Windows Messenger

Note  Microsoft Windows Messenger is no longer available in Windows Vista.

This is the entry page to the reference documentation for the Windows Messenger. This section includes information about the Messenger service APIs and the Messenger client APIs. The documentation consists of API reference and conceptual overviews.

The following are links to the documentation.

• Windows Messenger Overviews
• Windows Messenger Service Reference
• Windows Messenger Client Reference

Windows Messenger Deprecation

Windows Vista does not include the APIs for Windows Messenger. They are included with Windows Live Messenger to ensure continued support for applications that use the Windows Messenger APIs. You can download Windows Live Messenger from the Windows Live Messenger  site.

Applications developed with the Windows Messenger SDK are compatible with Windows Live Messenger; however, Windows Live Messenger does not support script that uses Windows Messenger objects. Applications that require Windows Live Messenger functionality should be developed with the appropriate Windows Live SDK. More information about the Windows Live SDKs can be found on Windows Live Dev .

Windows Messenger Add-In APIs

The documentation for the Add-In APIs shows you how to create add-in components for the Windows Messenger client on Windows XP. The Add-In APIs are not available with any version of Windows Messenger other than 4.6 or 4.7. To download this documentation, see Windows Messenger Add-In APIs .

What's New in Windows Messenger 5.0

The Windows Messenger Add-In APIs are no longer available. For information about branding Windows Messenger, see Personalizing Microsoft Windows Messenger 5.0 .

Five properties of the IMessenger interface have been deprecated in favor of properties in the IMessengerService interface.

• Use IMessengerService::MyFriendlyName instead of IMessenger::MyFriendlyName.
• Use IMessengerService::ServiceID instead of IMessenger::MyServiceId.
• Use IMessengerService::ServiceName instead of IMessenger::MyServiceName.
• Use IMessengerService::MySigninName instead of IMessenger::MySigninName.
• Use IMessengerService::MyStatus instead of IMessenger::MyStatus.

What's New in Windows Messenger 4.7

A new overview Using the Registration Mechanism has been added.