Preventing Messinger from starting

Joe · Oct 2, 2004

I am now promted to sign on to messinger at startup after
installing xp service pack 2. I do not use messinger.
How can I get rid of the annoying promt to sign on.

Kevin · Oct 2, 2004

Hey Dustin,

I think you may be able to find your answer in the post
(currently on page 2), called "Uninstall"....good luck!

Jonathan Kay [MVP] · Oct 2, 2004

Greetings Joe,

You'll simply need to 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.

Kevin · Oct 3, 2004

Hey Mr. Kay,
lol, since we seem to keep posting near one another, I
thought I would you if you know anything about this:

I was online chatting with my daughter the other day and
everytime she sent me a message there was what appeared
to be, Chinese or Japanese writting with a link attached
to her messages. Now she says that she doesn't know how
it got there, but she uninstalled messenger 6.2 &
reinstalled it to try to fix it without any luck.

Now being the foolish braveheart I am, I clicked on the
link (http://www.xf2s.com/msn/wode.jpg) and it took me to
a web page that had even more Chinese or Japanese
writting on it, but it also had other links on the page
and one of them was microsoft.com. The other links I
couldn't read though because of the writting. When I
tried to just follow the http://www.xf2s.com, it asked me
for a username & password. Almost like I was trying to
remote into another computer or router.

Needless to say, that's about as far as I went before I
got scared. So then I did a "who is" search on the link
and I think I found this person.

I guess my questions would be:

1) Has anyone had this happen to them and most
importantly, how do you get rid of it?

2) Is this a hackers trick or was she just unknowingly
tricked into allowing this to attatch itself to her
messenger chat?

3) If it is a hacker and I have this information, where
do I go from here?

She has XP Pro with Norton System Works 2003 and
everything up to date on her computer. I'm more concerned
now because she is now on DSL and it is much easier for
someone to sneak something in without her knowing about
it. Any help would be very much appreciated...thanks!

-----Original Message-----
Greetings Joe,

You'll simply need to 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.

Joe · Oct 3, 2004

Thanks Jonathan,
That did it. i don't use norton.