Trying to completely get rid of MSN Messenger

[F. Taylor]

I'm running XP and I've deleted every trace of Messenger I
can find on my computer, short of editing the registry
(I'm afraid to mess w/ this). Annoying MSN Messenger pop-
ups still continue to populate my screen. I've followed
all the steps to remove it including - RunDll32
advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%
\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove - and it says messenger is not
installed. What can I do?

 

[Jonathan Kay [MVP]]

Greetings,

Do these "pop-ups" 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.

Just as a little reminder, make sure you've protected yourself against the latest security
issues by visiting WindowsUpdate and installing the security patches:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
(This isn't related to the Messenger Service in any way, just a reminder)
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com

 

[JamesL]

-----Original Message-----
I'm running XP and I've deleted every trace of Messenger I
can find on my computer, short of editing the registry
(I'm afraid to mess w/ this). Annoying MSN Messenger pop-
ups still continue to populate my screen. I've followed
all the steps to remove it including - RunDll32
advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%
\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove - and it says messenger is not
installed. What can I do?
.
Can you not just delete the MSMSGS.EXE fill off of your

hard drive by rebooting into DOS?