depending on whether the seagull "Fred" is airbourne over Port Talbot on the Falkland Isles or not, despite me using default installation options. This means that exchanging files can frequently result in shutting MSN down and finding the version that matches whatever has loaded on the other persons system.

/me looks at "Banshee".


I can only imagine that you are using MSN and Windows Messenger. Uninstall Windows messenger. its the first thing I do when i reinstall.

and I have none of the rest of your problems. :P

MSN does seem to attach itself to IE though and means you can't close it until youve closed everything else. grrrr.

The only "Messenger" in my add/remove programs list is MSN Messenger 7.5 (pressumeably the one I want), there is no reference to "Windows Messenger". I understand what you're saying and agree it sounds like the solution, but i've no idea where to actually uninstall Windows Messenger ? :/

Banshee: presumably this 'windows messenger' thing is an XP-only app as I don't have it on my 98SE machine. However, as it's a windows component, it won't be listed in the regular list of installed apps. Instead, you'll probably have to hit the 'windows setup' tab in 'add/remove programs' and uncheck the box for windows messenger, in whatever group it's listed under. Just a guess.

I think Windows Messenger split off into Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger around v5 somewhere. I never could uninstall Windows Messenger, but I just told it not to load in it's options, and I never heard from it again.

Also, I think MSN Messenger is the best messenger program, for a few reasons.

-I went to it from ICQ, which just started overdoing all the buttons and widgets (MSN is now going this way).
-All my friends use it.
-Messenger Plus! is pretty cool.
-I like making comedy avatars.

v4.2 actually


I just checked.

Banshee,

it appears you need a windows hack to properly remove windows messenger... here's what I do:

close Windows Messenger.

Open the folder "program Files\Messenger" and remove its contents.



However,

I've just googled this up:

How to Remove Windows messenger:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_messenger_remove.htm


[edit]



Oh @#!*.....

I really hope they removed the porn crap they forcefully installed last time i used it. Last i heard, Plus! v3 was gettnig pretty large on the spy/adware.

@Flamey: I transfer mp3 files fine. exe's are out of course unless I rar em first. No big deal there. Also AVIs are bloody weird; you can download them, but as soon as you try to open them (from within messenger) it says it's potentially harmful and deletes it. Open it normally and you're fine.


That hasn't happenned to me; although you can go into Manage Add-Ons... and Disable the Messenger plugin.

It only happens to me for Office (I wouldn't notice except I keep Outlook open all the time).

Well I've had Miranda IM installed for a day and it seems OK. Bit of a pain in the rear to configure properly, and you need to update the Yahoo plugin for it to work, but it's very lightweight (which I like, a lot).

Some good advice: do a search for "a patch" for msn. It works on most (including the recent 7.5) and allows you to remove all ads, and unwanted fluff so you are left with a minimal messenger that does exactly what you want.

Don't get anything that says it's version 8.0 it's a hack

I'm curious as to what googles im will look like. apparently it's going to be the IM killer.
Imagine google earth IM

@Ice9: Google already released a Beta of their IM program, called Google Talk. So far it is extremely basic (which is both good and bad). Google Talk is based around the open-source jabber protocol, meaning that it should be easily extendable to do other things as well. Apparently they are currently being served for patent infringement on their VOIP (voice over IP) plugin.

hmm, thinking maybe IC is a better idea for what I want to use chat for :)

Miranda IM handles AIM, Yahoo, MSN, IRC, Jabber (Google), Gadu-Gadu (?) plus some other niche things as well.

Of course, you could just sodding well phone the person you want to speak to :-/

Hey thanks Rob, A-Patch is neat! I can completely remove nearly every single element from the windows ;]