With Windows 8 come some default Microsoft apps. People app is so connected to Windows Messenger Contacts, that its so easy to manage them with just a click or tap. Mail and Messaging are powered by People’s contact list, which reiterates that you can connect your app with other apps.
The initial contacts imported to People’s app are nothing but your Windows Messenger Contacts (a.k.a WLM or MSN). Every now and then you add a contact to your huge list. Later you find that he’s bugging you every time you are logged in or active in your Windows Messenger.
The answer to this problem is either to block him or delete him from the list of contacts. In Windows Messenger 2012, deleting a contact is very simple. Just select a contact and right click. There comes up the context menu and from it, click “Delete”.
Sometimes, you are just annoyed by your friend and would like to block messages from that particular contact. In version 2011 Windows Messenger and earlier, there was an option to block the contact. But presently I’m using 2012 and didn’t find that option.
But there was another option. You can stop receiving messages by selecting “Appear offline to this person” option in the same context menu which we showed earlier.
What about Windows 8 and Messenger ?
Using People App in Windows 8, you can have all contacts at one place. This just like your address book. You don’t need to send “inviting” notifications to your friends to get added to this address book. By default when you are online, all the Messenger contacts are imported.
Then there are other options to connect to other networks like Facebook, Skype, Hotmail, Twitter, Outlook, LinkedIn, Google etc.
How to Delete Windows Messenger Contacts in Windows 8?
Earlier we showed how to delete Messenger contacts using the Desktop application of Windows 7/Vista/XP etc. Now we shall see an easy way of deleting them in Windows 8.
Go To People App.
If you are on the Home screen, the image screen should look something like this.
Now there are 1 or 2 ways to find your contact. You can use the scroll bar at the bottom to find your desired contact. Otherwise, you can use the “Semantic Zoom” feature introduced by Microsoft in Windows 8.
When you pinch the screen or click the “minus” sign, you will see a small screen with alphabets. When you click any alphabet, all the contacts starting with that particular alphabet are listed.
You can select a contact, by single-clicking that particular contact.
Now there will be more plethora of options, when you select a contact. If it’s a Messenger contact you can send message, send email or view profile. But the option that you want to use is hidden.
Just right click anywhere and you will see some more options at the bottom. From that options, click on “Delete” present as the last option. Hurray, you just deleted a Windows Messenger contact from Windows 8 using your Microsoft account.
Actually you deleted a contact from the address book in People App. But this automatically deletes your Windows Messenger contact also. ( as this is the same thing populated in your People app address book).
Don’t believe your eyes. Hmm. To see it real, just install Windows Messenger 2012 or Windows Essentials. Now open the Messenger program. Now type a contact name in the search and find your contact. Do the above process to delete a People app contact and come back here. Wait a few minutes and search for that contact again. Oops! Your contact is deleted from both the places i.e People app and Windows Messenger 2012.
In the first case, why do you want to delete your Windows Messenger contacts? This happens when you don’t want conversations from a particular contact. As I just told earlier your headaches from this pesky contact will be over, once you apply this trick in Windows 8.
