Messenger pop-up adds on the internet

[Baper]

I recently downloaded MS Office service pack 2 and some
patches and although I have a firewall, I am getting pop-
up messages through Windows Messenger when on the
internet. I did not get them before the download. I'm
running Windows XP and "Messenger" is not listed in my
Add/Remove programs. Can I delete the folder? If not, how
can I stop these pop-ups? Can I add Messenger to my
firewall? Any advice will be appreciated.

[Jonathan Kay [MVP]]

Greetings,

Do these "popups" that are appearing have "Messenger Service" in their titlebar? If so, what
you're seeing is the Messenger service built-in to Windows, *not* Windows Messenger (which
are two different things) which spammers are exploiting -- this is not Microsoft, nor can
Microsoft control them anymore then they can control spam to your e-mail inbox.

To get rid of these pop ups, you'll need to disable the "Messenger Service", click Start,
then Run, enter "services.msc"and click OK. Scroll down to "Messenger", select it,
right-click and then choose Properties. Under startup type, choose 'Disabled' and then
choose the 'Stop' button. After the service is stopped, click OK. Nothing in Windows or any
real third-party applications should be effected by this.
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Windows MVP, Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com


"Baper" > wrote in message ...
> I recently downloaded MS Office service pack 2 and some
> patches and although I have a firewall, I am getting pop-
> up messages through Windows Messenger when on the
> internet. I did not get them before the download. I'm
> running Windows XP and "Messenger" is not listed in my
> Add/Remove programs. Can I delete the folder? If not, how
> can I stop these pop-ups? Can I add Messenger to my
> firewall? Any advice will be appreciated.
>