Shoutbox

i have tried most windows live installers and i still get it telling me i need 3.1 or higher yet i can get this and try again and nothing any ideas i have had it before never had this problem and its driving me crazy

Have you tried the windows live official page to download the newest version.

And removing any older versions of msn you have?

First off, do a Windows Update.

The 3.1 you are on about is the Windows Installer, you can download Windows Installer 3.1 here.
Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000 Service Pack 3; Windows 2000 Service Pack 4; Windows Server 2003; Windows XP; Windows XP Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 2

After you installed that (make sure you install on an account with admin priviledges), reboot and install Windows Live Messenger again from http://get.live.com/messenger/

Should you have Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, or Windows Server 2008 you can install Windows Installer 4.5 Redistributable.
Make sure you download (and install) the correct version: OS, language and bits!

Also note that Windows Live Messenger will not run (is not ment to run) on anything below Windows XP SP2.