I installed Windows Live Messenger Beta and I hate it - mostly because although it displays my personal emoticons on my chat partner's screen, it refuses to show them to me! However, when I tried to remove it using Add/Remove Programs, it runs its installer, which gives me the option of adding other things, but no option to uninstall it.
Ben Evans
Microsoft is now rolling out Windows Live Wave 3, and if you use Hotmail, you've just been upgraded with no way back. I suspect all the other Wave 3 services will go the same way, including Windows Live Messenger, Mail and Calendar, Writer, Movie Maker, Photo Gallery, Outlook Connector, Family Safety parental controls and more. These are designed to look lovely and offer a much better user experience to start with, rather than deliver loads of functionality to start with. They will probably have a common installer, and the whole shooting match is designed to come together with Internet Explorer 8 and Windows 7. However, since this is an early beta, I wouldn't rush to try any of them -- especially not with Windows XP. It is possible to uninstall these programs, but it doesn't look like fun. See the instructions from the Messenger Geek, Jonathan Kay.
Update: For more on Wave 3, see my post on the Technology blog: Microsoft starts to roll out Live Wave 3; reinvents Facebook
