Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Windows Live Messenger

Messenger lets you know if you have email and lets you go directly to Hotmail, and to Windows Live Mail if you have it installed. It also lets you know what your friends (those in your Contacts list) are doing via the "What's New" area at the bottom of the page. You can expand the "What's New" area to include new photos and other details.

Messenger also lets you type a personal message at the bottom of your Contacts list and send it, similar to using an Instant Message or Twitter to send a quick message to all of your contacts.

You can also change the layout of your Contacts list and the size and shape of icons representing your contacts.

1. Click the Layout icon; then choose Layout from the menu.
2. Choose the size of your icons and move your categories around as needed.
3. Click the Preview button to see what it will look like. If you like what you see, click OK.

You can also customize your Windows Live Messenger background to suit your current mood.

1. Move your mouse over the upper-right corner of the Contacts pane until the paintbrush appears, and then click it.
2. Scroll through the scenes and select the one you want.
3. Click Apply to see a preview, and click OK to choose it as the background. Your friends will see your new background, too.

Interoperability Between Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger users can chat with each other without needing to create an account on the other service, provided both contacts use the latest versions of their respective software.

From either Yahoo! Messenger or Live Messenger, make sure the person you want to talk with is in your Contacts list; then create a message as you normally would.

Your message now appears on the other person's screen.
If the other person is using older or third-party software, that user will appear offline to you.

Windows Live Messenger 2009 is expected to improve multiclient support in the near future, adding Google Talk, AOL, ICQ, and XMPP.

Offline Messaging

With Windows Live Messenger, you can send messages to another user who is offline, and the messages will be delivered when that person is logged in to Messenger. In addition, you can start a conversation even when your status is set to Appear Offline (similar to behavior in Yahoo! Messenger and ICQ). If you are messaging with someone who has an older version of MSN Messenger, the other person will lose the ability to talk to you after a short period of no activity because their messaging program will conclude that you are offline.

Windows Live Call

In previous versions of Windows, you could make PC-to-PC phone calls using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). In Windows 7, you can also make PC-to-phone calls with Windows Live Call, as part of Live Messenger.

In the United States, this feature is supported by Telefonica. Orange also has a similar service in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Finland, Belgium, Spain, and Italy.

Games and Applications

You can play games or share applications via Windows Live Messenger. Click the Games icon and a window opens, allowing you to challenge your friend or contact to participate in a competition or a game or invite them to launch a shared external application.

The Symbian60 Platform

You can run the S60 version of Windows Live Messenger on mobile phones such as the Nokia Smartphone and others. When enabled, this version includes grouped contacts, voice clips, image and file sending, as well as features unique to S60, such as tabbed chat windows and integration with the contact list and other features of the S60 platform. When you log on to Windows Live Messenger, you'll be prompted to start the S60 version if it is enabled.

Communicating with an Xbox User

You can use your Xbox 360 console and Xbox Live to connect to your existing Windows Live Messenger contacts and chat as you play a game, watch a movie, or enjoy any other Xbox 360 activity. If you have an Xbox 360 Chatpad, you can also use the Chatpad for easy access to messenger features. To start or respond to conversations from an Xbox 360, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to Xbox LIVE.
2. Press the Xbox 360 Guide button, and then select Chat & IM.
   Note You can also press the Messenger icon on your Xbox 360 Chatpad.
3. Select Sign In. When you are prompted, enter your Windows Live ID password to sign in to Windows Live Messenger on your Xbox 360 console.
   Note Windows Live Messenger uses the Windows Live ID that is attached to your Xbox LIVE account.
4. Select New Conversation, or select an existing conversation as listed on screen.
5. Select the contact with whom you want to begin a chat.
6. To chat with your contact, follow the instructions.

If you are using Windows Live Messenger, you can see the Gamertags of friends logged in to Xbox Live, including the games they are playing.

Windows Live Mail

Windows Live Mail is an email program intended to be the successor for Outlook Express on XP and Windows Mail on Vista. Windows Live Mail has all the features Windows Mail had, plus the following new features:

• Support for other web-based email packages, including Windows Live Hotmail, Gmail (Google Mail), and Yahoo! Mail Plus.
• A user interface that looks like the other Windows Live applications.
  Windows Live Mail lets you send and receive email the way you did under other email providers, but with new features.
• Synchronization with Windows Live Contacts.
• Support for RSS feeds. This includes the capability to reply directly via email to the author of an item that appears in an RSS feed and the capability to aggregate multiple feeds into a single folder. The RSS functionality requires at least Internet Explorer 7.
• Multiline message lists, the way they worked in Outlook.
• The capability to include emoticons (such as smileys or winks) in emails and other functions.
• Spell checking while creating messages.
• Separate inbox folders for different POP accounts.
• Better support for sending picture files in emails, including basic photo correction and application of different border effects to pictures.

Windows Live Mail also features a new calendaring function. Calendar events are automatically synchronized between Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Calendar.