Microsoft has finally released the first beta of Windows Live Messenger to the first few select testers. Activation e-mails were sent out to the first batch of testers including the 'MSN Beta Butterflies' late Tuesday, and the initially released build carries the suffix '.0365'. This early beta release of Windows Live Messenger brings with it a completely revamped interface and many functionality changes including:

Editable contact information and 'Buddy Renaming'
Offline Messages
Computer-phone audio sessions
Folder sharing

The 140 or so million people not selected to participate in this beta are out of luck this time around. The new version of the MSN protocol being implemented in WLM checks for an authorized 'beta tester' passport account upon login. Even pre-selected beta testers are out of luck until they receive their activation e-mail from the testing team. On a related note, Microsoft has just released a QFE patch to address issues with the login procedure with MSN Messenger 7.5. This small patch updates the desktop client to version 7.5.0320 and requires an initial version of .0311 to update successfully.

Canadian testers are advised of the following by Microsoft concerning their WLM authorization e-mails:

"We have a bug in ideas.live.com that will make it so all you will see is French text when you go to the site. We are fixing the bug right now and hope to have ready sometime tomorrow. (Wednesday) In the meantime we are going to hold off sending you the download/authorization link. I know this will disappoint all of you who are following the newsgroups and wouldn't mind wading your way through the French text. But there are hundreds of you who are not on the newsgroups yet who will be surprised by this poor experience. Thanks for your patience!"

Download

English - http://g.msn.com/1csbeta/Mess80_EN
German - http://g.msn.com/1csbeta/Mess80_DE
Spanish - http://g.msn.com/1csbeta/Mess80_ES
French - http://g.msn.com/1csbeta/Mess80_FR
Japanese - http://g.msn.com/1csbeta/Mess80_JA
Korean - http://g.msn.com/1csbeta/Mess80_KO
Portuguese Brazil - http://g.msn.com/1csbeta/Mess80_BR
Chinese Traditional - http://g.msn.com/1csbeta/Mess80_TW
Chinese Simplified - http://g.msn.com/1csbeta/Mess80_CN
Dutch - http://g.msn.com/1csbeta/Mess80_NL

News Source: Neowin