Yes the beta has drawn to a close and Windows Live Messenger 8.1 is now available. Nice work by Dwergs in getting the English download link, no doubt he’ll be posting the other language builds shortly.

Download Windows Live Messenger 8.1

Updates from 8.0 include:

• Yahoo interoperability – now you can chat to your Yahoo Messenger friends from Windows Live Messenger 
• Your display name, status and personalization roam with you to any computer
• Improved sign-in performance
• Redesigned contact cards
• A bonus of 2 free VOIP calls
• And it runs on Windows Vista!

Update:

Nicole, from the MessengerSays blog has posted their official “End of Beta” announcement.  It is available for download from the get.live.com Messenger page.  In addition to the features that we posted earlier, Nicole notes these new features:

• SMS Phone Book
• Improved Usability
• Vista Presentation Mode
• Personal Contact Invitations

Again, you can check out the team’s blog post here: MessengerSays.