A lot of people are experiencing problems downloading and installing the Yahoo Instant Messenger. The download process lets you download the launcher (approx 430kb), which, once clicked, starts off a download of approximately 15mb. The download starts as normal, however, after about 10%, the progress bar tends to jump around a little. The progress bar then hits 100%, but the install process does not launch. You wait for a bit, nothing happens, so you hit 'Cancel' and try downloading again. What is actually happening here is the progress bar says 100%, but the file is still downloading in the background. You may find a file at the end that you can use, or the progress bar may go back to 0% and the download process will start again. I eventually received a 'corrupt file' message.

To circumvent this issue, you need to download the standalone Yahoo IM. Be very careful about any standalone downloads that are offered from a site other than Yahoo, as the file may contain a virus. After I was given the corrupt file message, I was offered a link to download the standalone yahoo messenger install file from Yahoo. Why wasn't this offered as an option on the original download page? Who knows.

For those who are experiencing problems downloading and installing the Yahoo Instant Messenger, download the standalone player here: http://rd.software.yahoo.com/msgr/9/standalone/msgr9us.exe