I’ve begrudgingly put up with MSN Messenger and now Windows Live Messenger as they’ve progressed and gained ads plus other add ons I don’t even care to use. I use it to chat and occasionally video chat. I rarely play games and when I’ve tried they haven’t been that much fun or I’m prompted to buy them. All those other tabs — I don’t even know what they do!
I remembered reading over on Nordquist Blog about a patch that removed the ads. I searched and found that it is called the Mess Patch and it does way more than just remove ads. In fact, they try to persuade you that the ads are crucial to Live Messenger remaining free before you remove them. You can remove the Live Messenger logos, ad photos next to your contact names on the contact list, remove the photos from the pop up alert, remove emoticons from your contact’s names and many more options. If it’s annoyed you, you can probably turn it off with the Mess Patch.
There are few places to get it but for the latest Windows Live Messenger Beta 8.5 build you can find it here. Check that your version matches by going to File -> About because the patch is specific to your version of Messenger.