Greetings Dave,
Firstly, stop the integration with Outlook Express (even if you do decide to remove all of
Messenger, you'll still need to do this to avoid problems) by closing down Outlook Express,
and running this .reg file:
http://messenger.jonathankay.com/downloads/stopmessenger_oe.reg
By 'Explorer', I assume you mean Internet Explorer? Messenger will only load with Internet
Explorer if you visit a site that requests it to be started -- most likely Hotmail.
Unfortunately there is no way to stop this.
You can completely remove Windows Messenger from Windows, but if you do, features like Remote
Assistance will no longer work. However, if you want to go ahead and remove it, close down
Messenger if it's running (right click the messenger icon in the notification area/system
tray and click close). Then click the start button, then click Run and type in (copy-paste
if you like):
RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
Then click OK.
Messenger will then be uninstalled. For more detailed instructions and screenshots, go to,
http://messenger.jonathankay.com/problem.aspx?ID=7
Alternatively, since you don't appear to use it, you could simply remove your saved Passport
information in Windows XP (which would prevent it from logging in) by doing the following --
click the Start Button, then click the Control Panel. Then, click User Accounts in the
Control Panel. Select your account name, and then on the left side of the screen, under
Related Tasks, click 'Manage my Network Passwords'. In the window that opens, click the
Passport.Net\* (Passport) entry and click 'Remove'.
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Windows MVP, Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources -
http://messenger.jonathankay.com