Greetings Dave,
Most likely someone else signed into Messenger using their account and it simply added their
number of e-mails to yours (this is what's supposed to happen).
It's actually a registry entry. To fix this, you can simply edit the entry. To do so, click
Start, then click Run and enter "regedit.exe" and click OK. Then
navigate (it's like Windows Explorer) to My
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail\yourmsnname@h
otmail.com
Where (e-mail address removed) is the passport. Double-click the MessageCount and enter 0 as
the value (this will set back to none). Then click OK, close the registry editor, and log
out.
If you want to disable this feature all together (no registry changes required), download the
TweakUI powertoy:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp (see on the right).
After you have TweakUI installed, click Start, All Programs, Powertoys for Windows XP, and
choose TweakUI for Windows XP. In the TweakUI window, on the left, click the '+' next to
Logon, and choose Unread Mail. Uncheck 'Show unread mail on Welcome screen' 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