Shoutbox

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
If you did all that and there is nothing there, then you don't have any cached DP's of your contacts, and CE/DP stealers wont find anything either then...

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It seems that DP's never get cached on my machine . I've searched everywhere (even scoured .png and .bin files), but none are to be found. Is there a setting that can prevent this caching?

is it possible to edit these .bin files in your app data,
i have some dp that are bigger (100px x 170px)
there loaded in my dp list on msn messenger 6.2 and i can use them
but i want new ones..since wtbwplug issn't working for 6.2

quote:

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Originally posted by CanadianOriginal
It seems that DP's never get cached on my machine . I've searched everywhere (even scoured .png and .bin files), but none are to be found. Is there a setting that can prevent this caching?

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You don't need to look everywhere, you need to look in your "temporary internet files"-directory. If they are stored, they are stored there, nowhere else... And like I said, you can't "search" for .bin files there because that directory is a special directory which uses references and not filenames (in explorer)....

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Originally posted by Cartox
is it possible to edit these .bin files in your app data,

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No, MSN Messenger also stores checksums for the files, so if you edit them, it won't be reconized anymore IIRC...

so if I just copy the C:\Documents and Settings\myname\Application Data\Microsoft\MSN Messenger\thingy number  folder from one computer to another all my custom emoticons will be there?

thanks

Hey Guys

quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
Your DPs, CEs, ...

For MSN and Windows Messenger:
Your own display pics, custom emoticons and backgrounds and other stuff are all stored in your MSN Messenger application object storage directory. The files have the extension .TMP or .DAT, but are actually GIFs, JPGs or PNGs (depending on type of content). The directories are different from OS to OS and depend on what you're exactly looking for:
CookieRevised's reply to 'where is custom stuff stored?'

For Windows Live Messenger:
The Windows Live Messenger object storage directory is split up into the old one (see above; it is still used for other things) and a slightly new location. Your own display pics, custom emoticons, backgrounds, and other stuff are now stored with the extension DT2. They are still GIFs, JPGs or PNGs though (depending on type of content).
The new location is:
%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Messenger\<your_windows_live_id>\ObjectStore


Contact's DPs, CEs, ...

For MSN and Windows Messenger:
The Display Pictures and Custom Emoticons you've recieved from your contacts are stored in your cache in your "Temporary Internet Files"-folder. These are stored as PNGs. The filenames are named as CA<6_characters>.BIN.

For Windows Live Messenger:
The cache directory is now located at %temp%\MessengerCache and will contain PNGs and GIFs (gifs are used for the animated emoticons only).
Files are named with a hash and have no extension. But if you browse that directory with a graphics program which can reconize graphic formats by their contents you can easly pick the ones you need and copy them.

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And thus those are the exact places where "Display Picture Stealers" will look for the pictures and emoticons of your contacts. So if you delete your temporary internet files (or the MessengerCache folder if you use WLM) then no DP-stealer will find anything because nothing is there to find. For more details see:
CookieRevised's reply to 'How do CE/DP stealers work and do I need them?'
CookieRevised's reply to 'Non-Spyware CE/DP stealer/exporters'

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- I registered today just to say thanks to Cookie Revised.
- I use MSN Messenger Live (not my choice but because MSN wouldnt let me sign in without using downloading and installing Live!)
- I was wondering where the temporary avatar files had moved to.
- I can definitely vouch that what you are saying about the older files containg the CA<6_characters>.BIN is spot on.
- I used to copy them to a blank folder, creating a dummy MS-DOS BAT file and type: -

ren *.bin   *.png

- Windows Image/Fax Viewer would just open it normally.
- I used notepad to verify the file type. The first 3 bytes of info indicate what it is.
- In this case of course the first 3 letters start PNG and have lots of code after it.

Thanks again and take care all .


PEACE OUT !!!



EDIT:

- If you cant be bothered to rename all the temp cached avatars, copy them to a blank folder, creating a dummy MS-DOS BAT file and type: -

ren *.*   *.png

and save it as a *.bat (you cant use the asterix, just call it whatever you want - its not relevant, however do remember that when you do this, it will also rename the batch file).

- This is lazy coding, but im sure you dont need to worry about error checking for something so trivial.

Please help!!

I had to format my hard drive and lost a lot of files (Vista recovery does not seem to work very well)

However when I sign on to MSN I see my old display picture. So it must be stored somewhere in the Internet...

Can anyone tell me where? It's a beautiful picture of my baby I would really appreciate to get back...

Thanks a lot

It is stored on the MSN servers, at that size; thus not on your computer. Sorry, but there is no way to get it back without having a backup.

You could try using some un-delete tools to try finding files that were on the drive before it was formatted, but chances are it's been partially/fully written over by other data

no way to recover it from the servers, then?

thanks

It is stored on the MSN servers, at that size

Cookie said that dt2 is the extention but really they are just jpg/png files. I changed the extension, opened them up in PS, but they are unreadable. How can I read them?