{"id":8906,"date":"2009-08-14T11:43:56","date_gmt":"2009-08-14T10:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/tips-and-tricks-for-windows-live-messenger\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T02:21:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:21:05","slug":"tips-and-tricks-for-windows-live-messenger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/tips-and-tricks-for-windows-live-messenger\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips and tricks for Windows Live Messenger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Windows Live Messenger is the most widely used IM client in the world, but even if you’ve been using it for years, there might be some hidden options you still don’t know about. Don’t worry, we’ve analyzed Live Messenger thoroughly and found all those simple tricks that can make your IM life easier. Here they are:<\/p>\n

Prevent Messenger from remembering your login details<\/h3>\n

The “Remember my password” option is quite useful, but it can also be a problem. What if you changed your email account, or updated your password, or you just don’t want Messenger to remember it anymore? It’s as easy as clicking on “Forget me<\/strong>“.<\/p>\n

\"Tips<\/p>\n

If you don’t see this option, it’s because it’s hidden in a drop-down menu; click the rounded arrow button to bring it up.<\/p>\n

Completely erasing a contact<\/h3>\n

Erasing a contact from your Messenger list is as easy as right clicking the name and selecting “Delete contact<\/strong>“. Plus, if you have enabled the “Only people from my Allow list can see my status and send me messages” option in Privacy settings, you won’t see him or her again.<\/p>\n

\"Tips<\/p>\n

The only problem is that the contact will still appear on the Block list. If you really want to get rid of every single trace, right click the contact’s name on the Block list and hit “Delete<\/strong>“. Note that the Delete option will only be available if the selected contact has also erased you from his\/her list.<\/p>\n

Avoid Nudges<\/h3>\n

Are you sick of nudges? Does one of your contacts think they’re the coolest thing ever and is constantly using them when talking to you? Well, in case you didn’t know, there’s an option to block them out. Go to Tools > Options<\/strong>, then to the Messages<\/strong> section and untick “Allow me to send and receive Nudges”.<\/p>\n

\"Tips<\/p>\n

The catch is that this also prevents you from sending nudges. If you’d like to be able to send nudges but block those coming from your contacts, the trick is using A-Patch<\/a>, a tool that lets you tweak some Messenger options like this one.<\/p>\n

Close Windows Live Today<\/h3>\n

There may be people who find the Windows Live Today window useful, but most people still see it every time they launch Messenger simply because they don’t know how to disable it.<\/p>\n

\"Tips<\/p>\n

All you have to do is go to Tools > Options<\/strong>, then click on Sign In <\/strong>and untick the “Show Windows Live Today after I sign in to Messenger” option. Easy, huh?<\/p>\n

Backup your contact list<\/h3>\n

Did you know you can export and import your Messenger contact list? It comes in handy to move all your contacts from one computer to another. Simply go to Contacts > Save instant messaging contacts<\/strong> and you’re done. The contacts are saved as a CTT file, a XML-based format that you can edit with any XML editor and also convert to CSV on this web page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Tips<\/p>\n

Hide tabs<\/h3>\n

Thought tabs don’t seem to be that important anymore in the latest version in Windows Live Messenger, you should know there’s a way to get rid of them. Go to Tools > Options<\/strong>, select Layout<\/strong> and untick the “Show the tab bar” option.<\/p>\n

\"Tips<\/p>\n

Real time translation<\/h3>\n

Messenger enables you to talk to people from anywhere in the world, but what if you two don’t speak the same language? A handy way to solve this problem is using Microsoft’s translation bots. Just add them as a contact (their Messenger username is mtbot@hotmail.com<\/strong>) and open a chat window with them. The bot will ask you to select your source and target languages, and then will translate everything you type.<\/p>\n

\"Tips<\/p>\n

[Via: OnSoftware Spain<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Windows Live Messenger is the most widely used IM client in the world, but even if you’ve been using it for years, there might be some hidden options you still don’t know about. Don’t worry, we’ve analyzed Live Messenger thoroughly and found all those simple tricks that can make your IM life easier. Here they … Continue reading “Tips and tricks for Windows Live Messenger”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2011,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[2441],"tags":[2884],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-8906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionwindows-live-messenger"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2011"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335423,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8906\/revisions\/335423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8906"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=8906"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=8906"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=8906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}