Mess Patch

Cleaning up instant messaging chat tools of their advertisements and totally ridiculous buttons and features can be a burden if you find them annoying and consider them to be unnecessary. Windows Live Messenger does not elude this particular category and thus various developers have created applications that allow you to tweak it. Mess Patch is the top pick in its category on Softpedia when referring to Windows Live Messenger tweaking utilities.

First thing's first – Mess Patch only works with certain versions of Windows Live Messenger and clearly does not with its latest. In order to install and use supported versions of the instant messenger, you have to hack the main executable in order to change its version. This way, you actually trick Windows Live Messenger into skipping the automatic download and installation of the genuine updated version.

Mess Patch comes packing various tweaks to add, modify and remove buttons and features to Windows Live Messenger that can be grouped in countless configurations and even saved for later use. The application looks for the installation of the instant messenger when started and offers four options for patching, restoring, update checking and language selection.

The next step of the wizard, in case you opt for patching Windows Live Messenger, provides you with backup creation, CRC checks as well as tweaking profiles management functions. You are given three categories to feast upon and these are the `General Options`, `Main Window Options` and the `Conversation Window Options`. You are able to enable the polygamy feature, for instance, which allows you to run as many instances of the messenger as you want at the same time.

You can also unlock the power to send any given number of nudges as the time limitation is removed, easily manage your tabs using `TabServe` or add Winamp support to your expandable status message. Other features include multi-line nicknames, always on top button, 500-character personal messages and a whole lot of button, bars and ads removal options. The last step of the wizard lets you customize the normal and detailed contact list.

Although it's version limited, Mess Patch does a great job in reinventing the way Windows Live Messenger looks, feels and works. Once you get tired of all the futile content offered by the instant messenger, Mess Patch can be the tool to strip it down and make the most of it.