Shoutbox

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Originally posted by chair
Removing such feature w/o even warning the users was the stupidest thing ever.
WLM 2011 is a piece of crap
You cant even change your nickname. Why on earth did  they do that !?

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They changed it with plenty of noise on their live blog (i assume...)

besides, id rather have alittle more work to do than to have malicious attacks spreading

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Originally posted by Oxy
They changed it with plenty of noise on their live blog (i assume...)

besides, id rather have alittle more work to do than to have malicious attacks spreading

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Did you just say that you'd rather work little harder to get the malicious software on your computer? (rhetorical question ) The result is the same weather you click on the link or drag'n drop it to the browser...
What they actually do is insulting tech savy people by leveling them to the "average" users without giving them a choice.

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Originally posted by V@no
The result is the same weather you click on the link or drag'n drop it to the browser...

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yes, but people are a lot less inclined to copy, open browser and paste the link, than clicking on it directly. Those few extra seconds more work may be enough for people to realise there is maybe something fishy going on.

Even "tech savy" people often have that automatic reflex to click on links without thinking.
(as a matter of fact, I just dealed with somebody asking for help, who is more or less "tech savy", who clicked on a link in an automatic reflex (not in Messenger though) and started a virus. He even knew it was a virus. Having a non-active link would have prevented something like that)

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Originally posted by V@no
What they actually do is insulting tech savy people by leveling them to the "average" users without giving them a choice.

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Yes it might be a bit annoying for those few links you'll receive in an average conversation, but I can safely say I'm "tech savy" and I don't feel insulted at all, not even in the slightest way.

It is a much quicker way and the 'protection' will be instant for a lot more people, than if they would have waited to create, test, and distribute a new version of Messenger and wait for everybody to update.

I can assure you that they do not take such measures lightly. But in the end, this was the only possible 'protection' for people using the old WLM version.

They should disable file transfer as well then

Is MPL! capable do something about it via script routine? I know we can easily detect web addresses, but is it possible make part of the incoming text clickable or detect when user clicked on part of a text?

Now thinking about it, I'd rather have a script that would handle links (like Spunky mentioned, with CTRL key) then having the old way when it's pain in the ass mark the text if it starts with a link..

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Originally posted by V@no
Is MPL! capable do something about it via script routine? I know we can easily detect web addresses, but is it possible make part of the incoming text clickable or detect when user clicked on part of a text?

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Nope, you can't make text clickable (and that's a very good thing btw) via scripting.

You also can't detect when a user clicked in the conversation area, at least not with normal scripting. Using some advanced methods (involving subclassing, accessebility features, and what not) it might be possible, but I don't see anybody investing their time in something like that anytime soon.

But, I think this will work



Look at the typing side

its clickable, I can click on www.google.com in the WLM Convo window at the Typing area only

I think we could get an advantage of that

for example, we can fetch http:// or www. in the conversation

and copy it via script to the typing area, and it will be marked or highlighted, so if we typed anything it'll remove the link from the typing area

or what do you think?

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Originally posted by kabso 5
But, I think this will work

for example, we can fetch http:// or www. in the conversation

and copy it via script to the typing area, and it will be marked or highlighted, so if we typed anything it'll remove the link from the typing area

or what do you think?

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By what was said earlier (either in this thread, or another elsewhere) the change was not prompted by an update, heavily suggesting it was a server side flick of a switch if you will.

I can assume from that information, and your image, that the typing box is local (obviously), and that the disable of the hyperlink happens server side (thus why its not clickable in the message box you both share)

if somethings server side, i highly doubt you can manipulate it.

what they suggested is move received text links into input box, WLM automatically will convert them into clickable links. Theoretically it could work, but IMO it would create more problems then solve annoyance...

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Originally posted by V@no
what they suggested is move received text links into input box, WLM automatically will convert them into clickable links. Theoretically it could work, but IMO it would create more problems then solve annoyance...

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indeed, that will open a whole lot more problems and (even bigger) annoyances.

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just make a script which detects urls in messages and which has a keyboard shortcut to open the 'last received' url in that conversation and be done with it.
(note: urls can contain many protocols though, http is just one of many. eg: https, ftp, irc, news, etc...)

Or use Spunky's script:
Spunky's reply to Is this issue caused by plus?

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Originally posted by John Scarrow (General Manager - MS Safety Services) on WindowsTeam Blog on November 16, 2010 as a reply to posts

Thanks for the comments on the post.   I’m hearing 3 general concerns here that I’d like to address.

Q: Why disabling and why only just now?

1) It’s true that similar attacks have been out there for some time, and we’ve been monitoring them, which is why we introduced the new Link Safety Feature in Windows Live Messenger 2011. However the difference with this particular variant of SLENfBot.AKD, (which is actually hitting several industry IM clients, and not just Windows Live Messenger), is that it is off the charts in terms of scale.  We have work going on now to illuminate this particular threat so we can restore hotlinks, but the volume of attacks was too significant to let continue without any remediation.  The number of customers that have been impacted on a daily basis is very significant, and every impacted customer leads to many more customers being hit with spam, and chances are, some percentage of those receiving the spam will click the link and expand the attack further. 

Q: Users do not like it / Insulting for 'tech savy' users / etc

2) Folks that spend time on this blog are clearly “better than average drivers” and in some cases feel that removing the hot links is more undesirable that the perceived protection of disabling them.  Again, we hope this is a short term issue for older versions of Messenger. We’ve heard your feedback loud and clear on the ability to turn off warnings, and are investigating ways to make this possible in the future.

Q: It is just an attempt to let people update

3) Because we work hard to make our software more and more secure with every release, from a security standpoint we always hope that users will follow us as we release new versions of our software. However, I want to make it very clear that this security response is absolutely not an attempt to nudge folks to upgrade.  We understand and respect that with any change to such an ubiquitous IM client as Messenger there will always be changes that some folks don’t like and/or may not be able to take advantage of due to OS versions, etc.  We’ll continue to innovate both in features and security and look forward to broader adoption over time, as you see fit.

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questions/comments added by me for clarification