Windows Live Messenger

Sometimes, it's the simple things that matter. Forget about PC to Phone calling and better file sharing support, what I really liked about the new Windows Live Messenger that recently went out of beta is how intuitive it is. Yesterday I saw a few of my buddies were displaying what they're listening to in my contact list and wondered how to enable it. Simply click on the arrow in personal message line below your IM name and check "Tun on 'What I'm Listening To'". Sure it's probably in the options menu but having it right there was quite handy and intuitive. The neat part is that it not only works with the expected Windows Media Player but also for iTunes with no plugins necessary.

Turn on What you're listening to


Another feature that I like is the option to hide the vertical bar of tabs that appears on the left side of the contacts list. The checkbox is under Tools -> Options -> Tabs.

hide tabs option



posted on Friday, June 23, 2006 11:01 AM by AlanL

Comments

# re: Windows Live Messenger

Friday, June 23, 2006 4:38 PM by Alan Le
Yes yes, the "now playing" feature has been in Messenger since version 8. However the point of my post is that enabling the feature is just a single click away without having to explore the options menu or googling it up. Also the iTunes integration without plugins was a nice surprise.

# re: Windows Live Messenger

Thursday, January 18, 2007 9:10 AM by Jim
Though somehow it doesn't work for me even though I have the latest updates for Windows Live Messenger and Windows Media Player.