It is, in fact, a useful service in some environments, and existing
third-party software depends on it being there and working.
I applaud the approach Microsoft Antispyware takes to it, though--maybe
Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer will do the same in the next iteration.
One thing to say in favor of having this service running:
If you see Messenger spam (text messages in standard grey windows with
Messenger in the heading)--you can be sure that you are not behind a
firewall, or that the firewall has ports open that it shouldn't have. This
can be useful, in a mine canary sort of way.
