To remove Windows Messenger (completely), close Internet Explorer and Outlook or Outlook Express and click:
Start, Run
enter the following command:
RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\inf\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
it will prompt you........and then click ok and its gone off your system completly....
NOTE: If you have SP1 installed, before running the above command line, you first need to go to:
Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs - Add/Remove Windows Components and untick "Windows Messenger" and restart to avoid getting an error (error unregistering the OCX 16422) when running the above command line. Now run the above command line. (If you still receive the OCX error, just ignore it. Messenger still uninstalls without a problem).
ADDITIONAL NOTE: If you use Outlook Express, you need to stop it from looking for Windows Messenger on startup. If you don't stop Outlook Express from looking for Windows Messenger on startup, you will get a lengthy delay before Outlook Express opens.
To remove Windows Messenger from Outlook Express and prevent the delay you need to edit the Registry in the following manner:
Open the Registry (Click Start - Run and type "regedit")
Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Outlook Express.
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Name: Hide Messenger
Value Data: (2 = remove messenger).
Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, called 'Hide Messenger' and set the value to 2.
Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.
