Messenger Service Pop-Up's

[R. Kronz]

I have a broadband cable modem and have just recently
started receiving annoying "off-color" pop-up's from a
messenger service. This occurs even when my browser is
closed. I have tried to block them with security and
privacy settings to no avail. I enabled a personal
firewall, but that disables my internet access.

What to do??? How can I configure Messenger, Internet
Explorer, my firewall, or my entire system if necessary,
to block these disgusting messages?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Jonathan Kay [MVP]]

Greetings,

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
Windows MVP, Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com