Messenger Plus! 3 Review

4 Apr, 2004 at 5:42pm ET Article published in Tech

Comments

1. 
   5 Apr 2004 ~ 12:50am Dexter My kid installed Messenger Plus 2 on his profile on XP. Next thing I noticed was that the app was logging Messenger conversations on ALL 3 of our profiles, even though it was not installed on mine or my wife's profiles. Hmmm, if I wanted logs of my Messenger chats saved in a public directory, maybe I would just choose to do so myself. Program got uninstalled pretty darn fast.
   
   Crapware.
   
   Dexter...
2. 
   5 Apr 2004 ~ 8:32am Spinner

   Dexter wrote:

   My kid installed Messenger Plus 2 on his profile on XP. Next thing I noticed was that the app was logging Messenger conversations on ALL 3 of our profiles, even though it was not installed on mine or my wife's profiles. Hmmm, if I wanted logs of my Messenger chats saved in a public directory, maybe I would just choose to do so myself. Program got uninstalled pretty darn fast.
   
   Crapware.
   
   Dexter...

   The logging feature can be turned off. Messenger Plus! is probably one of the best and most honest pieces of add-on software available on the web today. Patchou (the maker) is a hard working and dedicated individual that puts the user first. Messenger Plus! is not Crapware. Quite the opposite actually.
3. 
   6 Apr 2004 ~ 4:48pm Dexter Your missing my point Spinner. I know it can be turned off. But the program was installed ONLY on my son's profile, yet it activated logging on all 3 profiles. That is poor design. If I hadn't come across the log folders by accident doing a search, I would never have known the software was even there.
   
   What a convenient way to spy on someone else's MSN conversations without their knowledge though...
   
   Dexter...
4. 
   6 Apr 2004 ~ 7:43pm Spinner

   Dexter wrote:

   Your missing my point Spinner. I know it can be turned off. But the program was installed ONLY on my son's profile, yet it activated logging on all 3 profiles. That is poor design. If I hadn't come across the log folders by accident doing a search, I would never have known the software was even there.
   
   What a convenient way to spy on someone else's MSN conversations without their knowledge though...
   
   Dexter...

   OK fair point. But that's a bug not a prelude to crapiness.
   
   Are you saying that Messenger Plus! isn't actually loading on the other profiles but is still logging chats? or are you saying it is logging chats as a result of Messenger Plus! loading up on the other profiles when it shouldn't. Because the Messenger client itself, regardless of whether Messenger Plus! is installed or not, has built in logging aswell. At least MSN Messenger does.
   
   If it is a user accounts issue though, hopefully it will be resolved in the next release.
5. 
   6 Apr 2004 ~ 9:56pm Dexter What I am saying is, my son downloaded and installed it on his XP profile, because a friend recommended it to him. A few days later, when doing a search for an unrelated log file (keyword was "log") I came across 3 folders entitled My Chat Logs. One for each XP profile: myself, my wife, my son. I looked in mine, and lo and behold, it had logged my conversations from the previous couple of days. Same in my wife's profile and my son's.
   
   My Chat Logs is not how Messenger saves it's recorded chats, AFAIK. Further, the logging feature was disabled in Messenger.
   
   So, I deleted all 3 of those folders, and uninstalled Messenger Plus, after having done some quick research on it. The My Chat Logs folders never came back.
   
   Now, granted, each of those folders was in each user's "My Documents" folder, but anyone with Admin rights and a little bit of knowledge can access them. I did not know that my son installed this software, it did not appear in my Start Menu, but it automatically started up whenever I started Messenger. It only logged my chats, it did not give me the other Messenger Plus options. That makes me a tad nervous. Anything that is stealthily logging on my computer without my knowledge, if it was not installed by me, it gets deleted.
   
   Perhaps my description of "crapware" was a bit strong, I have not used the app enough to make an objective opinion. I just have a natural tenedency to dislike any program that add's smilies and logs activities Maybe someone who does use the software can point this bug out to their tech staff....nudge-nudge.
   
   Dexter...
6. 
   6 Apr 2004 ~ 10:59pm Spinner

   Dexter wrote:

   What I am saying is, my son downloaded and installed it on his XP profile, because a friend recommended it to him. A few days later, when doing a search for an unrelated log file (keyword was "log") I came across 3 folders entitled My Chat Logs. One for each XP profile: myself, my wife, my son. I looked in mine, and lo and behold, it had logged my conversations from the previous couple of days. Same in my wife's profile and my son's.
   
   My Chat Logs is not how Messenger saves it's recorded chats, AFAIK. Further, the logging feature was disabled in Messenger.
   
   So, I deleted all 3 of those folders, and uninstalled Messenger Plus, after having done some quick research on it. The My Chat Logs folders never came back.
   
   Now, granted, each of those folders was in each user's "My Documents" folder, but anyone with Admin rights and a little bit of knowledge can access them. I did not know that my son installed this software, it did not appear in my Start Menu, but it automatically started up whenever I started Messenger. It only logged my chats, it did not give me the other Messenger Plus options. That makes me a tad nervous. Anything that is stealthily logging on my computer without my knowledge, if it was not installed by me, it gets deleted.
   
   Perhaps my description of "crapware" was a bit strong, I have not used the app enough to make an objective opinion. I just have a natural tenedency to dislike any program that add's smilies and logs activities Maybe someone who does use the software can point this bug out to their tech staff....nudge-nudge.
   
   Dexter...

   I hear ya. When I get a minute I'll try and look into the problem and if it isn't something that seems to have been already reported, I'll report your bug find myself. I'll post back if and when I learn more.
   
   Cheers