I just installed Windows Server 2003 on a private test-server.

After the installation I wanted to install Windows Live Messenger 2009, however it’s not possible according to the installer.

It seems that Windows Live Messenger cannot be installed on Windows Server 2003 and 2008.
I have found some posts online saying that it can’t even be installed on Windows XP 64 bit. However I have not checked if that is correct.

I searched the internet and found a solution for the problem and it worked for me.
I have made a step-by-step guide below on how I did:

1. First download Windows Live Messenger from http://download.live.com/?sku=messenger

2. Then download Resource Hacker.
You can find the official site here (contains info and download-link).
I have however added an extra download-link here to the current version (as of 5h November 2009).

3. Open the Windows Live Messenger installer-file in Resource Hacker.

4. Open the resource tree and goto “CONFIG” > “CONFIG0″ > “0″.

5. In the line to your right find the XML-tag <os productType=”workstation” />.

6. Replace “workstation” with “server” and recompile the script by clicking the “Compile Script”-button in Resource Hacker.

7. Save the modified file in Resource Hacker (that is done through the “File”-menu).

8. Now you are ready to install – simply run the saved file and the installer should not give any error now.

I hope this step-by-step guide helped you.
I now have Windows Live Messenger 2009 installed on my Windows Server 2003 enviroment – and that was my mission.