Update: Stuffplug has now been released an is available here!

Yes that’s right! A techthisout.net exclusive preview of the newest pre-beta build of StuffPlug3, the very popular (now stand-alone!) add-on for Windows Live Messenger (which from now on will be reffered to as WLM).

It installed easily and quickly, but the installer isn’t the final one that will be “shipped” with StuffPlug3, so I won’t really say much about it.

The thing I noticed after the installation was the seamless incorporation into WLM. As you can see from the screenshot below, it adds an icon and a menu (very much like MsgPlus! does) to make it alot easier to get to the options. This is certainly a great improvement to the old method of going to the options via typing in a conversation window or going into the Plus! options.

I then decided to have a look around it, and after exploring the menu, had a look at the Welcome Screen:

Here we see everything nicely laid out, with a damn nice new interface! There’s not a whole lot to say about it, so I shall move swiftly on to the first options pages.

General Options:

There are 3 options, the first being to do with WLM add-ins, and the next two are pretty self explanatory.

The Content Stealer.

This steals Display Pictures, Emoticons, Dynamic Pictures and Winks. The thing that impressed me most, was its ability to steal the emoticon at it’s original size (before the other person’s WLM resized it), and contrary to the older versions of StuffPlug, it actually steals everything and not just a few display pictures and emoticons here and there.

New Mail Icon in the System Tray

Here’s a brand new feature for StuffPlug, and got to be one of my favourites. Now at a glance you can see if you have any emails, without having to check the main messenger window each time.

Now onto the “Conversation” options screen:

Here we see 7 features (a lot less disappointing than the first options page) consisting of:

Use a Chat Only Name

This feature was in most previous versions of StuffPlug, and for those who don’t know, this feature allows you to choose a different name to appear when you’re in a conversation. Very useful if you have a long name that you want people to see, but want a short and simple name to appear when you’re chatting to your buddies.

Action Text

As you can see from the screenshot, it allows you to send messages that look identical to what you see when you send/recieve a nudge.

Fake Invite

Allows you to send fake invites to contacts, which gets very confusing for them!

Obviously it doesn’t actually send anything, and if they accept, all they see is: “This activity or game is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.”
Doesn’t make it any less fun though! ;)

Allow Talking To Contacts You Blocked

Unfortunatly this feature isn’t quite working yet, but when it is, I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes! It’s obvious what it does though, and will be useful for all those people you don’t want to delete, don’t want them to start messaging you, but still might need to contact from time to time!

Boost Character Limit

This allows you to send as many as 5,000 characters per message in a conversation.

Make Window Icons Reflect Contact’s Status

Now this is another brand new feature, and another of my favourites!
Wheras before, you didn’t know if people had changed status without looking at the main WLM or conversation window, you can now see easily! The screenshot sums it up well:



Flash Keyboard LED when Fullscreen App

Useful for all you CounterStrike players out there. ;) This feature makes one or more LED (“little light” or CapsLock/NumLock/ScrollLock light for all you PC illiterates out there!) flash when someone messages you when you have a fullscreen program open.

Again, this is a feature that’s not yet complete, but will certainly come in handy when it is!

Lastly, the “Contact List” options.

Allow Editing of Friendly Names in the Contact List

Allows you to change your WLM name without having to go into the options, the same way as you do your personal message.

Unfortunaly it isn’t 100% compatible with MsgPlus, but TheBlasphemer is working on getting it sorted.

Enable Ad Hider

I’ve been waiting for this, and although it doesn’t completely remove the advertisment at the bottom of the contact list, it does hide it (as the name suggests) and makes it alot less offensive to the eye.

And that’s it so far!

Well….. You’d think so, but I have a list of all the features that are yet to be added!

  • Getting the contact’s emoticon keystroke when you Install an emoticon you are stealing from them. (Just like the existing “Add” in WLM)
  • New Installer (not really a feature but still good!)
  • An Auto-updater, so you’ll be able to get the newest versions without having to visit the website.
  • Open all links in the default browser
  • Auto complete commands (such as !fakeinvite). Also the old /[command] commands will probably be brought back to replace doing ![command]
  • Give you the opion to auto-disable commands that did not load correctly
  • Allowing over-sized emoticons
  • Ignore Feature (they can talk to you, but you won’t see any of the messages. Saves you having to block them and risk them finding out!)
  • Timestamps also might return, but this isn’t definite

As of yet, there is no timescale for beta-testing, or any release date, so you’ll just have to be patient! I shall keep you updated if and when I get new versions.

NOTE: I will not be giving ANYONE a download link, so please don’t bother asking.

Almost forgot:

The About Screen

As everyone seems to be asking, the theme I’m using is LonghornPro, and it’s for StyleXP :D

About the Window Opened/Closed Notifier

The Window Opened Notifier will not return due to the way MSN7.x (which is used by all pre-XP users) requests display pictures. The notifier used to work by detecting when your display pic was requested, which only happened when a convo window was opened.

MSN7.x now uses contact cards/display pics in the contacts window/display pics in the sign-in popup, so now when ANY of those happen, it would make the notifier popup (even if someone just opened your contact card) which makes it highly inaccurate and therefore pretty useless.

The Window Closed Notifier will no longer be included as current versions of WLM/MSN close the connection woth your contact when they have been inactive for so many minutes. The notifier worked by detecting when the connection had been closed, with the only way of it being closed being when the window was closed. As I previously said, the connection is now randomly closed, so you would recieve a notification not only when the window had been closed, but after your contact had been idle for so long, which makes it inaccurate.

Understandably, TheBlasphemer only wants to include fully functional features, as otherwise, when it pops up and someone hasn’t opened/closed a convo, everyone will moan and complain about it.

Regardless of how great/inaccurate you think the feature is, it WILL NOT BE PUT BACK IN, no matter how many times you ask, and no matter what you do or say.

Let that be the last that is said about them, and all future comments asking about them will be deleted.

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