Shoutbox

hi there friends,

i searched google and your forum and read the complete faq for the location of the MP!L settings, but couldn't find anything that helped me.

the problem is: my former/ old computer crashed and was broken: windows didn't start anymore and i couldn't get it running with help of friends and everything, spend some time on it. so i couldn't export all my settings and stuff.
however my old harddisk is not broken and i could copy my old things to my new harddisk which roxxo0rzors. though i have difficulties with some things.
i managed to get my msn live smileys, found them in objectstore folder, most of you probably know it and it's location, think it was documents and settings/username/application data/microsoft/messenger/object store blah, not like this but close...
it was no problem to have a look at all the cool (new) features of MP!L (again) but i don't want to create and edit all my smiley settings/ lists/ groups, i really want it/ them back and i really spend some time to create lists and everything with maaany smileys...
so that's why i want to copy my old MP!L settings from my old harddisk to my new harddisk so i can use my old smiley lists/ groups.

in short: i can't export the MP!L settings of my old computer but need the settings on my new one. so i want to copy and past the MP!L settings just like i copy and saved my msn smileys. there must be a folder i can copy, where is it?

thanks so much for answering! can't wait for your wise answers!

PS: i love MP!L and all the scripts and people who created all this even without money, together with the mess patch from mess.be WML really roxxRzs.

Messenger Plus! Live keeps its settings in the Windows registry. I believe that you may be able to access this still using the registry editor, and importing a hive, but I'm not going to provide instructions myself as I am unsure of how exactly to do so.

ah mh i hoped it was kept in files, like smileys and other settings of msn... i don't know very much about using the registry. would be cool if someone posted the path where it is and where i have to put it...

thx for answering MeEtc! and that's waluigi in your msn ava

The path of Plus! settings in registry is: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Patchou\Messenger Plus! Live <<< This is for the whole list. But if you need your own settings it is one step down: "(same)\your Windows Live ID"

I have no idea how you can access registry on an external drive but once you access them, exporting that part must be enough. Then you must import it to your new drive. Typing "regedit" in the Start>Run window opens Registry Editor at normal computers but I don't know how you access the registry on another drive.

ukay, so if someone knows how to open the registry of an external drive, i would be glad if you told me... ^^ i'll post how, if i find out. but i also figured that i don't really need it, so... but would be cool anyway.

and thanks for teh path. you rock!

Steps to open registry settings from another install of Windows (Steps are for XP only)

Do EXACTLY what is listed here, or risk screwing something up very badly!

The majority of Messenger Plus! Live settings are stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Patchou\Messenger Plus! Live. The Hive key for users is stored in the ntuser.dat file found in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\ (or whatever the drive letter happens to be)

1. Open Registry Editor. Start > Run > regedit
2. Make a backup of the registry as it is now. Right-click My Computer at the top of the list at the right and select Export. Save the file as "regbackup.reg" and put it on the Desktop. Make sure the option for "All" is selected for the export range.
3. Highlight the folder on the left hand side named HKEY_USERS
4. Open the File menu, and select "Load Hive"
5. Browse for the ntuser.dat file from the old install of Windows, in your old user folder.
6. Name the hive "Old user account"
7. Browse to HKEY_USERS\Old User Account\Software\Patchou
8. Right-Click the Patchou folder and select "Export". Name the file "msgplus.reg", save it to the Desktop, and make sure "Selected Branch" is chosen for range.
9. Highlight the Old User Account folder again. Under the File menu, select "Unload Hive"
10. Open the file msgplus.reg located on the Desktop in Notepad. DO NOT DOUBLE-CLICK THE FILE! Open Notepad first, and then use the file browse within Notepad.
11. Find and replace all references to "HKEY_USERS\Old User Account\Software\" with "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\"
12. Save the file.
13. Go back to Registry Editor again, select File > Import. Browse for the msgplus.reg file you just saved.
14. You're done! Close Registry Editor and (re)start WLM

At any time, if you think you have made a mistake, doubleclick the regbackup.reg file on the desktop and start again from step 1

If you don't want to wait hours for the backup to be saved, if you don't want to waste a lot of megabytes for the backup and don't want to replace stuff in the exported file, and if you wanna play it safe, you can use many free tools to load registry hives....

In order to backup or export everything you need to get your hands on the registry settings in both HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHIVE. Although HKEY_LOCAL_MACHIVE isn't really needed since this only stores the global settings which are also set when you install Messenger Plus! Live. I only mention instructions here for completeness sake.

Anyways,

in Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 the system registry is stored in the following files:
NTUSER.DAT : contains the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive
SAM : contains the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHIVE\SAM hive
SOFTWARE : contains the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHIVE\SOFTWARE hive
SECURITY : contains the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHIVE\SECURITY hive
SYSTEM : contains all other subhives of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHIVE

NTUSER.DAT is located in the \Documents and Settings\<username> folder.
The other files are located in the \Windows\system32\config folder.
Sometimes, you can also find copies of registry files in the \Windows\repair folder.

But do remember that many if not all of these files are hidden. So in order to see them you need to enable View Hidden and System files in Windows Explorer.
Also, the hive files from your currently logged on Windows account are locked for reading and writing.



Tools to open these hive files can be found on the internet using Google or other search engine (search for "read registry hive").

eg:
MiTeC Windows Registry Recovery
- the round download button is on the right top side.
- program is completely free
- no installation is required; just unzip the file and run the one file

instructions

get Messenger Plus! registry setting from HKEY_CURRENT_USER:

1) Open up "\Documents and Settings\<username>\ntuser.dat"
2) Click on the last button in the right side menu named "Raw Data"
3) Now navigate in the left pane to "Software\Patchou\Messenger Plus! Live"
4) Click on first button in the right side menu "Export to REGEDIT4 format"
5) Choose the key prefix "HKEY_CURRENT_USER"
6) Select "Only selected key" and "Cut off root key name"
8) Press "OK", enter the desired filename
9) Wait until the export is finished (this can take a while!)

get Messenger Plus! registry setting from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE:

1) Open up "\Windows\system32\config\SOFTWARE."
2) Click on the last button in the right side menu named "Raw Data"
3) Now navigate in the left pane to "Patchou\Messenger Plus! Live"
4) Click on first button in the right side menu "Export to REGEDIT4 format"
5) Choose the key prefix "HKEY_CURRENT_USER"
6) Select "Only selected key" and "Cut off root key name"
8) Press "OK", enter the desired filename
9) Wait until the export is finished (this can take a while!)

Now you have REG files with all the registry settings from Messenger Plus! Live.

PS: if you get an "out of memory" error, start the process over again but this time do it subkey by subkey.
This means in step 3, navigate further to a subkey instead of just to the main "Messenger Plus! Live" key. Afterwards repeat everything with the next subkey under "Messenger Plus! Live". Of course, don't forget to name each exported REG file differently.

---------------------------

Note: For whatever method you use, remember that some registry settings can include path and file names!!!
So, if you import these registry files again without modifying these REG files first, you could end up with wrong Plus!-settings.