Installing Windows Live Messenger 9 on Windows Server 2008

Update: New post with Final installer... posted! Refer to a newer post to download it.

It’s a good thing I had reinstalled Server 2008 because I would crash into so many troubles if I were busy by the time WLM 9 went gold.

This process is similar to what was done with WLM 8.5 in the previous wave (Hint: Mess.be). This was really useful because it only installed –THAT- and worked in Server.

However, not everything was a walk in the park. Having installed Server 2008 on both my Desktop and Laptop I was pretty much screwed. BUT! I had a Plan B! (god, I love plan B’s). {Intermission: Hold on, some ZUN music change at time of writing} Ok, I remembered that I installed XP via Virtual PC while I was in my electronics class, so I installed it there.

I really dig the new installer and it’s MUCH faster than Wave 2 (according to my experience) (And I installed 3 products too…). Anyways, so I let it download and install the products that I wanted.

Due to 8.5 experience, I quickly went to look for a .MSI file, but all I found were temp. files. Not very useful although they did show Messenger’s file size. I tried changing the extension to .msi and .exe, but both failed. So I Plan B-fied and took a look into the –big- log. In that log there were scattered installation URLs that the installer used. I ”quickly” found the one belonging to Messenger and downloaded it. HOWEVER the work is not done.

Attempting to install Windows Live Messenger with just the installer will cause a corrupt installation that can’t sign in with error 8000FFFF (not to mention that there’s no entry in the Programs and Features list). So, I applied Plan B to this step too (sorry folks, I don’t reach Plan C). I searched and downloaded all URLs that I found relevant to Messenger. Entries like Contacts, WlLogin, etc. And a catalog.xml file for luck (I really don’t know why I downloaded this anyway…).

I opened up each installer and allowed them to install. After I finished with all of them, I re-opened WLM’s installer, and it WORKED!

I wasted about an hour figuring this out, so I hope this helps other Windows Server 2008 users who also wants to use this.

I should be able to do a post with the end-user noticeable changes near the weekend. (If I don’t do it later today).