msnmsgr.exe is hogging CPU

[CW]

I suspect this is a virus issue rather than a Win problem,
but thanks for any advice! A friend's laptop, running Win
2000 Pro, is virtually at a standstill, CPU stuck at 100%.
I can see that msnmsgr.exe is using around 80% of it. He
never uses the messenger service and has it disabled in
Services but it seems to be running. I cannot end it via
Task Mgr. We cannot get the machine onto the net to update
his AV definitions (not updated since early July.
What to do????

 

[Gert B. Frob]

Msnmsgr.exe is NOT part of the Win 2000 "messenger service", but rather MSN
Messenger as in MSN.com. See here:

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/msnmsgr/

Try killing it using the task manager (invoked using ctl+alt+del) under
applications or processes. Then you will need to find out why it's starting
in the first place and correct that.

It can probably be removed entirely using add/remove programs.