Something to share with Jonathan

  • Thread starter Thread starter Captain
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C

Captain

Greetings Jonathan,

Its about MSN Explorer and MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger. I have found
out an interesting thing from one of my previous postings and after reading
this newsgroup that MSN Explorer that comes builtin with Windows XP uses
windows messenger and MSN 8 uses MSN Explorer. Well, I am experiencing a
different thing on my pc and I have to some extent a clue as to what is the
reason behind this behaviour. Just to clarify, I use the builtin MSN
Explorer and it automatically logs in to MSN Messenger, while Windows
Messenger is still available to me and I can log in to Windows Messenger
with another account. Now, as per the information that I have gained through
this newsgroup is that MSN Explorer (built in to windows XP) uses Windows
Messenger and while one is signed in to MSN Explorer, MSN Messenger is
unavailable, till one logs out of MSN Explorer.

While all this may be irrelevant to some of us, the fact that the use of MSN
Explorer renders one of the client unavailable is in itself annoying (unless
one upgrades to the paid MSN 8).

Now coming over to the clue that I have on an entirely different behaviour
on my pc. (It is just a clue and the reason could be something else as
well). When I bought my pc earlier last year, my town did not have
sufficient/effective internet facilities and cause of the same reason I was
not into visiting the windows update site, however I kept on upgrading my
Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger. At that time, I was not into using MSN
Explorer and I had not even configured it. And the first time I did it was
after installing MSN 5 on my pc and after I started using it, it
automatically used MSN 5 as its messenger client, while Windows Messenger
would be available to me. Later on, MSN 6 was released and I upgraded to MSN
6 and MSN Explorer followed on the same path, i.e used MSN 6. And then as I
moved to a bigger town, I made a habit of going to the windows update site
(after experiencing a few virus problems though) and evetually installed SP1
as well, which resulted in adding Windows Messenger to my Windows Components
list but the behaviour of MSN Exlporer remained the same. After I discovered
this change, I discussed it with a friend of mine who was always uptodate as
far windows update was concerned and had installed SP1 quite earlier, he
told me that it was impossible as he was experiencing a different behaviour
on his pc. Now this is my guess that since I started using MSN Explorer
after installing MSN Messenger 5, the result was exactly as I experienced on
my pc.

You may have started to wonder as to why I troubled you into reading this
lengthy experince, please dont mind as I thought my experince would help me
find the actual reason for this kind of a behaviour on my pc and eventually
help someone out here to find a way to use both clients simultaneously while
using MSN Explorer.
 
Hi Captain,

Yes, very unusual behavior. MSN Explorer does have the ability to update itself if you
constantly use it, so it is possible that MSN has updated it to support MSN Messenger on XP
(Unfortunately I'm not at home at the moment, so I don't have my normal testing resources to
determine this myself). From a technical prospective, I'm not quite sure how that happened
(and works without any errors), although I've personally believed (and practiced) the ability
to 'force' software to do what you want [one of the advantages to using the Windows
platform]. However, I don't think the ability to run and use both clients while MSN Explorer
is in use could really be forced, simply because they were specifically written not to.

Out of pure and absolute curiosity, is there a reason why you use MSN Explorer over Internet
Explorer?
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Windows MVP, Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
 
Hi Jonathan, nice to see you back, while you were away for almost 24 hours,
we missed you :)

Well, as I had assumed this has really become interesting now after your
(must be true) statement that
"However, I don't think the ability to run and use both clients while
MSN Explorer is in use could really be forced, simply because they were
specifically written not to."

Well, this is exactly what is happening on my pc, may be I am lucky
enough to use Windows Messenger while being logged on to MSN Explorer ( and
MSN 6). [Or probably that is the reason of my sticking to MSN Explorer.] I
am willing to send you any OS data files that can help determine what has
forced this kind of a behaviour on my pc. Interestingly though, I am not
into any 'forcing' things on windows and I am actually a novice as far as
computing and windows is concerned, just a regular user who is fond of
trying and hitting, have never actually gone into any serious software
fiddling or especially registry editing.

As regards your question about using MSN Explorer, just a few simple
answers:-
1) I like it and until I cant afford to be a paid customer, I intend
using it.
2) I like the way I can save all my family's account information and save
everyone's password, just a sign-in press and hotmail opens with MSN logging
into that particular account, while I will still be logged on using Windows
Messenger on my account, likewise all family members can check their mails
without disturbing me much. (I instead like using Outlook Express for
checking my hotmail account, its only my family members that have saved
their account information on MSN Explorer.)
3) I don't use MSN Explorer for internet browsing, for that I certainly
prefer my all-time favourite Internet Explorer.

I hope it lessens your curiosity:) Any advice would be serve as a valuable
input.
 
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