Background "extraction" for MSN Messenger on Vista
You’d have thought that it would be a relatively simple process to get your messenger backgrounds shared by others by finding the folder with the pictures, whereupon you would discover the pictures lined up nicely as JPEGs, bitmaps or whatever you’d like.
And you’d be wrong.
There is already a guide to finding these files online, but I noticed that this guide was for XP only, as it used the “Documents and Settings” folder. The Vista team, in typical “We’re going to change things for the sake of changing things” fashion, removed this folder and scattered its contents to the wind. The folder in question is now called “AppData”, and appears thus:
To get to this folder, the steps below are needed (I recommend reading the whole document before getting started, but if you want to start at step 1 and work along, that’s your own choice):
FOLLOW THESE STEPS AT YOUR OWN RISK. I ACCEPT NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES, INJURY OR LOSSES RESULTING FROM YOUR ACTIONS FROM THIS POINT ONWARDS.
Really, the only precaution you need to take when doing things like this is remember never to change or delete any files, even the one that you’re interested in. If you need to change something, make a copy or backup of it first, then change it knowing that you can restore the old version if something goes wrong. Even then, don’t do something stupid like finding your windows folder, deleting it and then attempting to “restore” the backup (I have no idea if this will work, especially as I’ve never tried deleting my windows folder before)
Remember that this guide is for VISTA. NOT XP, NOT WINDOWS NT OR 2000 OR LINUX.
START > Type “Folder options” into search and press enter > Go to “View” tab and under “Hidden Files and Folders” select Show (2nd option).
Then go to your “My Documents” (START > Your name) and select “AppData”.
In the following screen, select (ie, double click on) “Local” and then “Microsoft” and then “Messenger”. Do not click on the other folders, and do not alter any other files than the one I will direct you to at the end. You should see two or more folders, with one with your email address (or the one you use for MSN). Double click on the folder with your email and then double click “Object Store”. Finally, double click on Backgrounds.
ALTERNATIVELY:
Right click on desktop, go to New and create a Shortcut. Right click on this, select properties and in the resultant screen copy and paste this:
C:\Users\*******INSERT NAME OF “MY DOCUMENTS” FOLDER*********\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Messenger\**********Your email goes here*************\ObjectStore\Backgrounds
Then double click on this Shortcut.
Sorry for the long winded walkthrough, but some people like to know exactly what happens with Vista (or are stubborn enough to try the solution before looking for easier ones).
Anyway, both methods will take you to this screen:
Note: The link to the picture has been removed as something went wrong with the pics and it appears the following post’s picture replaced the location of the intended one. Nevermind, you can still see the general thing.
The pictures your friends send you will usually be the ones with large file sizes, and be “DT2″ files. If that’s not true, then I’ll admit I have no idea what DT2 is, only that it’s needed for the next step.
Take said file and copy and paste it somewhere (the desktop will do fine). Then right click on the DT2 file, click “rename” and name the file “something.jpg”. Naturally, the something can be any word you like. Once done, double click on the file.
Now, if you’ve selected the right file, you should get a nice picture of whatever background you were using.
Enjoy.
