uninstalling windows messenger on XP

[feanor]

i don't need it since trillian, and i hate to see its icon all the time, i remember reading something about uninstalling it via the add/remove programs menu, but you had to press some buttons or something similar...

can you help me remember it?

 

[allan]

start
run
type: RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
enter
restart

 

[feanor]

thanks, that solved the problem!

i gotta write that down for further installations of xp!

 

[Perris Calderon]

allans post is great, but, There are 2 known issues when you remove Windows Messenger. The first is when you load Outlook Express and use the Contacts pane. This causes OE to try to load Messenger, it can't and this causes a long delay. The Registry entry that corrects this is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Outlook Express/Hide Messenger
A DWORD value of 2 prevents OE from trying to load it.

The second is that Hotmail's web site will load extremely slowly if Messenger is removed. Its the same type of hang that OE experiences.

The fix is to rename
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Messenger.MsgrObject
To
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Messenger.MsgrObjectOld

This removes the reference to the object that Hotmail tries to load, it fails, but it doesn't hang.

I don't use either of these instances, and I did not do these registry hacks after I uninstalled messenger with the method allan posts

 

[allan]

You're welcome, feanor.