In the end, 6 months were necessary to create this update… 6 months! Looking back, I can’t believe time has passed so fast. This all started out like a standard minor update, destined to be labeled 4.30. I was working on it while most of you were clicking on the 6th Anniversary Contest grid. Then, an idea came up about improving the looks of the Plus! windows, followed by an urge to change everything, and when I finally decided to complete the skinning engine I had started 2 years ago, I knew the update would require more than another week to complete.

Here we are now, in December, 2 weeks away from Christmas, and the update has finally been uploaded to the servers! Not only that but the web site got a serious make-over as well. Everything looks nicer, everything works better; it is now up to you to decide whether or not all these changes were worth the efforts. Once again, I have to thank all the testers, all the translators, the graphic designers and the people in charge of the servers. They are all valuable members of the community, their help is precious and without them, Plus! wouldn’t be the software you know today.

As discussed in previous news posts, the main highlight of this update is skinning. You can now change the appearance of your Messenger, rapidly and securely. All the pictures can be modified, the windows re-shaped and the elements re-colorized… sky is the limit! Some of the testers did a lot of work in the past few weeks to showcase their talents and demonstrate how to work with the system. The resulting skins can be downloaded from the official Skins Database, a new section of msgpluslive.net. Note that some of these skins are not considered “final” (polished enough) by their creators yet but they’re worth downloading nonetheless.

If you’re interested in creating your own Messenger skin, check out the documentation included with Messenger Plus!, visit the help forum, take a look at the current skins to see how they were created and submit your creation when it’s ready to shine! More than 10 million scripts have been downloaded from the Scripts Database since last year already and skins promise to be as popular if not more. Remember that the success of this feature will mostly depend on your submissions so if you feel inspired, possess some basic technical knowledge and got some time ahead of you, don’t be shy and give the system a try! One last thing: in case you’d be wondering, yes, a skinning contest will indeed be organised early next year and every existing skin will be eligible .


Of course, skinning is only one of the many new things offered by this version. The Preferences panel has been re-designed with many new options added all over the place, Script developers can now enjoy new API functions as well as a much better built-in editor with support for IntelliSense and outlining, the Log Viewer has been completely reworked with features like “search in files” and “maximize view”, the Contact List Clean-Up now offers a “show contacts who have me in their list” mode, Contact Information windows give more information about your contacts, new event notifications are conveniently shown in the notification area of your chat windows, the uninstaller includes a Repair mode and is UAC friendly, etc… The sheer size of the Change Log alone should be enough to convince you that this is not a simple refresh of version 4.23.

Note: the software is still available in more than 20 languages, however, translation of the new web site’s pages will take another week or two to be completed. The web site itself is to be considered work-in-progress for some days. Translating from one language to another is a hard and time consuming job. All the translation teams did a tremendous job on the software already, I didn’t feel I could ask more from them before the software was released and people could enjoy the result of the efforts. The good news is that even more pages than before will be translated once the work is done.

That’s it for today. I hope you’ll all be pleased with the update. 22 million of you are now using Messenger Plus!. To me, that’s 22 million reasons to keep on working on it .

Enjoy!
Patchou

Thanks Patchou!  Everybody enjoy this release, theres been a lot of hard work put into it by the beta team and the skinners!   Not to mention, Patchou himself, of course .

Mirror: Download Here

Thanks!

Hot!

Direct Mirror: http://random.menthix.net/mpl_mirror/MsgPlusLive-450.exe
Skins DB: http://www.msgpluslive.net/skins/
Digg: http://digg.com/software/Messenger_Plus_adds_skin..._to_Live_Messenger (yeah sorry, i just had to do it )

Mirror: http://web2live.org/mpl.html

AWESOME WORK TOO PATCHES!

Awesome release

Jumping on the mirror bandwagon.

http://dazzy.org/mpl/MsgPlusLive-450.exe

Top work as always Patch - the new site looks great too, very cool that you can change the colour of it!

yay patchou!!!

I've got it...IT'S MINE! MUAHAHAHA! Thanks btw

Its really awesome. I'm glad that I could test it

Btw, I uploaded to Rapidshare is anyone needs a mirror http://rapidshare.com/files/75319715/MsgPlusLive-450.exe

Another mirror http://mattridolfo.x10hosting.com/MsgPlusLive-450.exe

Good,
Ive been waiting for this (seems like ages)

Thanks Patchou!

I wanted to have 200 posts for this moment.

Nice Work. The the new toasts look so much better.

Gosh so many mirrors. Here is another :
http://scottish.freetzi.com/

Phew I just finished reading the change log. That's a lot!!!

EDIT: When you go to download the skinning documentation from within Plus! it downloads an incomplete version. Hmm...

wow.



Only problem, how to choose a skin from the bunch of awesome ones already! Think i'm going to settle on SkyLines for now.


Patchou,
if only I could shake your hand from here in Australia
edit: get some sleep!

Thanks Patchou!!! - looks great!!! - i´m playing with it right now!!!

quote:

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EDIT: When you go to download the skinning documentation from within Plus! it downloads an incomplete version. Hmm...

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quote:

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Originally posted by Patchou
sorry about that, it's fixed now

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Wooohooo great job Patchou, looking forward to using this, going to do some skinning to, this is gonna be sweet thanks.

Congrats Patch!

Job well done on another quality release

I bet you are glad that its finally out now hehe now you can rest Now we can see skinning come back to life.

I can only say one thing... PROUD OF BEING PART OF THIS PROJECT!!! CONGRATS TO EVERYBODY!!!

I love the new site... colorize feature is just lovely!!!

Thanks for all patch

I am going to have to sleep on this one before i can dive into it. too many new things. so little time

Thanks! I like you

quote:

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Originally posted by Patchou
The good news is that even more pages than before will be translated once the work is done.

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Well done Patchou. I don't usually swear (I lie) but this is one fucking awesome release. Good job =]

Edit: Also a big thankyou to all the beta testers and translators <3

Congrats on a great job.  And also on the fact that the scripts database has had over 10 million downloads now as well

We are making a Special News for Messenger Plus! Live 4.50 in spanish =P

Link

Perhaps it can help to Spanish people who read here, i write it in the Spanish Comunity of Messenger Plus! too

We test it and the firsts skins perfect!!!

Good Job Patchou =P and all the people arround Patchou! Congratulations

Great job Patchou!
Great job on the website too! You can even colorize it (look at the icon on the top right)

Now that I have had a good look at the release...very nice work Patchou!

Keep all this good work up!

Damn I stayed up all night again oh well off to do uni work I suppose, hope people enjoy my skin bye

Great job Patchou! I can't wait for all the skins to come.

* ryxdp waits patiently for a Royale skin, because he doesn't know how to use XML :/

On a lighter note, awesome stuff

Awesome job done Patchy, twas fun testing with you guys.

Thank you Patchou for another fine release with many nice options, I also want to thank you for what you did for the Windows Live Butterflies.

Messenger Plus! Live 4.50 torrent

I haven't even tried it out yet, but here's my torrent, hehe.

Thanks, this looks so awesome
Another mirror

Hope you guys like the GUI and the new website .

We'll be making some incremental improvements over the course of the next few days, particularly on the website (and the forums as well, probably!) but we like how it turned out!

I wanna predict something for the future... MP!L 4.5 SKINNING FOR WLM IS GONNA BE IM CLIENTS DEVELOPED BY THIRD PARTIES FATALITY!!! consider them dead

quote:

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Originally posted by Guido
Hope you guys like the GUI and the new website .

We'll be making some incremental improvements over the course of the next few days, particularly on the website (and the forums as well, probably!) but we like how it turned out!

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Oh my god! It's here!

I totally love the new site and crap, now I know what Willz was doing! He was making Ev0 3.0!!!!

* Matti goes scripting/skinning/Plussing!

Great job !

Amazing.

Woo-hoo

Thanks Patchou

quote:

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Originally posted by Guido
Hope you guys like the GUI and the new website .

We'll be making some incremental improvements over the course of the next few days, particularly on the website (and the forums as well, probably!) but we like how it turned out!

---

thanks, it is great

Yay it worksssss! At last! It works perfectly with vista! W000t! Thank ya  Patchou!

YEAH!!!
Finally, I've been waiting for it...
Anyway, here's another mirror. haha. =)

hawt.
Great work patchy

MP!L 4.5 on skydrive.

Thank you

Thanks Patchou

Thanks a lot !

* rix has finished spreading the news around here

What a beautiful sight it is to see 4.50 released after you've opened your eyes in the morning. Bravissimo!

And the new website is hot! I can't wait to get the translation ready for it. Besides that i'm thinking to take some time off to get to feel skinning. ^^

Another major success in the list of Patchou's achievements.

Thanks for every improvement and as a translator special thanks for "Translation-Log Viewer-Old log files" friendly new Events Style Sheet and translatable Plus! buttons, I think this is the first time that we can translate those buttons' tooltips.

And one question, how did you manage making the size 4.50 MB for this version, a coincidence?

Thanks Patchou!! Finally it is there for us from Aus before the weekend ends.

quote:

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Originally posted by Dazzy
Jumping on the mirror bandwagon.

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very well done, Patchou!

Thanks for all

quote:

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Originally posted by Guido
and the forums as well, probably!)

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Mirror: http://gifpaste.org/MsgPlusLive-450.exe

Been fun testing the entire 4.x series
As usual I've made a mirror for people on irc who can't download it. Don't need to post it of course. You already have tons of mirrors here

Good job Patch. Awesome release

MC LOVIN, NICE!

You know, the funny thing is that the installer is exacly 4,50MB big
it's like patchou ment it to be that big because of the version 4.50

nicely done patchou!

Very Nice Patchou, Very Nice!! ThanKs!!!

Hey Patch. Nice work dude.
:]
Lovin' it tbh.

quote:

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Originally posted by FRD
You know, the funny thing is that the installer is exacly 4,50MB big 
it's like patchou ment it to be that big because of the version 4.50

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quote:

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Originally posted by Choli

but, how did you notice that?

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quote:

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Originally posted by segosa

quote:

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Originally posted by Choli

but, how did you notice that?

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I'm sure it doesn't take an incredibly observant person to see that the filesize and version are the same...

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quote:

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Originally posted by Choli
but, how did you notice that?

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Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

quote:

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Originally posted by FRD

quote:

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Originally posted by Choli
but, how did you notice that?

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it was just a coincidince, but i found it special enough to remark it
and now it's the question if patchou ment it to be like that
maybe he put in some useless code just to make it exacly 4,50MB

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thanks Patchou for the great release that i have been waiting for.
keep up the good work.
And  thanks AGAIN......

This release is so cool. /me downloads
EDIT: King of page 8!

patchou does it again, great work, man

Great work!!
<
* MicroWay downloaded!!!

Great work Patch!

After I do some coursework I'll start looking at the skinning engine

Wow, awesome!!!

It's looking very nice so far. and...

I LOVE THE NEW SITE!!!! Although, you should add Sounds to the downloads drop down (?) menu, together with Skins and Scripts.

Edit: I've gotten fond of the new MP!L looks. Great work, Patchou!

quote:

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Originally posted by Guido
Hope you guys like the GUI and the new website .

We'll be making some incremental improvements over the course of the next few days, particularly on the website (and the forums as well, probably!) but we like how it turned out!

---

Finally released, awesome! its nice to see that is working great as always, excellent job testers!

WOW!!!!! 4.50 it's really really great!!!!! and i like a lot the new web's look, nice work with the translation.. i saw it on my laptop and was a very nice surprise to see the half of the page or a bit more in spanish, just see the link was sooooo nice! i know you are working constantly on every detail,

thanks a lot Patchou and MP! Live team for your constant effort and congrats for the amazing results! i'm sure the hole world is gonna love it!

PS: i'll start working on a new skin  as soon as i finish it i will show you how it looks like

See ya around guys It's party time!!!!!!

Wiiiii

Now, i'm going to make skins

Thanks Patchou =D

thanks for your hard work!
the skinning capability is amazing!!

thank you all for all these nice comments, it's good to wake up and see all of this .

quote:

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making the size 4.50 MB for this version, a coincidence?

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quote:

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maybe he's too lazy to further compress it

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Thanks Patchou

Keep up the good work

Awesome!

amazing Patchou! love the new browser feature in the scripts

omg, ive just seen the new messenger plus popup, it looks so much better!!! Lol it looks just like a million times better

Downloading.

finally
tnks

btw there are some mistakes in the hebrew translation

just installed and its absolutely beautiful!
going through the features now

the colored tabs in the preferences dialog will be missed =(

quote:

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Originally posted by lu_benja
btw there are some mistakes in the hebrew translation

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quote:

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Originally posted by lu_benja
finally
tnks

btw there are some mistakes in the hebrew translation

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congrats Patchou on this wonderful release!

Nice work Patchy.

Love the new script editor.

Thanks for the hard work.

quote:

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Originally posted by ahmetgns

quote:

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Originally posted by lu_benja
btw there are some mistakes in the hebrew translation

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Can you report them in Translation subforum? If you have more time, please check more strings for possible mistakes on them too before reporting the current ones. I'm not Hebrew translator but I believe if you report errors, they all will be fixed in the next version.

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quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised

quote:

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Originally posted by lu_benja
finally
tnks

btw there are some mistakes in the hebrew translation

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You're not the first one saying that (and this is not the first version people say something about the Hebrew translation either)...

The other (unofficial) translator of the Hebrew translation has said it too: http://shoutbox.menthix.net/showthread.php?tid=79...d=871676#pid871676

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thx patch

It's all nice.

'tis a pleasure as always and thank you good sir for all the hard work these 6 and a half years.

True Legend.

James

Great work Patch

I REALLY LIKE the new feature that lets you save the chat logs in a seperate folder for each MSN account. A feature I was after for 4 years!! Thanks Patchou. That's my BEST feature in this  release.

thats really awesome

Definatly good work, very very nice.

Now I need to find a skin which tickles my fancy.

*pokes lizard.boy*

http://shoutbox.menthix.net/showthread.php?tid=79885

- its coming soon



* Nathan then runs from the ban hammer

quote:

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Originally posted by ~*McoreD*~
I REALLY LIKE the new feature that lets you save the chat logs in a seperate folder for each MSN account. A feature I was after for 4 years!! Thanks Patchou. That's my BEST feature in this  release.

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Thanks Patchou. Keep up the good work

Yeah, keep up the good work

Patch, best program I've ever seen, as to do with Messenger.