MSN Delays New IM Client Beta

MSN Delays New IM Client Beta

Written By
eWEEK EDITORS
eWEEK EDITORS
Oct 8, 2004
1 minute read
eWeek content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More

MSN has delayed by a week the start of its beta for its MSN Messenger 7 instant-messaging client until some time next week.

MSN officials had said the company planned to commence the MSN Messenger 7 beta this week in six test markets: the United States, U.K., France, Spain, Korea and the Netherlands. But some testers who got their hands on leaked copies of the beta discovered potential security exploits based on the “Winks” capability.

Winks are animations that help grab other IM users attention. Winks originally debuted as part of a beta of threedegrees, an IM product catering to the teen—or, as Microsoft has characterized it, the “NetGen”—market.

Posters on the NeoWin Windows enthusiast site began reporting problems with MSN Messenger 7s Winks last week.

“Currently its easy for hackers to exploit the code of winks to display any flash movies on a users computer for any amount of time,” according to NeoWin.

“MSN plans to make some adjustments to the feature set of the limited beta and will no longer be testing winks as part of this initial limited beta,” said an MSN spokeswoman. “People using early/unauthorized versions of the beta that include winks will be notified that they need to uninstall the beta and reinstall the latest public version of MSN Messenger 6.2 if they want to continue service.

To read the full article,

click here.

eWeek Logo

eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site's focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2026 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.