This post was inspired by my quest to install the newest version of Windows Live Messenger on our 32-bit, Windows Server 2008 servers running XenApp 5.0 here at Moose.  We were previously running Live Messenger 8.5 until it started prompting us that an update was available and would not let us use the program until it was updated.  This update is mandated by Microsoft to keep everyone’s messengers up-to-date to protect against security flaws.

According to the Windows Live Essentials System Requirements, you can install it on Server 2008…HA!  Good luck!  Standard attempts to install just don’t work – it goes through the process and at the end of the installation it rolls everything back. (Note: Click on an image to view full-size.)

Live Messenger System Requirements

By default, the package you download from http://download.live.com to install Live Messenger is a small executable that asks you what other programs you want to install.  Once you’ve made your choices, it downloads the actual installation bits from the Internet.  There is a full download that contains all the installers, but you won’t find it on a Microsoft site (at least I couldn’t).  I ultimately found it on this third-party Web site. You can do the installation with either package, but I did it with the full 140 Mb package, so I know it works that way.

I have not found any way to extract the contents of the full package executable into separate .msi files for each product.  You can browse to c:\program files\common files\windows live\.cache\ and search for the particular piece you’re looking for (Messenger.msi in my case), but it is a silent install, and things still didn’t work after trying to install it on Server 2008.

The solution I found was to actually hack the installer to allow it to install on a server OS.

I found an article via a Google search that is actually for installing Windows Live Wave 3 Beta on unsupported x86 and x64 versions of Server 2003 and 2008, and discovered that the method worked perfectly for Live Messenger as well.

To install Live messenger you will need to download:

1. The full install of Windows Live Essentials;
2. “Resource Hacker” from the link in the article above. I chose the UK mirror.

Customization and Installation steps:

1. Extract the ResHack.zip file to your hard drive (anywhere works, I used the Desktop).
2. Launch ResHack.exe from the extracted files.
3. Open the Windows Live Installer executable (WLSetup-All.exe or WLSetup-Web.exe).


Open the Windows Live installer file

4. Locate CONFIG -> CONFIG0 -> 0.


Using ResHack

5. Select-All and copy the XML code into a text editor such as Notepad (choose Word Wrap from the Format menu in Notepad to make it easier to edit)
6. Find ‘os productType=”workstation”’  and replace ‘workstation’ with ‘server’


Select Text to Replace

7. Copy/paste the XML code back into ResHack, replacing the old code
8. Click ‘Compile Script’


Compile Script

9. Select File -> Save and save the modified executable (Make sure to put .exe on the end of the filename and name it something unique).  It’s 140Mb – be patient as it compiles the executable.
10. Run the modified executable.

The Windows Live applications should now be installed on Server 2008!

Happy Messaging!