There are 3 instant messengers inside my computer - ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger. I have stopped using ICQ as it is obsolete and getting lousier with each version. Yahoo! Messenger is MMU’s official IM and MSN Messenger is a very popular IM among friends.

Since I installed MSN Messenger when I got my 24/7 connection, I was not very happy and satisfied with the interface and the functions available in it. Not only that, since my PC is very old (4 years old), certain useless features are eating up my resources, memory and CPU usage. Thus, slowing down my computer and then, crashing my other programs as well. In other words, I want my IM to be advertisement free, simple interface, easy viewing and only comes with features that are useful to me.

After weeks of endless crashing, reinstalling, configuring, patching, tweaking, testing and debugging, I managed to have my simplified, modified and “canggih”-fied version of MSN Messenger. I am currently quite happy with the results and I am showing my work modified and personalized MSN Messenger here.

Why do I need to see my own display picture before I login?

3 links are removed at the bottom of the login screen.

I have removed “MSN Messenger” wordings at the top of the messenger.

“MSN Today” and “MSN Space” button were removed, as they are totally useless to me. The email button will open up my default browswer - Fire Fox instead of Internet Explorer.

The useless tabs were removed as well.

I hate advertisements in my IMs. Like David a.k.a Narrowband said, “I search for informations in my browser, not in my IMs.”

To make the interface as simple as possible, I have removed the least used icons/shortcuts, leaving the “Send File/Photo” button only.

Certain functions like “Voice Clips”, “Packs” and “Audibles” are removed as I do not use them at all. The sentence - “Click here to customize your MSN Messenger.” has been removed as well.

By default, a normal message can send up to few hundred characters only. After tweaking them, I can send up to 5000 characters or basically more than 1 blog post in 1 single message. It comes in handy when I am about to copy/paste long informations, emails, chat logs and etc.

There are certain people you do not want to miss talking to them, right? Therefore, with this function, you can choose which contact/user to pop up whenever they are online. It gives you more convenience and faster access to the person you want to chat with.

When you are away from your computer, you can lock your messenger so that other people cannot use your messenger to chat with your lovers, mistress or gay friends.

You can hide the MSN Messenger icon at your taskbar (closing it automatically as well) by pressing shortcut keys. It is very handy while you are working and your boss is coming towards you in a few steps.

When I am away from the computer, I want to know who has online and offline. This feature will keep a log of all activities in my MSN - online, offline, change name, change status, idle and etc.

I can run 2 messengers at the same time as well, which is impossible if you do not tweak your MSN Messenger. I can login to 2 different accounts at the same time. You never know when this feature will come in handy. (one of the evil features) -evil grins-

There are a few more functions as well which I did not include in this post such as sending offline messages, to annoy the user by nudging continously, multiple display name, automatic response message when you are away/idle, personalized status, colours in your display name, special sound effects for special contacts/users, send more than 5 emoticons in 1 message, open all links in your default browser instead of Internet Explorer, set the search toolbar to search Google instead of MSN Search, rename the contact/user name to the one you desire and a lot more evil features which I shall not disclose here. -grins-

Have fun tweaking your MSN Messenger. -wink-

P/S :

I am using MSN Messenger version 7.5.0299, which is currently the latest version.

Google Talk might be the next IM to replace all 3 IMs, but the time is yet to arrive.

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