Microsoft retiring MSN Messenger in Favour of Skype

A nonymous

Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2006
Messages
3,586
Reaction score
913
Points
113
Had a nice e-mail last night from Microsoft telling me they are retiring MSN Messenger in favour of Skype. The email had a nice little link to it, saying that if i install Skype that all my contacts and everything else would transfer over to Skype.

What a complete load of bo**ocks that turned out to be. Installing Skype has un-installed Live messenger which i thought wouldn't be a problem.

I ran the setup page, and followed the link that said, sign in with your Windows live ID.

I have tried that and it says "Theres a problem"

It then suggest changing your Password. Done that twice and i still can't log in.

At this point i thought, nuts to it, i'll go back to MSN Live, only to find that since its deleted it from my PC i can't use that either. I can't download it either as its been removed from Microshafts website.

After a lot of messing about sending emails i have finally got all my contacts back through Skype. I still don't think its as good as messenger was, but as per usual with Microshaft its being forced onto us.

All i can advise is that if you do update to Skype to do it in the evening before you go to bed as it takes an absolute age for everything to migrate, if your lucky :-lmao

Please be warned if you have any saved messenger messages that these will be lost for ever, so think twice before updating to Skype as you will lose everything.

I myself will be looking at going down the route of Google Chat or Yahoo Mail :D

Nano
 

Captain Jack

Burnt out human
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
11,797
Reaction score
7,980
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See signature
My Location
North Somerset
The worst thing is that it will probably be impossible to connect to MSN services using 3rd party apps (I use Pidgin). Not a huge issue for me as I use Skype anyway but a lot of people don't bother with MS's Messengers.
 

aceb

Specialist Contributor
Joined
Oct 2, 2007
Messages
1,537
Reaction score
841
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
Prof Tuner 7301 /
1.25m Gibertini + Inverto B.Ultra/C1W, Moteck H180, 68.5E-67W Ku/C-Band /
1.8m Precision PF + ESX241/Inverto Black Pro, 66E-63W Ku/C-band /
2.4m Fortec Star+Titanium C1W/Pride plate, 49E-58W
My Location
Sussex
I'm worried about a new Skype version being rolled out in the near future and them nobbling connectivity of the old versions. We use Skype extensively for chat, streaming and file transfers and V3.8.0.188 is so much better than the later versions.
 

sonnetpete

Grumpy Old Retired Moderator and quiz inquisitor..
Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Messages
8,948
Reaction score
3,491
Points
113
Age
73
Website
wordpress.com
My Satellite Setup
Laminas 1.2M fibre dish with an IBU, on a Clarke Tech USALS motor, covering 57E - 24.5W to an Octagon SX88. Displayed on a 20" Dyon LED TV.

Seperate 80 cm dish on 28E with a Humax Freesat for SWMBO.
Free Sat V8 meter. Sony Bravia 46" LCD, Sony BluRay and Home Cinema.
My Location
Normandy, France
I'd never had Skype, but have used Messenger to chat with my stepdaughter. I wanted to chat with my girlfriend in South Africa who used Skype alone, so installed it and had the two running quite happily alongside each other. I also had several badgering emails and eventually migrated the messenger contacts to Skype. It took a few sign in's before it worked but I still have Messenger on my laptop and it runs seperately (still with it's own contact list) from Skype. In fact I can't see any difference from before except that I can no longer change my status on Messenger without making it the same on Skype. I do find that inconvenient when I'm chatting to my girlfriend and my stepdaughter comes online and I can't go "away" to her alone...
 

hairybadger

Bricoleur
Joined
Jul 20, 2012
Messages
1,377
Reaction score
778
Points
113
Location
46.1N 6.4E
My Satellite Setup
see sig
My Location
near Geneva, Haute-Savoie, France
Hmmm pidgin won't do skype without a plugin, and even then you need to have skype running :(
 

2cvbloke

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2006
Messages
9,768
Reaction score
1,808
Points
113
Age
38
My Satellite Setup
No satellite stuff for the moment (aside from a 43cm minidish that was on the house already), Samsung SyncMaster T27B550 Smart TV & Monitor, and a few computers...
My Location
Near Pontop Pike, Co. Durham
I heard about this in November, when I started seeing the little advert thing at the bottom of MSN windows saying "Upgrade to Skype", never thought that M$ would give up one of their flagship instant messaging products in favour of another that someone else built & made a success that M$ bought out... :p

Not switched over yet though, I'm just waiting for them to kill the MSN/WLM service before I do, gives them enough time to iron out the bugs of migrating the accounts over to skype... :p
 

Lazarus

Retired Moderator
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
27,078
Reaction score
8,664
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
80cm Motorised.
Several small Dishes.
Much else.
My Location
North York Moors
I have no idea what MSN Messenger is, have never used it and wouldn't know how to - yet I too got an E Mail about this migration in my rarely used Hotmail account last evening: Marked it as Spam. Sorted.
 

excollier

Bikes, Booze, Rock & Blues
Joined
Mar 16, 2008
Messages
962
Reaction score
469
Points
63
My Satellite Setup
TD 64 and Humax Foxsat HDR with Raydon's custom firmware
My Location
County Donegal - furthest outpost of the EUSSR
As long as Hotmail is unaffected, it is irrelevant to me, I never used Messenger.
 

Captain Jack

Burnt out human
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
11,797
Reaction score
7,980
Points
113
My Satellite Setup
See signature
My Location
North Somerset
hairybadger said:
Hmmm pidgin won't do skype without a plugin, and even then you need to have skype running :(
Exactly - which is why I am worried that I won't be able to connect to the new MSN using 3rd party apps.
 

A nonymous

Member
Joined
Sep 24, 2006
Messages
3,586
Reaction score
913
Points
113
Can't see it being long before new 3rd Part apps come out that can connect to skype in all honesty :D
 

hairybadger

Bricoleur
Joined
Jul 20, 2012
Messages
1,377
Reaction score
778
Points
113
Location
46.1N 6.4E
My Satellite Setup
see sig
My Location
near Geneva, Haute-Savoie, France
nano said:
Can't see it being long before new 3rd Part apps come out that can connect to skype in all honesty :D
Ah, I see your point. Necessity is the mother of invention :)
 
Top