Re-reading this I see it turned into a bit of a rant. If you don’t care about all the fiddly and unnecessary details just go to the last paragraph to get my General Question.
I just installed Windows XP last night. No, I’m not a lemming and I had, in fact, said I wouldn’t go the Windows XP route.
However, my PC was beginning to flake-out anyway (Windows 98) and I was about to embark on my semi-annual rebuild when my company presented me (and some others) with a copy of Windows XP to try out if we wished. Given that it was free (to me at least) and that my job actually requires me to be up on these things and that I was going to rebuild my PC anyway I figured what-the-hell…I’ll give it a spin. If it sucks I’ll just re-build back to an earlier version.
So, after a hiccup or two but nothing real bad I get Windows XP cranking on my machine. Given that I finished the installation at 1:30 a.m. I didn’t have much time to dink around with it and see what’s what. The only feature that jumped out at me was the more streamlined way of having different users able to have different setups on the PC when they log in (Profiles). I know my wife will appreciate that little feature. I found the new look of the GUI to be annoying but probably since I’m not used to it…turned that back to the ‘old’ style so no problems there.
However, the one thing that leapt off the screen at me and annoyed me to no end was the constant pestering to sign-up for a Passport account. When I say ‘leapt’ I mean it…an icon appears in your system tray and a bubble-help message flashes on letting you know about the wonderful world of Passport if you just click on the icon.
It is bad enough that such prompts exist at all but I can live with them since up till now you could tell the thing you weren’t interested and have it go away (usually…Quicktime is one that annoyingly pesters you on a semi-frequent basis). Unfortunately this will NOT go away and gives you no option to make it so (at least nothing obvious). The whole Passport concept makes me mad but at least I know enough about it to understand why I, personally, don’t want to use it. However, there are a LOT of relatively uninformed computer users out there who probably will do it just because Microsoft asks them to. They figure it must be ok or good or somehow more of a benefit to them than it is to Microsoft (the Dummies book on XP instructs its readers to NEVER use Passport so it’s not just me…and no I don’t read the Dummies books but rather read that in an article).
Does anyone know how to get rid of the Passport pestering in Windows XP? While you’re at it if you know how to get rid of the MSN Messenger icon that’d be nice too. However, while I have no intention of using that program and would like to see it gone it’s not all that annoying if it stays so its low(er) on my priority list.
I’m looking forward to the answer to this question as the PC on which I would most likely install XP has no access to the internet, so that passport thingie would be a pain. The upgrade to XP would be to get my Windows ME system to quit rebooting itself every once in a while (several times a day under regular use, and any time things get exciting in Diablo II if we’re playing a multiplayer game).
The guy there has a few sharp words to say about XP Passport. It sounds like XP is a constant and insistant bully that treats you like a moron. You will set up your computer as Microsoft decides and there is no way of over-riding its decisions.
It’s faux-friendly hints about Passport begin to get on your nerves. You will want to sign up to MSN and Passport. Really? Are you sure? You don’t want to reconsider that, do you? It would be in your best interests, you know… Everyone else is, what makes you so special that you don’t have to?
Right, if that’s how you’re going to behave you can stand in the corner for the next half hour while I just link to Microsoft central and download their entire propaganda patch for willful free-thinkers. You will be assimilated, resistance is…
Huh. Might be kind of fun then. “Well, I’ll just download the patch, and… wait a minute… what ISP do you use? Hey, where’s the phone line? Standalone! Whaddaya mean, you own more than one computer? Hey! No fair!”
I installed XP and clicked to sign up to passport then some web page launches then I either clicked not intrested or just closed the window and passport hasn’t been back to bug me.
just like the previous post, installed xp, clicked curiously on the icon and clicked cncl to back out, no further hassle. from what i’ve seen so far w/new hardware detects it seems it keeps bringing up those little popups until you actually look at the item, not just close the message bubble. had to click on the icon and click do not try to find driver else it would pop-up every time i rebooted
Messenger kept popping up in my system tray everytime I went to Hotmail. I don’t think there’s any official way (in the control panel or otherwise) to get rid of it, so I just deleted the Messenger folder in Program Files and haven’t heard from it since. I know it’s generally not a wise practice to ‘uninstall’ any program by just deleting it’s folder, but I haven’t had any problems so far.
Dooku… I tried to email you but your email is hidden. PLEASE! Send me the Reg hack for getting rid of this. I am in the same boat of the op… I HATE it and need to know the hack. You or the mods shouldnt worry… I am well knowledgable enough to do this without hosing a system. I haven’t searched elseware yet so if you could make this easy I would appreciate it. My email is B_Line12@hotmail.com. Thanks man!
Well after you get this link I am sure you will want to pay me lots of $$$$'s This link is the best in the world, I personally never had a passport problem but the thing that kept pissing me off was the never ending please log on to microsoft Messenger crap since I like most real internet NOT AOL users have and use ICQ Here ya go this will fix all your problems and several you didn’t know you had
This link is the best in the world, I personally never had a passport problem but the thing that kept pissing me off was the never ending please log on to microsoft Messenger crap since I like most real internet NOT AOL users have and use ICQ