*Important* Yahoo! Messenger Resources & Requirements

[Adam X]

I'm providing some useful resources and all the proper requirements in order for you to be able to run and operate Yahoo! Messenger correctly, most efficiently, and with potentially less problems. These resources apply to ALL currently working versions of Yahoo! Messenger (versions 8.0 - 11.0).

Troubleshooting & Cleaning Resources:

*Official* Complete Yahoo! Messenger Cache Cleaner (32/64-bit XP or above; run as Admin) --> http://ytkpro.com/YM_Resources/YM-Cache-Cleaner.zip

Yahoo! Audio Conferencing Setup Wizard --> http://download.yahoo.com/dl/update/yacswiz.exe | http://ytkpro.com/YM_Resources/yacswiz.exe

Dermot's Y! Remover --> http://www.ytkpro.com/downloads/posteula/downloads/YRemover.exe

ByteScribe's TrueSpeech Voice Codec Installer (only for Vista, 2008, & Win 7; run as Admin) --> http://www.bytescribe.com/downloads/tsp_codec_install.exe | http://ytkpro.com/YM_Resources/tsp_codec_install.exe

Yahoo! Messenger Help Knowledge Base --> http://help.yahoo.com/kb/index?locale=en_US&page=product&y=PROD_MSNG

Yahoo! Messenger Security Updates/Patches --> http://messenger.yahoo.com/security

Required Dependencies:

(ALWAYS keep these up-to-date with the links below!)

Internet Explorer --> http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/downloads/ie

Adobe Flash --> http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer

^
*Make sure to download the newest Flash Player with Internet Explorer, not another browser like Firefox, Opera, or other. Internet Explorer goes through a different process when downloading the Flash Player and because of this you'll want to make sure that it installs the Adobe Flash Player 10 ActiveX and not the Adobe Flash Player 10 Plugin instead. Internet Explorer will download and install the Adobe Download Manager first which will then launch the Flash Player installer for you. You can verify you've got the right Flash Player program installed by going to the control panel -> Windows Add/Remove Programs / Programs and Features and make sure that Adobe Flash Player 10 ActiveX is listed. The Adobe Download Manager is nice to have for future updates but isn't required (however, by default, Internet Explorer uses it anyway).*

**Alternatively, you can use this link instead --> http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions where you'll need to specify your operating system (Windows) and then choose the "Windows Internet Explorer" browser option in the second box. You will then be able to use any browser you wish and won't have to use the Adobe Download Manager at all to download the Flash Player.**

Microsoft DirectX --> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=FD7C8A79-85DF-4437-86C4-AF5A5ADEF0D4

Windows Media Player --> http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/windows-media-player

Sun/Oracle Java --> http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

Adobe ShockWave Flash (optional but recommended) --> http://get.adobe.com/shockwave

Windows Operating System Service Packs --> http://support.microsoft.com/sp

Windows Update Security Patches & System Updates --> http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Final Note: The Microsoft Visual C++.NET 2005 & 2008 Redistributable packages are also required for Yahoo! Messenger operation. These redistributables and the newest versions of the Microsoft .NET framework (currently the newest is version 4.0) should also be installed (Messenger's setup installs the Visual C++ Redistributable package for you). Versions of the .NET framework are supposed to be fully backwards compatible but in some situations there have been problems with it. Therefore, it wouldn't be a bad thing to have the newest .NET 4 framework installed along with slightly older versions of the framework too.