Any Way To Make Torchat More Secure?

I read in this master's thesis (seriously) from a couple of years ago that because the tor.exe file that the latest version of TorChat is bundled with is version 0.2.2.39, TorChat is vulnerable to the heartbleed exploit. It says on this page (that the thesis refers to) that a newer version, 0.2.4.23, addresses that exploit, but I can't figure out how to install the software recommended in point 2. of this post. I've tried a couple of times, but each time, even though a desktop shortcut appears, that shortcut is just a blank sheet of paper. And when I double click on it, I'm told Windows is searching for tor.exe. When I try looking for it myself with Everything, I can't find it. So, as I can't uninstall, because, seemingly, nothing's been installed in the first place, I've had to do a couple of system restores, and manually delete the files system restore doesn't get rid of.

I've tried downloading the portable version of Tor Browser from the Tor Project website. That includes a version of tor.exe But that version is dated 2000. 0.2.4.23 is supposed to be dated 2014. Can anyone tell me how to use TorChat securely without being vulnerable to heartbleed, or if there are any more secure alternatives to TorChat?