How to install Windows Live Messenger 2009 on Windows Server 2003

Hello,

I just installed Windows Server 2003 on a private test-server.

After the installation I wanted to install Windows Live Messenger 2009, however it’s not possible according to the installer.

It seems that Windows Live Messenger cannot be installed on Windows Server 2003 and 2008.The installation error-message.
I have found some posts online saying that it can’t even be installed on Windows XP 64 bit. However I have not checked if that is correct.

I searched the internet and found a solution for the problem and it worked for me.
I have made a step-by-step guide below on how I did:

1. First download Windows Live Messenger from http://download.live.com/?sku=messenger

2. Then download Resource Hacker.
You can find the official site here (contains info and download-link).
I have however added an extra download-link here to the current version (as of 5h November 2009).

3. Open the Windows Live Messenger installer-file in Resource Hacker.

4. Open the resource tree and goto “CONFIG” > “CONFIG0″ > “0″.Screenshot of reshack in action

5. In the line to your right find the XML-tag <os productType=”workstation” />.

6. Replace “workstation” with “server” and recompile the script by clicking the “Compile Script”-button in Resource Hacker.

7. Save the modified file in Resource Hacker (that is done through the “File”-menu).

8. Now you are ready to install – simply run the saved file and the installer should not give any error now.

I hope this step-by-step guide helped you.
I now have Windows Live Messenger 2009 installed on my Windows Server 2003 enviroment – and that was my mission.

Problems with my CD/DVD-drive on Windows XP

Hello,

I’ve had a problem on my laptop at work. Suddenly my CD/DVD-drive was not found in “My computer” and looking in “Device Manager” just showed me a yellow exclamation mark for my CD/DVD-drive and an error that my driver was corrupted or missing (Error code 39).

The exact error-message was: “Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)”.

At first I tried to remove the drive through the “Device Manager” and reboot my computer, but that didn’t help at all. I then started looking on the internet hoping I could find a solution. After about an hour I did.

The problem – on my computer – proparly is that I have installed or uninstalled an application that has an CD/DVD filter driver. That could make this error occur. Microsoft made a description of the problem and has made a solution for it too. You can see this here.

However instead of using the slow manual Microsoft has described as a solution, I chose to find a VBS-file that could do the same just by double clicking it. You can find this file here.

I downloaded the file, executed the file and rebooted my computer. After that my CD/DVD-drive was found in “My computer” and was no longer tagged with a yellow exclamation mark in the “Device Manager”.

Please notice I do not take any responsibility for errors this fix might do. Running the script or following my guide is 100 % your own responsibility.

My CD/DVD-drive was the following model: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GMA-4082N.

I hope this solution will work for you aswell.