Are you *sure* there's no way to retrieve MSN Messenger history without "archive messages" selected?
Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Without the "archive messages" selected, there is NO way to retrieve MSN Messenger History.
Are you *sure* there's no way to retrieve MSN Messenger history without "archive messages" selected?
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I've actually been asked "are you sure?" several times. I'm not sure if it's suspicious spouses or parents - or perhaps nervous spouses or kids - but here's one example:
From your article Can I retrieve old MSN Messenger conversations? I just wanted to quickly ask if there is any other way to retrieve MSN history if the "auto archive messages" option is not chosen. There must be a way!!
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Not that I'm aware of, anyway. Conversations, when not being archived, may never even hit the disk, so there's nothing saved to be recovered. There might be small, tiny chances that some memory swapping happened and that a fragment landed on disk, but again the chances are small and it was probably immediately overwritten. The same tiny chance applies for any equipment that the conversation traveled through.
To go further down that path you're really talking computer forensics - the stuff of computer detectives pulling apart hard drives to see what can be recovered even from deleted data. But as I said, it's unlikely there's anything TO recover. And that's an expensive path to go down.
If you're looking at all this before the fact, you could install various forms of spyware. My prior article How can I keep my kids safe from internet garbage? discusses this, and has links to some resources.
Article C2026 - June 12, 2004 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
February 21, 2010 9:23 AM
Hi,
I would like to know if there's a way to retrieve ALL the messages in MSN history if we are using different laptops over the years?
22-Feb-2010
February 27, 2010 6:45 AM
No, you cannot get your logs back, they are saved in a file on your computer. If you use a restore disk, it erases your disk and puts everything back to factory defaults. You won't find them saved online. (this is how you can read history, without being logged online)
April 6, 2010 6:15 AM
How can i require msn talkings from hotmail.com. i should take talkings for last year.
06-Apr-2010
July 5, 2010 10:00 AM
I happen to retrieve conversations my husband had deleted. My questions is ..Is it possible that when these messages are retrieve they appear as emails and not chats between two people? Because when I retrieved the conversations they showed up in his inbox. There was nothing in the inbox because he had deleted everything. I used his computer and the contacts listed on his contact list to retrieve any contact info and any history,. when I did this many of the conversation appeared as emails.Is this possible?
06-Jul-2010
August 13, 2010 12:29 PM
In my settings,I saved my MSN history.But I can't find it.Do you know where they store it?Maybe it's because it's a new MSN Messenger.But I'm not sure