WLM Personal Message, Screen Name, Display Picture changing back...?

Hey guys,

I am a bit stumped here, so I'm curious if there is anybody who has any ideas for me! The other day, I noticed in the evening that my WLM display name and personal message had changed; my personal message had changed to one I had set it to at one point the night before, also my name had changed to just my first name, and my display picture had disappeared as if I had not set one. I had thought nothing of it and chalked it up to a server issue....however...

It is now 3 days later and the same thing is happening? I thought maybe a bot/spyware had hacked my account, so I changed my password, and did a scan with Avast, Ad-Aware, and Malwarebytes...none of which turned up anything. I also went so far as to check off the "Use the same Display Picture and Personal Message wherever I sign in." box in the WLM options, and that doesn't seem to have done anything.

I could reinstall, but I am a bit leery of that as I have a lot of the settings personalized for my contacts and it would take forever to set them up again. Does anybody have any ideas? Is there a certain cache I could try clearing or some such, or has this same problem been happening to anybody else?

Any help is appreciated :)

EDIT - I should say I had done a search on Google and had tried a few things I had found on other forums, but usually they were for just a personal message, or just a screen name, and had to do with older posts from a few years ago, so I don't think they had any effect I should also say I have the latest version of WLM (not the Wave 4 beta; I won't get Wave 4 until it is released) and the latest version of MSN Plus and I've never had this same problem ever before and have been using MSN/WLM since 2004.

SOLUTION!

I figured out what was causing the problem: Microsoft added Web Messenger to Hotmail, which I had noticed but had thought nothing of...apparently it's complications arising from that which kept changing my display pic, screen name, and personal message and random number of minutes after I had logged on to Hotmail, whether I had logged out by the time they changed on my actual WLM install or not.

The solution is to just sign out of Web Messenger in Hotmail by clicking on your name at the top right and selecting "Sign out of Web Messenger."

Cheers! If somebody could mark this as solved, I'd be grateful :)

I'm experiencing the problem since this morning and i'm very upset and also noticed the messenger thing on hotmail, but i'm not using web messenger, any help?

that did the trick, thanks

No problem sir, glad to be of help :)

EDIT - I should also mention, I learned that this setting is stored LOCALLY, not on the master server, so changing this setting and then logging onto Hotmail on a different computer means that Web Messenger will sign in again...it must be disabled (if you wish it to be) on EVERY computer you check Hotmail on, otherwise, the "changing display pic/screen name/personal message" problem will persist.

Darkstrike said:

No problem sir, glad to be of help :)

EDIT - I should also mention, I learned that this setting is stored LOCALLY, not on the master server, so changing this setting and then logging onto Hotmail on a different computer means that Web Messenger will sign in again...it must be disabled (if you wish it to be) on EVERY computer you check Hotmail on, otherwise, the "changing display pic/screen name/personal message" problem will persist.

What is stored locally and where? Is it the display pic and name?

There is a cookie somewhere that is stored in the browser for whether you are signed in to Web Messenger on Hotmail or any other Windows Live website or not. I have a Netbook and Desktop, and when I signed out of Web Messenger in Hotmail on my desktop, I was still signing in on my Netbook to Web Messenger until I also signed out of it on that computer as well.

Darkstrike said:

There is a cookie somewhere that is stored in the browser for whether you are signed in to Web Messenger on Hotmail or any other Windows Live website or not. I have a Netbook and Desktop, and when I signed out of Web Messenger in Hotmail on my desktop, I was still signing in on my Netbook to Web Messenger until I also signed out of it on that computer as well.

Do you have any more info on this? Where is the cookie stored, IE temp or cookies folder? Is it in fact a cookie or info kept in an XML document within IE temp folder? I'm curious about this for another reason, Windows Live Messenger. It stores info somewhere which changes a users account name and user icon within Windows Live Mail. I'm wondering if this info that appears in Windows Live Mail can be changed/edited without installing Windows Live Messenger.

Greg S said:

Darkstrike said:

There is a cookie somewhere that is stored in the browser for whether you are signed in to Web Messenger on Hotmail or any other Windows Live website or not. I have a Netbook and Desktop, and when I signed out of Web Messenger in Hotmail on my desktop, I was still signing in on my Netbook to Web Messenger until I also signed out of it on that computer as well.

Do you have any more info on this? Where is the cookie stored, IE temp or cookies folder? Is it in fact a cookie or info kept in an XML document within IE temp folder? I'm curious about this for another reason, Windows Live Messenger. It stores info somewhere which changes a users account name and user icon within Windows Live Mail. I'm wondering if this info that appears in Windows Live Mail can be changed/edited without installing Windows Live Messenger.

Sorry, I don't! I don't use IE, I use Firefox because I personally like it / find it works better, so I am not sure where it is kept in IE, nor am I sure where it is kept in Firefox for that matter...I just assume that it has to be in a cookie or another temporary file because the aspect of being signed in to Web Messenger in Hotmail is on a per computer basis for me....I.E. when I signed out of it on my desktop, and then later checked Hotmail from my netbook, also using Firefox, it was still signed in on my netbook, despite knowing I had signed out on my desktop.

Darkstrike said:

Greg S said:

Darkstrike said:

There is a cookie somewhere that is stored in the browser for whether you are signed in to Web Messenger on Hotmail or any other Windows Live website or not. I have a Netbook and Desktop, and when I signed out of Web Messenger in Hotmail on my desktop, I was still signing in on my Netbook to Web Messenger until I also signed out of it on that computer as well.

Do you have any more info on this? Where is the cookie stored, IE temp or cookies folder? Is it in fact a cookie or info kept in an XML document within IE temp folder? I'm curious about this for another reason, Windows Live Messenger. It stores info somewhere which changes a users account name and user icon within Windows Live Mail. I'm wondering if this info that appears in Windows Live Mail can be changed/edited without installing Windows Live Messenger.

Sorry, I don't! I don't use IE, I use Firefox because I personally like it / find it works better, so I am not sure where it is kept in IE, nor am I sure where it is kept in Firefox for that matter...I just assume that it has to be in a cookie or another temporary file because the aspect of being signed in to Web Messenger in Hotmail is on a per computer basis for me....I.E. when I signed out of it on my desktop, and then later checked Hotmail from my netbook, also using Firefox, it was still signed in on my netbook, despite knowing I had signed out on my desktop.

Ok, thanks.