Dave-UK wrote:

Some time ago I noticed that every time I ran Windows Live Mail it
phoned home to he
config.messenger.msn.com Since I don't use any of the 'Live sign-in'
crap or Messenger and I don't want it to phone anywhere behind my back I
edited msmail.dll with a hex editor to mangle the address to something
like this: confug.messenger.mzn.com That seems to stop it.


Someone at Microsoft has read this message, and is busy this morning,
adding a "confug.messenger.mzn.com" to their servers. After all,
we don't want any of that fine, sweet, information to get lost.

It's like in earlier OSes, where you go to do a local file search,
and the computer sends a few packets off to Microsoft as well.

One way to do this without a hex editor, is to put some entries
in the "host" file. Something like this. This remaps a given
symbolic address, to the local loopback address, so the packet
never leaves the computer.

nosey.microsoft.com 127.0.0.1

You could handle your problem that way, as long as the program
making the report to Microsoft, doesn't wait two minutes for
a timeout in software to occur. If there was a pronounced
delay because of that, then your "whack a mole" hex editor
solution sounds good :-)

The only entries I have in my "hosts", are as many Facebook
tracking addresses as I could add to the table. I don't have a
Facebook account, and I also don't appreciate being tracked
by virtually every web site I visit.

There are web sites, that provide copies of "host" files
with all sorts of nuisances redirected to 127.0.0.1 loopback
address, to reduce tracking. You can take one of those
lists, and edit it to suit your own tastes in redirection.

The "host" file, is basically a local DNS lookup, which overrides
the network DNS, and provides your own local definition of a
limited set of addresses.

http://www.windowsreference.com/wind...windows-vista/

http://www.tweaksforgeeks.com/window...s-file-ignored

Paul