It isn’t coming from Microsoft, but Vista Media Center is finally going to get a Windows Live Messenger plug-in.  Damien Bain-Thouverez, developer of the Media Control Plug-in (ffdshow) has added functionality in the same plug-in to act as a Windows Live Messenger frontend.

This is the first attempt for a Messenger plug-in in Vista Media Center.  Media Center 2005 had a built-in Windows Messenger plug-in, but with the release of Windows Vista this was kicked to the side as was Windows Messenger all together.  Last year Microsoft announced a beta of Windows Live for TV which promised Live Spaces and Live Messenger integration, the product appears to be dead without a release.

Setup instructions can be found in the User Manual, and while the integration is not complete it does work pretty well.  Maybe the new load of downloads mixed with a few donations will get full functionality and bugs fixed.