Where are MSN emoticons stored?

As dent8r said they are not random numbers. To be able to have an almost unique place to store these settings and to avoid exposing your plain .NET Passport to other users of your computer, Messenger calculates a 64 bit hash of your .NET Passport. This is known as the User ID.

The, by default hidden, location where unique files for your .NET Passport are stored is:

C:Documents and SettingsYour UserApplication DataMsn MessengerUser ID

And Messenger settings for your .NET Passport are store in the registry under:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftMSNMessengerPerPassportSettingsUser ID
&
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindows MessengerPerPassportSettingsUser ID

Note: since the User ID is a hash you can not do the reverse and calculate the .NET Passport from a given User ID; it only works in one way.

If you want to work out your user ID you can use one of these:

• Segosa’s Web Based Converter
  m00
• Choli’s Program
  msn6 user id thingy
• Sources
  You can download the calculation in various languages here:
  The Messenger Help Wiki – Calcuating User ID

Information taken from:
The Messenger Help Wiki – Calcuating User ID

I am well aware of:
C: >> Documents and Settings >> (your username) >> Application Data >> Microsoft >> MSN Messenger >> (my passport id) >> CustomEmoticons

I used to go in there all the time to take images and copy to another folder so that I could use the emoticon in other computers. Anyway, I reformatted one of my computers, did a clean install of XP, and installed WLM 8.1. I then manually added all the emoticons. I can use the emoticons in WLM just fine. But … my C: >> Documents and Settings >> (your username) >> Application Data >> Microsoft >> MSN Messenger >> (my passport id) folder is completely empty. The (my passport id) folder exists, but it has nothing inside (of course, I have the setting to show hidden folders, otherwise I wouldn’t even see the Application Data folder).

Any ideas why?

I’m the only person who has an account on this computer, and the only one that uses this computer. Does WLM use a different folder to store personal data?

Also …

I entered the custom emoticons in a particular order so that they will be grouped together by type (when I click on emoticon and click Show All, the custom emoticons should appear in the order that they were created). After I restarted the computer, the order became all random. It’s not in the order that I entered, or in alpha order, or filesize order … just seems random.

namja,

To retreieve your Messenger 8.1 emoticons, you can try the Backup Wizard utility, I just tested it with the latest WLM 8.1 and it worked fine.

Sherv.NET – Backup Wizard 2.2

(The tool seems to have also retrieved my MSN 7.5 emoticons as well)

I tried them both, I found the first one from Sherv.NET to be better for my needs on most occasions. Its only 100kb compared to the other one at 3.3 MB and it doesnt need to be installed. I suppose they’re two different approaches.

The new WLM uses a different location I guess, so my suggestion was to use a backup tool to get access to the emoticons and copy them to other coputer or wherever you need.

As for the new location of the emoticons in WLM 8.1, I’m not 100% sure of that yet.

I got a nasty virus from that website some time ago 🙁 Internet Explorer just went on and off and on and off. And even if I RESTARTED it, it did the same thing.. Be really careful!

As for the new location of the emoticons in WLM 8.1, I’m not 100% sure of that yet.

Found this on another forum…..hope it helps

Cdocuments & settings %userprofile%Local SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftMessengerObjectStoreCustomEmoticons is the custom emoticon storage folder for WLM 8.1.