Windows messenger takes (almost) 100% CPU

[Abhijit]

I have a Windows XP Professional system with Intel P-III 1.13 GHz processor.
Sometimes I have observed (and it's happening right now) that the CPU usage
is almost constantly 100% even if I am not running anything significant
(Just Outlook Express and IE with IE pointing to a static site such as
Google). If I check the task manager, it shows that the process msmsgs.exe
is taking most of the CPU time (no reason). If I kill the process, it
re-appears and starts taking almost 60-80% CPU time. This slows down the
whole system's response time. The WIndows messenger is behaving like one of
those "zombie" programs and I am sick of it.

I have observed that this starts happening if I try to sign-into the
messenger service using my hotmail/passport account. It never logs in, the
process gets stuck (the taskbar icon constantly shows "Signing In"). This is
the time when memsgs.exe takes over the CPU and starts behaving like a
zombie process.

Is there any way to permanently stop the WIndows messenger from running? I
have tried to remove it from the registry startup key, but it automatically
re-registers there.

The version of Windows messenger seems to be 4.7.

Can someone please help?

 

[BC]

On XP Pro it is almost too easy. Go to Start-run and type
gpedit.msc. Under computer configuration-windows
components click windows messenger. In the right pane
right click Do not allow windows messenger to run-open
properties and click enable. this should stop Messenger
from running at start up. Then go into add/remove
programs and select add/remove windows components and
remove messenger. good luck.