Windows Live Messenger – Online Contacts Not Showing

After signing into WLM this morning none of the contacts that were online were showing up. In fact the whole Online category was gone.

After signing into WLM on another system the Online contacts were indeed showing. So, the problem seemed to be localized to this machine.

A thread on the TechArena forum helped to figure out how to fix things:

• TechArena Forums: Contacts always appear offline on windows live messenger

What we had to do to fix the situation:

1. Exit from WLM
1. ALT –> File –> Exit
2. Open Windows Explorer
3. Navigate to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live
4. Delete the Contacts folder
• 
5. If the above error shows up, do not close it.
1. Open Task Manager
2. Click the Processes tab
3. End Task on wlcomm.exe *32
• 
4. Close the Task Manager
6. Flip back to the error message and click the Try Again button
7. Open WLM
• Note that it may take a minute or two before it starts
• 
8. WLM should start up and show all online contacts!
• 

We were now ready to make contact with the folks we need to!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer