Cannot view Message History windows in Windows Live Messenger

Hi there, this has been a great problem for me since I do business over Windows Live Messenger a lot. Viewing Message History is critical to my every-day life, and I need your help.

I have Windows XP, and I also have the latest version of Windows Live Messenger. I used to always be able to right-click a buddy > View > View Message History, and the history of the chat with that person would always come up.

However, this is what has been happening to me lately. Yes, the Message History window APPEARS on my TASKBAR--but only MINIMIZED! It will NOT MAXIMIZE! Nothing I do works! Right-clicking it and clicking Move doesn't work, nothing. Just a minimized window that will not maximize. Every single buddy history window acts exactly like this.

I tried uninstalling Windows Live Messenger completely, and reinstalling it. I don't know what's going wrong with my computer. I've also tried deleting all my cookies and running Disk Cleanup. Please help me when you have some time.

Much appreciated!

Lysimachus

 

Does anyone have any ideas? By the way, the problem with moving my thread simply means it hardly gets attention, since virtually nobody looks at the "Other Software" forum.

Also, this is a "Windows" problem, since I'm having difficulty maximizing windows.

 

Try the following .....
From the above view, minimize view to taskbar.
Put cursor on same tab, right click, select Maximize.

 

It doesn't work. Here, let me show you what happens. The moment I click "View Message History ", the Message History window shows minimized by default on the Taskbar. Clicking it only pushes it in, but does not maximize it. Right-clicking it comes up with this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v281/Lysimachus/TechnicalSupport/MaximizeProblem.jpg

There has to be some glitch/bug that is causing this problem. I'm wondering if any of the gurus here can help me out to figure out what's causing these windows to not expand. Thanks.

Lysimachus

 

Oh cool...I found the actual Message History files in the My Received Files folder! In there, they are actual XML files! They open PERFECTLY there!

But I'm still puzzled why trying to open the window by right-clicking their name gets stuck on the task-bar. It's a different kind of window than an IE window....has a a Windows Live Messenger frame design to it. I'm wondering if my glitch might have something to do with the order I installed my Messenger updates....I updated to Messenger Plus!

First I had like Windows Live Messenger 8.1, then I upgraded to Messenger Plus! http://www.msgpluslive.net/ Then after that, I just updated to Windows Live Messenger 8.5 on top of Plus, and Plus retained--but ever since, it's goofed up my viewing of Messenger History. Perhaps that could be the problem?

Thanks much Arie for pointing out the My Received Files route!

Lysimachus

 

Same here

Hi, just to let you know I have EXACTLY the same problem.
Windows Xp Pro.
MSN Live 8.5.1302.1018

here's what I have tried, with no success:
Uninstall -Reboot -Reinstall live messenger

Start -> Run - CMD

(un register the XML dlls)
regsvr32msxml3.dll /u
regsvr32msxml4.dll /u
regsvr32msxml6.dll /u

(RE Register XML dlls)
regsvr32msxml3.dll
regsvr32msxml4.dll
regsvr32msxml6.dll

(System File Checker)
Start -> Run -> CMD
At the prompt:
Sfc /Scannow (note the space before the switch!)

Add / Remove Programs -> MSXML 4.0 SP2 (KB936181) -> Change -> Repair.
(will reboot and post results for this one, but no joy so far!)

I'll try more things and post them here.
I have googled like crazy and it seems quite rare.

Be nice to know what you have tried too.

 

Solution

Lysimachus - not sure you still have the problem - I messaged your account and got Arie to open this thread so I could post solution. It was really frustrating!

You need to use Task Manager to maximise the "Message History" window. Trouble then is that although you can see messages, it goes back to the funny state each time you view it. To fix permanently, you need to maximise it and then do a "Cascade Windows" from right click on task bar - close all but IM windows before doing this as they all get cascaded to variable size. IM is back to normal then.

Good luck!