Windows Live Messenger 2009 (WLM2009)测试版发布了，但默认情况下在Windows Server 2003下面无法安装；并不是WLM2009不支持，而是安装包会有一个操作系统检测的逻辑。由此，只要能提取出WLM2009的安装文件，就可以安装了。这篇文章就是详细描述如何解决这个问题的。
Retrieve Windows Live Messenger 2009 Standalone Individual Setup Installer (MSI) from Web Download
Microsoft has made Windows Live Messenger (WLM or previously known as MSN Messenger) as part of the product suite of Windows Live package, and no longer provide standalone individual setup installer for user to download and install just Windows Live Messenger itself. The story is the same for the latest public beta for Windows Live Wave 3, which includes Windows Live Messenger 2009.
As usual, user download the unified Windows Live Installer which contains installation files for all software programs inside the Windows Live products, such as Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Toolbar and etc. Most of the programs other than WLM is not needed, yet Microsoft forces user who wants to backup the installer or install WLM on not connected offline PC or distribute the program across corporate network to download the massive 100 MB plus integrated full installer, namely wlsetup-all.exe.
The worst part is that the wlsetup-all.exe, which has all the installation files, cannot be uncompressed, unpacked or extracted into separate .MSI installer for each individual software. While the web installer, wlsetup-web.exe does not have the .MSI packaged in as it will download the required .CAB off the Internet.
For those who insist on want to grab and retrieve a copy of individual stand-alone Windows Live Messenger 2009 setup installer, which can be used to install WLM anytime on any computer without waiting for downloading, use the following trick to get the “Messenger.msi” file.
- Download Windows Live Installer from download.live.com.
- Install or upgrade the Windows Live Messenger to latest version.
- Open Windows Explorer, and set it to Show hidden files and folders and show protected operating system files (uncheck the tick for Hide protected operating system files) in the View tab of Folder Options.
In Windows Vista, run Windows Explorer as Administrator, and user may requires to take ownership and gain full control permissions for the folders below before able to access them.
- Browse to \Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\ folder.
- There will be a lot of folders made up of 15 characters and numbers. Locate Messenger.msi file inside one of the folder. Messenger.msi is the individual separate standalone setup installer for Windows Live Messenger 2009, which can be backed up or copied to another location. Do note that the Messenger.msi and other Windows Installer Package retrieved this way is silent installer.
Tip: %ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\cache.ini file contains the paths of all Windows Live software products downloaded or installed on the computer.
- If you have any problem with Windows Live Messenger after installation using the standalone individual installer Messenger.msi, try to install the following 3 programs too, all of which in different sub-folders inside the .cache directory.
Contacts.msi (Contacts)
dw20shared.msi (DW 2.0 Client)
crt.msi (Microsoft Visual Studio Runtime)Tip: Contacts.msi is a must to avoid or fix 8000FFFF error.
After grabbing the Windows Live Messenger standalone silent installer, optionally user can uninstall the Windows Live Suite (all programs) from Control Panel, and install Messenger.msi (and Contacts.msi too) again to get rid of all other Windows Live components except WLM9, saving time and bandwidth in future installation.
The trick also also work for all other Windows Live products such as Windows Live Sign-In Assistant (wllogin.msi), Windows Live Writer, Windows Live Mail ,Windows Live Toolbar, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Family Safety, Segoe UI Font, Windows Live Call and Microsoft Office Outlook Connector.
当在Windows 2003 server上安装 Windows Live Mail/Messenger/Writer 等时,程序会提示"很抱歉,Windows Live 程序不能安装在 Windows Server,windows xp Professional x64 Edition或早于windows xp service pack 2的windows 操作系统上"，这句话将很多想在Windows 2003 server上使用Windows Live系列软件的朋友拒之门外。很多人为此放弃了Windows Live系列软件，或者放弃了Windows 2003 Server操作系统。有一种鱼与熊掌不可兼得的感觉，今天水寒就告诉你怎么鱼与熊掌兼得的办法。
原因分析：在安装WLinstaller.exe时，WLinstaller安装程序会首先检测操作系统类型，如果检测到你是 Windows Server系列操作系统就阻止你的安装。原因很简单：微软一看你在服务器版操作系统上使用Live Mail 或者MSN，一看十有八九你这是盗版软件，如果真的在正版的Windows 2003 Server上使用，那这台机子也很可能是服务器，那么用这几个软件会给服务器带来极大的安全隐患，所以这个也不能怪微软。
解决办法：大家有个共识，下载的WLinstaller.exe大小比较小才2兆左右，你想想Live系列软件三个咱么会才这么小呢？而且安装需要连网进行，安装的过程中安装程序会让你选择你想安装的软件（如下图1所示），想想肯定是安装过程中下载的Windows live Mail/Messenger/Writer安装程序。经过验证WLinstaller.exe实际确实只是一个下载器，并不是安装程序，只要找到WLinstaller.exe下载的Windows live Mail/Messenger/Writer安装程序，我们就可以安装他们了。经过测试真实的安装程序是可以安装在Windows server 2003上的，那么如何得到该真实的安装程序呢？具体做法如下：
- 找一个安装了windows xp sp2或以上的客户版操作系统（如：windows XP或者Windows vista）。
- 下载最新的下载器WLinstaller.exe（点这儿下载中文最新版，查看:http://get.live.com/WL/desktop） 。
- 在Windows XP或者Windows Vista操作系统上运行下载的WLinstaller.exe并选择需要安装的功能。见图1所示：
图1 在Windows XP上运行WLinstaller.exe安装Windows Live系列软件界面
- 安装完成后在C:\Program Files\Common Files\WindowsLiveInstaller\MsiSources 下可以找到你选择功能所需要的真实的安装程序，如图2所示，将此文件拷贝到windows server 2003 中就可以进行安装了。
事实证明：WLinstaller.exe就是仅仅一个下载器而已，真正安装的是下载下来的.msi文件，所以通过这种办法安装的文件与采用下载器安装的文件完全一样！
本文参考:Window Live Writer for Windows Server 2003 ( http://anotherblog.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!E9C5235EBD2C699D!534.entry )
原内容如下(为了便于阅读，水寒有修改):
If you try to install WLW on Windows Server 2003, you will end up with the following stop message.
"Windows Live programs cannot be installed on Windows Server, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, or Windows operating systems earlier than Windows XP Service Pack 2."
Damned straight, isn’t it? But since we are hard core of geek fun, here is how to circumvent the restriction.
- Find an Windows XP machine (WMWare if I say) and install WLW using the downloaded installer (WLInstaller.exe)
- Copy C:\Program Files\Common Files\WindowsLiveInstaller\MsiSources\Install_{9176251A-4CC1-4DDB-B343-B487195EB397}.msi to your Windows Server 2003 machine
- Double click the msi and finish installation
It turns out that the downloaded WLInstaller.exe is just a loader and gate keeper so all we need to do is to grab the real msi.