14 DAY TRIAL // At the end of the past week, users of Windows Live Messenger started to notice some glitches with various versions of Microsoft's instant messaging client. The Redmond company confirmed that versions 8.1, 8.5 and 9.0 Beta of Windows Live Messenger were all impacted by issues which are the result of a bug. At the same time, the Redmond company revealed that it would work to resolve the glitch as soon as possible.
According to Mess.be, Windows Live Messenger 8.1 and 8.5 started displaying a white square box to the left of the webcam icon in some conversation windows. In version 9.0, the glitch was related to the appearance of the Office System logo in place of the white box. Outside of interfering only superficially with the user interface of Microsoft's instant messaging clients, the bug was not reported to cause any additional functionality problems.
"We are seeing an issue where Messenger versions 8.1 and 8.5 are experiencing a technical issue that is causing a blank white box to appear in the conversation window," a representative of the Windows Live Messenger team revealed. "If you are the 9.0 beta you might be seeing an Office Logo. Believe it or not this is the same bug. The issue does not impact your ability to send and receive messages. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working hard behind the scenes to lose the box and the logo. Hang tight, it should be back to normal before you know it!"
The Redmond company failed to give an explanation of what happened, outside of referencing a generic bug. Microsoft is but one week away from killing the Windows Live Messenger 9.0 Beta program debuted in 2007. Testers will still be able to access Windows Live Messenger 9.0 Beta build 9.0.1407.1107 via Microsoft Connect until June 24, 2008. Following this date, all downloads will be discontinued, although the software giant indicated that testers would still be able to run the beta version of Windows Live Messenger 9.0.
Windows Live Messenger 8.5 is available for download here.