Downgrade from Windows Lives Messenger 9 to Windows Live Messenger 8.5 how-to

Lots of people are complaining about the latest Windows Live Messenger 9. They are all looking for a way to downgrade to Windows Live Messenger 8.5.

To help those people with this downgrade a wrote a little how-to.

1. First uninstall everything

The first step is to totally remove every program that is related to Windows Live Messenger. You can use ZapMessenger, ZapMessenger will try to remove all your MSN/WLM messenger versions.

Also check your Control Panel -> Programs and remove everything related to Windows Live Messenger.

2. Download and install Windows Live Messenger 8.5

Once you run the first step completely you can start downloading and installing Windows Live Messenger 8.5 again. The download to the correct file can be found on the page (look for the download now).

A file called WLinstaller.exe will download, run it.

Select the Messenger product, once selected it will start installing (this can take a couple of minutes to start).

If you get a error wenn you run WLinstaller.exe, see extra step below.

Enjoy Windows Live Messenger 8.5 again!


Extra step: Windows Installer Clean Up

Download this program (this will install under Crogram FilesWindows Installer Clean Up) and run msicuu.exe in the installation folder. Look for everything related to Windows Live (like Windows Live Messenger etc..).

Select the program(s) you want to remove and press remove.

Hope this helps to fix the WLinstaller.exe error.