MSN Messenger
Yesterday saw the release of the Mess Patch, from Mess.be for Windows Live Messenger Beta. I'll admit that mess.be is one of the ugliest websites around, but it has a massive install base. This tool I have come to love for previous version because it allows you to remove the advertisements, any buttons you don't use, and any features that just plain bug you (nudges, anyone?).
I'm probably one of the most excited people about the release of Windows Live Messenger 8. The new features on it are outstanding and will put MSN yet further ahead of the competition (and people honestly wonder why Gtalk has no user base... its can't even transfer files). But the day that everyone updates to WLM 8 will be a sad one for me also. That will spell the end of MSN 7.5 which is the last version which I created skins for.
I started skinning MSN with this entry. Washed Messenger (doesn't work with MSN 7.5). It was my attempt at cleaning up the user interface, removing things I didn't want, and smoothing the whole thing out a bit. From there I did something considered kinda crazy at the time. iPod Messenger (no longer works with MSN 7.5) transformed MSN into a 4th Generation iPod look-alike. That was some hardcore UI file transforming, it was also my real introduction to CSS although I didnt know it at the time.
The next one was Foton Messenger (no longer works with MSN 7.5). Its based on the Foton visual style from a while back. It was also the most popular MSN skin that I ever created (as of right now, 63,145 Downloads!). That was a two day project, one weekend of me saying "Look guys, skinning ain't that hard".
So I eventually became obsessed with the Mac OSX look, and skinned XP to look like it, so I needed a Mac messenger theme to match. Enter Tiger MSN Aqua and Graphite and Milk (These still work with MSN 7.5!). I used these themes until I MSN 8 had its UI refresh and actually looked good. Really, these are some classic skins people, check them out while you still have 7.5 cause you wont be disappointed.
My last skin was an iTunes look alike. By this time I had some serious CSS skills, and decided to try some more tricky things out. iTunes MSN also works for MSN 7.5. So thats my history with MSN 7.x. Its been good. Viva WLM 8.