# Win XP Question Re Messenger

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-question-re-messenger/204754>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 30, 2003, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-question-re-messenger/204754 "2003-09-30T19:54:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pegleg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@pegleg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pegleg)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-question-re-messenger/204754/1 "2003-09-30T19:54:00Z")

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I know how to turn this off, but two days later, it is enabled.

How do I prevent this from happening?

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**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-question-re-messenger/204754/2 "2003-09-30T20:20:58Z")

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A corrollary: If I open Outlook, Messenger automatically opens and it will not let me close it; I get a message that Outlook, IE or other MS crap is using Messenger features. What’s up with that? What if I delete Messenger completely, will it screw up my Outlook?

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**Author:** ![pegleg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@pegleg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pegleg)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-question-re-messenger/204754/3 "2003-09-30T20:25:41Z")

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BTW, don’t know if it matters, but I run Ad-Aware and Google Toolbar pop-up stopper.

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**Author:** ![Hauky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/0ea827/32.png) [@Hauky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hauky)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/win-xp-question-re-messenger/204754/4 "2003-09-30T20:56:12Z")

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If you go to Start / Run and run this:

rundll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\inf\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

it’ll uninstall Messenger completely. I do this every time I install XP and I haven’t had a single problem yet. If you actually use Messenger, this is obviously not a valid option.