[General Topics] TriAxisFL:
After using Live Messenger for about a week and trying it "with contact merging" and "without contact merging" I must say that merging contacts is genius by Microsoft and I love it and will explain why. I did have some small problems with the duplicate contacts showing up, but after some trial and error I found a full proof way to always merge them properly.

Here's why I love it so much. My phone is now a middle man between my PC and Online Contacts/Messenger. I can update Outlook with any contact info, and when I plug in my phone into the PC, my contacts sync with my phone. I can then sync Live Messenger and this updated contact info from my phone updates online. I can also update contacts online first, or update my phone contacts first. It doesn't matter which one is done first, but eventually Activesync/Vista's Mobile Device Center or Live Messenger will update the other 2 systems. So currently all 3 systems (PC, Phone, Online) contacts/email are all interweaved flawlessly.

I found out that the online/messenger contact info has to be EXACTLY the same in EVERY single field as the Outlook Fields. If any field was different in anyway shape or form, they will not merge. For examples, Outlook had someone’s phone number as 1407555XXXX, and online it was (407) 555-XXXX. These would not merge!!! Another contact had a comma after the city and the other system didn't. These would not merge!!!

So here is the process that I performed to make sure my contacts merged properly. I only recommend this process if your Outlook is your main contact info system, meaning Outlook has more info then your Online contacts.

1. Make sure all your contacts are in Outlook and up to date, as we'll be deleting everything from online.

2. Sync your Phone to your PC and now all your contacts are up to date on your phone.

3. Go to MSN.com, click on Hotmail, Sign in if needed, Click on contacts. Then delete all your contacts.

4. Change your Live Messenger settings to Store Windows Live contacts on your phone and to merge duplicate contacts, (you may need to reinstall to change this option)

5. Perform a sync on your phone using Live Messenger to clear out anything.

6. Create a new contact online at MSN.com, and ONLY add 3 Fields (First Name, Last Name, and email address) or (First Name, Last Name, and phone number) It's crucial that all 3 fields are EXACTLY the same. I recommend Copy/Paste from Outlook.

7. Perform a sync on your phone using Live Messenger to test it out. They should merge properly and when you refresh your MSN.com contact info,,, you should see that all the other data from Outlook/Phone show up online. Addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, everything. Your phone contacts should only show 1 contact also.

8. Continue this process of adding Contacts online with only 3 fields and syncing occasionally, it doesn't take that long.

I have tried the reversal process as well, meaning I already had an online contact. I synced to my phone using Live Messenger, I then added a contact to Outlook on my PC (only 3 fields too) and Active Synced to my phone and they merged. Occasionally this caused duplicates, but the other process worked perfect every time.

So take this info and do what you like. This process will also update Non-MSN Messenger contact info online by using the (First Name, Last Name, and phone number) process.