Retrieve Windows Live Messenger 2009 Standalone Individual Setup Installer (MSI) from Web Download

Microsoft has made Windows Live Messenger (WLM or previously known as MSN Messenger) as part of the product suite of Windows Live package, and no longer provide standalone individual setup installer for user to download and install just Windows Live Messenger itself. The story is the same for the latest public beta for Windows Live Wave 3, which includes Windows Live Messenger 2009.

As usual, user download the unified Windows Live Installer which contains installation files for all software programs inside the Windows Live products, such as Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Toolbar and etc. Most of the programs other than WLM is not needed, yet Microsoft forces user who wants to backup the installer or install WLM on not connected offline PC or distribute the program across corporate network to download the massive 100 MB plus integrated full installer, namely wlsetup-all.exe.

The worst part is that the wlsetup-all.exe, which has all the installation files, cannot be uncompressed, unpacked or extracted into separate .MSI installer for each individual software. While the web installer, wlsetup-web.exe does not have the .MSI packaged in as it will download the required .CAB off the Internet.

For those who insist on want to grab and retrieve a copy of individual stand-alone Windows Live Messenger 2009 setup installer, which can be used to install WLM anytime on any computer without waiting for downloading, use the following trick to get the “Messenger.msi” file.

  1. Download Windows Live Installer from download.live.com.
  2. Install or upgrade the Windows Live Messenger to latest version.
  3. Open Windows Explorer, and set it to Show hidden files and folders and show protected operating system files (uncheck the tick for Hide protected operating system files) in the View tab of Folder Options.

    In Windows Vista, run Windows Explorer as Administrator, and user may requires to take ownership and gain full control permissions for the folders below before able to access them.

  4. Browse to \Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\ folder.
  5. There will be a lot of folders made up of 15 characters and numbers. Locate Messenger.msi file inside one of the folder. Messenger.msi is the individual separate standalone setup installer for Windows Live Messenger 2009, which can be backed up or copied to another location. Do note that the Messenger.msi and other Windows Installer Package retrieved this way is silent installer.

    Tip: %ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\cache.ini file contains the paths of all Windows Live software products downloaded or installed on the computer.

  6. If you have any problem with Windows Live Messenger after installation using the standalone individual installer Messenger.msi, try to install the following 3 programs too, all of which in different sub-folders inside the .cache directory.

    Contacts.msi (Contacts)
    dw20shared.msi (DW 2.0 Client)
    crt.msi (Microsoft Visual Studio Runtime)

    Tip: Contacts.msi is a must to avoid or fix 8000FFFF error.

After grabbing the Windows Live Messenger standalone silent installer, optionally user can uninstall the Windows Live Suite (all programs) from Control Panel, and install Messenger.msi (and Contacts.msi too) again to get rid of all other Windows Live components except WLM9, saving time and bandwidth in future installation.

The trick also also work for all other Windows Live products such as Windows Live Sign-In Assistant (wllogin.msi), Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Mail ,Windows Live Toolbar, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Family Safety, Segoe UI Font, Windows Live Call and Microsoft Office Outlook Connector.


22 Responses to “Retrieve Windows Live Messenger 2009 Standalone Individual Setup Installer (MSI) from Web Download”

  1. Plain Jane
    September 21st, 2009 18:30
    22

    If you want to manually install the latest Live Messenger 2009(14.0.8089.726), you can download all the components needed, as well as the uninstaller from here:

    http://www.mediafire.com/?zkdjojowz24

    Enjoy!

  2. JONATHAN AVILDSEN
    August 26th, 2009 19:56
    21

    whats the point of this post idiot. i have windows 2003 server and cant even download anything. why dont you just upload the msi file you lazy dummy.

  3. nik3kin
    July 22nd, 2009 17:36
    20

    HEY HK-47!!! I no u have the installer and i DLed a few days ago AND IT WORKED!!! OMG THANK U!! but my com shat itself and i lost it, and now theres nothing but dead torrents :( if u do read this please email me the installers nik3kin@hotmail .com

  4. amf
    July 5th, 2009 15:29
    19

    great, i’ll try it

  5. Doesn't work
    June 30th, 2009 22:58
    18

    Doesn’t work.

    It just hangs.

  6. mega
    May 23rd, 2009 03:34
    17

    thank

  7. 無法安裝Windows Live Messenger!? « FarQ(遙遠的Q)
    April 26th, 2009 12:08
    16

    [...] GOOGLE了一下,發現了「這篇文章」。大致上就是從一台已經安裝+更新過WLM(Windows Live Messenger)的機器上,把需要的安裝檔取出,然後直接安裝。 [...]

  8. Using Live Messenger in Windows Server 2003 « FarQ(遙遠的Q)
    April 18th, 2009 13:03
    15

    [...] 於是上網google了一下,找到傷當不錯的文章:Retrieve Windows Live Messenger 2009 Standalone Individual Setup Installer (MSI) from Web Download [...]

  9. rafa
    April 14th, 2009 07:51
    14

    Good info…! thanx…!

  10. I dont know
    March 18th, 2009 19:04
    13

    ITs working man. Thanx!

  11. NISPEERUX
    March 12th, 2009 06:36
    12

    Great! Really useful because the “normal” installer it’s very heavy, and I need to install in a lot of machines frequently, I cannot wait a eternity every installation!

    Thnaks a million!

  12. PROFESSIONAL
    March 4th, 2009 22:48
    11

    Great
    thank you

  13. Chris
    February 23rd, 2009 04:50
    10

    Hey, great post. Do you know how I can remove it after it was installed on a windows 2003 server? Cause i couldn’t find the program from the add/remove programs.

  14. hk-47
    February 18th, 2009 09:57
    9

    Here is the latest build of Windows Live Mesenger 2009:

    http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4729381/Windows_Live_Messenger_2009_(build_14.0.8064.206)_by_hk-47

    It is a standalone package made according to your instructions.

    hk-47

  15. nikola
    February 17th, 2009 22:32
    8

    problem adding contacts to wlm 2009. when i installed the 2009 version my contacts where there everything was fine but i can not add contacts or accept them . every new contact i tried to add is off line and it says this windows service is not working . any idea?

  16. ??????
    February 8th, 2009 12:06
    7

    there is a new problem i restored my system because of an unknown error so i tried to install the messenger 2009 an sadly there is not a cache folder what should i do

  17. ??????
    February 2nd, 2009 02:54
    6

    nevermind it worked thank you!

  18. ??????
    February 2nd, 2009 02:37
    5

    it closes suddendly when i tried to install it

  19. Download Windows Live Essentials (Messenger) Version 2009 (Build 14.0.8050.1202) for Windows 7 » My Digital Life
    January 7th, 2009 09:28
    4

    [...] standalone individual setup installer for each application, however, the setup file for them can be retrieved from sub-folders inside Program FilesCommon FilesWindows Live.cache folder after installation completed [...]

  20. bruno
    December 20th, 2008 23:57
    3

    very handy!!! many thanks… merry Christmas & happy new year.

  21. Imran Niazi
    December 11th, 2008 20:41
    2

    Veary Nice Soft
    ThnX

  22. venansius
    December 7th, 2008 14:30
    1

    thanks so much, this really help me.

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