Just a casual Question.

Since I'm sure Jonathan Kay must be nearing his wit's end explaining how to
keep Windows Messenger from signing in/how to uninstall it over and over-
even though it means the end of a few MSN features... my question is:

Why does Microsoft make one program dependant on the other in the first
place? They must've known that making 2 programs that are similar, yet
keeping program B requireing the similar program A to be installed at the
same time would only cause confusion.

Why don't they just "separate" the two? Men walked on the moon nearly 40
years ago, I'm sure it's possible. It'd make your job a whole lot easier.

Giver...
Want to know something else interesting, to add to your rant:
Windows Messenger is dependent upon NetMeeting (conf.exe).
Microsoft Office Communicator (MOC) is dependent upon Windows Messenger for
some of it's integration features.

Cheers,

Bob

--
Bob Christian II
http://bobchristian.blogspot.com - Blog



"give'r" wrote in message
. ..
Since I'm sure Jonathan Kay must be nearing his wit's end explaining how
to keep Windows Messenger from signing in/how to uninstall it over and
over- even though it means the end of a few MSN features... my question
is:

Why does Microsoft make one program dependant on the other in the first
place? They must've known that making 2 programs that are similar, yet
keeping program B requireing the similar program A to be installed at the
same time would only cause confusion.

Why don't they just "separate" the two? Men walked on the moon nearly 40
years ago, I'm sure it's possible. It'd make your job a whole lot easier.

Greetings,

The reason is when Windows XP was being developed the idea was that Windows Messenger would
be the MSN Messenger client exclusively for Windows XP. In fact, up until Windows Messenger
4.7, the msmsgs.exe executable was the same for Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger (it would
just change its name based on what OS it was being run on).

Unfortunately at the time of MSN Messenger 5 and Windows Messenger 4.7, they decided to split
the application into two product groups with different focuses. The problem being is that
features like Application Sharing/Whiteboard etc. are part of Windows and the Real-Time
Communication libraries -not- belonging to MSN. As such, these features are dependent on
Windows Messenger, as they were designed to do and they haven't been updated since.

The only thing that can be said about this whole mess is "fixed in vista" although even that
is still under consideration apparently.
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2005 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.


"give'r" wrote in message
. ..
Since I'm sure Jonathan Kay must be nearing his wit's end explaining how to keep Windows
Messenger from signing in/how to uninstall it over and over- even though it means the end
of a few MSN features... my question is:

Why does Microsoft make one program dependant on the other in the first place? They
must've known that making 2 programs that are similar, yet keeping program B requireing the
similar program A to be installed at the same time would only cause confusion.

Why don't they just "separate" the two? Men walked on the moon nearly 40 years ago, I'm
sure it's possible. It'd make your job a whole lot easier.