14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has given green light to the final steps of the mandatory upgrades, designed to migrate its instant messaging community to the latest iteration of Windows Live Messenger. Users of the Redmond company’s older releases of the instant messaging client have been forced to upgrade to Windows Live Messenger 9.0 (2009) 14.0.8089.726, as Microsoft is offering absolutely no alternative in this regard. Not only this, but the software giant is locking customers out of its IM community entirely, unless they upgrade to Windows Live Messenger 9.0 (2009) 14.0.8089.726. In the final stage of the mandatory upgrades process, users still running versions 8.5 and 9.0, but earlier than Build 14.0.8089.726, will have to choose between upgrading or renouncing of Windows Live Messenger altogether.
Needless to say that considering the “like it or not” context, Windows Live Messenger users are indeed upgrading. Also, needless to say that customers are not happy about the forced migration, and have expressed their frustrations and criticism of Microsoft’s actions both on the company’s feedback channels, and right here on Softpedia as well as, in previous articles on the same topic.
“In September, we began asking users on 8.1 clients to upgrade to the latest version of messenger to ensure that they had the most up to-date and secure release. [As of November 5th], users on version 8.5 [are] also be required to upgrade before they can sign-in to the service. Starting on the November 9th, users on Messenger 2009 (version 14) will need to upgrade their clients too. Users who have already installed the latest version, which was released Aug 18th 2009 (Build: 14.0.8089.726), will not be required to upgrade. If you are using Messenger 2009 and are curious what version you have, you can go to the Help –> About Menu,” revealed a member of the Windows Live Messenger team.
Prior to releasing the mandatory upgrades, and starting locking users out of Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft provided notifications of the availability of optional upgrades. At that time, users of Windows Live Messenger 8.1, 8.5, and 14.0 were informed of the availability of 14.0.8089.726 and encouraged to make the jump. Customers that choose to ignore the optional upgrades, found themselves facing the same major updates, only that, this time around, the optional had been replaced with the mandatory.
Still, end users must understand that Microsoft is providing the mandatory upgrades for their own benefit. Perhaps the biggest reason to upgrade is that Windows Live Messenger 9.0 (2009) 14.0.8089.726 comes to the table with patches for vulnerabilities in Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL), which, in the eventuality of successful exploits, place end users at rick of remote code execution, essentially, having their machines hijacked and under the control of the attacker.
Windows Live Messenger 9.0 (2009) 14.0.8089.726 is available for download here. Windows Live Mail 2009 14.0.8089.0726 is available for download here.
Windows Live Family Safety is available for download here.
Windows Live Writer 14.0.8089.726 is available for download here.
Windows Live Photo Gallery 2009 14.0.8081.709 is available for download here.