Hey, the andyman - your friendy Windows Live enthusiast - here again, Explaining to you another new feature:

First of all: what is it?
Basically this is a feature which allows you to input information about yourself, mainly contact details but some info like MSN profiles used to have, to share with contacts of your choice.

How do I access it?
The easiest way is to open up your contact card in Windows Live Messenger and click the 'Share my Contact Info' button. This will then open a page on the Spaces severs within which you can edit the details that you want and choose which contacts you want to be able to see your info. The details are divided into the basic categories of 'Personal' and 'Business'.

From here you can also 'View people getting your contact updates' and 'View people whose updates you receive'.

Also by clicking on 'Change your communication preferences' you can change who can send you invitations and requests to view your Space (if you have one) and your Windows Live Contact information. Also when the friends list launches (currently only available in beta in Australia) you can change who can request to be on it. [These preferences can also be changes through you MSN Space on 'Settings' > 'Communication preferences'.]

Spaces integration
As well as being hosted on the Spaces domain this feature is linked in other ways to Spaces. By going to your Space and clicking the 'Profile' tab at the top you can edit more profile/contact information, such and 'General' and 'Social', and more permissions for them as well. Your Windows Live Contacts information is there under the 'Contact Info' heading, and you can change the details there as well.

Messenger integration
Windows Live Contacts also integrate into Windows Live Messenger further. When you have a new request to view your Windows Live Contacts information from one of your contacts or another person then a message will appear in the info bar at the top of the contact list. Click the link and it will bring up a window telling you the name of the contact and their requests. You can then choose to 'Accept', 'Decline' or 'Decide Later' about their request, or to block request from that person in the future. When you have decided click 'Done' and the screen will say 'The changes have been saved. To close this window, click Close.', click the close button underneath and then you're done adding them to your allow list for them to view you contact info.

>> Discuss Windows Live contacts