MSN Messenger on Mac using Wine

Messenger Support
1

So when I saw a lot of people using MSN Messenger, I was intrigued, so I had to install it to see myself. However, there was no Mac Messenger installation, so I had to install it via Wine.

I installed it as an Mac .app and when I opened it up, it worked. I couldn’t see my text though, it was impossible to sign in. When I DID figure out how to sign in, I added my friends in Contacts, but I didn’t see what the user had typed, so I was clueless.

I don’t know, I’m using Wine with WineBottler and I’m wondering if I’ve done something wrong or if there is a fix for this.

I am currently using the pre-patched escargot-msn-7.5.0324-en installation and I am using Mac OS Sierra with Wine and the latest version of WineBottler.

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I think you need to use WIneTricks and install some packages:

3

I have all of those packages, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how to get Gecko installed into Winetricks so that MSN Messenger runs properly. Is there some sort of Mac directory I should do it in?

4

Gecko should be ticked by default in Winebottler !

Capture d’écran 2017-06-18 à 18.33.15.jpg832×194 58.8 KB

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I’ve done every package and installed the program with winetricks, but the problem is that the text doesn’t show up at all. I’m wondering if it’s because MSN Messenger’s version is too advanced for Wine to use. I’m sorry if I sound like I have no idea what i’m talking about, it’s just that there was no Messenger on the Mac at that time and I want to join the nostalgia everyone else is having.

1 Like
6

the best possible way to experience msn messenger on a mac is to install windows temporarily. it works better that way. just a very small opinion of mine. :smiley:

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But it’s more quicker to run it off Wine. I don’t want to go through installing Windows just to use one thing, it’s like a waste!

8

I do have Tahoma.ttf and Tahoma-Bold.ttf as one of my fonts now, but the problem is that the text will still not show.

9

How have you guys set up wine for MSN anyway? I’m new to wine and have no idea on how to set it up, and then get it working for MSN.

10

Same. I tried disabling dwrite but it seems to be buggy and broken, I have no clue what is wrong, I checked and all the fonts are installed.

Also, sorry for bumping a month old post because it’s been a while since I touched this and I desperately want to get this working.

11

You will have more luck asking on the Wine forum (https://forums.winehq.org/) or creating a ticket there (https://bugs.winehq.org/).

Just point them to the escargot installer…

12

I tried making a thread by asking them about MSN, but they declined the thread. There are no alternatives to seek though.

13

I can’t say I’m surprised at that result, Messenger 5.x and above were test-beds for various “new” Windows APIs and Microsoft internal frameworks at the time, few (if any) other applications every worked in the way Messenger does, which makes it difficult to reverse engineer and of limited value to support.

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I know i’m reviving a dead thread here (I apologise for the long response) but I’m clearly not surprised that MSN doesn’t work on the Mac in the slightest, as most Mac versions do not have the capable technology in Wine/WineTricks to display the text in MSN.

I hope someone figures out a fix for this and hopefully us Mac users can appreciate some MSN nostalgia.

15

well msn dont work in linux too ( at lest for me )