Doobies posted on the forum how they were able to stop Windows Live Messenger from crashing as soon as it signs in:
In “C:\Documents and Settings\<your user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft” there is two folders one called “Windows Live Contacts” and one called “Messenger” I deleted both of these and now I’m not having any problems.
The folder Messenger is data for the Sharing Folders feature, and the Windows Live Contacts folder appears to be where the list cache is now stored in Windows Live Messenger, as opposed to ListCache.dat in MSN Messenger 6.x and 7.x. The sub-folders in Windows Live Contacts are the sign-in addresses of all users that have signed in on that Windows account, and there are two sub-folders in each of those: real and shadow. The data in these folders seems to be what is encrypted when you enable Encrypt contact list data so that it is not accessible outside of Windows Live Messenger.
I’m not sure why it just isn’t encrypted by default, or why e-mail addresses are used instead of Passport IDs in the Windows Live Contacts folder.
I earlier made a program called List Cache Deleter which lets you remove ListCache.dat if it becomes corrupt and you are unable to sign in.
