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Help & Advice

Remove Windows Messenger

Windows built in instant messenger client is fine if you use it, if you don't its a constant pain running on start up and logging you into messenger servers, it should be removed if you do not use it. For me its the very first thing I do on a new install of XP, its installed in a way that makes it quite difficult to stop it from running on start up and the best way is to kill it totally. There are plenty of free instant messenger clients out there that are not so deeply entwined with the XP operating system and are far less prone to security problems.

To remove the built in messenger client:

Easy Method
Download the file Messenger Remover 1.0 from - http://www.gold-software.com/download7310.html

Run it and pick an option to either neuter or totally remove Messenger.

Manual Method
Make sure Messenger is not running by right clicking it in the system tray and selecting the quit option, don't know exactly what it says it never gets as far as running on my PCs.
Open "My Computer"
On the top menu select Tools > Folder Options then the "view" tab.
Check the "Show hidden files and folders" button then ensure the "Hide extensions for known file types" is not ticked.
"OK" out of the folder options dialogue.
In My Computer go > C Drive > Windows > and look for a folder called "inf" it will be light yellow because it is normally hidden.
Open the "inf" folder and scroll down to find a file called "sysoch.inf" double click it and it will open in a text file.
Look in the top block of text for this line                                     "msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7"
Delete the word "hide" from the text so it looks like this             "msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7"
Close the window and say "yes" to save changes, and get back to desktop.
Now go Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs. On the left of the window that opens select "Add/Remove Windows Components".
This will open another window, scroll to the bottom and you will see 2 x Windows Messenger boxes ticked. You have to untick both of them, do the top one first then the bottom diamond shaped one should untick itself, it might not so keep messing with it till both boxes are clear.
Click "Next" then "Finish" get back to desktop. Windows may ask you to re-boot, if it does not re-boot manually.
Job Done - Windows Messenger is totally disabled.

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