Delete Messenger NOT Live! Messenger?

I like windows live messenger. It is tied to my Xbox Live account and thats
cool.

But after a recent Windows (actually Microsoft) update I now have this crude
Messenger program running all the time and starting automatically at start up

I want to get rid of it or stop it from starting. I much rather like Live
Messenger. I don't know if Live messenger needs Messenger or not but how do I
stop it?

Greetings,

I assume you're referring to the old Windows Messenger that's part of XP.

To remove it, you'll need to click the Start button, then click Run and enter:
RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
Then click OK.

Yeah the old school Windows Messenger. I got rid of it a while ago but I
think when I DL'ed SP3 it included some newer or beta version of Messenger
which I thought was Live! Messenger. So far your fix seems to have worked.

Hi,

You're welcome. That should do it until you install another service pack (it is considered
part of Windows after all) or manually install from Windows Update.