John R. Durant's WebLog

Office and a short, bald man

MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger and the mysterious Add-in capability

Sometimes, I get really confused. It's not always my fault.

So, we made a strategic, key decision to split Windows Messenger from MSN Messenger so that Messenger would be forked to two key audiences: the former to corporate customers, the latter for mass market messenging (nice unintentional egregious alliteration). [I am working from home today with a nasty cold, so this could all be my illness talking here].

There used to be an API in Windows Messenger to let you create Add-ins for the client. The most famous is the Messenger Plus! add-in by Patchou (http://www.msgplus.net/). It works in MSN 6 and Windows Messenger 5. But, that is the baffling part: how does an add-in work in Messenger 5 when the APIs were deprecated...or were they? The whole thing has me wondering.

Without the Add-in capability, I am stuck with just some custom branding options- very boring. And, I cannot find any add-in API for MSN's client. IM clients are strange, when you're a stranger, when there's no well-written SDK. Which brings me to my...

 Rock Thought for the day:

I have now finished the book about Jim Morrison

It was better than I expected in some ways, disappointing in others. The writer included too much profanity of his own. To me, this is always a sign of literary desperation. I did three graduate degree programs, so I just value the work of a well-researched word more than the shortcut of obscenity for the most part. Quotations from Jim contained ample color anyway.

Jim was a complex person- an artistic genius who tortured everyone near him. I collected his books of poetry when I was in college because I thought his work was better than the celebrated beat poets. He was overlooked only because of his connection to rock. Read an American Night. Brilliant.

I am on to a new book: Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla by Marc Siefer.

I cannot think of an easy, yet insightful rock connection right now other than radio, but my passion for electronics equals that for rock and roll. You can all thank Telsa for your ability to work at a computer today.

Rock on.

Published Monday, September 20, 2004 9:13 PM by johnrdurant

Comments

 

Scott Fenstermacher said:

Ari Bixhorn demonstrated this utility he had developed back at a VSLive! in Orlando. The supplied MessengerAPI dll makes it pretty easy to build your own utility, but I don't think you'd truly call it an add-in.

http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/UserSamples/Details.aspx?SampleGuid=19de7837-fce8-4fc1-8e1b-3b7232966420
September 21, 2004 7:11 AM
 

David C. said:

What are your three graduate degrees?
September 21, 2004 9:12 AM
 

Todd said:

The installer for Messenger Plus also loads a ton of spyware. The features available in Messenger Plus do not outweigh the horrible misconduct of the installer, so do yourself a favor and skip it.
September 22, 2004 10:46 AM
 

Guido said:

Todd: The installer for Messenger Plus EXPLICITLY ASKS YOU whether you want to install **ADWARE** or not. If you think the features available in Messenger Plus do not outweigh the sponsor program, just choose "NO" in the installer and you will get a clean, completely free Messenger Plus!. Do yourself a favor and inform yourself before bashing others' work just like that: they have to make a living, and you should be thankful that they give you something for free and don't force you to install any adware/spyware. :)

Check the following links please:
http://www.msgplus.net/help_faq.php?expand=2#install
http://msgplus.mybboard.com/showthread.php?tid=21598
September 29, 2004 4:37 PM
 

Chris Kunicki said:

October 4, 2004 6:58 PM
 

John R Durant s WebLog MSN Messenger Windows Messenger and the | Hair Growth Products said:

June 9, 2009 10:49 PM
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