[Geek help] IM clients

[mirrorshard]

I'm looking for an IM client for Windows - specifically for use with MSN. I don't use other services as it stands.

The reason I'd like a new one is because I often find the new-message notifications on the official MSN client really stressful and intrusive.

So if any of you know of a client that will notify me visually but without any flashing or flickering, and preferably in a nice nonstressful colour, I'd be very interested to hear about it.

Comments

[emperor]

http://www.amsn-project.net/ ? I used to use it when I had more CFT with which to use MSN. It's quite configurable.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

That looks interesting, for when I have the energy to wrangle open source software - cheers.

[megamole.livejournal.com]

Psi?

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

What's Psi, and what does it do to notify you?

[megamole.livejournal.com]

Goes "bing" in your system tray and has a little rocket shaped icon.

Can be used for GChat as well; requires some hacking for MSN.

http://psi-im.org/features/.

You could also try Trillian or Gaim.

[yoyoangel.livejournal.com]

I like Pidgin.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

trillian?

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

What does trillian do to notify you?

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Slowly flashes orange, with optional sounds. I'm currently playing with it to see if I can get it to alert me in another fashion.

I tried Miranda briefly, and while I decided that I preferred Trillian in the end, I remember it as being pretty damn customisable, including colour schemes. It's free, so you may as well play with it.

[harald387.livejournal.com]

I use Pidgin myself. Its default is to flash the message window in the taskbar when a new message comes in, but it can be told not to; at that point, your notification is either going to be sound-based or the Pidgin icon in the lower right turning from green to orange.

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's no good then - I need a nonstressful notification of a message in a particular window. And preferably no orange. Cheers anyway.

[psych0naut.livejournal.com]

Pidgin is Free Software. If you don't like the colours you can almost certainly change them. (I doubt it would even require access to the source—the icon is probably some PNG file.)