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Home»Software»Windows»Dave's Messenger»Version History

Version History

(not yet released; last updated: 22 May 2010)

• Updated to use MSNP13 (MSN Protocol version 13). This means that you can now request a new conversation (and hence send IMs) while invisible (appearing offline). Also with MSNP13 comes offline messaging (sending IMs to contacts that are offline), but this has not yet been implemented.
• Your contact list is now retrieved and updated using SOAP requests (as per Windows Live Messenger 8 and above). This allows for the following:
• Your entire address book can be retrieved in this way, rather than being limited to just the contacts that are actually on your contact list.
• Your address book can be re-retrieved (synchronised) at any time without having to sign out and back in again. This is useful if you have made changes to your address book in Windows Live Hotmail. A 'Re-sync Address Book' menu item has been added to the account context menu, and a button to the toolbar in Contact Manager.
• Contacts can now also be deleted from your address book, rather than just from your contact list. Previously, contacts would remain in your address book after removing them from your contact list.
• Contacts can now be added to your address book without adding them to your contact list. Similarly, existing contacts can be added to groups without adding them to your contact list.
• Contacts can now be removed from your contact list without them being removed from all groups. This is useful if you want to remove them from your contact list but leave them in your address book.
• The contact context menu has been redesigned to accommodate these changes.
• Additional information for each contact, such as their name, address, phone numbers, additional E-mail addresses, etc., can now be entered. Contact Properties has been updated to include these additional fields. Any changes made here will be reflected in Windows Live Hotmail and vice versa.
• When using the 'Send E-mail' and 'Copy E-mail Address to Clipboard' menu items in the contact context menu, you can now select which E-mail address you want to use (in the case of individual contacts for whom you have entered more than one E-mail address) instead of the contact's IM E-mail address always being used. If multiple contacts are selected, the contact's primary E-mail address is always used.
• Integration with Windows Live Spaces. You can now see which contacts have created their own Space and view it using the 'View Space' menu item in the contact context menu.
• Main Window:
• Added new nodes to the tree view:
• New E-mails.
• New contacts (contacts that have added you).
• Contacts that have removed you.
• Contacts that are allowed but not on your contact list.
• Updating the list should be a lot quicker and smoother now. Also, the list should no longer scroll down when populating your contact list (i.e. after signing in or opening the Main Window).
• Accounts can now be re-ordered by drag and drop rather than the tedious move up/down menu items, which have now been removed.
• Contacts can now be moved to a different group by drag and drop.
• Changed the text of some menu items on the identity context menu and account context menu to avoid confusion. The 'Connect' menu item now reads 'Sign In' when you are not signed in, and 'Status' when you are signed in or are signing in. The 'Disconnect' menu item now reads 'Sign Out' when you are signed in, and 'Cancel Sign In' when you are signing in.
• Grouped the web services in the account context menu (Windows Live Hotmail, Profile, etc.) together in a 'Web Services' sub menu. Also added 2 more: Windows Live Calendar and Report Abuse.
• Removed 'Service Status' menu item from the main menu. The status as reported by this page has always been 'All systems are stable and running' for the last 2 or 3 years, even when the service is down, so one can only assume that Microsoft no longer use this page for reporting the status.
• Fixed exception when you log on Identity then quickly click in the Main Window before the tree view can be drawn (occurs on slower PCs or when CPU usage is fairly high).
• Fixed bug where account nodes sometimes weren't expanded when signing in.
• Fixed problem where certain default E-mail clients, such as Microsoft Outlook, could not be opened using the Open E-mail Client menu item on the Tools menu.
• Contact Manager:
• Contacts are now displayed in groups, as per Windows Explorer's 'show in groups' option (Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008 only).
• Added 'Search for a contact' button to the toolbar.
• Updated the icons for some of the toolbar buttons.
• Updating and scrolling the list should be a lot quicker and smoother now. Also, contacts should no longer become deselected when the list is updated.
• Fixed bug where trying to find/select a contact by typing the first few letters of the contact's name had no effect (this is actually a bug in the .NET Framework).
• Fixed bug where Contact Manager would freeze for a few seconds when selecting/deselecting several hundred contacts. It would appear that the .NET Framework is notifying the application that the selection has changed for each contact rather than one notification for all contacts. Thanks, Microsoft.
• IM windows:
• Reduced the minimum height, by request.
• Updated the icons for some of the toolbar buttons.
• You can now start a conversation with multiple contacts by selecting multiple contacts in Contact Manager or an IM window and right clicking. Previously, you had to start a conversation with just one contact and invite the rest.
• The last conversation date is now shown as contacts join a conversation.
• Changed the colours of some of the message text:
• Invitation/file transfer messages, which were grey previously, are now shown in blue to make them more visible.
• Contact status/nickname changes, which were blue previously, are now shown in grey. All grey text can now be ignored if you are not interested.
• You are no longer alerted when you receive an instant message when the emoticons list is open.
• You are no longer alerted when a contact accepts or declines an invitation, or (for file transfers) if there was an error during the transfer, as it proved to be too annoying when sending/receiving several files at once. You are still alerted when you receive an invitation, though.
• Fixed bug where the rich text box wasn't automatically scrolled to the bottom when you receive a message when the IM window is minimised.
• Avatars:
• Updated the 'silhouette' image used when a contact does not have an avatar.
• Tweaked the code for sending/receiving avatars slightly to work better with other IM clients (especially the official client).
• Fixed issue where the official client would keep inviting you to a conversation ('contact has invited you to a conversation' alert) after receiving an avatar for that contact until you blocked them, signed out or changed status to invisible. This was due to the documentation I have for avatar transfers being incorrect.
• Identity Settings:
• Added 'Show Hotmail contacts' checkbox.
• Added an option to open your inbox rather than the new E-mail when clicking on an alert for a new E-mail. This saves having to close the full message view to read other E-mails in Windows Live Hotmail.
• The default filters can now no longer be edited and are always enabled.
• Added 'Defaults' button for alerts.
• Replaced 'Search using Google' menu item in rich text box context menus with new search submenu that allows you to search using any of the search providers as set up in Internet Explorer 7. If no search providers are set up (i.e. you don't have IE7 installed), it will default to Google.
• Added 'sign in now' checkbox to the Add Account window to save you having to sign in manually after adding an account.
• Your account's unique id is now shown in Account Settings.
• Removed the Delete Group window as it's pretty pointless now that contacts don't have to be in a group. You are now prompted with a standard message box (similar to the one when removing an account from your Identity), and any contacts in the group will revert to ungrouped (assuming they aren't in any other group).
• BBCode colour/style (bold, italic, etc.) tags (e.g. [ b]...[ /b], [ i]...[ /i], etc.) are now filtered from your nickname, personal message and phone numbers, contact's nicknames, personal messages and phone numbers, and group names.
• Added Connection Log window, mainly for debugging purposes but also for those people who are interested.
• Fixed bug where if 'Automatically log on with the following Identity' is selected in Options, the selected Identity will be deleted when Dave's Messenger is run and you will not be automatically logged on (thanks Francis).
• Fixed bug where it would get stuck on 'authenticating' if you previously cancelled a sign in while authenticating.
• Fixed bug where alerts were not always on top on some PCs (Windows XP Media Centre Edition?).
• Fixed bug where file transfers (both uploads and downloads) would not time out when connecting or transferring.
• Fixed changes to your own personal message not being added to the event log.
• Fixed bug where the IM client a contact was using was always showing as 'Unknown' in Contact Properties. Now it shows when another contact is using Dave's Messenger or another client that supports this.
• Changed to manual URL detection for rich text boxes. With automatic detection, only URLs starting with www., ftp. or one of the 'standard' protocol prefixes (http:, https:, ftp:, file:, mailto:, gopher:, nntp:, prospero:, telnet:, news:, wais:, outlook:) are detected, custom protocol prefixes are not supported (e.g. ed2k:, ut2004:) and E-mail addresses are not detected unless they are prefixed with mailto:. All of this has been fixed with manual detection.
• Removed the URL rich text box context menu item as it is pretty pointless now that manual URL detection is working.
• Fixed bug where opening a URL that started with ftp. with no protocol prefix (i.e. without the ftp://) would prepend http:// instead of ftp://.
• Sending messages to contacts' mobile devices that they have set up appears to have been dropped, as attempting to send such a message results in an error, so the following changes have been made:
• The settings related to mobile devices have been removed from Account Settings.
• The 'mobile' property for contacts has been removed from Contact Properties.
• The 'Mobile Device' status text has been removed from Identity Settings and no longer appears after contacts' nicknames in the Main Window or IM windows.
• The 'MSN Mobile' menu item has been removed from the account context menu.
• The 'Send Message to Mobile Device' menu item has been removed from the contact context menu.
• Removed the Send Message to Mobile Device window.
• Phone number sharing also appears to have been dropped as contacts no longer see the phone numbers you have entered in Account Settings, so these settings have been removed. Phone numbers and other contact details can now be shared via your user profile. Use the 'Windows Live Profile' menu item in the account context menu to view/edit your profile.
• Updated to Visual Studio 2010.
• Updated installer to NSIS 2.46.
• Updated installer to install the .NET Framework 4.0.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.2453.24099 (19 Sep 2006)

• Fixed exception introduced in version 1.0.2450.19885 that occurred when logging on Identity when your user avatars directory had not been created (thanks John - I did reply to your E-mail but it bounced!).
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.2450.19885 (16 Sep 2006)

• Avatars:
• Avatars in the Select Avatar dialog are now sorted by the date they were received/created in descending order (i.e. most recent first) rather than by their SHA1 hash.
• Added avatar context menu, accessed by right-clicking on a user avatar (i.e. in IM windows or the Contact Properties window) or on an avatar in the Select Avatar dialog:
• Change Avatar (user avatar only): allows you to change the user's avatar. This can be useful if you've blocked the user's current avatar and want to change it to one he/she has previously used.
• Lock on this Avatar (user avatar only): locks on the current avatar so that if the user changes or removes his/her avatar, the change will be ignored and the avatar selected at the time of locking will continue to be used. You can still change the user's avatar manually though (using the above option).
• Save Avatar: allows you to save the avatar as a PNG, JPEG, TIFF or BMP image. Note: the saved image will only be 96*96 in size as this is all that's transferred between clients. If you want the original image, you will need to ask the user to send it you.
• Block Avatar: deletes the local copy of the avatar and prevents it from being displayed or downloaded again. This is useful if an avatar contains offensive, disturbing or otherwise unsuitable content.
• Delete Avatar (Select Avatar dialog only): deletes the local copy of the avatar. Same as above except the avatar is not blocked; it will be downloaded again next time it is encountered.
• Avatars are now deleted when they have not been used (either by you or a contact) for 90 days. Blocked avatars will also revert to unblocked status. These options will be configurable in a future release. Note that this is 90 days of actually being online. For example, if you are online for 6 hours 1 day, 6 hours the next and then 12 hours 3 weeks later, this only counts as 1 day (i.e. 24 hours). This is to prevent all avatars being deleted if you don't sign in for a while.
• Improved performance when signing in when several (15/20+) contacts are online when the Main Window is open (especially when Contact Manager is open as well!).
• Messenger Plus colour/style (bold, italic, etc.) codes are now filtered from your nickname, personal message and phone numbers, contact's nicknames, personal messages and phone numbers, and group names.
• Fixed issue where filtering (for your nickname, personal message and phone numbers, contact's nicknames, personal messages and phone numbers, and group names) was removing certain legitimate characters (including Chinese characters), as these were mistaken for control characters. Filtering now only removes control characters.
• Added error message when trying to create or rename a group when a group with the same name already exists. This used to be possible but no longer is.
• Fixed bug where the URL -> Open rich text box context menu item had no effect if the URL had no protocol prefix (i.e. if the URL started with www. or ftp.).
• Fixed bug where clicking on links in the Send Message to Mobile Device window had no effect.
• Updated installer to NSIS 2.20.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.2386.26841 (14 Jul 2006)

• Fixed problems with receiving avatars from Windows Live Messenger (Microsoft have changed the protocol slightly).

1.0.2375.38457 (3 Jul 2006)

• Moved 'Contact Manager' menu item from the account context menu further down, thus grouping together all contact-related menu items.
• Updated installer to NSIS 2.18, as Symantec's virus definitions dated 1 Jul 2006 incorrectly detect many installers and uninstallers created with NSIS 2.17 as being infected with Trojan.Zlob. Update: this was fixed in virus definitions dated 3 Jul 2006.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.2365.28107 (23 Jun 2006)

• Fixed bug introduced in version 1.0.2345.28203 where if a contact's nickname contained a control character (usually entered with Messenger Plus or a third-party client - it's not possible with the official client or Dave's Messenger), your contact list would not be displayed in the Main Window and the contact (as shown in Contact Manager and Contact Properties) would be incorrectly believed to be an ungrouped contact that was neither blocked nor allowed and not reversed.
• Fixed bug where the 'Open' menu item would sometimes be disabled for uploads in the File Transfers window when it should always be enabled. Double-clicking on the file would still open it though.
• Fixed bug where the 'Purge all contacts' button in Contact Manager would be disabled if you had not signed in with that account since logging on Identity, even if there were contacts listed.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.2345.28203 (3 Jun 2006)

• Dave's Messenger now automatically checks for a later version. It checks once when it is first run, then:
• If it was successful but there is no update available, it will check again in 12 hours.
• If it was successful and there is an update available, it will alert you and not bother checking again until it is exited and run again.
• If it was unable to check for a later version (i.e. not connected to the internet), it will check again in 5 minutes.
• You can now send an E-mail to multiple contacts by selecting them in Contact Manager or in an IM window with multiple participants and right-clicking. You can also copy the E-mail addresses of multiple contacts to the clipboard. The address list will be separated with commas, ready for pasting into the 'To', 'CC' or 'BCC' fields when composing a new E-mail.
• Contacts added by mobile number ('Create a new contact from a mobile number' option in the official client) are now ignored, as mobile messaging is not supported. These contacts will still be present if you sign in on the official client after using Dave's Messenger.
• Added personal messages (as seen in MSN Messenger 7 and later):
• Your own personal message can be set in Account Settings.
• Contacts' personal messages can be seen in Contact Properties.
• Contact nickname changes are now logged in IM windows, only if the automatic nickname update option is on (found in Identity Settings).
• Filters can now be applied to outgoing messages, contacts' nicknames and contacts' personal messages, as well as incoming messages.
• Alerts:
• Added gradient fills!
• Added options to the Add/Edit Alert window to further customise the style of the alert.
• Dropped the 'Display an alert' option from the Add/Edit Alert window as it was pretty pointless.
• Fixed bug where the list of E-mail addresses for the 'Only if the contact's E-mail address is:' option was always blank when editing an alert.
• Made the first steps towards implementing MSNSLP for file transfers. When complete, it will mean that the official client will request transfer of your avatar (if any) AND file transfers will work.
• When browsing for an image to use as an avatar, the image can now be cropped (as per MSN Messenger) if it is not square, rather than further reduced and given a white border.
• Dave's Messenger now authenticates (when signing in) using Passport 3.0, which should be somewhat faster as only one web request is required as opposed to 2 or 3 (usually 3). The old method (Passport 1.4) is being phased out and is likely to stop working soon.
• Dave's Messenger now identifies itself to other clients. You can check which client your contacts are using in Contact Properties (assuming they're using a client that supports this).
• Fixed problems with updating your contact list (Main Window) when using 'show offline contacts in a separate group'.
• Fixed problem where you could not send a file to a contact if you have already successfully sent that file to that contact without first removing it from the list in the File Transfers window.
• Fixed exception that occurred when trying to change your avatar:
• if you delete the default avatars from the installation directory.
• if the User Avatars directory (%AppData%\djtSoft\Messenger\<Identity name>\User Avatars) does not exist (i.e. before you receive an avatar from a contact or if you delete it).
• Fixed exception that occurred when you try to invite a contact to a conversation who is already a participant in that session.
• Updated installer to NSIS 2.17.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.2244.41285 (22 Feb 2006)

• Fixed exception introduced in version 1.0.2240.23395 when attempting to log on Identity (thanks Danny).

1.0.2240.23395 (18 Feb 2006)

• The error messages displayed when sign in fails are now more specific, rather than just having one general error message.
• Fixed bug where Dave's Messenger would continually try to connect instead of displaying an error message if the E-mail address you entered is invalid.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.2236.31780 (14 Feb 2006)

• Fixed a bug where Dave's Messenger would use 100% CPU if:
• you receive an invitation to receive a file that has no extension. The invitation will not appear in the File Transfers window.
• you try to send a file that has no extension. The File Transfers window will continually show the transfer's status as 'Hashing' and the invitation will not be sent. If you cancel the transfer, Dave's Messenger will continue to use 100% CPU.

1.0.2234.25484 (12 Feb 2006)

• Fixed a bug introduced in version 1.0.2231.30874 where the wrong contact would become selected in the Main Window if the selected contact's index in the list changed (e.g. they signed in or out, or you blocked or allowed them, causing them to move further up or down the list). Now, the selected contact will stay selected.

1.0.2233.25531 (11 Feb 2006)

• Added 'Insert emoticon' button to the toolbar in IM windows, which allows you to select an emoticon from a list. See Emoticons page.

1.0.2232.26606 (10 Feb 2006)

• Fixed issue where connecting to the conversation would sometimes fail with an 'Unable to establish a connection' error.
• Added the goat emoticon from the forthcoming Windows Live Messenger 8 (currently in beta). See Emoticons page.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.2231.30874 (9 Feb 2006)

• Added 'last seen online' and 'last conversation' dates to the tooltip displayed for contacts in the Main Window.
• Fixed bugs where a 'transfer failed' error (rather than a 'cancelled remotely' error) would occur when receiving a file if the sender cancels the file transfer, and no 'cancelled remotely' message would appear in the IM window when sending a file if the recipient cancels the file transfer. It appears that MSN Messenger 7.5 doesn't send the cancelled message.
• Fixed bug where if you add a contact that is not on your contact list and is neither blocked nor allowed (i.e. they've just added you, someone else invited them to a conversation that you were part of or you previously completely deleted them) to your contact list using Contact Properties, the contact was always allowed, even if you selected block.
• Fixed bug where multiple alerts would be received when attempting to add someone to your contact list who does not have a Passport, using either Add Contact(s) or Contact Properties.
• Fixed bug where you would be signed in with the wrong status and your status then changed when automatically reconnecting after getting disconnected if your status would normally have been changed to Idle or Busy (if these options are set) while you were offline.
• Contact list updating in the Main Window should now be significantly faster and smoother.
• Fixed the Main Window being scrolled back to the previous location if you scroll when your contact list is being updated and it takes a long time to update (i.e. large contact list).
• Fixed missing separator between 'Search using Google' and 'E-mail Address'/'URL' menu items in rich text box context menus.
• Updated the default avatar (displayed when the user has not selected an avatar).
• Other minor changes and improvements.

Minor Update (25 Jan 2006)

• Updated installer to NSIS 2.14, as there was a bug in 2.13 that prevented installation on Windows 95, 98 and NT.

1.0.2213.42809 (22 Jan 2006)

• Fixed slow update of contact list in the Main Window and Contact Manager when Contact Manager was open when signing in on an account with 200+ contacts and several contacts are online.
• Fixed exception that sometimes occurred when logging off Identity.
• Updated installer to NSIS 2.13.
• Fixed installer incorrectly detecting Windows 2000 as Windows NT and thus preventing installation on Windows 2000 (thanks lander).
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.2200.23079 (9 Jan 2006)

• Fixed exceptions when using 'Purge unused contacts' and 'Purge all contacts' in Contact Manager.

1.0.2193.27364 (2 Jan 2006)

• Added 'Search using Google' menu item to rich text box context menus to search for the selected text using Google.
• Updated installer to NSIS 2.12.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.2167.38879 (7 Dec 2005)

• Contact Manager:
• Greatly improved the code to update the list of users. No more long waits with 200/300+ contacts! This also means the progress bar at the bottom is no longer needed.
• You can now sort the list of users by clicking on the column headers. Note that users will still be grouped together (i.e. the contacts that have added you will be first, etc.). An option to disable this will be added in a later release.
• You can now reorder the columns by dragging them to the desired position.
• All rich text boxes now have context menus with Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete and Select All options.
• If you right-click on an E-mail address or URL in a rich text box, the context menu will also have 'E-mail address' and 'URL' menu items. The 'E-mail address' menu item's submenu is the same as the standard contact context menu. This makes adding contacts when you ask for someone's E-mail address a lot easier! The 'URL' menu item's submenu has 'Open' and 'Copy to Clipboard' menu items.
• The 'Send message' toolbar button in IM windows and Send Message to Mobile Device windows is now disabled if there is no message to send.
• The 'Clear message log' and 'Save message log' toolbar buttons in IM windows and Send Message to Mobile Device windows are now disabled if there is no text in the message log.
• Disabled toolbar buttons now look better - a greyed version of the original, rather than a solid grey blob the same shape as the original.
• Fixed blue outline on contact icons when XP styles is disabled or not supported.
• Fixed exception when creating a new Identity (thanks dustypenguin).

1.0.2160.35006 (30 Nov 2005)

• Updated to Visual Studio 2005, so now the .NET Framework 2.0 is required. Windows NT is now no longer supported.
• Tab controls now have the correct background colour on Windows XP/2003 with XP styles enabled.
• Added tooltips for listviews where the column isn't wide enough to show the data in that cell.
• Added contacts' phone numbers to the tooltip displayed for contacts in the Main Window.
• Fixed problem where ampersands (&) were not being displayed in contact tooltips.
• Updated installer to NSIS 2.11.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.2133.20261 (3 Nov 2005)

• Updated the installer to automatically install the .NET Framework for you if it isn't already installed, rather than just telling you that you need to install it.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.2132.25210 (2 Nov 2005)

• Fixed problems when trying to send or receive very large files (thanks Danny).
• File/avatar transfer: files are now hashed and verified much more quickly.
• Added option to Identity Settings to remove emoticons from contact nicknames when automatically renaming them.

1.0.2131.20059 (1 Nov 2005)

• Fixed exception when the Log on Identity window was opened when no identities had been created (thanks Danny).
• Fixed problems when receiving an invitation for, accepting or declining transfer of a file whose filename contained { or }.
• Increased server response timeout from 2 to 3 minutes.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.2124.27206 (25 Oct 2005)

• Support for avatars! Contacts' avatars are now displayed in Contact Properties and IM windows. Your own avatar can be set in Account Settings.
• Updated to use the new icons for contacts as used in MSN Messenger 7.
• Updated Contact Properties and Contact Manager to display 'last seen online' and 'last conversation' dates for contacts. These are useful in deciding which contacts to remove if your contact list becomes full or you want to clean up your contact list. For example, you might want to remove the contacts that you never or rarely chat to. The 'last seen online' dates are a useful indication as to which contacts have potentially blocked you, switched to a new account, or decided not to use Messenger any more.
• The list of contacts (as shown in Contact Manager) is now saved along with your Identity (and thus remembered between sessions). For each contact, the following data is saved: nickname, date last seen online, date of last conversation, last avatar. This can be disabled in Identity Settings.
• Due to the increase in size of identities (because of the above changes) and due to the limitation of the size of values stored in the registry, and due to the need to store user avatars as they are transferred to you, identities are now stored as files in Application Data rather than in the registry. This means that after upgrading to this version, all your identities will be lost. You might want to make a note of your settings and the accounts you've added to your Identity before upgrading. If you really need to keep your Identities, you can always contact me and I will convert them to the new format for you.
• Replaced 'Add contact(s)' and 'Purge contacts' buttons in Contact Manager with a toolbar. 'Purge contacts' is now 'Purge unused contacts' and is now disabled until your contact list has been downloaded in that session (every contact is classed as 'unused' before your contact list is downloaded, so it would purge all contacts!). Also added 'Purge all contacts' button, which will (obviously) purge all contacts and is only enabled when you're not signed in. This is useful for keeping the size of your Identity down if you have accounts that you don't sign in on very often.
• All toolbars buttons are now flat rather than raised. This is not noticeable on Windows XP/2003 with XP styles enabled, as buttons are rendered flat anyway. Also, separator lines have been added (rather than just having gaps).
• Resumable incomplete downloads are now remembered between sessions.
• Added 'Retry' menu item for uploads in the File Transfers window.
• Double-clicking on an upload or complete download in the File Transfers window now opens the file.
• Fixed bug where nothing would happen when trying to open an upload or complete download if that file type had not been associated. Now the 'Open With' dialog will be displayed.
• Fixed problem where, when sending several files to the same contact, only the first file would be successful and all subsequent files would fail if that contact is using the official client. Dave's Messenger would send the file correctly, but the official client would report it to have failed, for some strange reason.
• Fixed bug where a received file transfer invitation would not be detected as 'resumable'.
• Fixed bug where a 'failed to connect' error would occur when accepting and resuming a file transfer.
• Fixed bug where a 'transfer failed' error (rather than a 'cancelled remotely' error) would occur if the other contact cancels the file transfer.
• Added 'You are not on this contact's contact list' text to the tooltip displayed for contacts that do not have you on their contact list (dark red text) in the Main Window.
• Fixed contact list being scrolled down when opening the Main Window.
• Fixed contact list being scrolled when a user status change causes re-ordering of contacts (i.e. sign in or out) in the Main Window.
• Contact list updating in the Main Window should now be slightly smoother.
• Fixed bug where when deleting a group containing contacts and moving the contacts to another group, the group would not be deleted.
• Fixed bug where if you rename the Identity that Dave's Messenger is set to automatically log on with, it would no longer automatically log on.
• Added options to Identity Settings to automatically change your status to Busy (if Online) and block alerts when running an application in full-screen, such as a game. The 2nd option is useful if you want alerts blocked but don't want your status changing. Note that your status will not be set to Busy when using Internet Explorer full-screen, as the official client does when its equivalent option is set. I do not consider that using Internet Explorer full-screen indicates that you are any more or less busy than you would be if you were using it in a normal window, and it gets highly annoying when your contacts' statuses are being changed between Online and Busy every 3 seconds when they keep switching between IE full-screen and another window using Alt-Tab.
• Fixed problem with potential virus detection on URLs containing # (e.g. www.somesite.com/somefile.pif#abc). Note: URLs containing? (e.g. www.somesite.com/somefile.pif?abc=xyz) were already correctly handled.
• Any emoticon codes that begin or end with a letter or number are now not rendered as emoticons if that letter or number has another letter or number (respectively) next to it. For example, :dog is no longer rendered as og. This helps to prevent false positives.
• Added option to Identity Settings to remove emoticons from contacts' nicknames when automatically renaming them.
• Added option to Identity Settings to ignore repeated emoticons. For example, :) :-) :) will just be displayed as .
• Fixed bug where the 'Show contact status changes in IM windows' option wouldn't be saved in Identity Settings, and so changing this had no effect.
• Added message filters to filter out sounds from Messenger Plus (I hate that crap!!) and block checker advertising.
• Added new 'Invitation received' alert type, rather than using the 'Instant Message received' alert type for invitations.
• Fixed bug where when receiving a message from a mobile device (page) and the Send Message to Mobile Device window for that user wasn't already open, it would be opened but then immediately restored (it should be minimised) and the message log would be blank and the message lost.
• Fixed bug where if the taskbar or other object was docked to the right of the screen, alerts would start at the left hand side of the docked object, rather than just off the right hand side of the screen.
• Changed the codes for emoticons slightly (see Emoticons page).
• Updated installer to NSIS 2.10.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.1985.43104 (9 Jun 2005)

• Fixed bug where removing a contact from one group when they exist in multiple groups would remove them from all groups.
• Fixed bug where new E-mail alerts would not always be displayed when signing in.
• Fixed bug where it would get stuck on 'disconnecting' if it was unable to connect or if you sign in at another location.
• Updated message filters to filter out 'upgrade' text from MSN Messenger 7.
• In every conversation, a 'dummy' message is now sent after 50 seconds of inactivity (no-one will actually see it) to prevent MSN Messenger 7 from disconnecting from conversations after ONE minute of inactivity, which can lead to loss of messages, as well as the annoyance of the additional text in IM windows.
• Fixed lock up that sometimes occurred when a contact sends you an instant message and their IM window isn't already open.
• Removed 'Start voice conversation' and 'Start video conversation' toolbar buttons from IM windows to prevent confusion as voice/video conversations have not yet been implemented.
• When receiving a new E-mail notification, encoded subjects, 'from' names and E-mail addresses are now decoded.
• Added 'MSN Spaces' menu item to the account context menu.
• Fixed potential virus detection on URLs such as www.google.com (detected a file with a .com extension).
• Added error message when trying to change your nickname or rename contacts before you've verified your E-mail address. The server won't allow this for some reason.
• The directory of the last file selected when sending files, saving conversations, saving event logs and selecting sounds is now remembered for when you next select a file.
• When saving a conversation, the filename you enter is now remembered for when you next save the conversation in the same IM or page window.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.1943.20977 (27 Apr 2005)

• Updated to use MSNP12 (MSN Protocol version 12).
• The long-awaited file transfer is now complete, with support for resuming and verifying transfers! Many thanks to everyone that has helped me with testing: Adam, Alex, Chris, Elliot, Steven (in no particular order).
• Invitations to things that are currently not supported (e.g. voice/video conversations, remote assistance, etc.) are now automatically rejected instead of just being ignored. The contact that sent you the invitation will be notified (by his/her client) that you cannot accept such invitations.
• Notifications are now ignored until I can implement them.
• Links received as part of an Instant Message or file transfer invitations whose URL or filename appear to be a file that could potentially contain a virus are now detected. The user can either be prompted or the file transfer or link automatically blocked. See Identity Settings.
• The 'Ignore messages prefixed with 'AutoMessage:'' option has been replaced with message filtering. You can now replace text in received instant messages. The defaults include rules to ignore auto messages, remove links sent by viruses that use Messenger to spread, and to remove swear words (this is off as default). See Identity Settings.
• Added an option in Options to automatically log on with a certain Identity when the program is started (thanks Dan).
• The name of the Identity you're logged on with is now displayed in the tooltip for the system tray icon.
• Fixed the annoying pause with reading/saving an Identity (when logging on/off Identity).
• The position/size of the Main Window is now restored when you unlock your Identity, in case someone changed it while you were away.
• Added toolbar to Send Message to Mobile Device window.
• Fixed controls in Send Message to Mobile Device window not being resized.
• Added save button to the Event Log window.
• Fixed a bug where no log entry would be made when deleting a user not on your contact list.
• All dialogs that previously only had a close button can now be minimised.
• The correct password character is now used (i.e. a black circle on Windows XP and later) instead of it always being an asterisk.
• Apply buttons are now only enabled when changes have been made.
• Removed 'Log off Identity' and 'Identity Settings' menu items from the Identity context menu.
• Added 'New IM Window' menu item to the account context menu, which opens a new IM window but without inviting anyone to the conversation. This allows you to start a conversation with someone not on your contact list, for example. This was originally intended for the previous release to compliment the 'invite contact to conversation' feature, but was never included due to people badgering me for a new release!
• Fixed text copied to clipboard using 'Copy E-mail Address to Clipboard' and 'Copy Nickname to Clipboard' menu items being lost when Dave's Messenger is exited.
• Fixed the bug where creating lots of connections (including signing in and out a lot, signing in with lots of accounts at the same time, having lots of IM windows open, opening and closing IM windows or using the 'Disconnect' button) caused the program to freeze or accounts to get 'stuck' on 'connecting' or 'disconnecting'.
• Fixed the bug where clicking on Retry in alerts boxes that appear when signing in failed would cause that account to get 'stuck' on 'connecting' or 'disconnecting'. This was due to threading problems.
• Improved contact list updating; should be far less 'flickering' now.
• Added option in Identity Settings to truncate contact nicknames as displayed in the Main Window.
• Contacts on your contact list that are neither blocked nor allowed are now blocked or allowed depending on the privacy setting in Account Settings -> Options tab.
• Fixed a bug where trying to rename a contact and add/remove them to/from your contact list or allow/block them at the same time in Contact Properties would only rename the contact.
• Fixed problems with setting your nickname, your phone number(s), a group name, or a contact's nickname to an exclamation mark.
• Added prompts to turn automatic nickname update option off (found in Identity Settings) when trying to rename a contact (in Contact Properties), and to warn you when turning this option back on that you will lose any custom nicknames that you have given your contacts when they next sign in.
• Added Phone and Web Cam properties for contacts; these will show up on your contact list in the Main Window, in IM windows, and in Contact Properties.
• Replaced 'Add to Contact List'/'Add to Another Group' menu items in the contact context menu with an 'Add to Group' menu item and all groups are listed in a sub menu.
• If you have added yourself to your contact list, the 'Delete' menu item for that contact context menu, the 'Neither' option in Contact Properties, and the 'Completely Delete' option in the Remove Contact window are now enabled whether you are reversed or not. This enables you to completely delete yourself in 1 step, without having to remove yourself from your contact list first, then delete yourself using Contact Manager.
• Fixed issues with trying to invite yourself into a conversation. Also, you are no longer listed in the 'invite pane' in IM windows.
• Fixed a bug where a contact would be displayed more than once in the conversation participants listview in IM windows if you invited them to a conversation they were already a participant of.
• Fixed a bug where it would get 'stuck' when a contact invites you to a conversation when a new conversation for that contact had just been requested and it is currently connecting or authenticating and there is a message queue.
• You can now force the colour of received messages to black (or any other colour) if it is too similar to the background colour (usually white), and you can also set the sensitivity. See Identity Settings.
• Any or all font styles (bold, italic, underline, strikeout) on received messages can now be ignored. See Identity Settings.
• The font size chosen in Identity Settings is now used throughout the message log in IM windows and Send Message to Mobile Device windows, instead of defaulting to 10pt.
• Fixed incoming messages from mobile devices not being added to the event log.
• Fixed problems with using upper or mixed case E-mail addresses when adding contacts or inviting them into a conversation. They are now converted to lower case.
• Any control characters (ASCII codes < 32, which includes tabs and returns) or LTR/RTL override characters are now removed from your nickname and phone numbers, contact's nicknames and phone numbers, and group names. This should prevent the annoyance of some nicknames appearing reversed or on multiple lines, should they include such characters.
• A '+' is now displayed before the country code of phone numbers (e.g. '44' is now '+44') displayed in Account Settings and Contact Properties.
• Fixed problems with renaming/deleting groups.
• Instead of just being limited to whether you want the Online and Offline status texts for contacts to be displayed or not, you can now select exactly which status texts you want to be displayed, and in what order. See Identity Settings.
• Added checks to ensure the number of new E-mails doesn't fall below 0. See the Known Issues page for the reason why this could happen.
• Greatly simplified and improved alert options, allowing for greater customisation and flexibility. See Identity Settings.
• Fixed a bug where the currently selected node in the Main Window would become deselected when your contact list is updated (e.g. contact signs in or changes status).
• Emoticons are now only displayed in Instant Messages, not in contact nicknames or other messages displayed in IM windows. This should prevent the annoyance of too many emoticons being displayed when users annoyingly use them in their nicknames.
• Fixed a bug where emoticons would always be displayed, even if they were set not to in Identity Settings.
• Fixed problems with navigating to MSN Alerts, MSN Gaming Zone and Member Services web sites with non Hotmail accounts.
• Updated installer to NSIS 2.06.
• Installer now checks that the .NET Framework 1.1 or later is installed.
• Fixed shortcuts not being removed on uninstallation.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.1442.32246 (13 Dec 2003)

• Added Allow, Block, Don't Change options to the Add Contact(s) window, to allow you to allow or block contacts as you add them, and also to allow you to allow or block contacts without adding them to your contact list (by not selecting any groups). Note that even if you select Don't Change, contacts that are neither blocked nor allowed will be allowed, assuming they are added to your contact list. This is because contacts on your contact list must be either allowed or blocked.
• IM windows:
• Finally got inviting contacts to the conversation done!
• Reorganised toolbar and finally made icons for 'Save message log' and 'Open received files', also a better icon for 'Clear message log'.
• The 'Disconnect' button now also allows you to cancel the request/connection if it's currently requesting a new conversation or connecting to it, rather than having to wait until it's actually connected before you can disconnect.
• Increased the height of the listview listing the conversation participants to fill up the space on the right; this is reduced when another 'pane' is displayed (e.g. invite, avatar, voice/video conversation).
• Fixed a bug where the list of conversation participants and the title bar would sometimes stop being updated; sometimes occurred when someone had just been invited to the conversation.
• Fixed toolbar overlapping the input rich text box.
• Fixed bug where you could lock your Identity before you logged on by clicking on the 'Log on' button in the Main Window with the Log on Identity window already open. It now brings the Log on Identity window to the front, as in previous versions.
• Fixed bug where Contact Manager would still be opened if it was set to (e.g. user adds you) when your Identity is locked.
• Fixed bug where IM windows would be closed when your Identity is locked, when the connection to the conversation is lost/disconnected or when all participants leave.
• Fixed bug where your status wouldn't be changed back to Online straight away when you return after being Idle.
• Fixed bug in Main Window where removing everyone from a group, then right-clicking on the 'This group is empty' node would produce the context menu from the last contact removed from the group.
• Fixed your name for the contact being reported in the event log for the 'user invited you to a conversation' event when it should have been their name.
• Cut down on thread numbers a little.
• Finally managed to get Visual Studio .NET 2003 (was using 2002), so now the .NET Framework 1.1 is required.
• Updated installer to NSIS 2.0 beta 4. Also added notes that the .NET Framework 1.1 is required and about not needing to uninstall if updating.
• Updated URL for version check and URL shown in About dialog to new URL for web site.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.1409.23387 (20 Nov 2003)

• Implemented the 'Idle' status (see the FAQ for more info); currently only works on Windows 2000 or higher. Thanks Skywing for your help with this!
• Implemented sending messages to mobile devices (paging). See the Sending Messages to a Contact's Mobile Device page for more information. Thanks Elliot for help with testing.
• The list of identities in the Log on Identity window is now sorted by the order of their last logon date.
• Added a lock feature. You can now lock your Identity to prevent other people accessing it while you're away (a bit like the Lock Workstation feature if you're familiar with Win NT/2000/XP/2003). It even prevents them from closing the program! See the Identities Explained page for more information.
• Your Identity is now saved when you log off Identity, instead of whenever a change is made. This should avoid that annoying pause when clicking on OK or Apply in Identity Settings and Account Settings, and when adding/removing an account. However, logging off will take slightly longer, and if the program crashes or is closed using Task Manager, any changes made since you last logged off will be lost.
• Greatly improved how incoming/outgoing data to/from sockets is handled.
• Changed to use functions for encoding/decoding text to/from UTF-8 as declared in kernel32.dll, instead of the functions I'd written myself. Microsoft's are probably faster (C++ is faster than VB), but mine most probably contain far fewer bugs ;o). Thanks Skywing for providing info on this!
• Added pinging for connections to conversations (already pings for connection to Notification Server). Will ping after 1 minute of socket inactivity.
• Fixed a bug where opening the Main Window would cause all open windows (Contact Manager, Contact Properties, etc.) to refresh.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.1390.21144 (22 Oct 2003)

• Hopefully fixed the bug where the program would sometimes remain resident when you close it (all windows and the system tray icon disappear, but Msngr.exe still shows up in Task Manager). If this is still happening to you, please check you have the latest version installed (use Help -> Check For Update), and if so, report it to me. Either contact me or post in the forum. Thanks.
• Fixed a bug where the server would disconnect you from the conversation if you sent an Instant Message containing an exclamation mark with a space either side (don't ask!).
• Fixed a bug where conversation participants wouldn't be sorted in the listview and title bar in IM windows.
• Fixed IM window toolbar not being resized when window is resized.
• Fixed error 710 (bad CVR parameters sent) that the server sometimes replies with when signing in. It usually works if you try again, so now it just retries invisibly (without bothering you).
• Added option in Identity Settings to show contact status changes in IM windows.
• Changed Account Settings to give better description of privacy settings (Options tab).
• Added more events to the event log.
• Fixed dates/times always being displayed in UK date format (dd/mm/yyyy) and 24-hour time. Now, local date/time format (as defined in control panel) is used.
• Changed default installation directory to %ProgramFiles%\Dave's Messenger, instead of %ProgramFiles%\Msngr (thanks Alex). Note: the installer detects any existing installation and defaults to that directory, so you will not notice this change if the program is already installed. You can safely change this directory in the installer if you wish; any existing installation will be removed before installing. In other words, if you change the installation directory, you will only have one copy installed, not 2.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.1358.31139 (21 Sep 2003)

• Fixed a bug when signing in that would sometimes cause Contact Manager not to open if it was set to (e.g. user adds you).
• Fixed a bug with alerts that would sometimes cause an error for the current and all subsequent alerts until you logged off Identity.
• Optimised code for UTF-8 encoding; now slightly smaller (and quicker).
• Updated installer to display what version it is about to install, and to add more information to its uninstall entry in Add/Remove programs (Win 2000/XP/2003 only).

1.0.1351.22361 (13 Sep 2003)

• 'Send an Instant Message' menu item is now enabled even if the contact is offline. This allows you to open a new IM window and invite them in to check if they've blocked you.
• 'Send Message to Mobile Device' is no longer the default menu item for offline contacts with a mobile device enabled. 'Send E-mail' is default instead.
• 'Send E-mail' is now always the default menu item for the contact context menu in IM windows.
• Fixed bug where more than one menu item would sometimes become default.
• Fixed 'New E-mail received' event (Event Log window).
• Added more codes for emoticons (see Emoticons page).

1.0.1338.36163

• Updated protocol to MSNP9 (MSN Protocol version 9). Was using MSNP7, but Microsoft have decided to discontinue versions 7 and below from 15 Oct 2003. Now takes slightly longer to authenticate, but retrieving the contact list is much faster! On average, it takes a third of the time that it did previously! Also, it's much more secure (uses SSL to authenticate).
• Added more events to the event log.
• Updated URL for .NET Service Status again - Microsoft changed it yet again!
• Fixed freeze when resizing Contact Manager.
• Other minor changes and improvements.

1.0.1324.37617

• Fixed bug where disabling 'Alert when contacts sign in', 'Alert when contacts return' and 'Alert when E-mail is received' in Identity Settings had no effect.

1.0.1311.18761

• Fixed a bug in Contact Manager where the same contact would appear more than once in the listview.
• Added progress bar in Contact Manager to show the progress of updating the contacts in the listview, useful if you have a few hundred contacts (thanks Alex).

1.0.1306.39900

• Added option in Identity Settings to hide offline contacts, or group them together (thanks Elliot).
• Fixed exception with changing your own nickname.
• Fixed problem with deleting a group.
• Fixed stats not being updated when you click on Purge Contacts in Contact Manager.
• Changed (most) message dialogs to use their own threads. This way, the program doesn't 'hang' while it's waiting for a response.

1.0.1304.30701

• Fixed a few threading problems.

1.0.1303.32447

• Added Identity Settings option to Tools menu of Main Window (thanks Alex).
• Fixed exception when you click on link to web site in About window - worked when I first wrote it, but stopped for some reason (thanks Alex).
• Updated URL for .NET Service Status - Microsoft changed it and I didn't know (thanks Alex).
• Fixed problem where the program would block a contact when removing him/her from one group only (not all groups) using the Main Window when he/she existed in more than one group (thanks Alex).

1.0.1303.20707

• The Add Account window is now automatically displayed when creating a new Identity.
• The Identity node in the Main Window is now updated properly when changing the name of your Identity in Identity Settings.
• Fixed controls in IM window not being resized (thanks Elliot/Alex).
• Fixed adding text to the message log in IM windows - became rather slow when it already contained a lot of text.

1.0.1301.38182

• Log on Identity window: fixed exception when you click on Cancel when no identities have been created, and memory leak when you close the window with the close box (thanks Elliot).
• Fixed exception with Identity context menu when you have no accounts (thanks Elliot).
• Fixed exception when you exit the program (thanks Elliot).

1.0.1300.?????

• Initial release.