What's old
is new again

Escargot is a new service that makes old versions of MSN Messenger and Windows Live Messenger work again.

What began as a simple server developed by a lone programmer, the project has now grown through leaps and bounds, has a dedicated team, and is now focused on a total revival of the MSN Messenger and Windows Live experience.

Learn how to get started

But why?

Why not? MSN Messenger was once Microsoft's flagship messaging system and social networking platform, in a time before Facebook, Skype, Discord, or Twitter. After Microsoft bought Skype in 2012 and thought that owning two separate chat services was redundant, so MSN was shutdown despite its popularity.

So, why not restore something that helps people communicate, meet new people, and just have fun?

But how?

Escargot is working on a replacement service for the now-shutdown MSN Messenger and Windows Live Messenger service, in addition to some other fun Windows Live features. As such we have a fairly large platform which is used to help support all these clients and features.

We have a dedicated team of people, some shared with our sister revival project NINA, who are expert programmers with a vast knowledge the services. It takes time, however, to rewrite all of this, so please be patient.

What now?

Our Get Started page covers everything you need to do to get online with us.

Client Support

Status: Almost complete

MSN 1 		Supported1 6
MSN 2 		Supported
MSN 3 		Supported
MSN 4 		Supported
MSN 5 		Supported2
MSN 6 		Supported2
MSN 7 		Supported2 3
WLM 8 		Supported2 4 5
WLM '09 		Supported2 5
WLM '11 		Not yet
WLM '12 		Not yet

Notes

1. These do not use secure login, so we recommend using a separate password, which you can manage in your Legacy Settings.

2. MSN 5/6/7/8 and WLM '09 work on Windows XP and Vista, but have issues logging in due to known incompatibilities with the HTTPS protocols between the server and the affected OSes and us being unable to tweak our setup to effectively support those systems. Refer to this guide for a fix.

3. MSN 7 supports receiving offline messages (OIMs), but can't send them to others.

4. Only 8.1.0178 and 8.5 are known to work; others might not.

5. While WLM 8 and '09 can work on Windows XP, they have some incompatibilities out of the box because of the way older systems handle SSL, as such, we recommend using a newer operating system or trying the same fix as MSN 5/6/7/8 (point 2)

6. MSN 1 only supports login on @hotmail.com, however simply enter your username without @escargot.chat and ignore the @hotmail.com part.