The new Windows Live Messenger 2012 comes as part of the Windows Live Essentials pack. It's an incremental development over Windows Live Messenger 2011, looking almost identical, while introducing a couple of changes.

When you install Windows Live Messenger, you have the option to install the rest of the Essentials pack, including Mail, Writer, Sync, Companion, Family Safety, Photo Gallery and Movie Maker.

You can choose to connect Windows Live Messenger 2012 to social networks Facebook and LinkedIn, making the app your social hub in Windows, if you want. Facebook is still much easier to use in your browser though, and integration into Windows Live Messenger 2012 is only really useful if your Messenger contacts are still really active and important to you.

The interface is almost unchanged; so if you were unhappy with the changes we saw in 2011, there is nothing here to make you happier! When you open a chat, there is a new Video call icon, and when you receive a video call, there is a new floating window, much like in Skype. A neat feature of this is the option to answer without showing your video feed - we're not always ready for a video call, after all!

Windows Live Messenger 2012 is no revolution, slightly improving on its predecessor. It's still a little bloated, and considering Hotmail's recent transformation to Outlook.com, which features a great messenger service right from your browser, it could be curtains for this venerable application.

Download Windows Live Messenger 2012 16.4.3503.0728 in Softonic

Windows Live Messenger 2011 is finally here. Far from being just a chat program, the all-new Microsoft instant messaging client is now a complete communications center with support for social networks.

As with previous versions, Windows Live Messenger 2011 is part of the Windows Live Essentials suite, which also includes other apps such as Mail, Writer, Sync, Companion, Family Safety, Photo Gallery and Movie Maker, as well as the Bing Bar. Luckily the installation process lets you choose exactly which apps you want on your system.

Windows Live Messenger features a revamped interface. Right after launching it, and thanks to new integration with other services such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, the so-called Social Highlights lets you check your friends’ latest news and status messages at a glance. If you still prefer the old style, worry not: Windows Live Messenger lets you switch to the traditional contact list by using the Contacts mode. Bear in mind though that if you use a different email account for your social networks, you’ll have to connect the services on the Windows Live website.

Besides the social element, everything else is pretty much the same on Windows Live Messenger 2011, only with a slightly fresher appearance. You can still do video and voice calls, play online games with your friends, share files, and of course customize the program’s appearance with skins and color themes. Emoticons have been revamped, and – finally! – you can have multiple conversations tabbed in one single window.

The main drawback to the all-new Windows Live Messenger 2011 is that it only works on Windows Vista and Windows 7. So if you still use Windows XP you’ll have to stick to the old version – or upgrade your system!

Windows Live Messenger 2011 is the long-awaited new version of Microsoft’s IM client, now integrated with social networks and other services.

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iGlasses gives you total control over your webcam video settings from within a huge number of applications such as iChat, QuickTime Pro Player and 60 other programs such as , Yahoo! Messenger , Skype and SightSpeed. You can easily deselect applications you don't want it to work with using the iGlasses Manager.

For example, you can auto-change your iSight image so that it displays night vision, flip the image upside down, rotate an image or provide a mirror image for example.
Once the image is changed, you have some manual controls to tweak it with. Note that although it's primarily designed for use with iSight cameras, iGlasses is also compatible with Logitech QuickCam, Macally IceCam, iMage USB Webcam, or any camera that uses macam as a driver.

One major drawback of the application though is that it requires running applications in 32-bit mode for them to work with iGlasses although this is something that should be fixed later this year.

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MagicCamera turns your webcam into a fun device by adding all sorts of special effects and frames to the image that's currently showing on it. You can preview the webcam's image and test all the filters, effects, masks, backgrounds and animations included in MagicCamera in real time. They're all organized in tabs under the video preview, and can be applied with a simple mouse click.

The best thing about MagicCamera though is that it doesn't only work with real webcams. The program can emulate a virtual webcam which you can use to stream any other kind of video (a short movie, a photo slideshow or even the image of your own desktop) to your friends over IM.

MagicCamera works with all popular video chat-capable apps (Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, Camfrog Video Chat, PalTalk, Skype, etc.) and is pretty straightforward. On the downside, I think the video preview is surprisingly low in quality (despite using a high-spec webcam with a Carl Zeiss lens), and some of the frames and animations included are a bit tacky.

MagicCamera makes your video chats more original and fun!

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The Google Desktop application allows users to search their desktop content quickly and easily. Praised for its ingenuity and criticised for its intrusiveness, Google Desktop brings the power of Google’s search engine technology to your PC.

After installing the application, you’ll have to give it some time to index the files on your PC, including emails, photos, chats, contacts and calendar events. Google Desktop will index the first 10,000 words in the first 100,000 documents on your PC. The application supports the majority of file types and you can decide which ones to index, or omit protected files, using the preferences menu.

In its latest version, which is compatible with Windows Vista, Google Desktop has been given a new transparent look, providing a pretty sleek feel to your PC. Your search results will appear in your browser (in the familiar Google web page format) and a small preview button allows you to view results without actually clicking on the corresponding link. Results are as precise as we’ve come to expect from Google searches, however we were slightly disappointed to learn that the application doesn’t offer logical 'OR' support or substring search. On another note, Google Desktop is not limited to your PC as you can cross index content from multiple machines and share some panel items with your friends.

Google Desktop is not only about search, though. Joining a marketplace already occupied by Apple’s Dashboard Widgets and Yahoo! Widgets, Google Desktop can be fitted with any number of little gadgets. These mini apps perform all kinds of functions, from fetching your mail to jotting down notes or checking up on your local weather. There are hundreds of gadgets to choose from to customize your desktop bar. Our personal favorites are: Google Translate, the Skype plug-in to check your credit and call your contacts, “Am I Blocked” to find out who’s blocked you on IM, Workspace to quickly move between tasks, System Stats to monitor your PC and Games, a selection of Flash games like Tetris and Moonlander.

When running, we found Google Desktop to use up around 30 MBs, but that can quickly increase if you add more gadgets to it. The application is also constantly re-indexing your files to incorporate your modifications and new elements. However you should rarely feel your PC slowing due to indexing.

When you’re dealing with Google, however, you know the main criticism will be about security. Because Google Desktop indexes all your documents, you’re basically opening up your PC and all your personal files to the Moutain View company. What some users fear is that Google could one day take advantage of that access or that a bug in the application would allow malicious users to infiltrate your PC and steal information.

While the intrusiveness of Google Desktop will give some users pause for thought on installing the app, Google Desktop is highly effective and simple to use. The gadgets you can add to its sidebar may not all be essential, but many of them are quite fun and original and let’s face it, the sidebar looks good. Give it a go if you think your PC is a mess and you need quick access to anything.

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Windows Live Pack is a complete pack of utilities, all powered by Microsoft and mostly related to Internet and web services.

The flagship in Windows Live Pack is undoubtedly Windows Live Messenger, the popular IM client, but you can also find some other handy apps to check your email, manage your photos, restrict Internet access to your kids or write your blog, among other tasks. If you don't need all of them don't worry: Windows Live Pack lets you choose the ones you want during the installation process. They all require a Windows Live account to work though.

Besides Messenger, the pack contains the following apps: Windows Live Call Beta, Windows Live Family Safety Beta, Windows Live Mail Beta (replacing good ol' Outlook Express), Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta and Windows Live Writer Beta.

These new Live apps are still at a beta stage, but they were all pretty stable during our tests. Plus they all feature very clean, slick interfaces which makes them very visually appealing and easy to use.

Windows Live Pack is a handy toolkit with several varied apps, specially designed for Microsoft fans.

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When I was a teenager I used to save chat logs in all my IM clients (namely ICQ and MSN Messenger). Although I don't do it anymore, I would have loved to know a tool like IM-History back then.

This app saves the chat history of several popular IM clients and synchronizes it with an online storage service. This means that your chat logs are permanently synchronized and up-to-date, no matter where you connect from: home, office or even mobile devices. And of course, you can access them any time with a simple web browser.

Online chat storage is conveniently protected by a personal username and password. As for the desktop client, I must admit I had some problems to properly configure it, but I emailed the Support team and got the solution in about an hour. So if you're having trouble in getting IM-History to find your installed messengers as I did, simply make sure you log on each one of them at least once. I also had some connectivity issues while testing the program, but this is probably due to the fact that it's still in beta stage.

IM-History features a colorful, intuitive interface where you can review all your chats, perform searches by contact or by keyword and also mark any given sentence as Favorite. Chat logs also save emoticons, web links and even photo and video preview.

Despite some configuration and connectivity problems, IM-History is an excellent tool to save, manage and organize chat logs from many different IM clients.

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Festoon (formerly vSkype) adds video and sharing to your Skype experience. Getting started is simple. Just connect a camera, download our free Festoon plug-in, and invite up to 200 buddies to a video call - even if they don't have a camera.

You can also share anything you see on your screen, even your entire desktop. Whether you use Skype for business or to connect with family and friends, now you can show a presentation, work on a spreadsheet, or share photos of your weekend fun while seeing everyone on the call.

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CrazyTalk for Skype is a dynamic animated messaging tool featuring customizable emotive facial animation allowing you to create Skype characters from any photo! It is much more fun than conventional video chatting. Animate Skype with loads of content you can download from the web or create yourself with CrazyTalk Avatar Editor.

Share them with your friends whenever you like, using whatever photo you like, animated however you like – to become the face of whoever or whatever you want to be! Photos of animals, cartoons, 3D characters, comics or any photo from your digital camera can be magically brought to life with as an animated character for Skype using the Free CrazyTalk for Skype and character creator inside CrazyTalk Messenger.

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FunWebcam gives you the magic to add exciting animations and stylish frames to your video chat page. Besides, it can transform your cute images into various kinds of fun photos, which you can easily show to your friends.

You can create your own fun photo album with as many models as you want. Compatible with all video chat tools like MSN, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, AIM, SKYPE etc.

One-way installation is required only; anyone can view your awesome images even though they do not have FunWebcam installed. Show emotions in a new and innovative way.

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