How to really kill Windows Messenger

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How to really kill Windows Messenger

November 21, 2003

One of the biggest annoyances in Windows is Windows Messenger, which springs to life of its own accord whenever you boot up. Or when you open Outlook Express. Or for no apparent reason at all. And you can’t close it because “some other application is using it” or some rubbish like that. It’s there like a virus you can quarantine, a worm you can’t eradicate, a friend you really are not interested in entertaining because you’re so damn sick of him/her. It allows spammers to alert you to ways to improve your sex life (penis enlargement, Viagra, yada yada), sell you University diplomas, and even “meta-spam” that tries to sell you ways to prevent spam.

… can’t find no Windows Messenger?… sneaky Microsoft has hidden it!

I’ve tried switching off the Windows Messenger service and unchecking all the boxes I can find that says “Start Windows Messenger when this program runs”. Some people says it works. I know it doesn’t, because my firewall (Sygate Personal Pro) alerts me that Windows Messenger is trying to send an outbound packet. Sneaky bastard.

I lived with this parasite in my system for a few months. Now, I’ve finally found a fool-proof way to kill it - uninstall Windows Messenger.

Yes, you heard that right - uninstall. How? Use the Add/Remove Windows Components dialog of the Add or Remove Programs item in the Control Panel. But what you say? You can’t find no Windows Messenger? That’s right, you can’t. Because sneaky Microsoft has hidden it! Here’s how to “unhide” it:

Open %WINDIR%\INF\sysoc.inf with a text editor.
Look for the line that goes like this:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
Delete the hide keyword so that it now looks like this:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7
Save the file and exit.
Click on Start -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs -> Add/Remove Windows Components
Scroll to the bottom of the list and you should now see 2 items for Windows Messenger. Uncheck both of them, giving a triumphant whoop of vindication as you do so.
Click on Next, and Windows Messenger will be fully uninstalled.

Enjoy an existence without Windows Messenger. We all deserve this much at least, if we have to live with Windows.

localhost has another way to disable Windows Messenger - check out his comment.

Posted by Chu Yeow at November 21, 2003 SGT |

Permalink |

| Category: Operating Systems

45 Comments & TrackBacks ()

kill windows messenger
cool tip : unhide hidden programs in the - “Add Remove Programs - Control panel” - to be able to uninstall these… so if you can’t get rid of msn messenger follow Cheah Chu Yeow’s instructions :)

Posted by: atog on November 21, 2003 4pm

Sneaky Sneaky Microsoft
Thanks to Cheah Chu Yeow we now know how to get rid of that little virus known as Windows Messenger. Read on for the skinny… redemption in a blog: How to really kill Windows Messenger…

Posted by: A Random Act of Blogging on November 22, 2003 12am

Hi,

the tool at http://www.xp-antispy.org/ does this job any many other features without changing the registry.

ciao Ronny

Posted by: Ronny Fenrich on November 24, 2003 8pm

Thanks for that, Ronny. It looks neat and similar to something I had awhile back, only it’s in English. Is there an English version for that?

Posted by: Cheah Chu Yeow on November 24, 2003 11pm

I’m Just Trying To Do You A Favor
If you haven’t already disabled Windows Messenger, now would be a good time to do it. Not to be confused with that nifty little chat client MSN Messenger. I’ve used my friend’s computer with WinXP a couple times and I…

Posted by: swirlspice on November 25, 2003 7am

These instructions don’t work on windows 2k… :(

Posted by: 0zone on February 14, 2004 7pm

Did not work ii XP Home either.

Posted by: Wayne Feese on February 17, 2004 11am

Eureka!
Yippee and Yehaa and other various forms of happy. Cheah Chu Yeow over at Redemption in a Blog has revealed unto me a way to divest WinXp of it’s bastard step child Windows Messenger….

Posted by: Juxtaprose on March 7, 2004 4pm

I love a other approach.
Start, Run, gpedit.msc, ok
Browse to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Messenger.
Doubleclick on “Do not allow Windows Messenger to run” and enable this.

You’re done. You will never see Windows Messenger again.

Posted by: localhost on March 12, 2004 5pm

Thanks to you i finally got rid of windows messenger :-). If you want a good MSN Messenger resource check Mess.be some day.

Posted by: Mess with MSN Messenger on March 17, 2004 9am

You can also disable Messenger by selecting the usual “Please, please, PLEASE do not run Messenger at startup” options in the actual program, and to prevent other programs (like Outlook) from activating it, change the directory name in “Program Files” from “Messenger” to ANYTHING else, like “MessengerOFF”.

Posted by: Jonathan Dobres on March 19, 2004 3am

Umm.. I have a problem. I have Windows XP, and I did exactly what Cheah Chu Yeow said and it didn’t work. You know the second Windows Messenger item with the gray diamond icon in the panel? Well the stupid thing won’t stay unclicked. It’s always clicked! Why won’t the thing work?!?!?!

Posted by: BlahBlahBlah on March 24, 2004 12pm

If you are using XP PRO at least, you can do it even quicker!

START -> CONTROL PANEL -> ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS -> ADD/REMOVE WINDOWS COMPONENTS

Now scroll to the bottom and uncheck Windows Messenger.

Posted by: StanleyB on March 31, 2004 3am

In XP, go into msconfig.exe, click on the services tab and uncheck messenger.
When you reboot there’ll be a nag screen asking if you want to revert to normal configuration. Ignore it and tell it not to appear again.

Posted by: cliocane on April 8, 2004 3am

Just wanted to say that I tried using above fix as noted and it didn’t work. Thankfully, the remedy(sp) local host provided worked fine.

Thank you for fix that allowed me to get rid of this annoying P.O.S. from my system.

Posted by: Phil Salisbury on April 8, 2004 4am

Localhost’s solution won’t work for xp home though, which doesn’t have gpedit.msc.
On XP home, to keep Messenger from being called by programs with a Messenger API (Outlook Express, etc.), you can use msconfig as suggested above, but you then have to go into the registry and do the following:

1. Locate and click the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Messenger\Client

2. On the Edit menu, point to New, click DWORD Value, and then type PreventRun for the name of the new DWORD value.

3. Right-click the PreventRun value that you created, click Modify, type 1 in the Value data box, and then click OK.

4. Quit Registry Editor.

You can also create the necessary registry branch from scratch without going through msconfig.exe.

See the last part of the instructions in Microsoft’s knowledge base article 302089.

Posted by: cliocane on April 8, 2004 4am

I followed the instructions to remove Messenger via editing sysoc.inf. It showed the 2 Messenger lines as promised. One checked the other unchecked. The checked one refused to uncheck (OS is XP Home). So it did not get rid of the thing. Anybody know why?
Thanks

Posted by: Robert Donald on April 21, 2004 9pm

im not sure why, but apparently in XP u can’t (well at least i couldn’t) uncheck those messenger lines in add-remove components, and uninstall messenger.

i was able to get the one that refused to uncheck to uncheck (clicked its checkbox once, then checked the messenger one above it, and then unchecked. this left both unchecked); however after clicking next, yada-yada, it was still there. wont uninstall. i guess it’s an XP thing. so you’ll have to use one of the other methods above.

Posted by: Solidox on April 24, 2004 9am

Sixteen By Sixteen
When I first started this site nearly two months ago (nine days and counting!), the original intent was to have a place to store my long-winded replies to the posts in the NWN Macintosh Version — General Discussion section of…

Posted by: We Can't Tell Reality From Fantasy on May 3, 2004 2am

I’m having problems with MSN Messenger popping up all the time. I have tried all kinds of things that I was told would get rid of it but nothing works. Does anyone have a real solution to this problem?
Thanks, Margie

Posted by: margie on May 6, 2004 11pm

will the fix posted by cliocane just delete windows messenger as i want to keep msn?

Posted by: jess on May 11, 2004 9pm

Margie: Hmm… I believe if you are talking about Windows Messenger, one of the methods above is very likely to work. If you’re talking about MSN Messenger, however, all you got to do is to uninstall it the normal way using Add and Remove Programs in the Control Panel.

Jess: Yup I believe cliocane’s solution will prevent Windows Messenger from running, but leave MSN Messenger intact.

Posted by: Cheah Chu Yeow on May 12, 2004 12am

If you don’t want MSN Messenger to start up in Windows then go to Start then Run and then type “msconfig” then click the “Startup” button and look for the program MsnMsgr and push the check box box then it wont start up when you start up Windows.

Posted by: Josh on May 19, 2004 9am

An easy way to remove windows messenger is, start, run (windows key + r) the type in

RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\inf\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

resart and its gone

Posted by: Simon on June 7, 2004 5pm

What is finally the solution to kill Messenger in Windows 2k?

Posted by: Daniboy on June 19, 2004 9am

The msconfig mentioned above isnt there in win 2k and xp ….u cud download the file ” msconfig.exe” from the net (beware of malicious files) .
Put it in the WINNT/system32 folder. After rebooting, it starts working from the start/ run button

Posted by: kaa on June 23, 2004 7pm

What is (%WINDIR%\INF\sysoc.inf with a text editor)

Please help with a little more info.

Posted by: bryon on July 12, 2004 9pm

Hi Bryon,

You can try this. Click on the Start button and choose “Run…”. type in
%WINDIR%\INF\sysoc.inf and press enter. It should open up the file in
Notepad and you can edit it as described above.

Let me know if you still have problems figuring out.

Posted by: Cheah Chu Yeow on July 12, 2004 10pm

I would recommend Steve Gibson’s program to disable Windows Messenger on any NT/2000/XP box. It is located here

Posted by: Jude Cooks on July 13, 2004 1am

i want to exit msn messenger 4.1 so that i can download msn messenger 6.2 but i can’t exit msn messenger 4.1!!! each time there would be a pop-up that says: “There are other applications currently using features provided by Windows Messenger. You must close these other applications before you can exit Windows Messenger. These applications include Outlook, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer and Internet Explorer.” i have closed everything and it still can’t exit!

Posted by: jalaine on July 18, 2004 2pm

if you’re lazy (like me) you can download “Shoot The Messenger” from grc.com - works like a charm, the app is under 5K or something.

Posted by: some guy on August 8, 2004 11am

Ok, I’ve got a problem. I think I used XP-Antispy to remove Windows Messenger. That worked, but then MSN Messenger quit working. Whenever I click on it, it states that the application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. It also says to try reinstalling, as that may fix the problem. Tried that, nothing. I tried installing Windows Messenger again and it won’t install. Anyone have any ideas? The only thing I can think of is reinstalling Windows XP, but I’d rather not do that for something like this. Backing up all of the data is a PAIN!

Posted by: David on August 14, 2004 10am

Get the windows messenger Remover here!

100% free and working!

Posted by: bface on September 28, 2004 6pm

when i update the messenger 4.7 up to 5.0 then i become a popup it says “This application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.” but when i reinstall the messenger, the popup comes again.

how can i remove the messenger. i have try many ways to removed the messenger but the probleme comes again. Please help.

Posted by: flex on February 24, 2005 6pm

I usually just rename the “messenger” folder in Program Files. Works good enough for me.

Posted by: Laz on March 17, 2005 6pm

Steve Gibson’s program is an exalent way to quickly get rid of the evil windows messenger. Just a cuple of clicks and its gone FOREVER!!
http://www.grc.com/stm/shootthemessenger.htm

Posted by: Jeff Curtis on April 12, 2005 10am

YAY! I Tried every method above, just to be Sure :D, and it gone forever!! yipee! I did it while msn was running, so that still Works fine, Thanx Alot!!

Posted by: Tyson on April 18, 2005 12pm

Just clicking the “don’t run messenger” does not stop it from running. I clicked the second messenger several times, but clicked on continue even though it wouldn’t stay unclicked.

IT WORKED. As for the gpedit.msc, that doesn’t work with Windows XP. It returns an error message.

So, this is, so far, the only way I could find to get rid of the little bastard.

Posted by: Cass on February 20, 2006 6am

Thanks a million man!

Posted by: JiMiThInG on February 28, 2006 12pm

Obrigado, funcionou !!!

Posted by: Wellington on March 6, 2006 2am

This method works great. I use it on ALL of my systems at work. Just be sure to check BOTH windows messenger boxes in “Add Remove Windows Componants” and then you can uncheck them. Works like a charm and is dead simple.

Posted by: Enjoymentboy on May 4, 2006 11pm

Cool site! I’ll be back. white, international, collective nothing comparative to good

Posted by: when boy is chips it will percieve girl on June 5, 2006 11pm

do u know how to fully get rid of it coz my computer says that if u re-install it may fix the problem with it which i have know idea what it is about. so i want to uninstall it so it cant come back because i used to use msn messenger 7.5 but now that i changed i cant get it coz it says about the newer version. i have to delete it so it is not on my computer any more. can u help me?
and by the way…
i am only 10 years old.

Posted by: Jacob on July 16, 2006 3pm