.NET Messenger Service supports the status “Idle”, which MSN Messenger doesn’t let you change to, but is automatically set, if enabled, after a certain period of inactivity. The setting can be found on the personal tab in options dialog: “Show me as ‘Away’ when I’m inactive for X minutes”.
MSN Messenger doesn’t actually show users as idle when the status is automatically set, but instead shows them as “Away”. Fortunately, it doesn’t share the same resource strings for idle and away, so one of the aways can be changed to idle. There are two instances that need to be changed, in msgslang.dll on table 3, entry 38: ” (Away)”, which is for displaying next to users in the contact list, should be changed to ” (Idle)”. And on table 7, entry 101: “Away”, for showing in the contact properties dialog, should be changed to “Idle”.
I’ve created an example in Visual Basic 6 that changes both entries using Windows’ resource editing functions.
Trillian is a multinetwork chat client that currently supports mIRC, AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo Messenger. It supports docking, multiline edit boxes, buddy alerts, multiple connections to the same medium, a powerful skinning language, easy importing of your existing contacts, skinnable emoticons, logging, global away/invisible features, and a unified contact list. It has a direct connection for AIM, support for user profiles, complete type formatting, buddy icons, proxy support, emotisounds, encrypted instant messaging to ICQ and AIM, AIM group chats, and shell extensions for file transfers.
Anonymous writes:
It took me 1 year, but I have finally released my gaming platform (alpha version) for MSN Messenger users. People that saw it were amazed, and the first impression was WOW!
The platform is completely independent from Microsoft .NET and extends MSN Messenger client by exposing new features like:
- Playing against Bud - my virtual gaming boat.
- Multi player - enough for primitive peer to peer games! With my platform you can play with 2, 3 and even 8 friends!
- Extensive SDK - I'll provide more information on this in the near future.
And now to the exciting part of the story - The Games:
- Multi Player Blackjack - Where you can beat your buddies by playing as dealer, or having fun with your friends by playing against Bud (my virtual Boat). Don't worry, it's not for money - Everything is for FUN!
- Texas Hold'em Poker - Next release (expected to be published by next month)
And many other features to have fun with your friends.
The annoying spam windows entitled “Messenger Service” have nothing do with MSN Messenger or Windows Messenger, they are actually from a Windows service. Here’s how to turn it off:
- Click Start and then Control Panel
- Click Administrative Tools
- Click Services
- Locate Messenger, right-click select on your mouse and select Properties
- Under General tab / Startup Type select disabled from the drop down menu
- Click The Stop button
- Click OK to save
Spam on MSN Messenger, also know as SPIM, is extremely rare and it’s a fairly simple process to ensure that you never receive messages from strangers.
To protect yourself from Spam:
- Open the main Messenger window, go to Tools > Options.
- Go to the Privacy tab and make sure “Alert me when other users add me to their contact lists” is ticked.
When someone tries to add you to their contact list, a dialog box will ask if you want to allow him or her to contact you. If this request is from a stranger or someone you don’t want to hear from, tick “Block this person from seeing when you are online and contacting you” and click OK.
To block unwanted messages:
- Open the main Messenger window, go to Tools > Options.
- Go to the Privacy tab, and make sure “Only people on my Allow List can see my status and send me messages” is ticked.
This will prevent people who are not on your contact list from sending you messages and stop block checkers seeing if you are really online.
