This is something I’ve been working on for a few days now, and yesterday I was able to actually do it with a few workarounds, tricks, downloads and several stuff that some of you will find very weird and may not fully understand, so I’ll try to explain the steps I did clearly as possible.
A few comments before I start, I’m not sure if this process can be done several times in the same Windows, I did this on a clean install, we don’t need cracks, hacks, patches or anything like that. Performance or stability on your PC won’t be affected. Now let’s start.
First of all, we need the offline/standalone installers of Windows Live 2009 and Windows Live 2011, these links will take you to OldApps.com, is the only way to get the offline installers.
Now, let’s use my example, I want the Windows Live Messenger 2009 and Windows Live Writer 2011, so, first, we need to install the 2009 files because if we install the 2011 first, it will appear a message saying that we have a recent version of the files and won’t let us install. So, what you want to do first is run the WL2009 installer, select Messenger and nothing else, install it.
Now, go to “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\” (Program Files(x86) for 64 bits systems), change the name of the .cache folder to 2009. DON’T DELETE THE FOLDER, EVER. The folder is hidden, so you may want to enable the Show Hidden Files and Folders option.
Now, uninstall it. Completely uninstall WL2009, in case the .cache folder appears (sometimes empty), delete it, but don’t delete the 2009 folder. Now, run the WL2011 installer, select all products you want from it, in my case, only writer.
Of course I don’t have an image since I already have writer installed. Anyway, install it, go to “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\” (Program Files(x86) for 64 bits systems), change the name of the .cache folder to 2011, and uninstall it too.
NOTE: Right now you should have already installed Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package, if not, download it from here and install it.
After that, don’t restart yet, use CCleaner, clean files and registry, then restart. Now, go into the 2009 folder, move all .msi files into the main folder (all the msi files are located inside alphanumeric folders, move them out). Now, you will install Contacts.msi, crt.msi, Messenger.msi, wlc.msi, wllogin.msi and WLXSuite.msi.
This will install messenger and necessary components for it, richupload and choiceguard are not necessary nor useful components (at least for making it work). Now launch messenger and open your session, (although this is a complete guess), the installer 2011 won’t overwrite any msn necessary files because these are open and the manual way (this one) won’t shut down msn, the automatic way will.
Ok, after msn is up and running, we proceed to install the 2011 clients we want. First, extract all .msi and .msp files into the main folder. The good thing about this is that you don’t need any specific order to install the components.
In case you have problems starting it, install wllogin_wlx-x64.msi, or similar, do all this with msn open, don’t forget that.
By this point you can be sure that msn2009 works perfectly (you are using it), now launch writer or the service you install to test it. Note that if you install a service, and there is a d-SERVICE.msp file of it, you need to install that msp file too or it won’t work. After you do this and are sure that is working 100%, you can restart your PC.
If a service is missing, you can install it manually later. This trick may not work on all PCs or OSs, I did this with a fresh install and it was pure luck, I guess. Still, if it works, that means that we can manage to avoid Microsoft limitation: Don’t have 2009 and 2011 at the same time.
