Disabling IM in Outlook 2003?

[wal]

Outlook 2003
Windows XP

I have an email account with Verizon, which I access via Outlook 2003.
The Verizon service also gives me an email address at msn.com, which I
never use. Except the other day I logged onto the msn.com account just
to make sure nothing important was there. Since then (I'm assuming a
causal relationship), when I open Outlook, a "Windows Messenger" icon
appears in the lower right Toolbar area (near the clock) and
occasionally as I'm composing email, an Windows Messenger message will
pop up, asking if I want to send an IM or something like that. When I
right-click on the IM icon and attempt to Exit, it won't let me unless
I exit Outlook first. I don't have Outlook set up to receive MSN email
(only Verizon email).

How do I disable the connection between IM and Outlook? I am not
interested in IM at all.

Other posts (as well as the Help files) say something about disabling
the integration between the two programs by pointing (in Outlook) to
Tools > Options > Other tab > checkboxes at the bottom of this tab.
But in Outlook 2003, the bottom of the Other tab no longer appears to
be related to IM.

Thanks for any help.

 

[ouser]

There are several posts here regarding this annoying intruder.

One of the recommendations I have seen for Outlook 2003 is to go to
Tools>Options>Other and Uncheck the Person Names Smart Tags settings at the
bottom.

You may want to try this. My experience was that although it got rid of the
icon in the system notification area, Messenger was still running in the
background using up about 7 megs of RAM on my puny PC. After trying all
sorts or recommended fixes for this without any real success in getting rid
of this useless program that I have never nor will ever use, I disabled it
through the Windows registry.