Manage Your Windows Messenger Contacts
Published: April 7, 2003
By Ed Bott, Microsoft Press Author and Expert Zone Community Columnist
Editor's Note: Past articles by members of the online community are archived for your use. The information may become outdated as technology changes. For the most current information, please search the Web site or post a question in the newsgroups.
Tired of telephone tag? Frustrated by e-mail exchanges that bounce back and forth for days? Maybe you need to try a new way of communicating.
Windows Messenger gives you the best of both worlds. When you and your friends or business associates sign up with a .NET Messenger account, you can communicate in real time, with many of the advantages of e-mail. With one click, you can set your status to let other people know you're busy or on the phone, so they don't waste your time or theirs trying to make contact.
When you do make a connection, you can type short messages just as you would in an e-mail program; you can send file attachments, exchange pictures, and even use a Web cam to set up a video conference. See Barb Bowman's columns, Windows Messenger: I'm Retiring My Telephone and My 2000 Mile Wide Conference Room, for more information on using Windows Messenger to communicate and collaborate.
The heart of Windows Messenger is your contact list, which shows you who's online, who's away, and who's too busy to chat right now. If you want to make the most of Windows Messenger, start by getting your contact list organized.
Establish Your Own Identity
When you first log on to Windows Messenger using a .NET Passport, the e-mail address you used as a signup name appears at the top of the Windows Messenger window. That's also what your online friends and associates see in their contact list. Your e-mail address isn't usually the best way to identify yourself, especially if you have a Hotmail account that doesn't include your real name.
To make it easier for other people to see who you are when you pop up on Windows Messenger, change your display name to one that clearly identifies you. To change your Windows Messenger display name:
1. | Click Tools, and then click Options. |
2. | In the Options dialog box, click the Personal tab, as shown in Figure 1. |
3. | Change the name to one that will allow other people to easily identify you.  Figure 1 |
Be sure to pick a name that's relevant to all of your contacts. Your first name might be just fine if you use Windows Messenger to stay in touch with close friends and family. You should add your last name (or another identifying detail such as your company name) if you have work-related contacts and your first name is a common one. Your changes appear immediately to other people who have added you to their Contacts list.
Protect Your Privacy
By default, Windows Messenger allows anyone to contact you—all they need is your e-mail address. That's good news if you're the sort of person who talks to strangers in the grocery store, on airplanes, and on the street. Those intrusions can be an unwelcome hassle, though, if the strangers pop in with harassing messages or interrupt your work day.
Want to have the option to say yes or no before any new contact can send you a message? Configure Windows Messenger so that new contacts have to ask your permission.
1. | Click Tools, and then click Options. |
2. | Click the Privacy tab, as shown in Figure 2.  Figure 2 |
3. | Select All other users from the My Allow List on the left, and then click Block. |
After you make this change, you'll see that the Alert me when other users add me to the contact lists option is selected and can no longer be changed. From now on, anyone who's not on your Allow List will be unable to send you a message. When a person adds your name to their list, you'll see a message like the one shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3
| • | Click Allow this person to see when you are online and contact you to add them to your Allow List. |
| • | Click Block this person from seeing when you are online and contacting you if you'd prefer to avoid them. In that case, Windows Messenger automatically adds their name to your Block list, and your privacy is protected. |
You don't have to dig deep into dialog boxes to block and unblock contacts. Any of these shortcuts will work:
| • | If you're in the middle of a chat session, you can click the Block button to end the conversation immediately. The person at the other end of the connection doesn't know he's been blocked—it looks as though you suddenly and mysteriously went offline. |
| • | If you notice that one of your contacts has come online and you decide that you really don't want to hear from her right now, right-click her name in the contact list and click Block. When you're ready to chat, right-click her name again, this time choosing Unblock. |
Keep Your Contacts and E-Mail in Sync
Do you spend most of your day reading and answering e-mail in Outlook Express? Using Windows Messenger can help you eliminate some of those back-and-forth e-mail messages. In a short online conversation, you can share ideas or get answers with an immediacy that just isn't possible with e-mail. Best of all, you never have to leave Outlook Express.
By default, Outlook Express keeps track of your Windows Messenger contact list in the Contacts window, which normally appears in the lower left corner of your Outlook Express window, just below your Folders list. If the Contacts list is missing, it's easy to restore it:
1. | Click View, and then click Layout. |
2. | Select the Contacts check box, and then click OK. |
Your Windows Messenger contacts automatically appear at the top of the list, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4
The green icon means a contact is online; red means the contact is offline; other icons show whether the contact has chosen a Status option such as Busy or On the phone. Double-click the icon for a contact to open a conversation window and begin chatting immediately.
If your Windows Address Book is already filled with names and e-mail addresses, you can quickly add an existing contact to your list of Windows Messenger contacts. Right-click the name in the Contacts window of Outlook Express, and then click Set as Online Contact.
In fact, you can completely eliminate the need to use the main Windows Messenger window if you prefer to stay in Outlook Express. Click Tools, and then point to Windows Messenger for instant access to menu items that let you log on and off, send an instant message, or adjust Windows Messenger options.
Of course, not everyone appreciates the tight links between these two programs. If you'd rather keep Outlook Express and Windows Messenger separate, you'll need to make a small tweak to the Registry. You'll find details (and a small Visual Basic script to perform the surgery automatically) on Doug Knox's Windows Tweaks and Tips page. After making this adjustment, you'll have to manually delete any imported Windows Messenger contacts from your Outlook Contacts list.
You don't have to worry about backing up your Windows Messenger contacts. Your contact list and the record of who you've blocked are safely stored on a server for instant recall when you log on. Whether you check in at work, at home, or at a friend's house, you see the same list. Of course, that also means your co-workers can pester you when you're trying to relax at home and your friends can interrupt you with idle chitchat when you're trying to buckle down at the office. In a future column, I'll share my secrets for making the most of Windows Messenger at home and in the office.
Expert Zone columnist Ed Bott is an award-winning computer journalist who's been working with Microsoft Windows for more than 15 years. His latest Microsoft Press books include Faster Smarter Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out (with Carl Siechert and Craig Stinson).
