I'd like to know because I want to see if changing the colour quality makes a difference in whatever file format it stores them in.

C:\Documents and Settings\UserName Goes Here\Application Data\Microsoft\MSN Messenger\User Number Goes Here\UserTile

I didn't find the specific folder you were talking about, but I found a similar one:

C:\windows\Application Data\Microsoft\MSN Messenger\USERNAME\UserTile

However, it doesn't seem to be creating/deleting .tmp files when I add/delete avatars. . .

Well the folder is different depeding on wether your has more than one user or not.

Those might be other peopls avatars and not yours , Im not sure

quote:

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Originally posted by NoName
C:\Documents and Settings\UserName Goes Here\Application Data\Microsoft\MSN Messenger\User Number Goes Here\UserTile

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quote:

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Originally posted by LunarCrisis

C:\windows\Application Data\Microsoft\MSN Messenger\MSNPassportID\UserTile

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Where does Messenger store contacts' display pictures?

quote:

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Originally posted by thekid
Where does Messenger store contacts' display pictures?

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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, JPGs 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 decent graphics program which can reconize graphic formats by their contents rather than by their name, 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'

quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
Contacts DP's, CE's, ...
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 also stored as PNG's. They are named as CA<6_characters>.BIN (not sure about the first part "CA" thought, but it seems to be always that with me).

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It's the same for everyone...
Did you look into your "Temporary Internet Files"-folder?

btw, if you look into it with Windows Explorer you wont see the real contents of the folder, but rather the references used by Windows. So, CA<...>.BIN are the (cached) filenames, not the things you'll see with Explorer for that folder.

Browse to that directory and search for things like "JqUgPyxSxEZ+DnSElJn3Zmhpup8=" (or something in that style) and look at their properties, you'll see that the filename is actualy something else.

Note: if you copy those things to another directory, the actual filenames are used (of course).

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...

quote:

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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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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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quote:

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

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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.

--------

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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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?

Yes, but read the post carefully and in context...

I said they are JPGs, PNGs or GIFs. So, it might be that the image you're trying to open is a GIF.

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Also note that that post has been made 5 years ago. So, I talked about normal display pictures which you can find in the UserTile subdirectory. Thus not about the new deluxe display pictures which you will find in the DeluxeDisplayPictures subdirectory.

The new deluxe display pictures which you will find in the DeluxeDisplayPictures subdirectory are, just like Winks, Microsoft Cab Files (MSCF) which consist internally of an XML index file (indexing the states it can show), the main Shockwave Flash file, and a PNG thumbnail representation. The normal extension of these archives is CAB and you can open them with any archiving program which supports MS-CAB files (eg: WinRAR).

PS:
The Winks are actually also MS-CAB files (CAB).
The CustomEmoticons are actually PNGs (PNG) or GIFs (GIF).
The new Dynamic Backgrounds are actually MS-CAB files (CAB).
The new Scenes are actually JPGs (JPG) or PNGs (PNG).
The new Signature Sounds are actually Windows Media Audio files (WMA).

quote:

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Originally posted by halo_dude


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.

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