Greetings Andy,
Firstly, does your friend have Norton Antivirus 2003 installed? Norton added a new "instant
messaging scanning" feature to Norton Antivirus 2003, which can conflict with Messenger and
cause some of this behavior. To stop it, open Norton Antivirus (Right-click on the Norton
Antivirus icon in the System Tray/Notification Area (by the clock), choose 'Open Norton
Antivirus'), click Options, then Instant Messenger then uncheck MSN Instant Messenger and
click OK.
If they don't have Norton Antivirus 2003, or this wasn't the issue, the latest version of AOL
automatically starts Windows Messenger, unfortunately I don't actually have access to AOL to
know exactly what this is happening.
There are two workarounds that will correct this problem (choose one or the other):
1. Uninstall Windows Messenger completely (Remote Assistance, Whiteboard and Application
Sharing will no longer work), by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del on the keyboard, or right-clicking on
an empty area of the taskbar and choosing Task Manager. Click the Processes tab, then select
msmsgs.exe and then click End Process. Then close the Task Manager. 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.
Windows Messenger will then be uninstalled. For more detailed instructions and screenshots,
go to,
http://messenger.jonathankay.com/problem.aspx?ID=7
2. Remove the saved Passport in Windows XP (they'll need to manually type in their
login/password in MSN Messenger 6.x) by clicking the Start Button, then click the Control
Panel. Then, click User Accounts in the Control Panel. Select your account name, and then on
the left side of the screen, under Related Tasks, click 'Manage my Network Passwords'. In
the window that opens, click the Passport.Net\* (Passport) entry and click 'Remove'.
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources -
http://messenger.jonathankay.com