Happy New Year everybody!

It’s now official, Microsoft has released the final version of Windows Live Messenger 2009 on the Live web site. That’s about time. It took more than a year of beta versions to get to this new release but it was worth the wait. Of course, it means Messenger Plus! needs a final update too and I’ve got good news: I just saved a bunch of mon… I mean, the beta version available in the Download page has been updated to support the new Messenger. The new build number is 353. Even better, Messenger Plus! Live 4.80 will officially be released before the end of the month :-).

Two reasons pushed me to refresh the public beta before doing a final release: first, the sooner the better. I know many of you were wondering what would happen with Messenger add-ons with the new Messenger and this beta it meant to be somehow reassuring. After all, everything is fully functionnal again, including emotion sounds, scripts, skins, logs, colors, event notifications, as well as the hundred of other features&options offered in the software. Secondly, I thought some developers may like to benefit from the research I had to do during the past few weeks in the windows files of Messenger; more precisely, in UIB data files.

To make a long story short, UIB files (resource type “4010″ for those who know what I’m talking about) can be entirely decoded and re-encoded by Messenger Plus! and this functionnality is offered to every other add-ons and patches that needs it. So, if you’re the developer of a program that requires to modify the windows’ files of Messenger (previously “4004″ and “4005″), download the latest version of the Skinning Documentation and read the new “Encoding and Decoding UIB” section in “Specialized Subjects”. Three pages of documentation have been written to explain how to decode and re-encode UIB files in your application in a matter of minutes.

I hope this new version of Plus! will be useful, for end-users and developers alike. If you have anything to say about the new features, have comments, suggestions, or things to talk about in general, don’t hesitate to visit the forum. Have fun with the new Messenger!