Windows Live Messenger Help

How To Change Inactive for Your Status to be Set to Away

By default, the status of your Windows Messenger is automatically set to “Away” after your system has been inactive for the time period that is equal to the Wait time set for your system’s screen saver.

Note : To manually set your status to "Away," click on your name in the Windows Messenger window and then select the Away option.

You can change the time your system is set to “Away” by performing the steps listed in one of the following two methods.

Method 1: Change the Windows screensaver Wait settings.

• Right-click the Windows desktop, and then select the Properties command.
• On the Screen Saver tab, ensure that a screen saver is selected, and then modify the wait time for the screensaver by making changes to number of minutes in the Wait box.
• Finally, select the Apply button to save your changes, and then select the OK button to close the Display Properties dialog box.

When you change the screensaver Wait time, the change automatically appears in the Windows Messenger Options dialog box as the default wait time for the "Away" status.

Method 2: To set Windows Messenger “Away” status wait time different from Windows screensaver.

To set a different wait time for the “Away” status, perform the following steps:

• In the Windows Messenger windows, open the Tools menu, and then select the Options command.
• In the Options dialog box, open the Preferences tab.
• Change the wait time in the Show me as "Away" when I'm inactive for box.
• Select the OK button to save your changes and exit the Options dialog box.