how do I eliminate windows messenger?

[josh foster]

Help -

An annoying, frankly offensive and utterly useless
component "Windows Messenger" has rendered this expensive
piece of machinery a playground for two-bit uneducated
solicitors to assail me every moment of every hour of
every day. I feel this program's inclusion in my
hardware warrants a class-action lawsuit. How dare you
slight me, the consumer, paying substantial money for a
piece of equipment I assumed would serve my needs, by
deliberately inserting a device whose only purpose is to
harass me with an intensity and frequency unrivalled in
the history of free enterprise? What's more, the little
******* seems to be specifically engineered to flaunt any
attempt at eliminating it from the mainframe altogether.
In the context of an operating system whose obvious
advantage is the simplicity and ease with which it
executes one's commands, it is a slap in my face as a
consumer to find nothing even remotely resembling a means
of erasing this foul virus. Do solicitors fancy I bought
my computer for their sake? Windows Messenger by its
very presence suggests the answer is yes. I want it off,
off, OFF, do you hear?? Someone in your department tell
me how the hell to erase this thing or I will become the
most sinister, evil antagonist your company has ever
encountered.

Thanks and have a great day,

Josh Foster

[Jonathan Kay [MVP]]

Greetings Josh,

Firstly, 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.

If you really want to remove Windows Messenger, close down Messenger (right click the
messenger icon in the notification area/system tray and click close). Then click the start
button, then click Run and type in (copy-paste if you like):

RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

Then click OK.
Messenger will then be uninstalled. For more detailed instructions and screenshots, go to,
http://messenger.jonathankay.com/problem.aspx?ID=7
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Windows MVP, Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com


"josh foster" > wrote in message
...
> Help -
>
> An annoying, frankly offensive and utterly useless
> component "Windows Messenger" has rendered this expensive
> piece of machinery a playground for two-bit uneducated
> solicitors to assail me every moment of every hour of
> every day. I feel this program's inclusion in my
> hardware warrants a class-action lawsuit. How dare you
> slight me, the consumer, paying substantial money for a
> piece of equipment I assumed would serve my needs, by
> deliberately inserting a device whose only purpose is to
> harass me with an intensity and frequency unrivalled in
> the history of free enterprise? What's more, the little
> ******* seems to be specifically engineered to flaunt any
> attempt at eliminating it from the mainframe altogether.
> In the context of an operating system whose obvious
> advantage is the simplicity and ease with which it
> executes one's commands, it is a slap in my face as a
> consumer to find nothing even remotely resembling a means
> of erasing this foul virus. Do solicitors fancy I bought
> my computer for their sake? Windows Messenger by its
> very presence suggests the answer is yes. I want it off,
> off, OFF, do you hear?? Someone in your department tell
> me how the hell to erase this thing or I will become the
> most sinister, evil antagonist your company has ever
> encountered.
>
> Thanks and have a great day,
>
> Josh Foster
>