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Ok so I have these cute MSN smilies that I want to make into animated gif files but I can't cause I don't have a program for that. I'm wondering if someone would be nice enough to help me out here. Whoever wishes to help is gonna have to chat with me on MSN so I can show them the cute animated smilies.

Thanks

Oh, and if this is in the wrong forum please change it

I'd help, because that kinda thing is what I do, but I don't have MSN. Sorry. If you can copy/paste them, then I can help you out.

Do you have a series of files that need to be made into a single gif, or a single image that needs to be animated ?

If it's the former, you can just post the images.

Its an animated MSN smiley, which is saved in an unknown location and format(searching for .gif dosn't work) so theres a problem.

It's probably in docs & settings->user account->app data->Microsoft->MSN

Is there anything there that looks like it might be a hidden emoticon ?

Theres a bunch of .dat files under custom emoticons that give me AKA a bunch of meaningless babble.

Try renaming as *.gif and opening in Irfanview. It'll either A> scream 'ZOMG WRONG EXTENSION' and ask if you want it to rename it to the correct one or B> scream 'ZOMG UNKNOWN FORMAT!' in which case it's not an image.

Ace Pace wrote:Its an animated MSN smiley, which is saved in an unknown location and format(searching for .gif dosn't work) so theres a problem.

I suppose you could just take a screenshot when it's one frame, then take a screenshot next frame, then crop the smilie out and stick it together in Adobe Imageready...

If you're looking for a lazier way, I know there are programs out there that can extract images from .exes. You might be able to find something similar with a bit of searching.

Ok, I'll let Ace take care of this cause all this compute babble is confusing me He is trying to help me cause we chatted earlier and copied one from e to try and help. Thanks Ace, I hope you don't mind

Try renaming as *.gif and opening in Irfanview.

Whell whaddayaknow

Renaming a random one to *.gif worked. It opens with the normal image browser.

Ms Kendall, try copying some of those dat files and renalming them to *.gif's. You should be able to open them.

HOLY CRAP IT WORKS.

Except it only works on YOUR emoticons.

Okey, Mrs Kendal,try this, go into C:, Documents and Settings, [your user name here], Application Data(you need to make hidden folders visable for this) Microsoft, Messenger, there you have 2 folders, try them both, custom emoticons, copy paste into another folder, rename into .gif(you must have file extension visable for this), then voila!

You people needlessly complicate things. Why not just go here?

http://messenger.msn.com/Resource/Emoticons.aspx

Ace Pace wrote:HOLY CRAP IT WORKS.

Except it only works on YOUR emoticons.

Okey, Mrs Kendal,try this, go into C:, Documents and Settings, [your user name here], Application Data(you need to make hidden folders visable for this) Microsoft, Messenger, there you have 2 folders, try them both, custom emoticons, copy paste into another folder, rename into .gif(you must have file extension visable for this), then voila!

Um not possible. I am totally computer illiterate when it comes to folders and searching for crap I'll get the hubby to look at it for me though, thanks guys

Rye wrote:You people needlessly complicate things. Why not just go here?

http://messenger.msn.com/Resource/Emoticons.aspx

Because those are not the emoticons I want Rye They are custom ones, not just the regular old ones anyone gets with messenger

Looks like Cpl Kendall doesn't understand what you mean either. That's not a good sign cause he knows computers Oh well, It's not that important anyway.

Looks like Cpl Kendall doesn't understand what you mean either. That's not a good sign cause he knows computers Laughing Oh well, It's not that important anyway.

Open up Windows Explorer. Under Tools->Folder options->View, set "show hidden files and folders".

The go to
C:
Documents and settings
[your user name]
Application Data
Microsoft
MSN Messenger

(for example, C:/documents and settings/Bounty/Application Data/Microsoft/MSN Messenger)

You'll see several folders with random numbers in the name. Each one of the them has a "custom emoticons" folder. There's lots of files in there ending in *.dat. Just change that to *.gif and see if your emoticon is among them

Mrs Kendall wrote:

Rye wrote:You people needlessly complicate things. Why not just go here?

http://messenger.msn.com/Resource/Emoticons.aspx

Because those are not the emoticons I want Rye They are custom ones, not just the regular old ones anyone gets with messenger

No, they are the normal ones. Do you want the old ones from previous versions?

Edit: Accursed English language! I read it as the ones I posted were the custom ones and you wanted the regular old ones.

No, she has custom emoticons.

Bounty wrote:

Looks like Cpl Kendall doesn't understand what you mean either. That's not a good sign cause he knows computers Laughing Oh well, It's not that important anyway.

Open up Windows Explorer. Under Tools->Folder options->View, set "show hidden files and folders".

The go to
C:
Documents and settings
[your user name]
Application Data
Microsoft
MSN Messenger

(for example, C:/documents and settings/Bounty/Application Data/Microsoft/MSN Messenger)

You'll see several folders with random numbers in the name. Each one of the them has a "custom emoticons" folder. There's lots of files in there ending in *.dat. Just change that to *.gif and see if your emoticon is among them

This doesn't help me one bit because our computer is screwed up from all the times it had to be repaired (stupid compaq laptop) so all our hard drives are named differently. I'm so computer illiterate I have no idea how to find the right one to look in.

Mrs Kendall wrote: This doesn't help me one bit because our computer is screwed up from all the times it had to be repaired (stupid compaq laptop) so all our hard drives are named differently. I'm so computer illiterate I have no idea how to find the right one to look in.

C: is the default storage drive. It's one of those that you can save things in, as opposed to a CD, Floppy Disk, or DVD Drive.

There's probably only one or two on your computer (Maybe three at most), and there'll clearly be a folder called "Documents and Settings" near the top.

Assuming they're in Alphabetical Order, otherwise it'll be in a near-random spot). Then just follow what Bounty said.

Ok so I'm trying this and I get as far as the user data step but then I get a box that comes up warning me of this...

"You are attempting to open a file of type DAT file (.dat)
These files are used by the operating system and by various programs. Eiting or modifying them could damage your system

If you still want to open the file, click "open with", otherwise, click "cancel""

This is the only folder that has anything in it because when I open the other files in the box they are empty.

I don't want to screw up my computer so I'm asking for furthur help.

Sorry for being such a dunce when it comes to computers

Don't worry about being a dunce, it never hurt m- Reformatting hard drive CRAP! Ctrl-Z, CTRL-Z!!!

Ok so I'm trying this and I get as far as the user data step but then I get a box that comes up warning me of this...

Just to make sure you're in the right place -

The MSN folder should look like this . If you open any of the folders with the weird letter names, you should find a "custom emoticons" folder that has this.

Now simply right-click one of the dat files, pick "copy", right-click in the folder, pick "paste", right-click on your newly pasted file and rename it from, for example, "TFR1A.DAT" to "TFR1A.GIF"

Rinse and repeat until you find your emoticon.

Sorry for being such a dunce when it comes to computers

I've seen much, much, much worse.

Ah Kendall, when he means look like that, he means the folder names, not the looks(which is differant per PC).

Just dealing with a potential bottleneck.

Bounty, I'm not even getting that far, before the warning comes up. I don't think I'm doing it right.