Messenger Plus! Live is the one essential add-on for Windows Live Messenger, period. After 150 million installations since 2001, when it started as a simple add-on for MSN Messenger 3, Messenger Plus! is guaranteed to improve your Messenger experience by leaps and bounds. You won't just get a couple of new options, what you'll get is a whole new dimension for the Windows Live Messenger software.

Thought out end-to-end to improve and enhance your instant messaging without getting in your way, Plus! adds lots of capabilities to Windows Live Messenger. It lets you use them at your will from the simple Plus! menu that gets added to every Messenger window and a couple of new buttons you'll find within the Messenger interface:

Tabbed chats

Use a tabbed web browser? Even if you don't, you might find tabbed conversations useful for organizing your chats by converting a myriad of windows into a simple single one. Vertical tabs on the left, normal tabs on the top. You name it. You can also use tabs to group just some special chats and keep all the rest in normal windows.

Personalized Status

Create custom away or busy statuses with a special name tag, personal message or even an auto-responder. Set a timer to reset your status in a certain time and organize presets to reuse common statuses.

Contacts on Desktop

Similar to what ICQ used to offer, you can show the status of any desired contact on your desktop in the form of small floating windows. You can drag and drop messages or links into these to send a message to the contact, or drop a file to start a transfer.

Event viewer and event logging

Contact sign ins and sign outs, status changes, display name and personal messages changes. Everything can be logged and archived in XML-based files which you can view from your browser. You can also use the Event Viewer in the Plus! menu to view this info in real time, to find if a certain contact signed in earlier or analyze their status changing behaviour, or even their musical tastes!