You may have a legal or corporate requirement to archive Instant Messages.
The Archiving tab allows you to achieve this simply:

Field |
Description |
Enable message archiving |
Check this option to enable Instant Message Archiving. Messages are stored in the Archive directory. |
Delete message archives older than |
Enter a non-zero value to have archives deleted after the specified number of days. |
Open Message Archive Directory |
Press this button to open the Archive directory. |