Love Windows Live Messenger? Here's how you can bring it back

Monday, April 29, 2013 // by Saurabh // Labels: Messenger, Skype, Windows, Windows 8, Windows Live // No comments:

Microsoft recently killed off Windows Live Messenger in favor of Skype, leaving many of us without years' worth of chat logs or the familiarity that MSN brings. Skype, while good, doesn't have the same stability as MSN and adds a lot of unwanted clutter. Microsoft have blocked MSN from working for many users, but some new software from a Microsoft MVP allows you to bring back Messenger in a few simple steps.

Messenger Reviver 2 is a free piece of software that installs, repairs and modifies Windows Live Messenger '08, '09, '11 and '12 to allow them to sign in, despite Microsoft's block. Currently, when you access Messenger you're prompted to "install the newer version in order to continue," but Reviver installs a patch that allows WLM to continue to be used.

To bypass this message, download Messenger Reviver 2. The programme makes changes to your computer, so grant it the relevant levels of access. (A zipped version of the program is also available to bypass security software blocking). The software runs on Windows XP through to Windows 8 and .NET framework version 2.0 or higher, though .NET 3.5 or 4 is recommended.

Once downloaded, a window will pop-up that looks like this:

Click "Start" and the program will automatically modify Messenger and restart it. If Windows Live Essentials is not installed, Reviver will offer the option to install the software. If Essentials is installed, but Skype has removed it, Reviver offers the ability to re-install it:

If you no longer have Windows Live Messenger on your system don't worry, we've got you covered.

Download: Windows Live Messenger 2012 (offline installer)
View: More information can be found here