{"id":757329,"date":"2026-06-24T14:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/757329\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T14:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:26:11","slug":"someone-resurrected-a-forgotten-usb-msn-messenger-accessory-from-2008-and-it-still-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/757329\/","title":{"rendered":"Someone resurrected a forgotten USB MSN Messenger accessory from 2008, and it still works"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/p>\n

i-Buddy USB accessory from the MSN era revived in 2026 \u2014 still works and charms.<\/p>\n

Needed Windows Live Messenger 2009 + Escargot server to make it connect.<\/p>\n

Forum fixes and Windows 7 tweaks got it flapping and lighting up again.<\/p>\n

If you were on the internet a lot at the turn of the century, you likely used MSN Messenger to chat with your friends. If you’re a bit too young for it, MSN Messenger was an old messaging service that was pretty bare-bones compared to something like Discord, but at the time, it was a staple app that kept people connected.<\/p>\n

As much as I was a huge fan of MSN Messenger, I didn’t know that there was an unofficial accessory for the app that plugged into your USB port. It’s a little model of the MSN logo that does different things to warn you about what’s going on with your friends, and someone managed to bring one into 2026.<\/p>\n

Someone brought an MSN Messenger USB accessory to life in 2026<\/p>\n

It was quite a struggle<\/p>\n

As spotted by Hackaday<\/a>, YouTuber Rayly Retro<\/a> managed to purchase an i-Buddy at a dollar shop. Shockingly, the product was still brand new, which is pretty impressive given that it was released in 2008. Weirdly enough, despite looking like an official product, the i-Buddy did not have MSN’s official blessing; it was instead an invention of Union Creations Limited.<\/p>\n

The i-Buddy was a cool little device that kept you informed about what was going on with your friends. Its belly glows when a favored friend comes online, its head changes color depending on actions such as an incoming nudge, and it flails to get your attention when you receive a new message.<\/p>\n

In the video, Rayly Retro managed to breathe life into this decades-old device. It took a lot of work, given that the software didn’t work well on Windows 7 and required a fix shared in a 2024 forum post to get it working. Yes, it seems there are more people out there working to keep i-Buddy alive and kicking in the modern era.<\/p>\n

However, the i-Buddy wouldn’t run on any messenger service. Rayly Retro had to download Windows Live Messenger 2009 and run a server using Escargot so it would have something to connect to. And once all the pieces had fallen into place, the i-Buddy was flapping and lighting up like it was the late 00s. Better late than never.<\/p>\n


\n \"dashx360<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tI revisited the Xbox 360’s Metro-style dashboard in 2026 \u2014 and it felt more modern than I expected
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

DashX360 isn’t a very functional launcher, but it sure is nostalgic. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary i-Buddy USB accessory from the MSN era revived in 2026 \u2014 still works and charms. Needed Windows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,105],"class_list":["post-757329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}