Windows Live Messenger closes March 15th (except in China)

While Microsoft gave all of us a heads up several months ago that Windows Live Messenger would soon be retired, we now have a definitive end date for the company's online messaging client. The company has now sent out emails to the remaining users of the program informing them that it will close up shop on March 15th.

The Next Web received the contents of the email, which also confirmed that Windows Live Messenger would continue to work in China past March 15th, due to the program's service being handled in that country by a third party company. Windows Live Messenger will be replaced everywhere else by Skype, which Microsoft acquired in October 2011.

The process for those few remaining users of Live Messenger to transfer to Skype should be pretty straightforward. All they will have to do before the end date comes is download the latest version of Skype and sign on using their Microsoft Account login and password. Their Windows Live Messenger contacts should be transferred over to their Skype client.

If you are one of those stubborn people that hate change in their lives ... well, too bad. After March 15th, people who keep trying to sign in using Windows Live Messenger will be given a notification to download and use Skype from then on.

Source: Neowin