14 DAY TRIAL // Back in November 2007, Microsoft released an early, pre-beta development milestone for Windows Live Messenger 9.0. Aimed at some 5,000 testers, but then leaked and made widely available for download, Windows Live Messenger 9.0 gave the first taste of what the company was planning after Windows Live Messenger 8.5. Microsoft did manage to omit a small detail related to the support offered to Windows users with the next version of the instant messaging client. It seems that Windows Live Messenger will have no love for Windows XP x64 Professional, nor for Windows Server 2003.
The announcement comes as a heads-up from the Windows Live Messenger team about an impending optional and then forced update to the latest full version of the IM client for all the users that are still running beta builds of 8.5. According to the Redmond company, Windows Live Messenger 8.5 does not run on 64-bit XP and Windows Server 2008. And the same is valid for Windows Live Messenger 9.0.
"A special note for those of you running Messenger 8.5 Beta on Windows XP 64-bit or Windows 2003 Server: the final version of Messenger 8.5 will not install or run on your OS. We don't want you to get stuck out in the cold so you will not receive the mandatory upgrade to the final version. However, these operating systems won't be supported by future Messenger versions. You may stay on your current beta version, or to get to a more stable final version we recommend that you uninstall Messenger 8.5 and go back to Messenger 8.1," revealed a member of the Windows Live Messenger team. (emphasis added)
Now, the truth of the matter is that Windows Live Messenger 8.5 does support, integrate and run fine on both Windows Server 2003 and x64 XP. The only incompatibility problems are related to the unified Windows Live installer introduced at the end of 2007, which indeed lacks support for the two platforms. It is hard to tell where Windows Live Messenger 9.0 stands at this point. It it will not offer support for XP 64-bit and for Windows Server 2008 in the same manner as Windows Live Messenger 8.5 "doesn't run" on the two operating systems... then you probably won't have any issues whatsoever integrating the next version of Microsoft's IM client with both platforms.