In other news we have TheSteve and TheBlasphemer working furiously on the new interface format used in Messenger. Yeah technically its not a form of protection, but rather a new file format. But for the sake of simplicity most people referred to it as protection just so everyone wouldn't get lost in the explanation.
Anyway we are seeing some good results so far and things are looking promising. While I can't reveal what is going on behind the scenes since its up to TS and TB on how and when they will release their findings, I can say that they are going well and there is no cause for concern just yet.
In skinning news, while skinning has come to a complete halt due to the new interface file format in Messenger 9. It doesn't mean I can't have a little fun with 9 with the basics of skinning (which are still working). Anyway one of the things that bother me about 9 is the new alerts. While the new alerts are really awesome compared to the old ones, I feel Microsoft could have really done more with their alerts.
After all the rest of the interface is really vibrant and for some reason they decided to stick to a really bland alert design which looks like they just grabbed a solid image and applied some transparency to it. So I went in and modified the alert design to something which I think is more fitting.
Here is a before and after shot
Before (Microsoft):
After (Willz):
Not only is the alert easier to read in certain situations, but it also brings out the freshness of the Wave 3 design to the alert itself. I dunno in my opinion it looks much better but I guess I will let you guys be the judge of it.
Hey who knows maybe Microsoft will take the idea on board. If you do see this in the final version of Messenger well then you know who to thank
Anyway stick around for more news on the state of Messenger 9 Mods.
Willz.
UPDATE:
For those interested I have thrown up a simple Plus skin that allows you to apply the mod through Messenger Plus! Live 4.79. Please note that Messenger Plus 4.79 is NOT FULLY COMPATIBLE with Messenger 9 RC. But hey if you are like me it won't matter too much. Just extract the plsk and run.
DOWNLOAD
As most of us in the Messenger World predicted, Microsoft has removed the opening that allowed us to be able to edit Messengers layout files. The reason we were able to make patches work on the last build was because we were forcing Messenger to load the old layout files which are just simple xml and stylesheets.
In the RC build they have not only removed the ability to switch back to this old format, they have actually removed all of the old layout files altogether. So what does this mean for you the user of mods and skins?
Well before any of your favorite skins, patches or addons will work properly again the new format of layout files must be reverse engineered. Until then we are unable to apply any changes to the Messenger layout except replacing images. But this is virtually useless since the key to Messenger mods and patches lies within the layout files which we are locked out of at the moment.
So I ask for everyone to be patient and not to go around to forums asking when things are going to be back to normal. It is still not clear if things will be worked out quickly or if it will be a while before we see our mods up and running again. Rest assured the most brilliant minds in the Messenger world have already started work on bringing back the mods, skins and addons that we all know and love.
If you really can't live without this stuff then I recommend you don't get the new RC build and go back to Messenger 8.5.
Stay tuned for news as it develops.
Willz.
So what does this mean for you guys and girls as users of Messenger skins? Well for those who have been running Sopair for Messenger 9 it means that the Sopair skin will NOT work in the RC build of Messenger 9. This is just because a lot of things will have changed on the inside meaning my code won't work with it.
But don't worry, I will work on a new build of the Sopair skin as soon as I'm able to get my hands on the RC build. So yeah just be aware that if you are going to update to the new RC build straight away that your skins will all not work. Of course that is assuming Microsoft doesn't throw us a curve ball with a modification to their new protection which will mean that we will have to break that first before anything else. But yeah we will cross that bridge when we get to it I suppose.
Asides from this, it has been a quiet couple of months. I mean that is kind of expected when a new version of Messenger is coming. While I would have liked to bring something new to you guys in 2008, it is just not going to happen due a small roadblock in Messenger 9. I am hoping that this will all be sorted out in the RC build so yeah fingers crossed.
I have laid down a few design ideas on how some of the updates to your favorite skins might look like in 9. But yeah at the moment they are just designs, there is a hell of a lot more to think about in 9 so its going to take a bit longer to form all the graphics I am going to need. But yeah I am sure everyone will enjoy what I have planned, that is if it actually gets off the ground. Yeah it sucks having to wait and see what surprises 9 is going to bring in the next build. That's about all I can do.
So Happy Holidays for everyone, if all is well I should be making a post about Windows Live Messenger 9 RC next week.
Willz.
Please note this skin is ONLY for the Public Beta of Messenger 9 and you MUST have Messenger Plus! Live 4.79 or later to run the skin.
Features:
Ability to switch from modern and classic Messenger layouts
Add a 3rd Display Picture to the chat window
Ability to move chat window display pictures to the right
Enhances alerts to make them suit 9 better
Sign In window matches the design better
Ability to restore send button in chat window
Ability to hide button text
Ability to hide buttons
Hide whats new and tabs
Use Messenger 9 icons in the tabbed chat bar
and MORE!
Note:
This skin itself is a beta and was only constructed as a proof of concept that skinning can still be done on 9 properly. It may contain a few bugs here and there but overall it is solid. No support will be given on this skin as it is for a beta version of Messenger and a beta version of Messenger Plus! Live. The skins option panel is only available in English.
DOWNLOAD
By the way, don't ask me about ad-removal because everyone should know the drill now regarding ads.
Enjoy the release.
Willz.
So what does this public version mean for skins? Well as far as specific details go the new protection scheme that 9 has has still not been broken. So what you see in the public beta is essentially just a band aid fix to keep the masses happy.
Now that Messenger Plus! for 9 is in most peoples hands, I have been getting a few messages and emails asking for skins for 9. Now while I have said in the past that I will not be releasing anything for beta builds, but this version of Messenger is different to other ones.
Because so much has changed on the inside it would be downright stupid of me to ignore skins until final. While I probably won't be making anything complex or ground breaking just to be safe. I will be releasing a special edited version of the default 9 skin known as Sopair.
For those of you playing at home, Sopair was the special patch that me and a few others made last month to enable patches and addons to do their thing again.
This skin will be labeled Sopair 2.0.0. Now don't expect anything too flashy, since I haven't really spent too much time on it. Since this will be a beta skin in itself you can expect a few weird things on occasion. The other thing is it will only come in English since well I'd rather spend the energy on properly planning out other skins. This is sort of a proof of concept to show that the ideas are still flowing and well to have some base ready when I do actually start more serious skins.
So what can you expect in Sopair? Well as per usual you will have the standard button removal settings as well as a few transformation settings that will allow you to bring back the 8.5 look (more or less). This includes transforming the dashboard back to 8.5 style, moving the display pictures back to the right in the chat window and moving toolbar in the chat window back into the place where they were in the chat window.
On top of these settings there will be minor enhancements to the Messenger user interface. One of the more noticeable changes is that I have changed the look of alerts to match Windows Live Messenger 9 a bit better as well as modifying the sign in window to try and match the version of Messenger briefly shown at PDC.
When is this skin going to launch? Well its in its final testing phase at the moment and for once I do have a testing team. If it works out I might keep that going. But yeah I have sent the skin to the database so it could be up any day now.
At any rate keep your eyes on this news page, because I will post about it once I have released things.
Willz.
Normally a new version of Messenger doesn't really disrupt the skinning process, but this one has really turned things upside down. What is happening is pretty much a repeat of what happened a couple of years ago when we went from MSN Messenger 7.5 to Windows Live Messenger 8.0. We had our worlds turned upside down and we were all sent into a frantic struggle to get things going again.
Of course things aren't exactly that bad this time around, but there are enough changes with 9 to send me back to the underground and go back to my roots of modding dll's to learn.
For the past few weeks I have been playing around with 9 seeing what has changed and how far we can push things. I have to say that although there are a lot of changes and nearly double the amount of layout files to modify, overall 9 is going to bring some really interesting things to the table. One of the things I am looking forward to playing with is with some of the new effects that Messenger 9 brings such as fades, text glows and other types of animation.
I should also point out that I am only able to modify 9 because of a small workaround that was discovered that allows us to force Messenger to use its old layout files over the new ones. This allows skins, Messenger addons and patches to do their thing on 9 once again. Most people are counting this as a victory saying that stuff is possible again on 9, but really all this was was something to buy us some time. The old layout files have a really high chance of not existing in the final version of 9 so we will be back to square one.
The main problem about 9 still exists and in order for things to survive in the final version of 9 the new layout file format of Messenger 9 has to be figured out properly or we will be stuck with not being able to modify Messenger again. This new layout file isn't standard XML and style information that we can easily edit with any text editor, instead it is some weird file type that can't be read or edited properly without cracking it.
I am just pointing this out to the public so that they know what could possibly cause a delay in the release of their favorite addon or skin. There are a lot of impatient people out there so hopefully this will explain why things are taking a while. Everything relies on being able to break this new format, so please be aware that it isn't over yet but at the same time things are looking fairly good at this point in time.
Regardless of whether the new format gets broken or not I have already started planning out the updates of some of the popular skins that I have made. At the moment I have thought about Ev0, Zero-G and Phunk'n and have laid down a few ideas. Nothing is in the works just yet and I don't really plan to start anything until the final version of 9 is released and we know for sure that we have gotten over the new layout format.
So yeah that is where things are at pretty much. I would like to say that I have stuff coming up soon, but I can't because I don't know how exactly this is all going to come together. Only time will tell I guess.
Willz.
Basically I am here to announce:
Windows Live Messenger: Sopair Edition.
This is us going back to our roots and releasing a dll patching installer, I just never thought this day would come again!
A Lot of effort has been put into this skin and we hope that everyone appreciates the effort. This skin would not have been possible without the countless efforts of Willz and TheSteve. If we forget to mention anyone, please forgive us, it isn’t intentional.
We hope you enjoy this release and if you like it please leave us a comment.
Please note that in order to use this, you need to install the BETA version of Windows Live Messenger.
On a side note, this patch, even after uninstalled, will still let you skin Windows Live Messenger, the same way as before.
** Legal Info **
This breaks Microsofts EULA, you use the file at your own risk and we shall not be held responsible for any damages that may occur as a result of using this patch. DO NOT CONTACT MICROSOFT FOR SUPPORT ON THIS.
The authors of the patch are in no way shape or form affiliated with Microsoft
Screeny:
Download:
Click Here
For people who don't want to register on here, use username:temp and password:temptemp
Digg this story: http://digg.com/microsoft/Windows_Live_M...ir_Edition
Windows Live Messenger: Sopair Edition.
This is us going back to our roots and releasing a dll patching installer, I just never thought this day would come again!
A Lot of effort has been put into this skin and we hope that everyone appreciates the effort. This skin would not have been possible without the countless efforts of Willz and TheSteve. If we forget to mention anyone, please forgive us, it isn’t intentional.
We hope you enjoy this release and if you like it please leave us a comment.
Please note that in order to use this, you need to install the BETA version of Windows Live Messenger.
On a side note, this patch, even after uninstalled, will still let you skin Windows Live Messenger, the same way as before.
** Legal Info **
This breaks Microsofts EULA, you use the file at your own risk and we shall not be held responsible for any damages that may occur as a result of using this patch. DO NOT CONTACT MICROSOFT FOR SUPPORT ON THIS.
The authors of the patch are in no way shape or form affiliated with Microsoft
Screeny:
Download:
Click Here
For people who don't want to register on here, use username:temp and password:temptemp
Digg this story: http://digg.com/microsoft/Windows_Live_M...ir_Edition
More coming soon
Over the past day or so people have been asking me to go back to my roots and make a simple DLL skin so that would make a few minor changes to the Windows Live Messenger 9 UI so that it was, well a bit more how some people want it to be.
What I found odd was that there was no signs of any of the patching programs (like MessPatch and aPatch) being updated for 9, which was really weird. Anyway I went on and made a really simple change to 9 just to see if the code I knew still worked and then found that no changes were being applied.
Finding this to be odd I kept on trying and nothing seemed to work. No matter what I did, any edit I did to the code would not show. Images could be replaced fine, but for some reason the code would not change. So I took a drastic measure and just fully cleared the code for the sign in window, that way I could know once and for all if it was being ignored or not. Basicly Messenger should not have opened at all if I did this and well it did.
After about an hour of all this and some trial and error it has been found that Messenger introduces a new kind of UI system which skinners and patchers aren't able to edit (yet). This move is pretty much the same move Microsoft did to us back with WLM 8 when they first introduced the MSNRLE format (which still can't be replicated). So at the moment skins and patches are dead (except for certain patching options that don't need to modify messengers layout, like polygamy).
So of course this is sending everyone into a panic because people are thinking this is truly the end of skinning and patches as we know it. But like I tell everyone, It ain't over till it's over. There are plenty of brilliant minds still working hard behind the scenes to try and get back the unofficial edits we all know and love.
So this is why there is nothing out for 9 at the moment, its simply because we have been caught by surprise and well trying to put the pieces back together. So what I ask of people is to be patient and to not go to forums demanding for patches, skins and updates for 9. Sending emails as well doesn't help either. At the moment it is chaos and the last thing that is needed is a whole bunch of people demanding stuff. If you want your patches and skins, then stick to 8.5 until a solution has been reached.
But Windows Live Messenger 9 isn't all about nasty horrible surprises. Windows Live Messenger 9 has a few things that will actually be awesome should we be able to edit the user interface again. I won't really get into technical details since most people won't really care, but in a nutshell it means that we can take advantage of some of the new effects they add fairly easily (at least in theory) and make some pretty interesting modifications to Messenger. But yeah, that all relies on being able to edit the thing first......
Anyway its going to be a slow couple of weeks, because until all of this gets sorted out..... well yeah I'm not going anywhere.
I also encourage people to use the public beta of 9, the one thing that is crucial in a beta is feedback. So if something really annoys you in 9 (asides from not being able to edit the thing
) make sure you submit some feedback. For those of you playing at home that is found under "Help" > "Send Feedback". If something annoys a lot of people, chances are they might change it.Stay tuned for updates.
Willz
Secondly even if there was, Messenger Plus Live! does not work with the beta version and Patchou has already said that he will be updating Plus but that will most likely come out until its close to final. This means it is totally pointless to even ask if skins are being updated to the new beta because no plus = no skins.
But one of the more serious reasons as to why there will be no skin updates to this beta is because of what Windows Live Messenger 9 brings to the table. Although I have known about this for a while now, I did not want to bring it up since beta versions of Windows Live Messenger tend to change a lot in their life span. I did not want to jump to conclusions early, but since its a public beta now it seems like its going to go down this path.
Windows Live Messenger 9 has the potential to destroy skins altogether for Vista users and as a Vista user if this does come to pass it would mean that there would be no point in me skinning anymore since I won't be able to enjoy my own creations. A lot of you might be confused at this moment but I will explain it the best I can.
If vista users haven't noticed yet you will see that Windows Live Messenger uses the Windows Vista window frame instead of the old style that we have been used to for years now. Whilst everyone might think this a good thing and saying that they are finally bringing Aero to the table for skinners it is far from it.
Basicly instead of using Messengers own resources like always, the new Aero frame that Messenger uses relies on Windows Vista's own theme which means skinners can no longer edit this part of Messenger under Windows Vista unless Aero is disabled at all times. So what does that mean exactly? It means that you will not be able to have a truly complete Messenger skin under vista whilst Aero is enabled. There are a few other things that 9 brings that also kill a few skinning techniques that people use at the moment. One of the new things the 9 brings to the table is the fact that resources are now 90% MSNRLE, which means there will be a lot of resources that will not be able to be replaced without being able to replicate the layers that MSNRLE images use. One of these is the emoticons, normally skinners edit one png image, but with the new beta they are now an MSNRLE image which means they are impossible to replace because there is no emoticon code anywhere and in order to replace a MSNRLE with a png you must have access to its code. The only solution is to somehow replicate the layered MSNRLE (which isn't possible at the moment).
If in future versions of Messenger they decide to expand on Aero, well then it would mean that there will be a lot more things that skinners won't be able to edit if they do choose to use the same method. While you still can skin the other parts of Messenger like normal, because you have no control over the window frame it will mean skins are really limited now and you will only be able to do so much with them. The shaped skins like Batman, Ironman and so on will not be possible with Aero so it essentially kills what was a pretty good start to some unique skins.
So that is how things are looking for the future of skinning, it is not looking good at the moment (going by the current beta). I know that Messenger is not final yet, but Microsoft generally does not change much from a public beta to a final version.
Anyway just to reiterate the point of this post:
Do not post or email me asking for updates for Windows Live Messenger 9 beta. It will not be happening and also do not go bugging Patchou for a working version of Plus! either. Give the guy a break
Until next time.
Willz.
