Greetings Silverbirch,
The "old one" you're seeing is Windows Messenger 4.7 which comes with Windows XP and is a
completely separate product from MSN Messenger 6.2. Although you can forcibly remove
Windows Messenger, if you do, features like Remote Assistance, Whiteboard and Application
Sharing within MSN Messenger 6.x and Windows will no longer work. As well, some applications
that specifically call on Messenger (like for example Outlook Express) will appear to freeze
or refuse to load as they try to start Messenger (you can however, turn off this
functionality to fix this problem).
Instead, you can simply disable Windows Messenger. To do so, open it up (click Start, then
Run, type "msmsgs" and click OK), click Tools, Options, Preferences tab and uncheck 'Run this
Program when Windows starts' or 'Run Windows Messenger when Windows starts' (depending on
version) as well as 'Allow this program to run in the background' or 'Allow Windows Messenger
to run in the background' (depending on version). This won't remove Windows Messenger, so
features like Remote Assistance, Whiteboard and Application Sharing will continue to work,
but it will let it stay out of your way.
Also, do you have Norton Antivirus installed? Recent versions of Norton Antivirus added a
new "instant messaging scanning" feature, which can conflict with Messenger and cause it to
also keep starting. 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.
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources -
http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2004 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
