Those @#%^&*@! that use Windows Messenger to try to sell me a way to disable Windows Messenger have really p***ed me off. So I sat down at my pc and after about thirty minutes or so I figured out how to do it myself. I now share it with you for free. The successful test was the absence of those annoying pop-up messages for 8 days. I was signed on with Administrative rights when I did this. 1) Open "Control Panel" >> "Administrative tools" >> "Component Services". 2) Left-click "Services (Local)" on the left portion of the screen. 3) Scroll down until you see "Messenger" in the Name column on the right portion of the screen. 4) Right-click "Messenger" in the Name column on the right portion of the screen. 5) Left-click "Properties" in the drop-down menu. 6) Left-click the "Log On" tab at the top of the form. 7) Left-click the "Hardware Profile" to disable on the list in the lower part of the form. 8) Left-click the "Disable" button at the lower right of the form. 9) Left-click the "Apply" button at the lower right of the form. 10) Left-click the "Ok" button at the bottom of the form. Windows Messenger will no longer annoy you about your mortgage rates, penis size (as applicable), advertisements to disable Windows Messenger for a price, etc. If you want more control then try out this link: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/communicate/stopspam.asp. I didn't try it because it said it might block more than I want.

Here is another way to totally remove it from your system.(copy and paste this to the run box). Start/Run and type in RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

stump, Lou was talking about something else entirely. Although they sound similar Windows Messegner (msmsgs.exe) and the messenger service have nothing in common. One is a chat program and the other is a utility that network admins usually use to alert their users of outages, etc. To clarify however, Lou, what you suggested is really a long way to do a simple thing. Instead of screwing around with hardware profiles, just disable the service. On XP Pro (maybe home): Open the Control Panel, then go to Administrative Services. Now go to Services. Once here, scroll down to messenger. Double click it to open it's properties box. On this page, you will see a Startup Type drop down box. From this, choose "Disabled". There! From now on when you start your computer, the messenger service will not start.

just to clairify what dr. nick said works on home edition as well.

It's even simpler to go to start/run and type in services.msc but remember this folks. Always stop the service first before you disable it :) KTTD P.S Lou, if you would have search this site or Google you would have had the answer in 30 seconds. The question has been asked and answered for many months now.

Well Kevin, I did search Google and Computing.net, but neither search found the answer. Guess I didn't use the right keywords. Anyway, messenger no longer annoys me and I've shared what I learned. That's what this site is about, right? Lou