Microsoft quickly responded to criticism of this feature by issuing an update to MSN, which removed the ability for MSN Messenger users to send or receive unsolicited messages from anyone not on the MSN contact list. Basically, this meant that anyone who had previously communicated with the MSN user could request that the conversation be sent to them, even if they were not part of the MSN Messenger contact list. Microsoft made these conversations available to other users of MSN Messenger by means of a 'list communication' feature. This feature provided Microsoft with a history of conversations that had been taken place in Microsoft Messenger since the user began using MSN Messenger. A recent update to MSN for the desktop version of MSN Messenger does not yet provide a way for the client to connect to Windows Live Messenger for online chat.Īnother version of MSN Messenger, the Windows XP Home Edition, included a 'Microsoft Now' feature that was available only to home computers running Windows XP. Although Microsoft has not issued an update to this client since its release, the software is still quite popular amongst current Windows Vista users. In 2021, Windows Live Messenger was moved to Windows Vista and is now one of the most widely used free MSN/Vista clients.

While having (at the time of its release) very poor compatibility with Yahoo! Messenger and other browser based instant messengers, it at least had reasonable compatibility with the Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser. MSN Messenger (colloquialized as simply MSN), later re-branded as Windows Live Messenger was a cross-browser instant messaging client built by Microsoft for use on the Microsoft Messenger server.

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