The Windows Live Messenger 8.0 BETA has finally come out of managed mode and is completely open to the general public - this means that anyone can now sign-in using their standard Messenger accounts without needing to register anywhere or fill any forms!

The recently released Messenger 8.0.0689 has been a great improvement over the previous versions since the BETA phase started back in November 2005. It's definitely a good time to upgrade to the newest Messenger!

A small website introducing the "Future of MSN Messenger" which basically explains the transition from MSN Messenger to Windows Live Messenger has also been created ahead of the final upgrade to WLM. The website features a small flash animation showing the rebirth of MSN Messenger 7 as WLM 8.0.

> Download Latest Messenger 8.0: Here - (English version) - Other languages over here
> Visit the launch site: Here

In other related news, Microsoft announced the public accessibility of Live Messenger last week via an official press release which includes a lot of details about WLM 8. There is still no news on the Yahoo Messenger interoperability.

The official launch site contains lots of useful and informative content about Messenger, including a breakdown of features and an FAQ. You can also find more MSN Messenger 8.0 info on our own Messenger 8.0 page.

You can get our archived version of the transition/rebirth animation here (Right click -> Save as).