MSN Messenger - probably the mallestware you'll ev

[macstorm]

MSN Messenger - probably the mallestware you'll ever install

Of course the first thing my 11 year-old daughter does when I step away from the PC is to log on to Messenger. All her mates seem to have names made up of brackets and asterixes and dollar signs, but I guess she knows who she?s talking to. This is all fine, I?m sure. I mean, she certainly seems to be able to type faster than me already.

Anyhow, she?s got her own little user space on the Windows XP Pro PC we?re using here, so you?d hope that whatever she gets up to on her bit of the computer would have no effect on me. Wrong, of course. For that MSN Messenger is the sneakiest, most invasive little bug you?ll ever want to delete from your system.

I mean, this is a fresh installation of XP following the death of a hard disk. Of course, I?ve had to download a good 200Mb of patches from Vole HQ. 200MB! Sheesh, these guys have got to be the sloppiest programmers on the planet...

Anyhow, since little Dahlia (let's call her) has gone out with her mum today, I hoped to get on with some work. So I log on to my bit of the PC only to get that godamned Messenger popping up and barking at me, and updating itself without asking. I think I fix it by telling it to stop logging on automatically, but this fails.

Worst of all is that when next I reboot and log on to the PC as me, Messenger springs into life and I'm bombarded with little messages from Dahlia's little schoolfriends. Bear in mind here that Dahlia herself hasn?t logged on and the main Messenger screen is still asking for her password. Anyhow, what to do? I mull over posting a message saying "Sorry this isn?t Dahlia," or "Sorry, this is Dahlia's dad," but decided that such a a course of action might be more troublesome than its worth. Still hesitant, I notice the next message ? "Do you still h8 me, is that why you?re not talking to me..?"

Panicking, now that my inaction is evidently destroying my little one's social life, I click on Exit and try to annihilate that ****** little icon at the bottom right of my screen. Useless of course, so I head for control panel and go to Add/Remove programs. I do notice when I finish and am told that Messenger has been removed from the system that ****** little icon is still there.

I reboot. This time around, I?m greeted by Messenger but it?s not Dahlia?s little mates, its her bother Ted?s (let's call him). Nice to know that when XP says it's deleted a program it's lying through its poxy little digital teeth.

Now sitting in my Recycle bin is a little file called msmsgs. You?ll find in the folder named Messenger which you'll find in the Program Files folder. Mark my words, it's the best place for it.

*UPDATE

That's enough flames about Windows or MSN or any other Messenger thanks. MessengerTools explains some of these issues well enough Source[/b]re.

Source: The Inquirer

[Quillz]

Are you sure he isn't talking about Windows Messenger? WM is difficult to remove, but MSN Messenger is just like any other program.

[Wheazel]

What a noob. Learn to use before you criticise.

[ComputerJunkie]

Obviously he didn`t go to Tools, Options, General and uncheck the first 4 boxes in the sign in section.The "display MSN Today" page was so annoying I wanted to blow the damn thing up.

I used to have that problem too when I first installed MSN messenger but you soon learn where to go to stop it.

[lnmnky]

" I'm bombarded with little messages from Dahlia's little schoolfriends. Bear in mind here that Dahlia herself hasn?t logged on and the main Messenger screen is still asking for her password."

That never happen:s:s Surely. The only way this is possible is if MSN messenger _and_ Windows Messenger were trying to launch on boot.

[ComputerJunkie]

Are you sure he isn't talking about Windows Messenger? WM is difficult to remove, but MSN Messenger is just like any other program.

I had the same problem with Windows messenger popping up and signing me in automatically but, I just went to Add and Remove clicked on the Add/Remove windows componants on the left hand side panal waited a few secs, up pops the box and at the very bottom sits Windows messenger,I unchecked the box.No more probs :D

[Midnight Mick]

Or just use Trillian...

[tomwarren Veteran]

Another day....another poorly written and inaccurate inquirer "news" article.

Edit: And written by Paul Hales, sacked from PC Pro I believe and had the cheek to write a stupid article at the inquirer about us "stealing" news when he didn't realise we actually source articles. What a retard.

[ComputerJunkie]

I`ve never tried Trillion,is it any good?

[+John. Subscriber¹]

I`ve never tried Trillion,is it any good?

Yeah it's pretty good actually.

But man I wish people would learn to use the product properly before going off on one :angry: Stupid Inquirer.

[Midnight Mick]

I`ve never tried Trillion,is it any good?

It serves me well. :)

No stupid long names (You can edit your friends names to display what you want). (Y)

[Deathray]

This person doesn't have a clue about what they're talking about... disappointing

[hotdog666al]

Must be an older version.

It's already been said that modern MSN Messenger doesn't do that.

[-T- Member]

what a moron, if his daughter has her own userspace, what is he doing on it, and using her messenger account.

[ComputerJunkie]

what a moron, if his daughter has her own userspace, what is he doing on it, and using her messenger account.

True,its one thing keeping an eye on your kids and who they are talking to but, thats snooping in my book.

[HoochieMamma]

Haha I love The Inquirer solely for the sheer comedic value to it.

[leesmithg]

Why is a 11 year old allowed unsupervised on the net?

tut-tut

[MrCobra]

Since when is anything on Inq considered news especially some guys personal opinion?

[ScottKin]

Paul Hales has got to be either one of the most utterly-clueless Technology "writers" or a shill for the F/OSS & Anti-Microsoft cabal - just plug his name into Google and you'll see all of these articles where he's practically drinking the "penguin kool-aid" like the proverbial fish when he's not bashing Microsoft at any chance he can.

His un-infomed rants are comical, and should be treated as pure comedy - because if his articles are meant to be anything but comical they are the worst kind of slanted-and-probably-paid-for journalism.

In short: If Paul Hales articles were in newspapers, the newspaper itself would only be good for one pupose; FISH-WRAPPER.

--ScottKin

[ComputerJunkie]

I just found myself checking back to the article to see if it was an "April Fools" joke.It wasn`t lol

[Guol]

Damn noobs...

Yeh, MSN Messenger must have opened upon startup.

However, Windows Messenger probably started up in the background and signed in automatically.

So all he did was exit and uninstall MSN Messenger, with Windows Messenger still signed in..

What a clueless moron.. :blink: :laugh:

EDIT: what kind of word is 'mallestware' :wacko:

[macstorm]

Are you sure he isn't talking about Windows Messenger? WM is difficult to remove, but MSN Messenger is just like any other program.

Yep, note the *UPDATE link at bottom of the article.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

WOW! What a total pile of BS. Sorry but if the daughter has her own login - he will NOT see messages from her friends on his.

[Julius Caro]

MSN messenger is not hard to remove (the classic add/remove programs, and you're done). But Windows Messenger is another thing. I myself am aware that it's runnin somewhere, because when I used messenger in media center (just to try it), I found that damn thing was opened. No icon anywhere.

I remember you had to modify some system policy to prevent it from opening at boot.

[fishrman]

The news the Inquirer keeps claiming to be real is almost as bad as the crap they post on Microsoft Watch half the time...