Discussion on:

Disable Microsoft Messenger Service in Windows XP

This article was the most informative one I've read this year!

When I tried to disable messenger, I noticed Windows' auto updates stopped. So out of pure stupidity, I tried so hard to uninstall it which you cannot. Not knowing what came over me, I tried to delete it!

Of course, I was successfull in deleting all files related to Messenger (easy job). Except for one which I want to forget. So I used Norton to wipe it off my hard drive. Unsuccessful too.

What happened next was a nightmare! I kept on getting alerts regarding certain numbered files and what have you. Ultimately my computer crashed. And using Norton to wipe it off my hard drive damaged it further. And so, as the story goes, I lost so many important data that I was just about to backup.

I'm not sure I want to try disabling Messenger again. But it's the best technique that I've seen so far. In fact I never knew it was that simple.
Thanks for the tip and more power to all pc geniuses like you!

Bring up the run command (Windows Key + R) type in C:\Windows\Inf\sysoc.inf, click OK. Delete any listing of the word "HIDE" that you can find, leave the commas, save and close it. Now go to "Add or Remove Programs". Select "Add/Remove Windows Componets". Now you can uninstall all kinds of useless stuff including Messenger.

This was tried in WINxp(Home)....
Instead of trying anything else, the easiest solution I would suggest, that I have used, is...
1)Begin by pressing Windows key with the R button on your keyboard.

2)Then delete any instance of the word "HIDE" that you can find, (or use the replace utility) leave the commas, save and close it.

3)Now open "Add or Remove Programs". Then select "Add/Remove Windows Componets" from the left hand panel..

4)This will enable you to uninstall all kinds of useless stuff including Messenger(though my advice to newbies would be, do not try any experiments).
Easy Solutions@eb

Doesn't always work. Stops some but not all. I have had to use Norton trash-can to go to some site and load the address to my Norton killer. Very time consuming. Am going to try Analogx and see if it works better. Will keep informed.

Might want to try a third party product such as Pop-Up Stopper Professionl by Panicware.

I use The basic version of Pop-up stopper and I dont get the popups while on MSN Messenger --

The instructions for disabling the Messenger Service didn't fit my computer. The sequence I had to follow was Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services/Standard Tab (to get to Messenger)The of the instructions went smoothly. Thanks for the advise and info.

I've got an much easier way of killing those obtrusive pop-ups. Turn on Windows XP's Firewall service and they are gone for good!

1. Click on My Network Places on the Windows XP Desktop.

2. Next, click on Properties

3. Then click on the LANor High Speed Connection icon or if you are using MSN or a dial-up service click on its network connection icon.

4. Click on Properties

5. Then the Advanced Tab

6. Then select the check box labeled "Internet Connection Firewall"

7. Voila! You're done and no more annoying pop-ups or hacker messages (and hackers period for that matter!)

Cheers,

Bill

I try this on my notebook with XP Home edition. When I go to step 4 & click on properties the box disappears?? So I can't start the firewall.
On my desktop with XP Pro it works fine.

I have Nortons Internet Security and Windows XP firewall enabled and still had the annoying popups!

You should consider disabling one or the other. Since they both are acting to a degree like a software based firewall, they can actually conflict with one another. Also, being a software based firewall, they may be seeing the pop-up activity, but consider it ok since the messenger service is running on your PC.. if you have disabled Messenger, and are still getting pop-ups, I recommend using AD-Aware to scan your PC for spy-ware. It's free, and very effective!
Good luck!

Beware, killing messenger in this way is limited in Windows XP. Installing patches and updates from MS may reinstall it and you'll have to keep "disabling" it.

When doing Windows Updates, install all of the critical security updates, but do not install all of the recommended updates. Read through the recommended updates list and remove any Messenger updates/upgrades. By not installing Messenger Updates you will avoid re-setting to default.

I found this solution that seems to work:
To keep Messenger from starting automatically, select Run from the Start menu and type the following into the Open field: RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
Press the OK button.

I just run msconfig and take it off the start menu. Seems to work fine.

Folks MSN Messenger chat program and the Windows Messenger Service are 2 entirely separate things. You can disable the Messenger Service and still use MSN Messenger. One has nothing to di with the other. Using msconfig to stop MSN Messenger from running at startup is fine but that does nothing the stop the Messenger Service that you will find in the Services section of Computer Management. Understand that they are 2 different animals. Thank you.

If you have a basic firewall you can simply block ports 135 thru 139 from coming into your network. And this enables the admin to still use the Messenger service within his domain. If you don't have a firewall then this also will work: locate the file SERVICES (no extension) edit the file by entering a # sign to the left of the port(s) you wish to not use. WARNING: turning off ports 135-139 on a windows machine effectively stops it from being recognized on your network, as well as preventing some sharing. (like printers, files, etc..)

you can remove windows messenger in control panel
open the add/remove program in control panel.
on the left side of the windows ,click "add/remove windows components".
messenger will appear checked off .unckeck the selection.while there you may as well unistall another useless component "msn explorer"

THat doesnt neccessairly get rid of messenger. The annoying son of a biach likes to hide out in the system and if anybody knows an easy way to get rid of it for good please tell me, because i hate going into the registry and editing commands.

Nothing from Microsoft has angered me to the extent that the pop-up security warnings from Microsoft did. When I started to reieve them I seriouslyu considered switching to Linux. I even used my MSDN subscription to vent. This is the best article I have ever seen in this forum, perhaps becasue the MS pop-ups are such an incredible BAD idea.

Killing the messenger service is only part of a good solution. Steve Gibson (a well known utilities developer)has a number of freeware utilities to do this and much more to protect your PC's. Check out his freeware site at http://grc.com/freepopular.htm. Once your machine has been damaged however - especially with spyware and homepage hijackers I can reccomend another freeware utility that I have found ESSENTIAL! SpyBot Search and Destroy! is a unique freeware utility. It can no only remove spyware - it can immunise you against it. Homepage hijacking can be fixed, and you can protect your hosts file as well. It is available on CNET and downloads.com. I picked it up from a PC User magazine CD (circa December 2003), and find it an invaluable tool.

After reading some of these post there seems to be some confusion between the Messenger service and Windows Messenger. thier not one and the same. The Messenger service is known as net send or Winpop depending on OS version. Windows Messenger on XP is just another version of MSN Messenger. If you use the Messenger service on a company lan and get popups, then you need to have your IT department block port 135 at the internet access point only and still be able to use it in house.

The Windows Messenger program is intergrated into OE, yes. Just go to your OE options, general page and tell OE not to log on to Windows Messenger. Windows Messenger can also be set in it's own options not to start with Windows. Be aware that for you that use Norton's Systemworks 2003 or newer that if you have messenger protection turned on in Norton's AV, Windows Messenger will not shut down or close properly. Norton's AV will cause it to stay running in the background. So open up Norton's AV options and disable the Messenger protection if you want Windows Messenger to truly close or shutdown.

Much of the response I look at belived the article was discussing MSN Mssenger,or Windows Messenger which is not the same as the messenger service (this is the net send command from a cmd prompt) the process of defense for pop ups and other problems are differant. since "net send"ing around for a very long time disableing the service on our network is not and option we do however block the incoming port from the outside and use other methods torun updates on our systems

Instead of trying anything else, the easiest solution I would suggest, that I have used, is...
1)Begin by pressing Windows key with the R button on your keyboard.

2)Then delete any instance of the word "HIDE" that you can find, (or use the replace utility) leave the commas, save and close it.

3)Now open "Add or Remove Programs". Then select "Add/Remove Windows Componets" from the left hand panel..

4)This will enable you to uninstall all kinds of useless stuff including Messenger(though my advice to newbies would be, do not try any experiments).

I beleive the recommended method is to use the Group policy editor in Windows XP.

1. Go to "Run" and type "gpedit.msc."

2. Go to "User Configuration" > "Administrative Templates" > "Windows Components" > "Windows Messenger"

3. Double click on the "Do not automatically start Windows Messenger initially" and "Do not allow Windows Messenger to be run"

4. Select "Enabled" for both

Many thanx T Birk,

This seems to work ok - and as you say, it would indeed seem to be the proper approach to adopt.

There only seems one irritating consequence. Outlook Express now takes up to a minute to open, as opposed to opening instantly.

I'd much appreciate any further advice you have.

Regards,
Tim

You might want to try disabling Messenger support in OE. I do not use OE but I do have it disabled in Outlook.

In Outlook Express I believe it is in the Tools, Options, General tab. There is also a registry hack to do this, see

http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/989/

When I first started using XP Pro, I went exploring and I created a warning message that pops up when the system boots or someone logs on. Now I cannot figure out how I did it or how to change the message. Any direction would be greatly appreciated.

I think you might be referring to the Legal Caption. That is located in the registry key,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

in the values,

"LegalNoticeCaption" and "LegalNoticeText".

install some sort of firewall and block that port. you lose no function in XP and really, shouldn't you have one already anyhow?

I just loved the way the article kept referring to me by my surname...reminds me of boarding school!

I did have a firewall...Norton Internet Security, only it refused to work with XP! I had to do without the f/w until I could get a resolution from Symantec. Within seconds of establishing the connection to try and get online, the messages popped up.

My arguement was, and the article mentions this, the service is ENABLED by default. For a service that can be misused by spammers or hackers, I felt the service should be DISABLED by default and only made active if desired.

I am growing used to XP....slowly and painfully! The same spec machine running 98 is so much faster and responsive than the XP box...again Microsoft have tried to make XP too clever, instead of making their OS more compact and efficient...why bother writing tidy compact code, when all you need to do is throw more hardware at our Bloatware?!!

I can't believe you wrote what I just read about 98 being faster and more responsive than XP. 98 is the worst resource manager out there, right behind Win ME. Ever look to see how much RAM you are using on 98/ME? Most of the time, if your machine has been running for any length of time, it's ALL of it. Regardless of what applications you have open. 98/ME just eats it all for breakfast and never regurgitates.

Processes that fail in 98 typically crash the entire system and require a reboot. God help you if you get an explorer.exe/iexplore.exe error. Typically that means the show is over and another reboot... Blah.

I wrote it because it's true...

Bollocks to how much RAM I'm using...that's totally irrelevant.

Faster and more responsive = When I double click an icon to launch a program..it starts and runs.

From displaying the desktop to being able to actually USE a program, Win98 is easily twice as fast as XP. Launching programs on identical hardware, under both OS's...

NeroExpress 5.5: Launch time under XP, 7 seconds, under 98SE, 1.5 seconds. DivXPro 2.1: Launch time under XP, 13 seconds, under 98SE, 2 seconds.

Having launched the programs, the response to menu events is faster under 98...calling up a file requester in XP takes 3 times as long under XP as 98.

Ram usage is NOT an issue...and I DON'T get IE/explorer crashes! Rebootingis simply NOT an issue! I reboot every 45 days, just to get round the lock up problem of 47 odd days as the "up-time" timer locks out!

Sorry pal....read my article about comparisons of XP Vs Win98SE on several different hardware settings. Having actually built 3 pairs of hardware-identical machines, and done a 1 for 1 benchmark comparison between the two OS's...I think I have objective results to prove my statement. Where's YOUR proof?!!!

...as the O/S of choice, clearly doesn't do any real work on it. Uptime of 45 days or more? Sure.. I've had that same uptime on a 98 machine, when I don't use it and just turn it on. What good is a machine I can't use? NADA!

If 98 was sooooo great, how come so many corporate environments aren't junking their 2K/XP installs in favor of 98?

If 98 is sooooo great, how come Microsoft isn't furthering the development of that kernel?

No explorer and IE issues? Ever? You clearly never use your 98 machine. Any person who has used 98 as extensively as I have will attest to it's instability as an operating system, and 98's lack of ability to manage resources.

And sorry "pal" that's the objective view that I have as proof. Thousands upon thousands of hours of working experience. You think your benchmarks are realistic to a 98 machine that's been up for 3 days or more? I don't think so. In case you haven't noticed, it's 2003. If you want to use Windows 98, why don't you use it on your 486 computer, with 4MB of built in RAM too? I bet that's probably a lot faster and more responsive than those silly AMD Athlon systems, and P4 systems....

Careful buddy! You are rapidly approaching the "flamer" line in your responses. This is a forum to DISCUSS tech issues WITHOUT getting personal.
Myself, I certainly agree that Windows98(SE) still has a niche market. It is NOT on high-end (1Ghz+ processor)PC's, because their speed does tend to compound 98's inherent instabilities. There are still thousands of PC's out there - especially in the private sector - that still run Win98 quite successfully. This is the extent of the end-user requirement, or they are running apps that won't run on NT-based O/S's. I personally support a lot of these PC's in my local area, and I can tell you that they provide me - on average - a hell of a lot less headaches than newer PC's with "modern" O/S's.
I think you will find that Microsoft wants to "move on" from Win9x etc so they can get more money out of customers being forced to upgrade their O/S, and spin-offs from the hardware industry.
Oh, also - just for you - GROW UP!

win98 has it's place while running older apps but keep in mind that it has it's limitations in that it does not support drives larger than 137gb. Once you have an understanding of the newer platforms you will find that they have much better recovery options like network and CD rom support in safe mode. My 73 Buick was a great car but it no longer suits my needs. There's no need to slam the Buick but it is time to move on. The typical end user problems are brainlessly simple to address in win2k or xp.

Regards,

Yesterday I was told by MSN tech support that these pop ups were not related to messenger. I had very few before and now I was getting 20 to 30 a day. They also informed me that E-mail would not work properly if Messenger was disabled. Thanks for the solution.

I recently stopped the Windows Messenger Service on my WinXP Professional machine using instructions found in Dell Document TT1076684. There was a slight variation in that Dell recommended that I switch startup type to manual, select stop, and thenapply. Interestingly, the description of the service states that "This service is not related to Windows Messenger." My machine is a stand alone with dialup access so I experienced no problems by disabling Alerter Messages. I also checked under the dependencies tab and no system components were listed as depending on this service. Currently, I am not receiving popup messages.

Good luck!
David

'Messenger' and 'Windows Messenger'. The procedure described tells you how to disable 'Messenger', but in the desription it says it is not related to 'Windows Messenger'. So, which service allows the annoying pop-up ads to appear and which serviceallows you to use 'net send' on a corporate LAN?

Windows Messenger is the instant messaging client program that's installed by default with Windows XP. This is the tool you use to chat to people online, with smileys and noises etc.

The Messenger service is what pops up annoying alerts from youradministrators who want to inform you that a file server's going offline and would you please save your stuff; this is what NET SEND uses.

Helpfully, these two services are *completely* unrelated.

Unhelpfully, the ads come via the Messenger service, because you can NET SEND to an IP address. The service you need to disable to prevent this sounds like the service you want to use.

Cure? Block Messenger inbound at the firewall, then you can use it on your LAN.

Funny that I disabled mine and the popups stopped and my E-Mail still works fine
However Messenger starts by default when Outlook Express starts

The procedure here works fine, as long as your control panel is not set to "Classic" view, in which case you select "Administrative Tools," etc., etc.

Why not use something that *always* works, on both XP and 2000? Right-click "My Computer," select "Manage" from the menu, pop open "Services and Applications" from the left-hand panel and select "Services." Works every time, on both OSs.

tag

How can you say it works "always" when the default XP installation does not have a "My Computer" icon on the desktop?

Just find a My Computer Icon (Start Menu) right click and go to Manage. Works the same as the classic one on the desktop.