Tiring to use heavy and annoying Windows Live Messenger 2011 on your Windows 7? WLM 2011 is just took me alot of RAM performance of my PC for nothing. I do not want to associate my WLM to any social networking like facebook but only windows live account alone. Here is the tutorial to help you avoid WLM force update from Windows 7 from WLM 9 to WLM 2011. Let’s see what we can do.

Problem: Force Update to WLM 11

If you have the old WLM 9 installer and you try to run it on your Windows 7, once you finish installation and WLM is launched. You will see diagram below and force you to update to 2011. You MUST update else it will stop from working.

Fix & Solution

Basically, Windows 7 will detect the fileversion of WLM you are using. Once you change it, Windows 7 will not prompt you to run a force update. Easy? But how to change it? Here is the idea.

1. Download Resource Hacker here. Its function is to change the version of your WLM9.

2. Once your finish download, run it as administrator.

3. Goto File->Open and select your WLM executable files, it named msnmsgr.exe. (normally, it saved in C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger)

4. Once located the file, select Version Info at the left panel of Resource Hacker.

5. Click on Version Info –> 1 –> 1033 and you will see all the information in the right panel.

6. Change the Product Version to 15.4.3502.0922 (You may have your own WLM version, my version is 14.0.8089.0726. )

7. Once done, save and replace the original file. (I have problem to replace the file but I stored at another location and cut & paste it back to replace the original msnmsgr.exe file.

8. Done. You are now able to use WLM 9 in Windows 7 without any force update. Cool!!!

Download

1. You will need the WLM 9 installer version from Microsoft. Here is the download link.

Windows Live Messenger 2009 (Build 14.0.8089.726) – Older 2009 build WITH Show My Webcam
http://wl.dlservice.microsoft.com/download/E/3/E/E3EEC6D6-1141-40C4-840F-770F99B67986/en/wlsetup-all.exe

Windows Live Messenger 2009 (Build 14.0.8117.416) – Latest 2009 build WITHOUT Show My Webcam
http://wl.dlservice.microsoft.com/download/F/1/F/F1FE75CE-C235-4250-9598-AEE5D854A7EA/en/wlsetup-all.exe

[link via Raymond.cc]

2. Resource Hacker here.