MSN Messenger 7.0

Microsoft released in October the beta version of MSN Messenger 7.0, which downloads with new bells and whistles for sharing graphics and multimedia files. This early version of Microsoft's instant messenger (IM) borrows from the company's ThreeDegrees IM service, which targets Web-savvy adolescents. As part of Microsoft's strategy to personalise its IM system and compete in the market, this beta program enables people to use avatars and more emoticons. You can even start the program in stealth mode to hide from other users. MSN also hopes to enable you to keep track of your friends and associates through contact cards. Promotions for other MSN properties are still laced throughout this interface, which is otherwise straightforward. To test-drive the Messenger 7.0 beta on your Microsoft Windows 98 and higher computer, visit MSN's Web site for a free download. Microsoft plans to offer the final version of this work in progress early in 2005.

Upside: The MSN Messenger 7.0 beta downloads with new novelties that make it easy to share sound and video files. The program includes an audio-tuning wizard that walks you through setting up your microphone, Webcam, and speakers. Microsoft also adds cute toys, such as winks, which let you send animations of, say, a sunflower growing. Sending a nudge will make the recipient's application window shake like an earthquake. And you can play games such as tic-tac-toe or checkers with your chat buddies.

As does the previous version, the MSN Messenger 7.0 beta customises background images and icons to fit your tastes, with more places to display pictures within the window, which you can resize to fit the whole screen. If you want to chat with your buddy without letting your boss know you're online, you can even choose to cloak your presence from other users. This upgrade includes an MSN search bar and lets you search within a conversation by highlighting a word, then clicking the right mouse key.

We like the detailed and easy-to-find help options in the last version of MSN Messenger, which lets you ask other users for advice. This beta version doesn't yet enable the new ability to send feedback to Microsoft support straight from the Messenger window, however. Downloading the beta version takes several minutes on a high-speed connection, and installation requires clicking a clearly labeled EXE file, then walking through several simple menus.

Downside: As its previous incarnation requires, you'll have to register for a free Microsoft .Net Passport account to use the MSN Messenger 7.0 beta; this demands more personal information than you might like to share, such as your birthday. Microsoft estimates downloads could eat up as much as 48 minutes if you're chugging through a 28.8K modem. Also like its predecessor, this program pops up an annoying MSN Today promotional window upon start-up, but at least you can close the window. Icons on the cluttered left-hand side of the Messenger interface hawk other MSN properties, such as Expedia.com and Match.com, though you can remove these tabs by customising Options.

If you like to sweeten your instant messages with emoticons, you'll have to fish through the drop-down menu to find them, unlike in MSN Messenger 6.2. And we couldn't send animated winks to or play games with people using older versions of MSN Messenger or other messaging clients such as Trillian. We were able to send and receive, but not play, games between two people using this beta upgrade. A virus hampered users from logging on early in October, but Microsoft has solved this glitch.

Outlook: The novelties added to the playful, easy-to-use MSN Messenger 7.0 beta will probably please children, teens, or even their techie grandparents who want to share animated graphics as well as their own real-life, real-time songs and dances. If you don't need these frills, we suspect you might better appreciate a more basic IM. Privacy advocates would rather have MSN show a new respect for anonymity with this upgrade rather than get more cloying gizmos and hyperlinked promotions. Those who want to chat with people using a hodgepodge of messaging programs are better off with Trillian. Still, Hotmail devotees with .Net Passport accounts can continue to enjoy keeping track of their e-mail in-boxes through Messenger. Stay posted for a full review of the final version of this program.

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