WLM stores contact display pictures in a temp file. When you do routine cleanup of files (like a disk cleanup, CCleaner, or other such utility) any contacts with whom you’ve not spoken in over a week, will default to the creepy blue WLM guy for their display picture. Of course, the next time they log in as visible, their picture will return, but I get rather annoyed waiting, so I found a rather convoluted way around it.

Follow up:

The following is a bit technical and I don’t advocate doing any of this unless you have a reason to. I’ve made every effort to make sure all the information provided here is accurate - but that said… any time you choose to manipulate your files in any manner not endorsed by the program developers (and this sure isn’t!!) you are taking a risk - and only you can decide if you’re willing to do so, and to take on the responsibility for the outcome whether it be good or bad.

Depending on how often you add new contacts, you probably won’t see any reason to do this very often, if at all:

1. Create a folder where you will store a copy of the data. I dropped a new folder on my desktop called “Old WLM Cache”
2. Make sure you have “Display Hidden Files and Folders” enabled in your folder search options, so you can navigate to the proper location.
3. Browse to the following file path for you contact display pictures (NOTE: YOUR_USER_PROFILE is your profile on YOUR computer - NOT on WLM.):
   
   • For Windows Vista: C:\Users\YOUR_USER_PROFILE\AppData\Local\Temp\
     MessengerCache
   • For Windows XP: c:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_PROFILE\Local Settings\Temp\
     MessengerCache
4. Open the folder, highlight all the entries (which have long, complicated, nonsensical names and there may only be just one) right-click and copy it/them to your clipboard.
5. Go back to that folder on your desktop and paste them in.
6. After doing your routine cleanup, you should close WLM and then re-open it. Depending on what was cleared out, it may need to rebuild the MessengerCache folder, and if you go there straight away you may be surprised to find it doesn’t exist. You’ll notice (likely) some of your contacts have the creepy blue default WLM guy display picture. Close WLM again.
7. Go into the desktop folder you created, highlight and copy all the entries to your clipboard once again.
8. Navigate back to the MessengerCache folder using the same path as above. Open the folder, right-click and paste the entries back in.
9. Voila! Go back, open WLM and you should see your contact display pictures right where they should be!! Although in testing these instructions, it did take a bit for the picture to show up while other times they’ve shown almost immediately.

Unless you’ve added someone, or contacts have changed pictures, you can simply start at step 6 the next time around. If you do want to save new data, just start from the beginning.

If you’re adventurous, or you have a need to, there is other valuable data you may want to copy for various reasons. Below I’ve listed the path to some of it (where YOUR_WINDOWS_LIVE_ID is your login name for WLM):

• For Windows Vista: C:\Users\YOUR_USER_PROFILE\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Messenger\
  YOUR_WINDOW_LIVE_ID\ObjectStore\
• For Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USER_PROFILE\Local Settings\Application Data\
  Microsoft\Messenger\YOUR_WINDOW_LIVE_ID\ObjectStore\

Here you will find the following folders:

• Backgrounds
• Custom Emoticons
• Dynamic Backgrounds
• User Tile (YOUR display pictures)
• Winks3

**NOTE: For any content (such as custom emoticons or YOUR display pictures, you will still need the original files, stored in the folder path you originally specified to be able to paste these back in.) This would be true for anything where you need to specify the path in order for WLM to use the image/file.

You may find you’d like to backup or copy these WLM files. Perhaps you’re doing a complete uninstall of WLM and want to be able to put your files back in, or perhaps you have WLM on more than one computer - in which case I’ve had no trouble saving my contact display pictures to a flash drive and putting them on another machine. I’ve not actually tried it with the other folders but I would suspect it would work just fine IF you have the folder with the original pictures stored in the EXACT same location on the other machine.

ONE WORD OF CAUTION: Be careful not to erase everything in the Objectstore folder unless you’re sure that’s what you want to do. The default display pictures, backgrounds, etc, are stored there as well. If you accidentally (or intentionally) delete them…you’ll likely find yourself doing a repair of WLM at minimum - and probably a whole new download.

This is simply the information I’ve gleaned on where things are stored. I’m not advocating doing any manipulating of the files, as they ARE in hidden files for a reason. But if like me, you have a reason you want to do it, and are willing to take the responsibility if something goes wrong, then feel free to use these paths as a reference for where to find what you may be looking for.