Shoutbox

So, I got wind of Microsoft merging Messenger accounts with Skype, and I'm sure one of the first questions that came into peoples' minds after knowing this were, "Will I (somehow) still be able to use Messenger after April 8?"

I've done some looking around on the forums, and I haven't yet seen anyone answer this question directly (though I haven't searched very extensively, and I do apologize if a topic of this subject already exists), so I'm asking it in its own thread.

I realize that it's probably too soon to tell what will happen, but let's hypothesize about it. We know that the service will still technically be active, in China, so would tweaking registry settings to trick Messenger into thinking it's running in China be a viable option? Someone will be bound to make a portable patched version eventually.

Also, something else to consider is, just how widespread will this forced merge be? I'm still running Messenger 2009 (14.0.8117.416), albeit in compatibility mode for Vista SP2 (so I can use it on Windows 7), and under this configuration, I never once got a prompt to update to the 2011 and 2012 versions. I wonder if the update will cover the most recent versions of Messenger only.

Another thing is that, even if it is possible to run Messenger after April 8, could you still communicate with your Skype-merged contacts? I'm led to believe you would be able to, since even now users who have chosen to migrate their account to Skype are still able to interact with users still on Messenger.

Just a lot of things on my mind about all this. I'm really comfortable with Messenger 2009 and Plus! 4.9, so I'm hoping that the merge will just graze over my head with little to no hassle.

Thoughts?