MSN Messenger is no more. Windows Live Messenger is to take its place when the next version comes out. This is the equivilent to MSN Messenger 8.0.

Thehotfix.net put up some screenshots yesterday afternoon of the new messenger application and a couple of hours later the build 8.0.0290 was released to testers and leaked to the Internet. This build is extremely RAM consuming and buggy as hell at the moment. Without a patch users that aren’t beta testers ARE NOT able to login due to account restrictions.

Windows Live Messenger uses the MSN Protocol v13 and MSN Messenger 7.5 uses v12. People have forced the client to use the v12 protocol via hex editing etc. however, contacts appear offline due to the differences in protocol. HOWEVER, someone has created a “proxy” that converts the v13 packets to v12 and vice versa etc. This is currently the only way to connect to MSN with the new client. This involves keeping an application open at the same time as the new build which can become annoying.

I’m sure someone will patch it properly soon, and ill probally upload it too…

Of course you can find the new build and the “proxy” type patch @ http://digitaldj.net/msn8. Mess.be have screenshots of this build in action.

I also created an ad-patch for this build but haven’t been bothered to upload it, ask me for it if you desperatly want it.

Update: A patch is now available that allows signing in with all features without the use of a proxy. I have uploaded the patch