Windows Messenger 5 Beta Released

Microsoft has released to testers a beta version of Windows Messenger 5, the client application for the company's next generation instant messaging platform. Microsoft recruited testers for the beta program last month, announcing plans to keep the beta open until the end of June, 2003.

"Welcome to the beta release of Windows Messenger 5.0 Beta," Microsoft beta coordinators wrote in an e-mail to selected testers. "We are excited to be offering this Beta widely, in order to get feedback on what you like and don't like about our product."

Windows Messenger is designed to work with Microsoft's upcoming "Greenwich" Real Time Communications Server, which runs on Windows Server 2003. The release will catch the instant messaging client up to its consumer counterpart, MSN Messenger, which reached 5.0 late last year.

The current beta build of Windows Messenger 5 is numbered 5.0.0149 and features incremental updates over its predecessor. Ink functionality, found in the Tablet PC, is now supported, along with logging into Exchange and SIP accounts.