Shoutbox

Hi,

I uninstalled and reinstalled Windows Live Messenger the other day thinking there was something wrong with the offline messaging feature. When I got it reloaded I noticed the backgrounds have disappeared. I'm now seeing boxes with x's inside them. Does anybody know how to bring the backgrounds back? I had some of my own that I added to Windows Live Messenger too and they are gone as well. The emoticons and display pics are fine. It's just the backgrounds not showing anymore. Windows Live Messenger was working fine till I uninstalled and reinstalled it. Hope somebody out there can help me fix Windows Live Messenger so I can use my backgrounds. When I put them back in they disappeared again after I signed back on . Lots of help from anybody will be greatly appreciated. If someone needs me to show a screenshot of the blank boxes I will be glad to attach the file. I've tried contacting Windows Live Messenger Tech Support and I'm having a hard time explaining the problem to them. I am hoping that someone in here will be able to understand what I'm trying to say and hopefully give me some good answers on how to fix the backgrounds. Don't know what to do to make the backgrounds stop disappearing. There's gotta be a fix to this kinda problem.

Thanks,
Liz aka Auntie Liz

Here's a screenshot of what I'm seeing in the backgrounds window.

- Uninstall Windows Live Messenger (Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs)
- Delete the C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger\ folder
- Download Windows Live Messenger again
- Install it

You should then be able to see your backgrounds.

Hi, Chris

Thanks for replying back to me. Never thought about uninstalling Windows Live Messenger, deleting the folder, redownloading and reinstalling it again. I have a dial-up connection. It'll take too long for me to download it so I'll have to wait till I go visit my cousin. He has faster internet connection and will download it for me and put it on my little flash drive . I do hope that the backgrounds will work after I get it reinstalled. When I downloaded the first time I downloaded it with my download accelerator. Do you think that might've caused a problem with the installation?

quote:

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Originally posted by Chris4
- Uninstall Windows Live Messenger (Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs)
- Delete the C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger\ folder
- Download Windows Live Messenger again
- Install it

You should then be able to see your backgrounds.

---

That won't actually help I'm afraid.

What you can do is remove each one of the 'X' boxes and re-add the backgrounds. That should work , but it may not be able to recover defaults. Let us know how you get on with it.

Hi, RaceProUK

I gave up removing and re-adding the backgrounds because they just kept on disappearing. I'm gonna try doing what Chris suggested, but first I gotta ask my cousin to download Windows Live Messenger for me since he has faster internet connection. Right now, I'm just gonna stay positive and hope Chris' suggestion will work for me .

Did you not see I said it wouldn't help? Deleting the WLM folder won't fix the problem at all. Instead, close WLM fully. Then, hit Start > Run, and type (in quotes) "%appdata%\Microsoft\MSN Messenger", and then Enter. Open the folder that corresponds to your account (if there's only one, that's it), and delete the Backgrounds folder.

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Thanks Chris4!

Then restart Messenger. It will re-add the defaults, and then you can re-add your own.

RaceProUK,

Yeah, I saw that. I deleted the backgrounds folder and restarted Windows Live Messenger to re-add my backgrounds and they still disappeared so I've given up for right now till I get me a new copy of Windows Live Messenger this Friday when I go see my cousin. I believe there may be a problem with my installation file because I downloaded it with the download accelerator the first time.

I'm having the same problem. I tried doing what RaceProUK said, but there was no folder that corresponds to my account...  there was only a whole lot of folders named as numbers - see picture. I havn't tried uninstalling - reinstalling msn live would that help?? and if so, would it delete my stored settings??