Old Change Log

History in the making!

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3.63.148 - 04/04/2006 (download)

  • Messenger Plus! Live 4.00 will soon be released. Some last compatibility fixes have been made into Messenger Plus! 3 to make sure the upgrade goes smoothly for everybody. Note that both software will be capable of running together but won't be entirely compatible, that's why Messenger Plus! Live automatically disables Messenger Plus! 3 upon install. You can then, if you wish, reinstall Messenger Plus! 3.63 (and nothing below it) if you still want to use Messenger Plus! in Windows Messenger 4 or 5.
  • A new major version of sponsor will be distributed with Messenger Plus! Live and I thought it would be appropriate to include it along with this update. The new sponsor package is distributed by Circle Development Ltd and I'm sure everybody will be happy to know that they've removed what users didn't like the most: the home page change and the search bar. Also, in case you would wonder, nothing has been added either compared to previous versions.
  • The sponsor agreement in the setup has been enlarged so that everybody can read the part about advertisement without scrolling. The screenshot of the search bar has been removed as it's not installed anymore (and it wasn't really needed anymore anyway as there's no way you can mistake the sponsor's agreement for anything else now).
  • When the sponsor is installed, Messenger Plus! is listed as "Messenger Plus! 3 & Sponsor" in Add/Remove Programs so that people can locate it easily if they don't remember installing the ads with Messenger Plus! after some time.
  • Developer's note: due to the way version 3.62 was compiled, a network path was embedded in the binaries (pointing to the pdb file). This was causing extra delays to developers trying to debug something on their computer with Messenger Plus! installed as their debugger was trying to locate my computer name on their network. This is now fixed.

3.62.146 - 20/12/2005

  • This version is compatible with the forthcoming Messenger Plus! Live. It is NOT compatible with Windows Live Messenger, it only paves the way for the next version (meaning it is required if you plan to install Windows Live Messenger when it will become publicly available).
  • Auto-update now checks if a version of Messenger Plus! Live is available when running Windows Live Messenger.
  • If both this version of Messenger Plus! and Messenger Plus! Live are installed on the same system, this version of Messenger Plus! automatically disables itself in Windows Live Messenger but keep on working properly in Windows Messenger or a previous version of MSN Messenger.
  • Due to various reasons, people using the Alternate Hooking Method will be prompted to reboot once the installation is complete and the Default Hooking Method will automatically be set back. Once the computer has been rebooted (that's very important), the Alternate Hooking Method can be set again in the preferences.
  • Log files are not auto-archived to the wrong directory anymore (happened in some very specific occasions).
  • Merry Christmas 2005!!!

3.61.145 - 03/10/2005

  • Bug fixed that caused detached tabbed chat windows to disappear.
  • Tabbed chats are not wrongly resized when closing an active chat containing an activity.
  • A "SideBarColor2" registry setting has been added to control the appearance of the Plus! side bar and the group bar (for tabbed chats). This value is used in conjunction with "SideBarColor" and should be set by skin installers when necessary.
  • Due to many recent error reports related to third party Messenger Plus! plugins, upgrading from a previous version of Messenger Plus! to this one will automatically disable every installed plugin in every account. You can then re-enable the plugins you want to enable, with the knowledge that if a problem occurs, the plugins are the first things you should try to disable. You are also encouraged to verify if new versions of the plugins you use are currently available for the new versions of MSN Messenger.
  • An important bug was fixed that caused Messenger to crash at startup. This bug was the result of network monitoring applications (such as firewalls) installed on some systems that are not using a subclassable hooking mechanism on Winsock.
  • Note: the Tabbed Chats feature does not work correctly with WindowBlinds because of a bug in this software. If you want to use Tabbed Chats and have WindowBlinds installed, please add Messenger to your exclusion list.
  • A couple of display glitches have been fixed.

3.60.144 - 27/09/2005

  • Obviously, this version is now 100% compatible with MSN Messenger 7.5. One of the main things that has been fixed for this version of Messenger is the detection of contact names changes (thus fixing bugs with custom names, floating contact windows, ...).
  • Brand new feature: Tabbed Chats!
    • The Tabbed Chats feature groups some or all of your chat windows into one single window. A group bar is then displayed to switch from one chat to the other. This feature is available in MSN Messenger 6.0 and above.
    • Each chat can be accessed with one button in the group bar. When new messages are sent to a grouped chat that is not active, the group bar button flashes. When possible, the chat is also brought to front (various internal variables control how button flashes and when chats are put on top).
    • Shortcut keyboard F9 groups all chats and Ctrl+F9 adds the current chat to the group. Shortcut keyboard F8 ungroups all chats and Ctrl+F8 ungroups the current chat from the group.
    • You can browse your tabbed chats with two sets of keys: Ctrl+PageUp / Ctrl+PageDown and Ctrl+Tab / Ctrl+Shift+Tab. The later can be disabled with the AllowGroupCtrlTab registry setting if you want to keep Ctrl+Tab to insert tab characters in your messages.
    • You can use Ctrl+Alt+Tab to go to the next flashing chat or to restore the original chat window when no more flashing windows are present. This shortcut is very useful when talking to a lot of people.
    • Left clicking on a chat button puts the chat on front, middle clicking on a chat closes it and right clicking displays a context menu with several options. Ctrl+Left Click detaches a chat from a group.
    • Middle clicking on an arrow button normally scroll the chat buttons by a full page. However, when a chat that is not currently displayed in the bar flashes, the appropriate arrow button flashes too and middle clicking on an arrow button at that time brings you directly to the flashing window.
    • The group bar can be displayed vertically on top or horizontally on the left side.
    • The size of the buttons is dynamic when the bar is horizontal and fixed when it is vertical. In both cases, the preferences panel has an option to change the width of the buttons. If the bar is horizontal, the width is used as a minimum required width instead of a fixed one.
    • Of course, an option exists to automatically group all your chats when they are displayed by Messenger. After installation, if several chat windows are opened, Messenger Plus! automatically asks once if you want to enable this option or not.
    • You can drag&drop files and text on group buttons the same way you can drag&drop stuff on floating windows.
    • Chat windows that are displaying Messenger Activities (such as games) keep their own size and don't affect the size of the other chats in the group.
    • The tabbed chats have their own set of settings, available in the preferences, to suit the customization needs of most people.
    • You can close all the chats of a group by holding Ctrl when exiting the window (clicking on the X button). This behavior can be inversed with the "GroupCtrlCloseAll" registry setting.
    • When a grouped chat contains unread messages, Messenger Plus! automatically switches chat windows after some delay if the group is not currently active. This delay can be changed with the "GroupAutoSwitchDelay" registry setting.
    • Because of several technical differences, the tabbed chat feature is not available in RTL versions of Messenger (Arabic and Hebrew).
  • The new custom sound feature continues to be very popular so some things in it have been improved:
    • A language can now be assigned to every sound in the Add Sound Wizard.
    • You can assign a language to your existing sounds by going in the Sound Property window (click "Edit Sound..." in the library window). You are encouraged to send your modification to the server (see below).
    • A new "Update Server" button has been added in the Sound Property window. This button allows you to send the sound to the server so that its information can be updated. Sounds are normally sent only once to the server (in a given period of time) which can cause listing errors to be maintained for a long time. If you notice a name, category or language error for one of your sounds, just correct it and hit this new button: anybody who will download the sound afterwards will have the corrected information.
    • The Random Sound window now allows to specify a desired language. Please give this option some time before it really starts to be useful as existing sounds need to be re-uploaded by everybody to the servers with the language information set.
    • The sound ID displayed in the Sound Properties window can now be selected and copied easily (for use in commands for example).
    • Added a tooltip for the selection bar in the Add Sound Wizard so that everyone knows that double-clicking the bar opens a different selection window.
    • Getting new random sounds is now a little faster.
    • Temporary files generated by the Sound Wizard are now properly deleted every time.
    • Importing a sound pack by opening a link in IE now always works (no need to save the file first).
  • No "Messenger Plus! Extras" menu is displayed for "mobile number only" contacts.
  • Added "SideBarColor" registry setting for people who use skins.
  • There's no more room in the preferences for the new features! there are already 25 sections in the preferences window and it's been some time already that I've been bothered by this problem. To accommodate the new Tabbed Chats preferences section, "Commands & Tags" has been renamed "Commands & Keys" and moved in "Message Helpers". To make room for it, the "Text Recall" section had to go. The feature still exists but the options attached to it were not that useful for most people (they are still internally supported if you update from an old version though).
  • Added a link in the Chat Logging preferences section to go to the encryption section.
  • The "Action message formatting" option has been removed from the preferences (the registry settings are still used though, if you're updating from a previous version).
  • Thanks to user feedback and because of the need for a user agreement for Messenger Plus! itself, the setup of Messenger Plus! has been completely re-thought, once again.
    • The one main concern reported by users since the last modifications was clarity. This new setup intends to definitively fix that problem.
    • The installation of the sponsor program is now asked directly on the second page of the setup. The text displayed there is short and to the point, describing what the sponsor is, the fact that it's adware and insisting that it's optional.
    • No option regarding the sponsor is checked by default (just as before but it can't hurt to mention it again).
    • The sponsor license agreement is not displayed above the installation choice anymore (which was the reason of most previous complaints). Instead, it is presented to the user separately if and only if the user chooses to install the ads. This means that in order to install the sponsor, you now have to accept it twice, first by selecting "Install the sponsor program" and secondly by clicking on "I accept the terms of the Sponsor's License Agreement".
    • The sponsor agreement window now displays a bigger and brighter screenshot of the search bar installed (not by much but still). Also, the fact that this screenshot and the agreement itself are presented in a different window, bigger than the main window itself, brings more clarity to the setup, preventing too much information to be displayed on a single screen and getting more attention from the user.
    • The third screen of the setup now displays the new Messenger Plus! terms of use. Every user must accept them before proceeding with the installation. This way, the overall setup looks much more "standard". I know there will be a period of adaptation for every people to understand that the last page of the setup now displays a license agreement for Messenger Plus! itself and not its sponsor but that's a problem I'm willing to assume.
    • Messenger is not automatically started at the end of a silent installation anymore.
    • I'll watch for your feedback regarding this new setup and I'll make the necessary adjustments if you deem it necessary. I want the setup to be as good as possible, once and for all.
  • The auto-update window doesn't appear to frozen for long when the Messenger Plus! web site can't be reached.
  • The file sharing feature of Messenger Plus! was not that useful as is so it has been redesigned and file triggers have been added to it:
    • For each file entry you can set a different trigger (IRC like). A trigger is a message preceded by ! that, when sent by a contact, will automatically send the specified file on your behalf.
    • File triggers can have many uses. For example, if you just had found and downloaded a great program/music/video, you could advertise a trigger for it in your personal message.
    • An option (off by default) allows contacts to send a !listfiles trigger to get the list of every file you are currently sharing with triggers.
    • A simple flood protection is enforced by Messenger Plus! rejecting new requests that are sent too quickly.
    • I know some of you will request a password for this feature but in a way, they are already implicitly supported: a trigger can have up to 100 characters and can include spaces. So if you create a trigger "!myfile thepassword" you can advertise for it as "!myfile <add password here>".
    • For security reasons, file triggers do not work in chats with multiple contacts.
    • A /fileshare command has been added to access the file sharing panel.
    • Remember that Messenger is not a software designed for mass automatic file sharing. Messenger Plus! does not bypass any of the native protections of Messenger which means for example that if you are using Messenger 7, some file extensions will be forbidden (you can use the StuffPlug plugin or Windows Messenger to avoid that problem). Also, please remember that Messenger automatically limits the number of simultaneous file transfers, Messenger Plus! cannot do anything about it either.
    • Currently, up to 12 different files can be shared through this method.
  • The action of playing custom emotion sounds is now logged in the Messenger Plus! chat logs.
  • The "Messenger Plus! Extras" menu for groups is back in Messenger 7 (useful to block/unblock groups). Note that if the width of your contact list is too small, the menu may not appear.
  • A new plugin function has been added called "AddEventEntry". This function allows plugins to add custom entries in the event viewer and event log file of Messenger Plus!. The version sent by the Initialize() function is now 7.
  • No more logging problems when an email begins with a system reserved word such as "com1".
  • Two registry settings have been added, "AttachToWinMsg" and "AttachToMsnMsg" which allow users to ask Messenger Plus! not to add its functionalities in either Windows Messenger or MSN Messenger.
  • An important bug has been fixed that could prevent Messenger Plus!, in very specific occasions, to not attach to Messenger or a chat window properly.
  • Added a link to the sounds.msgplus.net page in the Sound Library window. This will help people get access to statistics and new sounds.
  • The Boss Protect and Messenger Lock features don't change your status anymore when it's already Appear Offline.
  • Messenger Plus! now recognizes personal messages (Windows 2000/XP only). For now, this means that personal message changes are logged in different places like in the event viewer. Note that music name changes are not logged for space reasons (too many of those can be received, it would fill up the event log pretty quickly). More support for personal messages will be added in a future update.
  • The previously active window is always properly restored after an auto-accept command.
  • When a dialog box is opened, the auto-accept feature waits for it to be closed before accepting the request (to avoid various problems).
  • Added an option in the "Messenger Plus! Extra" menu for contacts to open a http link present in the name or personal message of a contact.
  • Alternate Attach Mode now works a little better.
  • Because of the new keyboard shortcuts of Messenger, the "Plus!" menu of the chat window is now accessed through Alt+U.
  • Auto-accept now works properly when a request is sent in a new chat window and the preferences specify only one kind of request to accept.
  • And of course, as always, many other small bugs have been fixed for your enjoyment :).

3.54.132 - 23/05/2005

  • Added "DelayedSignin" registry setting. You can now use this setting to make Messenger wait the specified period of time before automatically signing in when it starts. Some people reported that letting Messenger 7 automatically sign-in after a reboot made their whole computer be very slow, this new simple feature of Messenger Plus! by-passes the problem.
  • The Preferences Lockdown password is now asked when the Configuration Wizard is launched.
  • Fixed a crash problem that could occur in very rare circumstances when using floating windows.
  • Unicode Richedits were not enabled in version 3.52, causing Chinese/Japanese/... characters to be handled improperly by some of the Plus! features. That's fixed now.
  • Bug fixed when sending more than 5,000 characters depending on the log settings.
  • Fixed a bug in the scheduler when tasks are repeating every month or every year.
  • Thanks to my new subscription to the Windows Error Reporting system, I've been able to locate and fix a couple of bugs affecting a percentage of my user base. Too bad the guys from the MS Anti-Spyware team are not as cooperative as the guys from the MS Winqual one as everybody would benefit from the results (because yes, MS Anti-Spyware still cripples the uninstallation program of the sponsor, preventing users from removing it from their system).

3.52.130 - 13/04/2005

  • An important problem related to compatibility with MSN Messenger 7 has been found and fixed which is why a new version is released so soon. Anyone who uses Messenger Plus! with Messenger 7 is highly encouraged to update to this version without waiting as this version will bring more stability and by consequence, more fun :).
  • A couple of optimizations have been made so that the contact list of Messenger 7 displays faster when Messenger Plus! is running (those of you with older computer will probably notice a big difference).
  • Because of the (rather annoying) new file transfer block of MSN Messenger 7, the "Share Messenger Plus!" function does not send the setup file anymore, only a link to msgplus.net.
  • Improved compatibility with localized versions of Messenger that display names in a chat between two chunk of text (like the Polish version). If you use such version of Messenger, you'll now be able to fully enjoy all the feature of Messenger Plus! in your chats, including the new emotion sounds :).
  • Fixed compatibility issues with MSN Messenger's own logs. The native logs are now properly saved every time a chat window is closed (which also fixes the "recent chat history" problem).

3.51.128 - 12/04/2005

  • Since Messenger Plus! version 1.00, the way the software attaches itself to Messenger had not changed very much. Some people have always experienced startup problems, caused by different kinds of programs installed on the computer. These problems should now be solved thanks to a new option added to Messenger Plus!. Read the following only if you're interested in technical details :).
    • The Misc section of the preferences now offers 3 methods to control the way Messenger Plus! hooks Messenger: Default Mode, Default Mode - Forced, and Alternate Mode (only available in Windows 2000/XP).
    • Default Mode is the way Messenger Plus! has always used so far. Keep it that way if you never experienced problems related to the Plus! menu disappearing for no apparent reason. Default Mode - Forced is equivalent to the previous "Enable Force Mode" option and is just a trick applied over the same Default Mode to try to compensate for poorly designed softwares when the system startups.
    • Alternate Mode is the new mode of interest. This mode sets a special registry key in Windows (called AppInit_DLLs) to ask Windows to load the MsgPlusLoader.dll directly when a new process is created. The end result is the same as with the Default Mode, however, this technique normally prevents other softwares from breaking the hook chain.
    • Alternate Mode is in theory better than Default Mode because once it's activated, MsgPlus.exe does not need to be running for Plus! to attach to Messenger. Note that MsgPlus.exe is still not automatically removed from your computer startup when Alternate Mode is selected, that's because MsgPlus.exe is responsible for doing some basic installation diagnostic and displaying the Recovery Window. However, if you remove the MessengerPlus3 value from the Run key, everything will continue to work properly (see below).
    • More and more software now monitor registry changes to "protect" users from unwanted programs. Depending on how those software are configured, changed in the Run key may be prevented automatically or by default, creating the now well known "I have to reinstall Messenger Plus! every time I restart my computer" problem. Messenger Plus! now checks for the existence of its value in the Run key and if it can't find it, Alternate Mode is automatically selected to repair the problem.
    • Note that the registry key used to activate Alternate Mode could also be monitored by a software installed on your computer. Trying to enable Alternate Mode and preventing the registry change to occur will simply result in Messenger Plus! not working anymore. As any other program, Messenger Plus! adds/changes registry settings to function properly. Badly designed registry monitor programs cause much more problem than they prevent, for any program.
  • The Recovery Window has been modified. When "Automatically Repair" is selected, the software automatically switches from Default Attach Mode to Alternate Attach Mode and back again from Alternate Mode to Default Mode when needed.
  • The "HandleMessengerStart" registry setting has been documented and now also controls how the new attach mode operates.
  • A /notif command has been added which opens the Notification Configuration window for a given contact.
  • The /sendfile command has been fixed for the final version of Messenger 7, however, no parameter is allowed for this command anymore (remember that you can use /dropfile too).
  • Sound Pack files (with a plp extension) are now associated to Messenger Plus! in the Windows shell. This means that the sound packs now have a nice Plus! icon attached to them and you can import a sound pack just by double clicking on it. Note however that MSN Messenger or Windows Messenger must be running for the import to succeed.
  • When sending a custom sound, if the server takes some time to respond and you switch to another window, the focus is restored before the sound is actually sent to your contact (that way, the sound is properly sent).
  • The custom emoticon problem for the Quick Icon panel and MSN Messenger 7 has been fixed.
  • In several windows of Messenger Plus! (like the event viewer and the floating windows), the status icons now use the Messenger 7 style (in MSN Messenger 7 only).
  • Fixed a bug that stopped handwriting to work when a contact sent a message while drawing (this bug was only happening when custom names were enabled).
  • Wink messages are now properly logged and formatted in the chat window.
  • Added improvement in Messenger Plus! to let plugins like StuffPlug add something before custom contact names (like timestamps).
  • Emoticons are showing properly in personal messages displayed in the chat window when custom names are used.
  • The enhanced Plus! icon in the contact list is now more tolerant to color variation (fixes problems when using a 16bits display).
  • Animated GIF now look better in the Quick Icons panels (their transparent background is always properly removed).
  • A new little extra has been added to the software, find it :).

3.50.124 - 16/03/2005

  • Complete support has been added for MSN Messenger 7! Just like it was the case a year ago for Messenger 6, a lot of work was required to insure that the same features you enjoyed with Plus! and Messenger 6 could be available with Plus! and Messenger 7 almost without any noticeable change.
  • The "Hide Advertisement Banner" that was in the program since Messenger Plus! 1.00 has been removed from MSN Messenger 7. From now on, it will only be available for MSN Messenger versions 6.2 and below. Several reasons are pushing me to remove this option, including the fact that I do not want to go against the new business model Microsoft has implemented in Messenger 7. I hope some of you won't take it too badly, I will not changed my mind so please, do not write me about it. Thank you for understanding.
  • The Plus! icon that was appearing on the left of contact names in the contact list is not available in MSN Messenger 7 anymore (I'm working on an alternative).
  • A Configuration Wizard has been added to Messenger Plus!.
    • The configuration wizard is always displayed the first time someone signs-in on a computer. It is designed to help new users configure some basic features of Messenger Plus!.
    • If you are online when the wizard is displayed, Messenger Plus! changes your status to "Busy" (and reverts it back when you exit the wizard).
    • The wizard allows direct configuration of the following options: chat logging, logging encryption, Event Viewer window, Allow Sounds (includes "Automatic custom sound play" and "Allow built-in sounds"), Auto-Accept, Boss Protection, and floating windows.
    • Every option displayed in the wizard is applied instantly and actions cannot be canceled. This means for example that enabling the Event Viewer window will instantly display the window on screen.
    • Users are introduced to the Preferences Panel with three links: configure external (POP3) emails, add sign-in/sign-out sounds, and create word filters.
    • The last screen summarizes some of the most used features of Messenger Plus!.
  • Messenger Plus! is now compatible with Windows Messenger 5.1 (when used with the .NET Messaging Service).
  • A Messenger Plus! icon has been added to the top toolbar of MSN Messenger 7
    • The icon's menu contains all the useful items of the main Plus! menu. It's main use is when the window frame of the contact list is hidden and the normal Plus! menu is inaccessible.
    • In MSN Messenger 7, the normal E-Mail message cannot be changed easily. For that reason, why using the POP3 Mail feature of Plus!, the email count is now displayed in this popup menu. If several accounts are used, one line is displayed for each of them that contains emails. Clicking on the menu opens the client specified in the preferences (program or http link).
  • Brand new Messenger Plus! feature: Custom Emotion Sounds.
    • The statistics that were added to Messenger Plus! 3 months ago revealed that the number one used feature so far was the Sounds Commands. That fact pushed me to develop the Custom Emotion Sounds feature, which brings sounds integration in Messenger to the next level. This feature is not l33t, it's just fun :).
    • Custom sounds can be sent to all your contacts as long as they have the latest version of Messenger Plus! installed. If your contact does not have the sound you sent him in his sound library, it is downloaded automatically from the server.
    • Sounds are automatically sent to the Messenger Plus! server when used for the first time. They are then downloaded from the server when your contacts need them. This has two main advantages: preventing firewall problems and making sound sharing possible (when you create a new sound, you can mark it private to avoid public sharing).
    • There are four distinctive ways to add new sounds in the sound library:
      • by creating sounds based on existing sound or music files (like mp3),
      • by recording your own sounds by using a microphone or another line-in device,
      • by importing sounds previously saved in a Sound Pack,
      • by getting a sound at random from the server, in the specified category.
    • The Sound Library is shared between all users of the same Windows account, by default. This allowed downloaded sounds to be available to every user without the need of exporting/importing sound packs. To make the library private, use the new "CustomSoundsPrivate" registry setting.
  • The sound section of the Preferences has been reworked:
    • The old MCI-related options are gone as Messenger Plus! now uses its own sound libraries to decode sound files (see below).
    • The custom sound panel height can be increased if necessary (if you want to display more sounds per page).
    • By default, new sounds are automatically downloaded and every sound is played as soon as it's ready to be played. Both of these behaviors can be disabled, you can then chose to download and/or play each sound, directly in the chat window, in a similar way you play winks for example. Note that regardless of these options, if a sound is already playing, new sounds sent are not played automatically and will wait for your input.
    • When you receive new sounds, their are automatically added in your sound library and show in the sound panel. If you don't want new sounds to be shown in the sound panel, you can use the appropriate option in the preferences.
  • Many changes have been made to the way sounds are played in various features:
    • If you're not interested in technical details, you should just know that Messenger Plus! now supports more sound formats and plays all of them more reliably: more features, less problems!
    • The various open file windows displayed in Messenger Plus! to select a sound now support previewing the sounds selected.
    • Messenger Plus! now uses dedicated sound libraries to read sound files: Libsndfile and Lame_enc. Thanks to these great pieces of work, Messenger Plus! does not have to rely on the various codecs installed on a computer anymore. The list of supported file types is now fixed and constant for everyone: AIFF, AU, IFF, MAT4, MAT5, MP1, MP2, MP3, PAF, PVF, SF, SND, SVX, VOC, W64, WAV (PCM, A/u-law, ADPCM, GSM). It is important to note that some of these formats come in various sub-formats and that not all of them are supported by Libsndfile and Lame_enc.
    • MCI is not used to play sounds anymore. Instead, Messenger Plus! sends PCM data directly to the default sound device installed in the system.
    • The "SoundMCIType" registry setting has been deprecated and is no longer loaded by Plus!.
  • A big Custom Sounds wizard has been added to the software to add new sounds and exporting existing ones.
    • The maximum length for a custom sound is 10 seconds. This may not seem like much but it should be more than enough to send something funny to your contact and not bore him/her with a minute of something he doesn't care. Also, this will prevent copyright problems related to music sharing.
    • Sounds can be saved in high or average quality. High quality is best suited for music and other similar sounds, however, it reduces the maximum length of the sound to 8 seconds.
    • Each sound has a name and a category assigned to it. Categories are fixed in the software and may be expanded in the future. As each sound is assigned a unique identifier internally, several sounds can have the same name without causing conflicts.
    • Sounds are by default available for random downloading by other users. This can be prevented by setting the private flag during the creation of the sound. In that case, the sound will still be sent to the server, however, people will be able to download it only if someone else sends it directly to them.
    • You can create sounds based on existing files. Many formats are supported (see below) and can be imported in the wizard. Cutting the sound to the appropriate length is done directly in the wizard, you're the one who chooses when the sound starts and when it stops.
    • When cutting a sound, the user interface precision limit is 1 second. If you want more precision (up to the millisecond), you can double click on the selection bar or selection marks.
    • Sounds can also be recorded live. The wizard offers basic but effective commands for live recording, including direct volume and input control. You can record for several minutes and cut the sound later in the wizard, allowing you to do some "free style" recording.
    • On every sound longer than 500 milliseconds, a fade-in and fade-out effect of 70 milliseconds is automatically applied to avoid annoying "clicking" noises.
    • Sound Packs can be created by exporting existing sounds. They can then be shared with your contacts but are more suitable for web sites and other similar types of sharing. The import wizard allows you to enter http and ftp links directly to import new sounds directly from the internet!
  • The integration of the Messenger Plus! enhanced icon in the chat window has been improved:
    • The toolbar of MSN Messenger 7 being much more "occupied", a new toolbar is now created for Messenger Plus! features. This toolbar occupies a small 25 pixels of width on the left side of the "type a message" edit box.
    • For now, the toolbar has two buttons: a Plus! button that displays the same menu as in previous versions, and a sound button that displays the new custom sound panel.
    • The menu displayed by the Plus! button is skinned to match the general MSN Messenger theme more closely.
    • Of course, if you don't like this toolbar, you can disable it in the preferences :).
  • A new custom sound panel is available in chat windows.
    • There are three ways to display this panel: by clicking on the sound icon in the new Messenger Plus! toolbar, by pressing Ctrl+Q and, if the Messenger Plus! sidebar is disabled, by using the "custom sound" entry of the Plus! main menu of the chat window.
    • Custom-sounds are classified by categories. Built-in sounds (the old sound commands) are still available, in a separate category.
    • Statistics of use are is played in the panel in two columns: "More Used" and "Last Used". The statistics can be reset at any time with the "Reset" link in the panel.
    • By default, clicking on a sound sends it. You can enable "preview mode" (top right icon) to hear the sound when clicked and send it when double-clicked.
    • For each category, random sounds can be downloaded from the server. That way, lots of sounds can be added instantly, without breaking a sweat!
    • You can get as many random sounds as you want. When you get a sound that you find inappropriate, you can report it to the moderators and help keep a clean database for everyone's enjoyment.
    • For keyboard lovers, these keys can be used in the sound panel to do various operations: left arrow, top arrow, right arrow, bottom arrow, Page Up, Page Down, Enter, A, P and Ctr+Enter (used in preview mode).
  • A /sound command has been added to send custom sounds. The parameter can be the identifier of the sound (prefixed with #) or the name (or part of the name) of a sound.
  • Every sound played by Messenger Plus! is now volume normalized. This means that every sound is supposed to be played at approximately the same volume. Messenger Plus! detects the peak volume of the sounds it needs to play and adjusts the volume of the whole sound to match its maximum peak volume. The default is 70% and can be changed with the "SoundPeakLevel" registry setting.
  • A new registry setting called "SoundDevice" allows changing the sound device used for playing and recording sounds.
  • Once again, improvements related to the the sponsor program: you can now click on a "+" button to display the agreement in a separate bigger window, in case you would want to take a closer look to it (neither C2Media or myself have anything to hide, I hope this addition will make that fact clear for everyone).
  • The uninstaller has been improved.
    • When the sponsor program is installed, you now have the choice to only uninstall it and keep Messenger Plus!. Many people requested that change, I hope it will please everyone.
    • When the sponsor program is not installed, a message is displayed to inform the user about it. Nowadays, many people who report adware being present on their computer are being told to uninstall Messenger Plus!, sometimes for no reason at all. This message should help prevent that.
    • A link to a help page on msgplus.net is displayed to get more information about Messenger Plus! or its sponsor if desired.
  • You can now use the Personalized Status window to set an automatic message and keep your "online" status. Note that you can't record predefined status with "online".
  • When new "contacts on desktop" are created from the popup menu, their position is set on the current cursor position and you can move them directly when you want them to be.
  • Environment variables can now be used in shared file paths and the /dropfile command.
  • Several system-related improvements have been made in this release. Users of older computers should definitively appreciate the change (and give Messenger Plus! another try if they previously uninstalled it because of its impact on their system).
    • A new DLL has been added to the software, called MsgPlusLoader.dll. This DLL is now the one that will be loaded by Windows for the global hooking operations. This modification should lower considerably the impact of Messenger Plus! on older systems as this light-weight DLL doesn't allocate more than a few bytes of memory in any situation. It may also reassure some of the people who wonder why Messenger Plus! gets loaded by Windows in several other processes (this DLL contains almost no code so there can't be any risk involved).
    • A memory leak has been fixed preventing Messenger Plus! to leak system handles in some occasions.
    • A memory leak has been fixed preventing Messenger Plus! to leak GDI objects in some occasions (MSN Messenger 6 and above).
  • I'm very happy about the following improvement, I've been trying to do something like this for almost 3 years now and I finally succeeded! The sad thing is that nobody will probably ever care about this UI improvement: richedit controls displayed by Messenger Plus! in Windows XP now use the current theme to display their border. I've released the code on some newsgroups with the hope that it will help some of the other people who have been having this problem since Windows XP was released.
  • The various richedit controls present in the Messenger Plus! windows do not accept formatted text anymore when copy/pasting (translation: bug fixed).
  • Logging-off in a Windows 98/Me network doesn't prevent Messenger Plus! to work properly at next log-on (this bug was introduced recently and is now fixed).
  • Support has been added in the Quick Icons panel for custom animated emoticons (thanks in part to the formidable CxImage library). The middle frame of the animation is the picture shown in the panel.
  • The Custom Names feature has been largely improved
    • The preferences panel "custom names" section and the Rename Contact dialog box have been completely redesigned to accommodate the new options.
    • The new "Attach the original name" option lets you easily attach the real name of your contact at the end of the custom name. In MSN Messenger 7, the real name is added with a special grey color for enhanced display quality. Also, when you use this option, the real name is not displayed during conversations for more clarity.
    • The new "CustNameAttachTagFmt" registry setting lets you modify how the "Attach the original name" feature formats the name (using the (!N) and (!M) tags).
    • Users of MSN Messenger 7 now have access to a new set of special formatting options. These options let you change how each name appears in the contact list and the instant messages windows. The text can be bold, italic, and have its own custom color.
    • A new option can be enabled in the preferences to display the special custom names formatting during a chat.
    • Additional formatting options can now be set anywhere in a custom name thanks to the usual multi-format shortcuts keys (Ctrl+K, Ctrl+B, ...).
    • The new "custom names" preferences panel allows quick editing of every custom name. Just press enter while in the "custom name" editbox and the next contact in the list will automatically be selected, allowing you to set its name immediately without touching to the mouse.
    • There is no need to set a special name to a contact to get the special formatting options applied! if you just want to set a special color or a bold/italic attribute to one of your contacts, just do so and the original name will automatically be used with the formatting you applied.
  • Floating windows have been improved to match the color and other formatting attributes set to a custom name. By default, if a color is set to a name from the Custom Names feature, the same color will be applied to the text of the floating window. In that case, the menu "Text Color\System Default" becomes "Text Color\Custom Name Default", allowing you to change it back to one of the floating windows presets if desired.
  • Floating windows now use the Tahoma font to match the contact list of Messenger (and it looks better too).
  • The position of floating windows is not reset automatically with resolution changes when the Lock In Place option is used.
  • The Bold and Italic buttons displayed in several windows of Messenger Plus! are now displayed with their own associated formatting ( = they look better).
  • Internet links and file paths are not touched by the World Filter feature anymore (except when using the * wildcard).
  • The POP3 E-Mail feature has been improved:
    • A new option now allows to activate SSL encryption to communicate with the mail server. This option is recommended if your mail server supports encrypted connections and is mandatory if your server requires it (like GMail does). This option is available for Windows 2000 and above only.
    • Messenger Plus! now tries to automatically associate a web page to known e-mails addresses (for example, if your e-mail is toto@gmail.com, clicking on a "new e-mail" notification will bring you to www.gmail.com).
    • A "Test Settings" button has been added in the preferences to verify if the information entered are correct. When the connection is successful, the success message also indicates the current number of e-mails.
    • The option to enable/disable the POP3 feature has been removed from the preferences panel to make room for the new stuff. It is now on by default. To disable it, you can use the new "EnableExternalMail" registry setting.
  • A /nudge command has been added for MSN Messenger 7.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented some features (like come-back messages and log encryption) to function properly when the "Open Messenger main window" option of Messenger was disabled and "Allow automatic sign in" was enabled.
  • A /logging command has been added to enable or disable logging of a specific chat. Use it with parameters "on" and "off". Note: this command is a "Tom's special" :).
  • Fixed a bug preventing sounds associated to custom notifications to be played.
  • A bug has been fixed in the download of auto-update files. If auto-updates didn't work for you before, they should now.
  • "Change Name" notifications always display the old user's name properly now.
  • Floating windows are always hidden properly when you sign-off (this fix also covers personalized-status being removed when you sign-off).
  • Come-back messages are not tried to be sent when your status is Appear Offline.
  • The emails of contacts saved in the registry for the Logging Archive and Floating Window features are now encrypted.
  • Changes to the Messenger Plus! API:
    • All the API is now compatible with MSN Messenger 7.
    • An internal tag has been added to allow plug-ins like Stuff-Plug to properly add text like timestamps.
  • Background colors in action messages and auto-messages are not displayed anymore.
  • Messenger Plus! now automatically scans and fixes XML logs generated by MSN Messenger 6 and 7. This improvement suppresses error messages when chat windows are closed saying that logs couldn't be opened.
  • The minimum and default parameter for the /clear command is now 2.
  • A "LogViewerProgram" registry key has been added to ask Messenger Plus! to use another program that the default text editor to open the chat logs.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Plus! notification windows to be displayed sometimes.
  • In Messenger 7, you can't use Ctrl+S to add a strike-out tag anymore. Please use Ctrl+R instead, then press S.
  • Messenger Plus! sounds are not played anymore when the current user is not logged-in. You can change this behavior with the new "PlaySoundsNotLoggedIn" registry setting.
  • No web page is now opened at the end of the setup (the new Configuration Wizard made it obsolete).
  • Bug fixed when trying to import a preferences file generated in Windows 98/Me, in a Windows 2000/XP station (true for the inverse too).
  • A lot of other bug fixes have been done since the last beta, everyone should be able to enjoy this new version in Messenger 7 without any major problem :).

3.25.106 Version - 20/10/2004

  • The sponsor agreement has been modified extensively.
    • I've taken into account all the complains and suggestions I got this year and I hope this new version will please everyone. Some people tend to forget that Messenger Plus! is a full featured Messenger Plus! plugin, not just a way for me to earn my life. I'm still using all the time I've got to improve this software and I hope the next reviews I'll read about Messenger Plus! will focus more about its features than its sponsor.
    • The sponsor's trial-period delay that was introduced recently got removed to avoid misunderstandings.
    • The second screen of the setup now displays a text explaining what the sponsor is and how to uninstall it. A small delay prevents the Next button from being pressed repetitively to give a extra chance to the user to read the explanation message.
    • The agreement window has been completely redesigned: the name of the sponsor, C2Media, is now written in bold, the license agreement is not "hidden" by the explanation message anymore, the "I refuse" option is clearer and, more than everything, a big screenshot of the sponsor's toolbar is displayed on top of the agreement. I honestly don't see how anyone could miss the point of this window now :).
  • Security being a major concern nowadays, I invested in a digital signature. From now on, every public release of Messenger Plus! will be signed by Verisign as coming from Patchou.
  • Several bugs have been fixed but I had such a busy week that I didn't take the time to write them down in this file, sorry :p.
  • This version is the last one before the Messenger 7 compatible version. This means that this version is NOT compatible with MSN Messenger 7 yet. I want the next version to be worthwhile so it's taking me some time to develop it.

3.21.104 Version - 10/10/2004

  • The Floating Contacts feature seems to be pretty popular so it got improved
    • You can now drag&drop all sorts of things on the floating windows. Text and internet links are sent in messages, files (only one at a time) trigger a file transfer with your contact. Drag&drop even works when your contacts are offline! You can also press the Ctrl key during the operation so that the message/file doesn't get sent automatically.
    • The windows disappear properly every time you sign-out.
    • The windows are not listed in the Windows Task Manager anymore.
    • The Always On Top setting is never deactivated automatically for strange reasons.
    • No more display problems with tooltips, small improvements in docking.
    • There is now a new Display Setting option that lets you lock the size and position of the window (so that you don't move it be accident).
    • Many options can now be configured for each individual window using registry settings (or Plus! Tweak), including background and text color, transparency level, display by email and hide when offline.
    • Position and settings of each window are properly saved when the computer is restarted.
    • This feature does not reset anymore when you reinstall Messenger Plus!.
    • If a floating window is not visible on screen when it is first displayed, its position is reset.
  • A new preferences panel has been added in the Contact List section and concerns the Floating Contacts feature:
    • Quickly enable or disable floating windows for each of your contacts.
    • Set an option to see your contact's emails instead of your contact's names.
    • Set an option to automatically hide the floating window when your contacts are offline or when they are not online.
  • Many lists displayed in many windows of Messenger Plus! now support tooltips. If an item text is too long to be displayed, a tooltip will be shown with the full text of the item (contact name, event, ...). It's a small modification but I'm sure that all of you will appreciate this UI improvement.
  • Group names are parsed more intelligently in commands such as /blockgrp.
  • The contact helper window closes automatically even when an unknown email is typed (when recognized).
  • Messenger Plus! now detects when you sign-out due to an internet connection problem.
  • Sign-in/sign-out Sounds you assign to groups are not lost anymore when you reinstall Messenger Plus!.
  • The Plus! menu is now accessible from Messenger 7 (beta). For now, it just displays the compatibility info window, no Plus! feature will work with Messenger 7 in this version. You can expect a fully compatible version to be released sometime in November (along with some surprises :).
  • New versions of the sponsor agreement window are being tested with this version. The final changes will be released in version 3.25, in about a week from now.
  • The Greek translation is back.

3.20.100 Version - 19/09/2004

  • New feature added: Floating Contacts
    • The Plus! icon menu (the one appearing on the left side of your contact's names in the contact list) now offers a "Display on desktop" option. This option lets you create floating windows on your desktop for quick access to some of your contacts. It allows you to keep a look at your most favorite contacts without having to leave your contact list opened.
    • Right clicking on a floating window displays a menu with many options. Left clicking lets you move the window around and it automatically docks itself with other floating windows (press Ctrl key to disable docking).
    • As many floating windows as you want can be created, one by contact only. Each one has its own display properties accessible in the "Display Settings" popup menu. The border color, the text color and the background color can be changed to quickly identify your contacts.
    • Transparency can be set (and is set by default) for each floating window. A mouse over effect makes the whole thing looks nicer.
    • The tooltip for these windows display the real contact's name, his current status and additional notes as written in the Contact Information panel.
    • The "CtcDetachStatusOnly" registry setting allows you to always display the real status of your contacts, and not special status things like "blocked".
    • If this feature becomes popular, it will be improved. I have a lot of ideas for it :).
  • The encryption password problem has finally been fixed! your password will never changed by itself again if you use the "remember my password" option. If you're upgrading, Messenger Plus! will ask you again for your password to make sure the correct one is stored.
  • Messenger Plus! is now entirely compatible with Windows Messenger 4.7.3000 (released with Windows XP SP2). Note that some features are still not available for Windows Messenger and will never be (at least, as long as Windows Messenger stays a second class Messenger client for home users).
  • The Event Viewer window now displays a tooltip with all the information pertinent to the selected event, including the date.
  • The bug in the "Hide Advertisement Banner" feature introduced by MSN Messenger 6 has finally been solved, no more ads will show on top of your contact list.
  • You can now chose to auto-accept only file transfers and not web cams or other kind of requests. The inverse is also possible (only available in MSN Messenger 6.0 and above).
  • The command list and contact list helpers have been greatly improved.
    • The helpers now stay displayed while you type the beginning of a command/contact name and automatically select the best match.
    • Pressing the Ctrl key while in the contact list helper toggles the new view-by-email mode.
  • The size of the Messenger Plus! notification windows shouldn't be altered by the display of MSN Alerts notifications anymore.
  • The setup works fine when it is renamed msgplus.exe.
  • The enhanced Plus! icon in the contact list window is displayed a little more faster so that more people can notice it.
  • The "Rename Contact" popup window has been redesigned.
  • Word filters of a length of 1 character are now accepted.
  • Some MSN Messenger related Plus! options were changed when they were edited in Windows Messenger: not anymore.
  • Commands in contact's names/emails can't be executed by the (!N) and (!M) tags anymore.
  • The (!IP) tag now does what it should always have done: it returns the one, real, internet IP of your computer. This is achieved by getting a special page on the msgplus.net network that returns the IP of the requester. The old behavior or (!IP) is now available through a new (!IPN) tag (IP Network) and can still be useful in corporate and lan-party environments.
  • The menu of the Plus! icon displayed in the chat windows toolbar now appears more quickly on older computers.
  • The Plugin API has been improved in many ways:
    • The new and awaited SetNewName() function lets you change the name of the currently signed-in user.
    • I took the time to create a brand new sample in Visual C++ 7 and Visual Basic .NET. This plugin is an event viewer similar to the one that uses Messenger Plus! (actually, it contains some code directly taken from Plus!). It demonstrates many new techniques, especially the use of the Messenger API and events.
    • The plugin package has been totally reorganized for better clarity. The MSN/Windows Messenger API has been included and is used by the new Visual C++ 7 sample.
  • The Auto-Accept feature now works properly in Windows 98 and Windows ME.
  • The menus of your instant message windows are properly updated when plugins are added or removed dynamically.
  • A new option has been added in the preferences panel to allow sending periodic statistics to the msgplus.net server. These statistics are just a couple of numerical data such as "Quick Text was used" or "Plus! icon was clicked". Obviously, nothing personal (such as chat logs or contact emails) is sent. The data collected will help me concentrate on the features that are used the most in the future updates. The option is on by default and can be turned off permanently in the "General Options\Local Settings" section of the preferences. Last note about this: no statistic is send during the first week of use, that way, you have plenty of time to discover the option and turn it of if you desire.
  • Added "MenuInclude" registry setting for quick text. Use it if you don't want some of your quick texts to be included in the enhanced Plus! Icon menu of your instant message windows.
  • Custom Emoticons that use one character for their shortcut can now be mixed with Messenger Plus! features (commands, word filters, ...).
  • Added "ShowNotMinimised" registry setting. Use it if you want new chat windows not to be displayed minimized when they are created.
  • The "MultiFormatColorPanel" and "HandleNotificationRClick" registry settings have been declared obsolete and are not supported anymore.
  • No more problem when using Custom Names and talking to a contact who uses Web Messenger.
  • The parameters of some commands are now trimmed automatically (spaces at the beginning are removed).
  • The Afrikaans, Indonesian, Bosnian, Galego, and Valencian translations have been removed from the main distribution package. They will be available on the web site as separate downloads.
  • A couple of other minor fixes.

3.01.94 Version - 02/06/2004

  • The count of unread POP3 emails is correctly indicated at the top of your contact list, every time.
  • Adding a Word Filter that filters another filter doesn't freeze Messenger anymore.
  • The maximum quote-sender keep delay has been increased to 12 hours.
  • Every Messenger setting (including the size of the contact window) is always properly saved when Messenger is exited.
  • Problems with incorrect count of custom emoticons in the Quick Icons panel have been fixed.
  • Files copied by the setup get the property security attributes (fixes using Messenger Plus! on a restricted account after installing on an admin account).
  • Different menus and popup windows displayed in chat windows are now positioned more intelligently.
  • The language selected during setup is used by default when Plus! is started for the first time in other user sessions.
  • Messenger Plus! stops properly every time when users log-out of Windows. This fixes several problems such as the Plus! menu disappearing at the next log-on.
  • You are now allowed to select not to change your current status for the Messenger Lock and Boss Protection features.
  • Improvement in the Open Log menus: when using the default logging archive mode, the log of the previous month is automatically opened when no log for the current month is detected.
  • /snoexcuse has been officially replaced by /sdanger (to avoid confusion).
  • The Greek translation has been removed, a Turkish translation has been added.
  • Some internal parts of the setup have been protected to avoid tempering the files of Messenger Plus!.
  • Several other minor bug fixes and improvements (a big bunch of them).

3.00.92 Version - 23/05/2004

  • Most of the windows in Messenger Plus! have been redesigned and their look has been improved.
  • The most important part of the software, the preferences panel, has been entirely recreated.
    • The new preferences panel is way more attractive visually, and its graphics are using alpha-bending effects so that the graphics look good in any Windows theme.
    • Only main sections are now displayed in the list on the left, sub-sections are available using a new menu at the top of each section. Every section has been reworked, options have been removed, options have been added, options have been moved from one section to another, etc... it's just way better that way, clearer, more professional.
    • All the preferences of Messenger Plus! can now be locked with an administrator password (Privacy Protection section). You can use this feature to do some parental control.
    • A link has been added in the Miscellaneous section to go on the Registry Setting page of msgplus.net.
    • A whole page could be written about the new preferences alone. For some more details, see below, and more importantly, explore by yourself!
  • Come-back Messages now have an expire option. You can set the date and time you want the message to expire. If your contact signs-in after the specified date, the message is not sent and silently deleted. In addition, a new /backmsg command can be used in a chat after a contact signed out.
  • New feature added: word filtering.
    • This feature can be used two ways. You can filter text you send, and you can filter text you receive.
    • Filtering text you send can be used for creating all sorts of aliases and replace abbreviations by their full meaning.
    • Filtering text you receive can be used to filter swearing or other kind of words you don't like to see.
    • You can add a star at the beginning or at the end of a filter. For example, "uni*" will filter "uni", "university", ...
    • Word filters can be created in the Instant Message section of the preferences panel.
    • A separate option has been added in the Import/Export wizard for word filters. This allows you to share your filters with other people.
    • An option is available if you desire to apply the filters in the names of your contacts (will not filter the names in the contact list, only in chats. Also, filters are not applied to custom names).
    • You can use the new "WordFilterCaseSensitive" registry setting if you want your filters to be case sensitive.
  • The Quick Icons panel has been improved a lot.
    • If you keep the Ctrl key pressed when you select an emoticon, the panel stays opened and the border is displayed with dots. This allows you to quickly select several emoticons at the same time.
    • Messenger Plus! now automatically finds the correct tag associated for each custom emoticon. You can still specify several tags to display more than one icon at the same time.
    • Up to 5 panels can now be displayed. Each panel is configured separately with its own options and custom emoticons.
    • The second panel is configured by default to automatically display all your custom emoticons without you having to enter them manually in the config panel.
    • If more than one panel is configured, numbered buttons are displayed in the lower left corner of the Quick Icons panel. Click on each button to go from one panel to the other.
    • F1 to F5 keys can be used to quickly switch panels.
    • Fixed bug where the "Customized" link would be displayed on top of some emoticons.
    • The emoticon panel now only works with MSN Messenger 6 and above.
  • The Custom Emoticons configuration window had been done too hastily in the previous version. It has been redesigned.
    • The interface has been recreated to be more visually appealing.
    • More emoticons are displayed at the same time in the selection screen to make things easier when you are searching for an emoticon.
    • A new control has been added to allow the configuration of each of the 5 panels. All the other options of the configuration window are linked to the panel number currently selected (this includes the option to display the original emoticons of Messenger in each panel).
  • The personalised status window has been completely redesigned to offer clearer options. The window is now also displayed even when the auto-message edit box cannot be created.
  • Once again, you've been requesting this feature for years (literally), it was time for me to add it: you can now select what contacts will receive your Personalised Status message.
    • In the Personalised Status window, a new line has been added under the time box. It specifies if the message will be seen by all your contacts or only a few of them.
    • Clicking on the Change button in the Personalised Status window brings a new configuration panel allowing you to easily specify what contacts you want on your "allow list".
    • The "allowed list" is cleared every time you go out of Personalised Status mode. The reason is quite simple: this feature is designed to help you target specific contacts, for specific reasons, at a given moment. If you want some people to never receive any of your messages, you probably should block them or remove them from your list :).
  • Auto-messages (example: the answering machine of Personalised Statuses) now accept commands.
  • If you experience regular problems with your internet connection, you will certainly like this new improvement: if Messenger signs-out by itself and signs back in within a minute, your Personalised Status is entirely restored and your status tag is not removed from your name.
  • New user interface feature: enhanced Plus! menus (MSN Messenger 6 and above only).
    • Two of these menus are available. One in the contact list, one in chat windows. Both of them can be disabled in the preferences.
    • In the contact list, the menu icon is displayed when the mouse cursor is left over a contact name.
    • In chat windows, the menu icon is displayed in the toolbar, when no other icon are present at its location.
    • These menus are designed to bring some of the Plus! features, nicely, to any user. Text in those menu is very descriptive, many of you will probably notice older features they never saw (or use) before :).
    • You can change the show delay of the icon in the contact list with the "IconShowDelay" registry setting (note: there will always be a bigger delay for the first time the icon is displayed).
  • The Contact Manager has been renamed Contact List Clean-up and its design has been improved.
    • Times are way more accurate, no more "unknown" time for half of your list :).
    • Double-clicking on a contact displays the contact information window.
  • New feature: Quote Sender
    • The Quote Sender is available in instant message windows. It allows you to quote something one of your contacts said in the past 6 hours.
    • The Quote sender lets you find a quote quickly by selecting the contact name and a time filter. A search function is also available.
    • Pressing "Send Quote" automatically sends the message in your current chat, with default formatting including color and timestamp.
    • This feature can be customized with the "QuoteFormat" registry value.
    • The /quote command can be used to display the Quote Sender window.
  • A new feature has been added to help people use commands during a chat: Command Helper windows:
    • When you start a message with "/", a small panel appears allowing you to select almost any command available in Messenger Plus!. This works in chat windows as well as in other Messenger Plus! windows requiring text to be entered (like the Quick Text preferences panel).
    • The command list includes Messenger Plus! native commands, quick text aliases and even commands supported by installed plugins. Each of the three groups is identified by a special icon.
    • When browsing the command list, a tooltip is automatically displayed giving more information about the command.
    • Pressing Ctrl+X, where X is any letter, allows quick search of the desired command.
    • After a command has been entered (from the command list or manually using the keyboard), additional help is provided, if the command requires a parameter, when the space key is pressed. If the parameter is a contact email, a list of your contacts is displayed in a new window to let you chose one of your contacts easily. If the parameter is anything else, a tooltip is displayed giving information about the expected parameter.
    • As for the Quick Icon panel, this new feature is designed to be non-intrusive. If you don't care about it, you can continue to type and it will disappear automatically. If you find it annoying, it can be disabled in the Commands preferences panel.
  • The uninstaller has been redesigned.
    • The interface looks better and is more user friendly.
    • There is now an option to uninstall every installed plugin. This is to help people fix problems related to defective plugins. VB plugins are not deleted but the entries in the registry are removed, which produces the same result.
  • Added an improvement to help Messenger Plus! do its job when other applications which are using similar hooking techniques are installed on the computer.
  • Quick Texts have been improved.
    • The Quick Icons preferences panel has been redesigned to be more clear and gives more information.
    • Creating an alias for a Quick Text automatically creates a special tag to use in a chat or any other area of Messenger Plus! (like personalised status messages). Quick Text tags replace native Messenger Plus! tags if the same name is used.
    • New global option to disable Alt+X shortcuts. People who use ASCII character codes will appreciate :).
    • Fixed the crash that could occur when very long quick texts were used.
    • Due to the increasing use of the Quick Text feature, the maximum has been increased to 50, that's 20 more than in the previous version.
    • Quick Icon panel works correctly in the Quick Icon preferences panel in Windows 95/98/Me (this fix also applies for other preferences window using edit boxes).
  • Small improvements in the Messenger Plus! notification windows.
    • The toast looks better when displayed in Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
    • Added "PlusToastFlash" registry setting. It allows you to deactivate the systray icon flashing.
    • Added "PlusToastAnimate" registry setting. Use it to disable the animation when the toast is displayed or hidden.
  • Added an "auto-fix" watch dog in Messenger Plus!. In some rare occasions, the chat can get messed-up. Many improvements have been done to avoid this problem as much as possible and the current version is almost perfect in that matter, however, some specific things can still trigger the bug and Messenger Plus! can't do anything about it (like using multi-format color tags and using numeric codes for custom emoticons at the same time, next to the Ctrl+K control character). When this problem occurs, it messes-up the whole chat and the only way to get rid was to close the window and reopen it, well, that was until now. Messenger Plus! now analyzes what's going on and, if it detects that the chat is being messed-up, it attempts to fix it. The fix is generally efficient after 2 new messages have been exchanged between you and your contact. Those of you who already experienced this kind of problems in the past will surely appreciate this "feature" :).
  • New sound commands have been added!
    • The /snoexcuse sound has been replaced by something more known
    • The new sound commands are /sapplause, /swoow and /syawn (the last one is from my favourite anime character)
  • The POP3 e-mail feature has been improved
    • The count of emails displayed when using POP3 mail accounts includes the count of Hotmail emails (can be disabled with the "POPAddHotmail" registry setting).
    • The POP3 Mail section of the preferences now offers a "port" option and a fifth e-mail account to configure.
    • If you're using Windows XP or above, Messenger Plus! updates the welcome screen of Windows with the count of unread emails in your accounts. For this feature to work, you have to specify the email address associated with the account in the preferences. The "UpdateWindowsEmailCount" registry setting can be used to disable that feature.
    • Added "AlwaysNotifyPopEmail" registry value. If you set it to 1, notifications for POP3 email will always be displayed, even if the count of unread emails didn't change since last notification. If you use this setting, it is suggested that you increase the checking delay to at least 10 minutes to avoid being flooded with notifications.
  • You can now quickly format your messages by selecting some text and pressing one of the multi-format shortcuts (like Ctrl+B). Doing so will enclose the text between two tags.
  • The "change security warning" feature is totally obsolete and has been removed from the preferences. The feature is now off by default but you can still enable it in the registry (can be useful if you're still using an older version of Messenger).
  • The Task scheduler has been improved.
    • A text is displayed in grey at the bottom of the toasts to notify the user that he has to click if he doesn't want to be notified again.
    • The last notification displayed for a scheduled task stays displayed as long as the user doesn't close it explicitly.
  • The Boss Protect feature has been improved
    • The default icon has been changed. It is now a network icon from Shell32. Thanks to this change, the icon is assured to completely blend in your Windows.
    • DLL resource files are now accepted in the preferences. This mean that you can quickly change the icon used in Boss Protect just be randomly changing the number that you'll see next to "Shell32.dll". Of course, you can select any other DLL to get your resource from.
    • The First Time window has been redesigned.
    • If Messenger has not been signed-in at least once, instead of doing nothing, pressing the shortcut combination minimizes all the Messenger windows (that way, no bad surprise).
  • Messenger Plus! now requires Windows 98 or higher (it won't work on Windows 95 or Windows NT 4).
  • The Color panel (the window that is displayed when you press Ctrl+K) has been improved
    • The panel has been redesigned (not by GFD but by Fraisie herself :). It replaces the ugly panel from the old version and tooltips are used to display color numbers.
    • The original 16 colors came from mIRC. 52 new colors have been added to the panel to make a total of 68 pre-defined colors. This is very useful to quickly pick a nice color during a chat. Of course, the custom color picker is still available (your contacts need Messenger Plus! 3 to see the new pre-defined colors).
  • Added "DockingKeepsWidth" registry setting. You can use it if you won't want the width of the contact list window to be modified when you dock it.
  • A special sound can now be associated per contact in the Notification Configuration panel.
  • A multi-format helper panel has been added
    • The panel can be displayed from the Plus! toolbar menu in instant message windows and by pressing Ctrl+R.
    • The panel lets you choose between bold, italic, underlined and struck-out format. The corresponding control character is automatically added in your message.
    • The panel informs you of the current formatting of the text based on every other control codes placed in your message. This is very useful when you use formatting characters a lot and want to be sure of the final result.
  • An option has been added to automatically accept any kind of requests asking your authorisation.
    • This feature will accept for you file transfers, webcam chats, games, and any other requests asking to click on "Accept".
    • The preferences panel allows you to select specific contacts by default, for security reasons.
    • The option can be individually turned on/off in each chat.
  • A Find Text feature has been added to the chat windows (only in MSN Messenger 6 and above). It's not a big feature but it's useful and it will stay there as long as Microsoft doesn't include one in Messenger :).
    • The search window can be displayed from the Plus! menu or by pressing Ctrl+F.
    • You can restrict the search to match the case and to search for whole word only. By default, the search is down from bottom to top, of course, an option is there to search from top to bottom if you want.
    • If the text found is displayed behind the search window, the window is moved a little :).
  • New (!PVER) special tag. Use it to display the list of plugins that are installed and enabled.
  • Custom names and other Plus! text-formatting features now work better when your contacts send you files or hand written messages.
  • The Event Log window has been improved.
    • Right click on a contact event allows you to start a chat with the contact.
    • You wanted it, you have it: you can now sort events by clicking on the column headers. Clicking several times on the Name column even allows you to sort by contact email.
    • Different small visual improvements.
  • Brand new setup!
    • The interface has been redesigned to be more informative (still as simple as before though). As the Automatic/Custom installation modes confused some people, they have been removed.
    • When Messenger Plus! is installed for the first time, the installer detects the language currently in use by Windows and select the appropriate language for Messenger Plus!, if possible.
    • In Windows XP, the setup is now capable of shutting down Messengers that run in other user sessions. This helps solving file-lock problems.
    • The setup is now entirely multi-lingual and is capable of displaying languages such as Chinese or Hebrew.
    • A "Loading Setup" banner is displayed while the setup is extracting the languages. A progress bar is also displayed while Messenger Plus! is being installed.
    • The DbgHelp.dll library is not distributed with Messenger Plus! anymore. This change removed 325KB from the setup package.
    • The setup is more "polygamy-patch friendly". If you're using several Messenger clients at the same time and you're upgrading your version of Messenger Plus!, each Messenger client is closed properly before the setup proceeds with the installation of the files (this means that, for example, all your logs will be saved before the update begins).
    • Bug fixed: in some rare occasions, some complex languages (like Chinese) were not displayed in the language list under Windows 95/98/Me even though they were supported by the operating system.
    • When using the silent switches (/SilentInstall and /SilentInstallNoSponsor), the confirmation web page is not displayed anymore.
  • A new switch has been added to msgplus.exe. If you want to remove Messenger Plus! from your system startup and want to run Messenger Plus! automatically before you start Messenger, just launch "msgplus.exe /AutoStart". Important: this procedure is not supported and is brought to you only for your convenience.
  • New feature for people who use shared-computers (school or work primarily) and don't have administrator access on the computer. Messenger Plus! can now be installed in almost any Windows account!
    • The setup automatically detects if you have administrator privileges. If you don't, a warning message is displayed and parameters are automatically adjusted, you don't need to do anything but press Next :).
    • In non-admin mode, a Messenger Plus! shortcut is installed in your Start menu to let you launch Messenger with the Messenger Plus! features. Another icon is there to uninstall the program. Messenger Plus! won't start automatically when the computer starts.
    • You can force this installation mode with the /NotAdmin setup switch.
    • Non-admin mode is not guaranteed to work but will help most of you use your favourite Messenger add-on in most public/restricted computers you use :).
  • New /assist command to trigger Request Remote Assistance (when available in the version of Messenger you're using).
  • A bunch of default Quick Texts are now created (only when Messenger Plus! is installed for the first time). This gives examples to first-time users and nice default commands such as the famous IRC /slap :).
  • The plugins API has been improved.
    • A Configure function is now available. It is accessible from the Plugins menu and from the Preferences window.
    • The DisplayToast function now works well in Windows 98/Me with VB plugins.
    • The documentation of the plugins API has been completely rewritten.
    • Your plugin must define Initialize() to be accepted by Messenger Plus! now.
    • Several security protections have been added. You may need to update some of your old plugins for them to work properly in Messenger Plus! 3.
  • A new panel has been added in the preferences for plugins.
    • All your plugins are listed in this panel. Each one can be enabled/disabled individually and the settings can be different for each of your Messenger accounts.
    • Plugins installed but not enabled are identified differently.
    • Each plugin can display its own config panel with the new Configure button (not all plugins support this function).
    • If a plugin crashes at some point, Messenger Plus! automatically disables it.
  • Hand Writing mode is detected and Messenger Plus! reacts accordingly (by disabling some menus for example).
  • Some information has been added to the auto-update url for the current language, the version of Windows and the version of Messenger Plus!. This will allow smaller updates to be downloaded in the future. For those of you who monitor their network communications, if you wonder about the "ra=" parameter, it is simply a random number put there to force servers to go check on msgplus.net and not get the file from their cache.
  • An announcement system has been added. It will be used occasionally to notify you of important news (very occasionally, I don't plan to use it for anything right now). Announcements will be displayed only once, in a toast window, and can be disabled by disabling auto-update.
  • The correct font is always used for non-MBCS languages in MBCS versions of Windows 98/Me. This means that English will be displayed properly in a Chinese Windows 98 for example.
  • Minimum Compatibility mode has been enhanced. You will appreciate that next time MSN Messenger is upgraded to a new version.
  • No more problems when chatting with someone who has an empty name.
  • No more mess when using a Messenger version with a language like Polish where the name of users in a chat are displayed between two other words.
  • All issues regarding emoticons in MSN Messenger 6.2 used with Messenger Plus! features are solved.
  • Better support of RTL versions of Messenger. For example, every floating panel is now displayed at the left side of the cursor while you chat.

  • Many many many other improvements and bug fixes are not listed in this document, I don't want to write a book. Beta tests have generated 5 more pages of updates but I won't include them here. Let's just say that Messenger Plus! 3 is way better and way cooler :).

 

2.54.75 Version - 22/04/2004

  • Compatibility fix for Windows Messenger.

  • Compatibility with MSN Messenger 6.2 has been added.

  • Known bug: because of a new feature in MSN Messenger 6.2, emoticons won't be sent properly when used in conjunction with commands or special tags. This will be fixed in the forthcoming Messenger Plus! version 3.00.

2.54.74 Version - 19/12/2003

  • Important internal change regarding the way Messenger is accessed by Messenger Plus!. The goal of this change is to minimize problems caused by Windows Messenger in Windows XP.

  • New feature: come-back messages! you've been asking for this since the existence of Messenger Plus!, you know have it thanks to the popup-menu integration added in the version 2.50 two months ago. This feature lets you record a message for an offline contact that will be sent the next times the contact signs-in.

    • The "Set Come-back Message" menu entry is grayed-out when the contact is not offline.

    • Messages are sent like Personalised Status auto messages with the only difference that they are not displayed in italic.

    • To avoid flooding your contacts, come-back messages are sent only 7 to 15 seconds after the contact signs-in.

    • You can use commands as come-back message. This can be used, for example, to automatically send a file to someone you were waiting for (with the /dropfile command).

    • Do not abuse this feature or it will get very annoying for your contacts. If you over-use come-back messages, you'll probably end-up being blocked :). Also, do not ask for the feature to be improved by allowing to set a come-back message when the user is signed in but his status is not Online; that is completely unnecessary and could be quite annoying for your contacts.

  • You can now use the (!M) and (!N) tags in your custom names to automatically add the email or the original name of your contact. You can use each tag only once per name. Example: "Charlot [(!N)]".

  • Added security features to allow proper uninstallation of the sponsor if the setup has been deleted. Some software such Adaware detect the sponsor setup file and delete it. You can think it's a good thing until you realize that the sponsor is still installed and that it can't be uninstalled anymore as a result. Software like Adaware make people think that all sponsor programs are designed to be uninstallable while they are the one who prevent proper uninstallation by screwing up the setup files. No software can be uninstalled when some of its core files are missing. Because I care more about my users than these companies do, I improved the uninstaller to automatically recover the sponsor setup file if it's missing thus, improving your chances of recovery if you ran an automatic advertisement removal program.

  • Uninstaller improved to do more cleaning after the computer is restarted (inoffensive temporary files were sometimes left by the sponsor uninstaller).

  • No more notification popups when the screensaver is running (that way, it doesn't look ugly and also, you don't miss schedules because your computer is idle).

  • Added "ValidateQuickIconKey" registry setting to display the quick icon panel when a parenthesis is pressed, even if the character before is :, - or '. Can be useful if you use the : character in your custom emoticons.

  • Added "UseTagForCustomName" registry setting to disable the display of Personalised Status tags in the contact list when Custom Names are enabled.

  • Added "ImprovePopupMenus" registry setting to prevent entries to be added in Messenger popup menus. That's for those of you who really like pointless customization ;).

  • No more crash when using the Boss Protection or Instant Lock mode while a Plus! notification popup is displayed.

  • New languages added: Afrikaans, Portuguêse (Brazil).

  • The Quick Icon configuration panel for custom emoticons now allows to reorganize the order of the entries in the list (which corresponds to the position of the icons in the Quick Icon panel).

2.52.72 Version - 23/11/2003

  • The position of the contact list window is properly recorded and restored when you restart Messenger, even when your taskbar is on the top or left side of the screen.

  • New behavior when  you enable Plus! Notifications for contacts sign-ins.

    • The notifications configuration window now has a 4th option to explicitly select contact sign-ins (only available when you enable sign-in notifications in the preferences).

    • "Status change to: Online" notification will display notifications only when the contact was already online and changed his/her status back to Online.

  • The Quick Icons panel has been improved again.

    • Messenger Emoticons are displayed from Messenger resources. This means two things: they look much better in the Quick Icon panel and, if you are using a skin that replaces defaults emoticons, you'll see those in the panel.

    • A QuickIconBgColor registry value has been added to change the background color of the panel. This can be nice if you want the panel to have the same look and email as your Messenger background.

    • Personalised Status tags are displayed properly in your contact list for blocked contacts.

  • Auto-update deactivation works better now.

  • Carriage returns are removed from contact names in the event log file.

  • "You must sign-in before you can use this feature" bug fixed for new Messenger versions.

2.52.71 Version - 15/11/2003

  • New feature related to the Toast Notifications. You can ask Messenger Plus! to display notifications when your contacts sign in. Just deactivate the native online notification option of Messenger and use Messenger Plus! to get notified only when the contacts you really care about come online.

  • In the past months, many of you have complained about the sponsor program distributed with Messenger Plus!. A lot of you apparently didn't notice the checkbox in the setup program. Many arguments have been exchanged on the forum and despite everything bad that has been said about me, I've decided to make my users happier by modifying the setup.

    • From now on, nothing is checked by default and you must select between "I accept" and "I refuse" before you can click on "Install".

    • The "accept" word is in capital letters and clearly specifies that it will install the sponsor program in addition of Messenger Plus! (I always thought that the text displayed in previous versions was clear enough but again, I'm just doing everything my critics have been asking for).

    • To avoid confusing people who don't take the time to read anything that's written in the screen, "Sponsor Agreement" is displayed in bold on top of the agreement. There's no way anyone can miss this :).

    • I hope that these modifications will prove to some of you that I'm not the kind of person you think I am. Most of the things I've read about the sponsor program itself are written by people who didn't install it and who just assume a lot of things based on the company who's sponsoring me. I never forced anybody to install the sponsor so there's no need to spread lies about my software, and I hope that this new setup will convince you that my intentions are not earn my life in the expense of my users (I don't get paid more when I spend weeks adding new features).

  • The popup sound is played correctly for custom notifications when a contact changes his/her status to online.

  • Toast popups are displayed correctly at the top of the screen every time (when appropriate), even when the taskbar is hidden.

  • A lot of users have been requesting this feature since MSN Messenger 6 was released... custom emoticons can now be displayed in the Quick Icons panel.

    • Unlike in the selection panel displayed by Messenger, the Quick Icon panel has no limit on the number of emoticons that can be displayed in it.

    • All your custom emoticons are not automatically displayed in the Quick Icons panel. As a lot of people have tons of custom emoticons, I thought it was better to let you chose what emoticons to display (there's although a big technical reason for it so there's no need to ask for this improvement in the forum).

    • The Quick Icons panel displays a Customize link that opens the configuration window. You can also configure your emoticons from the Quick Icons section in the preferences.

    • For each icon you add in the panel, you have to select a picture and the associated text tag. In most occasions, you'll just want to put the same tag you associated to the icon in Messenger. However, you can enter more than one tag if you want to display simultaneously several emoticons stuck together (this seems to be pretty popular to display large images built from several small emoticons).

    • If you have a lot of custom emoticons to display and if you don't really care for the original Messenger ones, you can ask to only display custom emoticons in the Quick Icons panel.

  • The old name of your contacts should be displayed properly every time in name change notifications.

  • The parameter of the /persostat command is 1 based, not 0 based.

  • Using Boss Protect or Lock Station while status is personalized doesn't change the status (when going in or out).

  • Messenger Plus! has now complete support for multiple monitor systems (finally!). This means that everything will now work fine if you have a monitor with negative screen coordinates. As a result, the SpecialMultipleMonitorSupport registry key has been deprecated.

  • Because Microsoft recently changed their rules concerning friendly names, a new multi-format coding system had to be created

    • You must use /nick to change your name if you want multi-format tags in it. Normal IRC codes are replaces by special ones by this command.

    • People who don't have Messenger Plus! 2.52 installed won't see the colors in your name.

    • People who want to hide "says:" with some special color tricks can use the new /nick2 command. Note that I do not officially support this command, I just added it to avoid you the trouble to find some hack to go around the protections in /nick :).

  • Text mess-up bug fixed when using names with multi-format tags in combination of the Name Truncate and Custom Name features (you'll admit that it's not a common situation :p).

  • Added a /noformat command. This lets you send messages without multi-format tags being parsed (or emoticons). This is useful if you want to send your special formatting attributes to a contact. This command works only if your contact has Messenger Plus! 2.52 installed.

  • Some other minor bug fixes and improvements.

2.51.68 Version - 01/11/2003

  • The Import Preferences feature has been fixed to properly import your preferences every time.

  • The Word Duel easter egg internal protections have been improved.

  • Several translations have been updated.

    • Korean, Turkish and Galizian have been added!

  • The Last Time Seen Online property for your contacts works better.

  • A number between "1" and "20" can now be specified as parameter to the /persostat command to quickly use a pre-recorded Personalised Status.

  • Bug fixed in the docking feature when using several monitors.

  • Notification windows have been improved.

    • Popups now display on top of the screen when your taskbar is at the top too.

    • Popups always have the correct size and position, this is not depending on your version of MSN Messenger or Windows Messenger.

    • When a notification popup is displayed, a Messenger Plus! icon flashes in your systray to be sure that you notice the popup.

  • The scheduler has been improved.

    • When not explicitly dismisssed (either by right clicking in the notification or clicking on the close button), notifications are displayed every 3 minutes, up to 3 times (can be modified with the new "SchedulerMaxRecall" registry key). You have no more excuses for missing your scheduled events now!

    • Added a "SchedulerToastDelay" registry key to change the number of seconds scheduler notifications are kept displayed on the screen. The maximum allowed value is 60 seconds and it is not recommended to use a value above 30 seconds (this will block other notifications displayed by Messenger).

  • When the "CommandErrorMessage" registry setting is set to "0", bad commands are sent as text, as previous versions of Messenger Plus! did.

  • Full international support for dates and times displayed everywhere in the software.

    • The TimeFormatAmPm registry key is obsolete.

    • The most noticeable changements related will probably be the use of AM/PM time when required and month names in your own language for the log archive directories.

    • The (!DD) and (!DM) tags now display the full name of the current day or month.

    • The Date and Time tags for registry settings have been modified. To avoid backward compatibility problems, registry settings that use these tags have been renamed.

  • New registry setting: "ChatLogTimeStampFmt". You can use it to modify the way time stamps are written at the beginning of each line in chat logs.

  • The Instant Lock reactivation bug is finally fixed! clicking on the Messenger icon can no longer reactivate Messenger without the password.

  • Your name is no more automatically changed back for no reason, when you sign-on, when you use Personalised Statuses.

  • Big thanks to Dane for his precious help on this version.

  • Some other bug fixes and small improvements you probably won't notice :).

2.52.72 Version - 23/11/2003

  • The position of the contact list window is properly recorded and restored when you restart Messenger, even when your taskbar is on the top or left side of the screen.
  • New behavior when  you enable Plus! Notifications for contacts sign-ins.
    • The notifications configuration window now has a 4th option to explicitly select contact sign-ins (only available when you enable sign-in notifications in the preferences).
    • "Status change to: Online" notification will display notifications only when the contact was already online and changed his/her status back to Online.
  • The Quick Icons panel has been improved again.
    • Messenger Emoticons are displayed from Messenger resources. This means two things: they look much better in the Quick Icon panel and, if you are using a skin that replaces defaults emoticons, you'll see those in the panel.
    • A QuickIconBgColor registry value has been added to change the background color of the panel. This can be nice if you want the panel to have the same look and email as your Messenger background.
    • Personalised Status tags are displayed properly in your contact list for blocked contacts.
  • Auto-update deactivation works better now.
  • Carriage returns are removed from contact names in the event log file.
  • "You must sign-in before you can use this feature" bug fixed for new Messenger versions.

2.52.71 Version - 15/11/2003

  • New feature related to the Toast Notifications. You can ask Messenger Plus! to display notifications when your contacts sign in. Just deactivate the native online notification option of Messenger and use Messenger Plus! to get notified only when the contacts you really care about come online.
  • In the past months, many of you have complained about the sponsor program distributed with Messenger Plus!. A lot of you apparently didn't notice the checkbox in the setup program. Many arguments have been exchanged on the forum and despite everything bad that has been said about me, I've decided to make my users happier by modifying the setup.
    • From now on, nothing is checked by default and you must select between "I accept" and "I refuse" before you can click on "Install".
    • The "accept" word is in capital letters and clearly specifies that it will install the sponsor program in addition of Messenger Plus! (I always thought that the text displayed in previous versions was clear enough but again, I'm just doing everything my critics have been asking for).
    • To avoid confusing people who don't take the time to read anything that's written in the screen, "Sponsor Agreement" is displayed in bold on top of the agreement. There's no way anyone can miss this :).
    • I hope that these modifications will prove to some of you that I'm not the kind of person you think I am. Most of the things I've read about the sponsor program itself are written by people who didn't install it and who just assume a lot of things based on the company who's sponsoring me. I never forced anybody to install the sponsor so there's no need to spread lies about my software, and I hope that this new setup will convince you that my intentions are not earn my life in the expense of my users (I don't get paid more when I spend weeks adding new features).
  • The popup sound is played correctly for custom notifications when a contact changes his/her status to online.
  • Toast popups are displayed correctly at the top of the screen every time (when appropriate), even when the taskbar is hidden.
  • A lot of users have been requesting this feature since MSN Messenger 6 was released... custom emoticons can now be displayed in the Quick Icons panel.
    • Unlike in the selection panel displayed by Messenger, the Quick Icon panel has no limit on the number of emoticons that can be displayed in it.
    • All your custom emoticons are not automatically displayed in the Quick Icons panel. As a lot of people have tons of custom emoticons, I thought it was better to let you chose what emoticons to display (there's although a big technical reason for it so there's no need to ask for this improvement in the forum).
    • The Quick Icons panel displays a Customize link that opens the configuration window. You can also configure your emoticons from the Quick Icons section in the preferences.
    • For each icon you add in the panel, you have to select a picture and the associated text tag. In most occasions, you'll just want to put the same tag you associated to the icon in Messenger. However, you can enter more than one tag if you want to display simultaneously several emoticons stuck together (this seems to be pretty popular to display large images built from several small emoticons).
    • If you have a lot of custom emoticons to display and if you don't really care for the original Messenger ones, you can ask to only display custom emoticons in the Quick Icons panel.
  • The old name of your contacts should be displayed properly every time in name change notifications.
  • The parameter of the /persostat command is 1 based, not 0 based.
  • Using Boss Protect or Lock Station while status is personalized doesn't change the status (when going in or out).
  • Messenger Plus! has now complete support for multiple monitor systems (finally!). This means that everything will now work fine if you have a monitor with negative screen coordinates. As a result, the SpecialMultipleMonitorSupport registry key has been deprecated.
  • Because Microsoft recently changed their rules concerning friendly names, a new multi-format coding system had to be created
    • You must use /nick to change your name if you want multi-format tags in it. Normal IRC codes are replaces by special ones by this command.
    • People who don't have Messenger Plus! 2.52 installed won't see the colors in your name.
    • People who want to hide "says:" with some special color tricks can use the new /nick2 command. Note that I do not officially support this command, I just added it to avoid you the trouble to find some hack to go around the protections in /nick :).
  • Text mess-up bug fixed when using names with multi-format tags in combination of the Name Truncate and Custom Name features (you'll admit that it's not a common situation :p).
  • Added a /noformat command. This lets you send messages without multi-format tags being parsed (or emoticons). This is useful if you want to send your special formatting attributes to a contact. This command works only if your contact has Messenger Plus! 2.52 installed.
  • Some other minor bug fixes and improvements.

2.51.68 Version - 01/11/2003

  • The Import Preferences feature has been fixed to properly import your preferences every time.
  • The Word Duel easter egg internal protections have been improved.
  • Several translations have been updated.
    • Korean, Turkish and Galizian have been added!
  • The Last Time Seen Online property for your contacts works better.
  • A number between "1" and "20" can now be specified as parameter to the /persostat command to quickly use a pre-recorded Personalised Status.
  • Bug fixed in the docking feature when using several monitors.
  • Notification windows have been improved.
    • Popups now display on top of the screen when your taskbar is at the top too.
    • Popups always have the correct size and position, this is not depending on your version of MSN Messenger or Windows Messenger.
    • When a notification popup is displayed, a Messenger Plus! icon flashes in your systray to be sure that you notice the popup.
  • The scheduler has been improved.
    • When not explicitly dismisssed (either by right clicking in the notification or clicking on the close button), notifications are displayed every 3 minutes, up to 3 times (can be modified with the new "SchedulerMaxRecall" registry key). You have no more excuses for missing your scheduled events now!
    • Added a "SchedulerToastDelay" registry key to change the number of seconds scheduler notifications are kept displayed on the screen. The maximum allowed value is 60 seconds and it is not recommended to use a value above 30 seconds (this will block other notifications displayed by Messenger).
  • When the "CommandErrorMessage" registry setting is set to "0", bad commands are sent as text, as previous versions of Messenger Plus! did.
  • Full international support for dates and times displayed everywhere in the software.
    • The TimeFormatAmPm registry key is obsolete.
    • The most noticeable changements related will probably be the use of AM/PM time when required and month names in your own language for the log archive directories.
    • The (!DD) and (!DM) tags now display the full name of the current day or month.
    • The Date and Time tags for registry settings have been modified. To avoid backward compatibility problems, registry settings that use these tags have been renamed.
  • New registry setting: "ChatLogTimeStampFmt". You can use it to modify the way time stamps are written at the beginning of each line in chat logs.
  • The Instant Lock reactivation bug is finally fixed! clicking on the Messenger icon can no longer reactivate Messenger without the password.
  • Your name is no more automatically changed back for no reason, when you sign-on, when you use Personalised Statuses.
  • Big thanks to Dane for his precious help on this version.
  • Some other bug fixes and small improvements you probably won't notice :).

2.50.66 Version - 28/10/2003

  • Several notifications can now be set for each contact, from the Contact Manager window and the new popup menu. These notifications display a toast window, similar to the one Messenger is using for its own notifications.
    • You can be notified when a contact goes offline.
    • You can be notified when a contact changes his/her status.
    • You can be notified when a contact changes his/her name.
    • The notifications can be set either for the next occurrence or for every subsequent occurrence.
    • A new panel has been added in the Preferences to allow proper configuration of this feature .
  • The Preferences panel has a new Notifications section to configure the toast windows displayed by Messenger Plus!.
    • A sound can be associated to the popups if desired.
    • In the Contact Defaults sub-section, you can select some events you want to be permanently notified for every contacts (to be notified every time anyone goes offline for example).
  • A "Messenger Plus!" entry has been added at the end of the popup menu displayed when you right click on a name in the contact list. This menu allows easy access to many features. Thanks to this menu you can:
    • Open the chat log of a contact (also automatically flushes the current chat).
    • Change the custom name of a contact.
    • Quickly set special notifications for the contact.
    • Mass contact block and unblock for groups
    • Display various contact information (see below)
  • Added a Contact Information window
    • This window is accessible from the contact popup menu and with the /info command.
    • The window displays several info, including the contact name&email (that you can copy), and the last time you saw him online or you opened a chat with him.
    • You can store contact specific information in this window. Up to 50,000 characters of text can be stored. That should be enough for all your needs :).
    • The window displays the last 20 events related to the contact (status change, name change, block, etc...).
    • This window also tells you if the contact has Messenger Plus 2.50 or above installed on his computer. To know about this, you have to press the "Check for Plus!" button. This will send a Ping command and wait for a response.
  • Added a /ping command. When you use it with any contact who has Messenger 2.50 or above, it will trigger an automatic response and it will display the number of seconds of "network lagging" between you and your contact. This can prove to be very useful when you're unsure about the current stability of your network. Note that Messenger Plus! also internally records any answer as a proof that your contact has Messenger Plus! installed (see below). If you don't like the idea of your computer automatically answering ping requests, this can be disabled in the Preferences panel (Commands section).
  • POP3 E-mail feature improved
    • A notification popup is displayed when new e-mail is received (yeah, finally :). If more than one POP3 e-mail account, the text in the notification window displayed the e-mail count for each account.
    • A program or a web link can be specified to be executed when the notification popup, or the email link at the top of the contact list, is clicked. By default, Messenger Plus! launched the e-mail client associated with MSN Messenger.
    • Along with the popup notification, the sound registered for new e-mails in MSN Messenger is played. This can be disabled from the Notifications preferences panel.
  • Fixed a bug in the "block group" feature. The feature has also been improved to bypass a limitation of the Messenger server... mass blocking tends to flood the server and sometimes, some blocking operations are just ignored. Messenger Plus! now blocks/unblocks each contact one at a time with a small delay between each one; it takes longer but it's more effective.
  • The Personalised Status tag is now removed from the name displayed in several windows for better clarity.
  • The Personalised Status tags are better managed in the contact list for Offline and Mobile status.
  • Sound files of type WAV are now played entirely, from beginning to end, without a time limit, when associated to a contact event (sign-in/sign-out). Other file types (such as MP3) still have a 12 seconds default limit (can be modified with a registry setting).
  • The Auto-Away feature doesn't change your status if you're using Appear Offline.
  • Status or name changes are not logged in the chat logs anymore if the chat is considered to be inactive (some minutes without any talking).
  • Non-admin accounts can now disable the Messenger Plus! Recovery window if necessary.
  • Added a command to quickly open the log of the contact you're talking to: /viewlog.
  • Added a full featured scheduler (Plus! menu of the contact list)
    • An unlimited amount of schedules can be stored.
    • A schedule can either display a message, or change your status, at a specific date and time.
    • When a message is displayed, you can associate a program or an internet link that will be executed if you click on the notification popup.
    • Each schedule can be executed either once or at regular intervals (daily, weekly, monthly or yearly).
    • The scheduler window can be opened with the /scheduler command.
    • Use the Scheduler for all sorts of different things! let it remind you of important dates or change your status every day when you go to sleep. Just explore the possibilities! :).
  • A bug has been fixed that could prevent Instant Lock and Boss Protect to work properly in MSN Messenger 6.1.
  • Added an Import/Export wizard in the preferences panel.
    • To import or export your preferences, click on the Backup button in the Preferences window.
    • The procedure is designed to be extremely easy for everyone thanks to the use of a wizard style window.
    • You can chose to import/export either your general preferences, your schedules, or every contact related information. Of course, all this data can be saved in one and only file.
    • The backup file (extension .pld) can be used to import the same preferences into different accounts. You can also use the file on a different computer to transfer your preferences to all your stations.
  • Added a "More..." entry in the "Send Command" menu. This redirects to a page on msgplus.net with a list of every command available.
  • Fixed an important bug concerning the combination of the Custom Name feature and names with mulit-format tags embedded.
  • When you double click on an event in the Event Viewer, you can click on the new "Contact Information" button to display all the recent events associated with this contact only
  • New feature: if you move the contact list window on the left or right edge of your screen, the window will be docked automatically (height maximised and attached to the edge). This is enabled by default and can be disabled from the Contact List preferences panel.
    • While docked, you can resize the window to change its width but not its height
    • While docked, you are not permitted to maximize the window
    • To exit docking mode just move the window as if you wanted to detach it from the edge of the screen (try to move it toward the center of the screen).
  • Fixed a small bug with MSN Messenger 6. The size and position of the window is now saved correctly every time you exit the application (the undocked size is saved when you exit while docked).
  • A "More Statuses" entry has been added to the status menu displayed when you click on your name at the top of the contact list. This menu contains all your predefined Personalised Status and a direct link to the Personalised Status window.
  • Better support of names with carriage returns (line breaks).
    • Carriage returns in contact names in log headers are removed.
    • If the "truncate name" feature is enabled for your logs, carriage returns in names are removed.
  • When IRC Commands are enabled, anything that start with a slash '/' is considered a command. If the command is not recognized, it is ignored and unsent. This will prevent unwanted messages to be sent to your contacts because you misspelled a command. By default, an error message will be displayed, this can be disabled with the "CommandErrorMessage" registry setting.
  • Added the /pic command. Use it to quickly change your display picture. It takes the name of the new display picture as parameter (not a file name, the name you assigned to a previously added picture).
    • Use "0" as parameter to remove the existing display picture.
    • If an exact match cannot be found, Messenger Plus! tried to match the parameter with a fraction of the name. For example, "tree" can be used to select "Palm Trees".
    • You can create multiple actions Quick Texts to change both your status and picture when needed.
  • The Contact Manager has been improved in many ways.
    • The window is not modal anymore. This means that you can access your contact list while in the Contact Manager.
    • The window can be resize! I've received this request many time, it is now done. Of course, a Maximize button has been added to the title bar.
    • A Block/Unblock button has been added. It works with single and multiple selections.
    • Double-clicking on a contact display the corresponding Contact Info window.
    • A "blocked" icon is displayed for contacts who are blocked.
  • The Boss Protect and Instant Lock features now hide a lot more "secondary" windows than before.
  • This feature is heavily requested since the existence of MSN Messenger: change the color of your text to more than the 16 predefined default colors. Messenger Plus! now offers you this option but in a different way you're already used to.
    • Messenger Plus! offers you the ultimate convenience of changing your color to any color you want directly from the Font changer displayed by Messenger (from the Options or when you right click on your text box). Instead of a "Color" combo box you now get an "Enhanced Color" button that lets you chose any color possible.
    • The color window remembers the custom colors you select.
    • A noticeable difference with other tools that already do the same thing is that this change is automatically applied in Messenger, no need to restart, no even close your chat window! :).
  • The "NameOnSignin" registry setting has been added. Use it if you want to change your name automatically to a default one when you sign-in. This can be useful, for example, if you use the same account in different places and want to identify your location.
    • I hope some of the Plus Tweakers out there will be updated to include this setting. If you are many to find this feature useful, I'll add it to the preferences panel of the next version.
  • A utility function has been added to be used by the plugins (the plugin engine version is now 3). Plugins can now use DisplayToast() to display a toast notification popup with the title, message, program and sound they want. If you're a plugin developer, there's a good chance this news will please you a lot :).
  • The scrolling bug for the (!WAT) Winamp tag has been fixed thanks to Matty.
  • Several windows have been redesigned to refresh the look of the software. The one window that has been changed the most is the About Box. In addition of being gorgeous (thanks to GFD usual talent), it displays several links to different help and resources pages. Also, a manual "Check For Update" feature has been added there.
    • Added a "HaveComplexTheme" registry value. Use it to deactivate some of the new graphics if you're using a complex Windows XP theme that doesn't fit with the Messenger Plus! new style.
  • One Sound Command has been added. How could I continue to distribute Messenger Plus! without a classic sound from Star Trek? :). If you're trekkie enough, you'll also discover a new easter egg related to this sound :).
  • A lot of people were requesting a new easter egg, well, this version has two new eggs. The first one is related to the new sound command. The second one is a command that can actually be useful and funny to use if both you and your contact have Messenger Plus! 2.50. The only hint I'll you is if, like me, you spent hours playing at the Monkey Island serie from Lucas Arts some years ago, this new egg will definitively make you smile! :).
    • You can enable or disable the easter egg by using "on" and "off" as parameter to the secret command.
  • The /all command has been fixed to work better with commands.
  • The Ctrl+Tab bug has been fixed. This was due to the fact that I was using this escape sequence for the plugin feature. I fixed the bug buy changing the escape code (from 0x09 to 0x12). Plugins MUST be recompiled with the latest plugin header files to be compatible with this new version of Messenger Plus! (the modification date of the latest C and VB files is in October 2003). The version number passed as parameter in Initialize() should be used to ensure backward compatibility.
  • A "Messenger Plus!" menu has been added to the action menu displayed when you click on the round arrow button at the top right corner of your chat window (near the block button). This menu gives you fast access so several features and is mostly useful when you use the "no border" option of MSN Messenger 6.1.
  • Messenger Plus! is now capable of dialoging with more POP3 servers.
  • The read-me file distributed with the software has been rewritten... it was about time :).
  • Some languages have been added, some have been removed (because not updated). I'll post the non-updated languages on the forum. When they'll have been updated, they'll be added back in the public distribution.
  • A lot of other small