Icon of program: Windows Live Messenger

Windows Live Messenger

By MicrosoftFreeUser Rating
Download now

Key Details of Windows Live Messenger

  • Connect and share instantly on the worlds most popular IM network.
  • Last updated on 2/29/2024
  • Virus scan status:

    Clean (it's extremely likely that this software program is clean)

The Download Now link will direct you to the developer's site where you will be offered an installer file corresponding to your OS.

Editors' Review

Download.com staff

Previously known as MSN Messenger, Windows Live Messenger is Microsoft's answer to instant messaging. While largely the same as its predecessor, Windows Live Messenger is unique for allowing you to share folders and files locally with fellow users. It also serves up the usual animated emoticons, winks, and buzzes, along with multiplayer gaming, free PC-to-PC calling, mobile phone messaging, and video chatting. Plus it adds VoIP capabilities that let you call telephones around the world for a fee. Its one major omission, though, is it lacks the capability to receive inbound calls from landlines or cell phones, a service that competitor Yahoo Messenger with Voice offers.

Once installed, Windows Live Messenger displays a drop-down menu of features along the top, contacts within the center pane, a search box on the bottom, and tabs for eBay, Rhapsody, and other services along the left. Microsoft fans will like the integration with MSN Spaces and the company's other properties. Also a plus is that Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Live Messenger now let you directly connect with buddies who use either tool. To do so in the past, you'd have to use a tool such as Trillian.

We like Windows Live Messenger's Sharing Folders feature, which lets you to transfer files to and from your buddy's computer by displaying a mirror of each others' files on your desktops. The service can also store hundreds of contacts, and with a Webcam installed, you can make video chats with a full 640x480-pixel screen. In fact, we recommend Windows Live Messenger's video chat over that of other IM tools. Anyone who is entrenched within the Microsoft world will probably be best served by this particular IM client.

Explore More

Full Specifications

GENERAL
Release
September 3, 2009
Latest update
February 29, 2024
Version
14.0.8117.0416
OPERATING SYSTEMS
Platform
Windows
Operating System
Windows 10, Windows XP, Windows Server, Windows Vista
Additional Requirements
None
POPULARITY
Total Downloads
24,472,396
Downloads Last Week
1
Report Software

Related Software

User Reviews

3.4/5

727 User Votes

Developer's Description

By Microsoft
Connect and share instantly on the worlds most popular IM network.

Windows Live Messenger includes support for the im Initiative! Every time you start a conversation using im, Microsoft shares a portion of the program's advertising revenue with some of the world's most effective organizations dedicated to social causes. So any time you have an im conversation using Windows Live Messenger, you help address the issues you feel most passionate about. It's simple. All you have to do is join and start an instant messaging conversation.

Key Features: Call your friends' PC (free), mobile or landline phones. Calls require a microphone and speakers or a headset and broadband connection. Make calls for less than $.02 a minute to most places around the world with Verizon Web Calling. Start a video conversation within minutes with a webcam. Drop in photos and other stuff for friends in a Sharing Folder, as many as your computer can handle. With Windows Live Messenger you can now connect with your Yahoo! IM contacts.