5 things we don’t like about the new Windows Live Messenger Beta

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Windows Live Messenger Wave 4 Beta is out now, and already stealing the hearts of lot of users, due to its superb looks and inbuilt social networking capabilities. But if there are pros there will be cons! We have already discussed some new features, and some tips and tricks in our previous post.

messenger wave 4 5 things we dont like about the new Windows Live Messenger Beta

This post is to tell Microsoft (if they are listening and value our feedback  wink 5 things we dont like about the new Windows Live Messenger Beta ) that Wave 4 is the best Messenger ever but it still needs some attention, in select areas!

1. Why  am I not able to change my display name? When I go to Options > Personal, I can see an option to edit my name and I have done it but still I can’t see changes on my Messenger.

2. Where are my good old emoticons? Though the complete GUI and UI of Wave 4 is really attractive and eye catching but we still feel that the old emoticons are much better than the new one’s!

3. Badges: OK, that’s something cool, but atleast give us some flexibility to add our own badges.

4. Why not Twitter? I was hoping that may be this time I was able to Tweet from Messenger. I hope I will not have to wait till Wave 5!

5. “In Windows Live Messenger you can draw or hand-write your messages” That’s History now. Why on earth was this cool feature removed? I fail to understand this. It really saves time when you need to show some rough design while chatting with your friend. I was not able to find if it is there in thies version! If you know, please let me know.

What do you think of these? Are there any features that you have disliked in WLM Wave 4 Beta? Any feature you’d like to see?

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The author, Ritesh is a Desktop Application Developer who enjoys and learn new coding and web languages by experimenting and playing with them. Troubleshooting & Tweaking Windows is his favorite pastime.

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  • http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ Windows Club

    It maybe a bit off-topic, but I am facing 2 issues: High memory utilization and I am unable to drag and move the main WLM window.

  • johnny.rotton

    I have a few problems also.
    cant open Mail due to missing .dll including on re-install.
    Cant add a new comment or update on messenger.
    difficult to add facebook took a few attempts due to “Connection” problems even though I was connected to face through browser.
    Shame as I wanted to test this out but alas I will wait for an updated version or the final version.

  • Jason

    The ‘You’re appearing offline to most of your contacts’ bar that shows EVERY time i log in is most annoying.

    I also really don’t like the large logging in window
    appearing in the middle of my screen every time.

  • http://www.iamlee.com Lee

    display name feature has been removed on purpose.
    to unify whats called a profile name or search listing name across windows live, now live.com including desktop messegner will show ONLY first name and last name OR first name alone.. Display name will not be used anywhere.

    this gives a consistent and genuine identity to any single user of windows live

    i know this is bitter sweet.
    but i like this new move.

  • Pamela

    I really like the new emoticons. I am glad that you can have the compact view for the contact list.

  • ryan

    when connected to facebook all the fan pages appear on the contact list they really need to fix most of the features and stop taking most of the product features away

  • raghav

    they should have kept the features of the previous versions, as well as add to it. 95% of the features the old messenger had are commonly used by people. removing this is only going to make people stop using WLM. i don’t know how to send files in a convo, i can’t even change my display name.

  • Heather

    While I like that WLM is moving forwards with technology, it is taking away some of its most important features. I can’t change my display name, which still has the lyrics to a song I put in when I had the previous WLM – there is no feature for me to change this. In addition, us youth, feel the need to have in our display names that we love ____ such and such – it’s a bit of a tradition. This is no longer possible.

    Removing the handwriting tool i.m.o wasn’t a good idea either – it was a very useful feature for expressing things which are difficult to express in words – from maths to drawings.

    When it was first installed, it failed to connect with Facebook, yet just continued onto the messenger without allowing me to try and remedy this.

    When someone goes on webcam, it automatically goes on full screen, hiding the conversation. The webcam can be minimised, but it only leaves a few inches at the left side of the screen for text. There doesn’t appear to be any option to make webcams appear the size they were in previous messengers.

    I also don’t like that when messenger is maximised, your contacts appear in columns, rather than in a list. I am unable to see peoples’ full names now. I feel there should be an option as to whether contacts should be displayed in columns or a list.

    However, I really like the futuristic appeal to the messenger, and that it is now easier to see everyones updates and such. I just feel some simple features have been removed and this is detracting from the good – I may need to downgrade.

  • Heather

    @ raghav, at the bottom of the conversion, there is a ‘share’ button – This is now how you send files :)

  • Anonymous

    In my opinion, messenger is meant for messenging and not all this live.com identity stuff. What about when you have friends round and you would like to make it apparent that you are with them, but are unable to as you no longer have to freedom to as you are unable to have a display name. Not very good at all. However, there is some really nice new features, but I don’t see why they can not be added on top of the previous ones.

  • Wraith

    Twitter was removed due to a shift in Twitter policy: http://www.liveside.net/main/archive/2010/06/28/upcoming-changes-to-windows-live-re-twitter.aspx too bad, too. I loved the feature.

  • Keeskarel

    I’m missing the option to see how many people are on line in an closed group, and that I have to click the thingy in front of the group instead of just the group name to open the group.

  • Pedro

    I have uninstalled the new version and installed the old one again. I really don’t like the new messenger: not being able to edit my name, being messed up with the social networks… one egg in its basket. Please Microsoft, make a new messenger but keep it clean and user customizable

  • G

    I’m with Pedro, I’ll give it a few days to see if I can get used to it but it is not as user-friendly or clean as the previous imo. The lack of customisable display name and the fact I can’t find a way to change my IM background/theme takes away a lot of what I liked about the old one.

  • Rodrigo

    I got frustrated when I realised that hand-writing messages weren’t available anymore… so sad.

  • Josh

    I used to like windows live messenger, but now I hate it.
    The worst thing they do is not letting people to decide whatever version they would like to use.
    Even if I am okay to use WLmessenger, I can’t be dealing with new WL mail which is so complicated and limited. They are just sooo confusing.

    I rather never use it again.

  • Josh

    Download a version you prefer
    A great place to find older Windows Live Messenger versions is FileHippo, or you might already have an older version of Windows Live Messenger then proceed to the next step. (Make sure it’s an offline installer)
    Install It
    It would be preferable to install the application without being connected to the Internet even though it’s an offline installer as it might attempt to check for newer versions and you are back to where you started.
    Navigate to the installation folder
    Go to the folder where the Windows Live Messenger was installed. (Usually C:/Program Files)

    Find the main EXE and go to the properties

    Go to the compatibility tab

    Tick ‘Run this program in compatibility mode for’

    Select Windows 2000 and apply the changes.
    You should now be able to use that version of Windows Live Messenger without being forced to update to the latest version.

    Thanks to Vigar from the chelsea blog for this tip.