I've been using kopete by installing kde onto windows 7 for some time now, but there's a bug in recent releases that causes it not to connect to msn.
What I want to do is install an earlier kopete before the bug happened so I can use it again until kde-windows initiative releases a version where this is solved. Only problem is they don't have versions much older and other accesses to an older version comes in tar.gz that windows can't open.
What would the correct way to go about this be? I have a feeling it's possible, I think I just have to get some sort of kpackagekit onto here so it can unpack the tar.gz files?
(it's been some time since I used linux)

You can get 7zip.

It can deal with tar.gz files.

7zip is just like Winrar where I can unpack a .rar onto my computer but after that I can't install kopete on it's own since the files aren't meant for windows.

I am assuming then you using KDE for Windows. I agree, they don't seem to have older versions readily available.

Have you considered trying Pidgin? It speaks Windows. I personally prefer Kopete, but only because I find it more attractive; Pidgin functions superbly.

One of the features that I really enjoy about kopete is creating custom emoticons. I have tried Pidgin before and am currently using Miranda (but just my luck to get a problem that nobody can duplicate which leaves Miranda without being able to use custom emotes)

It would be fantastic to be able to get kopete on again.

If you haven't already done so, report the bug. They can't fix it if they don't know about it. Since there are likely relatively few MSN users using Kopete on Windows, they may not know about it yet or may not know it affects more than one person.

the bug has already been reported, hopefully to be fixed at the next release of kopete. It seems to affect linux users of kopete as well.

Cool. Good luck.