Windows Live Messenger

Windows Live Messenger, previously known as MSN Messenger, was an instant messaging client introduced by Microsoft in 1999, before being shut down in 2014.

Backgrounds

Conversation window backgrounds were added in MSN Messenger 6.1, and removed in Windows Live Messenger 2011. All five of these are royalty-free images licensed from Getty Images.


Name	Licensed from	Originates from	Photographer/artist
Car	Getty Images	Digital Vision	unknown (credited on Getty to Digital Vision)
Fish	Getty Images	PhotoDisc	unknown
Hearts	Getty Images	PhotoDisc	Nina Frenkel
Lavender	Getty Images	PhotoDisc	Daisuke Morita
Planets	Getty Images	Artville	Anke Bromberg

Dynamic backgrounds

Four dynamic backgrounds were added in MSN Messenger 7.5. As they are animated, all four of these are Flash-based, although feature an underlying .jpg background that is not embedded within the .swf.


Name	Licensed from	Originates from	Photographer/artist
Koi Pond	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Mad Scientists	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Pixies	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
World Clocks	N/A	Microsoft	unknown

Scenes

Windows Live Messenger 2009

Starting from Windows Live Messenger 2009, backgrounds at the top of the chat window and contacts list were introduced, known as scenes.
[todo: table; list is temporary]

Windows Live Messenger 2011 and 2012

2011 featured a mostly different set of scenes from 2009. This time, the scenes have a much narrower aspect ratio, with a wide version of each scene being used for the social feed view, while a smaller version appears at the top of the contact list view. Many of these are also based on Windows 7 wallpapers.
[todo: table; list is temporary]

Display pictures

MSN/Windows Live Messenger 6.1 to 8.5

Display pictures were introduced in version 6.1. Most of these are higher res versions of ones that appear in Windows XP, except for Soccer Ball which is unrelated to XP's ball user account picture.


Name	Licensed from	Originates from	Photographer/artist	Notes
Beach Chairs	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	Colin Paterson
Chess Pieces	Corbis	Corbis	Mark Karrass	Background in original image was blue; recolored to red
Dirt Bike	Corbis	Corbis	unknown
Friendly Dog	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	Duncan Smith
Orange Daisy	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	Arthur S. Aubry
Palm Trees	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	Ingo Jezierski
Rocket Launch	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	unknown (credited to Stocktrek on Getty)
Rubber Ducky	Corbis	Corbis	Lawrence Manning
Running Horses	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	unknown
Skateboarder	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	unknown (credited to GeoStock on Getty)	Background in original image was blue; recolored to green
Soccer Ball	Getty Images	PhotoDisc	Don Tremain

Windows Live Messenger 2009

2009 added many new display pictures, including most of Windows Vista's user account pictures, several new buddy display pictures (five of which are animated), and a few other pictures of characters. The previous display pictures remain intact, but are not included in usertiles.mct.


Name	Licensed from	Originates from	Photographer/artist	Notes
Basketball	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Bonsai	Getty Images	DAJ	unknown (credited on Getty to DAJ)
Chef	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Chess	Getty Images	Iconica	Gregor Schuster
Daisy	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Doctor	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Dog	Getty Images	Iconica	GK Hart/Vikki Hart	Background was originally pale yellow; recolored to green
Electric Guitar	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Executive	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Fall	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Fish	Getty Images	The Image Bank	GK Hart/Vikki Hart
Flare	Getty Images	Tony Stone Images	Michael Banks
Gerber Daisy	N/A	Microsoft/Iconfactory	unknown
Golf	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Guest	N/A	Microsoft/Iconfactory	unknown
Guitar	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Kitten	Getty Images	Tony Stone Images	Peter Cade
Leaf	Getty Images	National Geographic	Joel Sartore
Morty	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Music	Getty Images	Digital Vision	Darren Hopes
Robot	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Seastar	Getty Images	National Geographic	Wolcott Henry
Shopping	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Soccer	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Sports	Getty Images	Getty Images	Ian McKinnell	Background was originally white; recolored to green
Spring	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Summer	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Surf	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Tennis	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Winter	N/A	Microsoft	unknown

Windows Live Messenger 2011 and 2012

At this point, most of the pre-2009 display pictures were removed, along with the buddy ones from 2009. However, the following remained intact: the ones taken from Vista, the non-buddy ones designed specifically for WLM 2009, and Beach Chairs and Rubber Ducky. A few new animated avatars were also added; this section will only list those.


Name	Filename	Licensed from	Originates from	Photographer/artist
City Light	AnimatedUserTile1.gif	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Fish Tank	AnimatedUserTile3.gif	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Shooting Star	AnimatedUserTile2.gif	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
Sunshine	AnimatedUserTile5.gif	N/A	Microsoft	unknown