Neowin.net

I just noticed this over on the official Neverwinter Nights site. They released the intro movie to Neverwinter Nights on March 21st. Sure, the news might be a little late, but better late than never right? Besides, I just noticed it and thought that I'd point it out for others who might be interested and in the same situation I was! ;)

I'm downloading the high-res 640x480 movie at the moment. I'm crossing my fingers that it's as good as I'm hoping it'll be! :D

Anyways, without further adieu....

Download: Intro movie (320x240) 21 MB
Download: Intro movie (640x480) 59 MB
News source: Official Neverwinter Nights movie page (With mirror links if the above are too slow)

It's that last bit, acknowledging the fact that you might not use Messenger, which makes it seem benign. Surely, this fix has more to do with some idiosyncrasy in 'Windows connectivity' than Messenger itself. Right?

And when we consult the related MS 'knowledge base' article, we're told that "to improve connectivity and system performance, even if you do not use Windows Messenger, Microsoft recommends that you install this update."

Man, they desperately want you to install this fix.

And the result? Do you get 'better connectivity and system performance?' Of course not. The only result is that Messenger is now back on your machine, consuming RAM even when you have no use for it, and haranguing you to obtain an MS Passport.

The only thing this Critical Update does is integrate Messenger into Outlook Express. And by default it runs on startup, and runs in the background. So now you have to go to Outlook Express/Tools/Windows Messenger/Options/Preferences, and turn it off.

Assuming, of course, that you already uninstalled it according to the instructions above. Otherwise it will run no matter what you do.