Editing Microsoft Messenger service (section)

==Background==
Despite multiple name changes to the service and its client software over the years, the Messenger service is often referred to colloquially as "[[MSN]]", due to the history of [[Windows Live Messenger#MSN Messenger 1.0–7.5 (July 1999 – August 2005)|MSN Messenger]]. The service itself was known as '''MSN Messenger Service''' from 1999 to 2001,<ref name="microsoft.com"/> at which time, Microsoft changed its name to '''.NET Messenger Service''' and began offering clients that no longer carried the "MSN" name, such as the [[Windows Messenger]] client included with [[Windows XP]], which was originally intended to be a streamlined version of MSN Messenger, free of advertisements and integrated into Windows.<ref name="microsoft.com"/>

Nevertheless, the company continued to offer more upgrades to MSN Messenger until the end of 2005, when all previous versions of MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger were superseded by a new program, [[Windows Live Messenger]], as part of Microsoft's launch of its [[Windows Live]] online services.<ref name="microsoft.com"/>

For several years, the official name for the service remained .NET Messenger Service, as indicated on its official network status web page,<ref name="status">[http://help.live.com/help.aspx?project=wl_messengerv1_1&market=en-us&querytype=topic&query=messenger_proc_checkmessengerservicestatus.htm Check the Microsoft .NET Messenger Service status]</ref> though Microsoft rarely used the name to promote the service. Because the main client used to access the service became known as [[Windows Live Messenger]], Microsoft started referring to the entire service as the '''Windows Live Messenger Service''' in its support documentation in the mid-2000s.<ref name="wlms">[http://support.microsoft.com/gp/Messenger Microsoft Help and Support: Important changes to Windows Live Messenger]</ref>

The service can integrate with the [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] [[operating system]], automatically and simultaneously signing into the network as the user logs into their Windows account. Organizations can also integrate their [[Microsoft Office Communications Server]] and [[Active Directory]] with the service. In December 2011, Microsoft released an [[XMPP]] interface to the Messenger service.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2011/12/14/anyone-can-build-a-windows-live-messenger-client-with-open-standards-access-via-xmpp.aspx |title=Anyone can build a Messenger client—with open standards access via XMPP |publisher=Windowsteamblog.com |access-date=June 15, 2013}}</ref>

As part of a larger effort to rebrand many of its [[Windows Live]] services, Microsoft began referring to the service as simply '''Messenger''' in 2012.<ref>[https://status.live.com/detail/msgr Messenger service status]</ref>