I use this little utility HERE from Doug Knox, it allows you to disable or completely remove Windows Messenger from your computer.

You can turn it off by doing this. When you turn on your computer go into safe mode. Then go to program files and find the messenger file. Right click and go to rename and add "Off" to the end of the word messenger. This worked for me. I would always go into the msconfig to try to stop it and it would keep starting up after that.

Yes Dark_omen is right i put that info on a link in my first post

Didn't happen on mine, I had no problem renaming it after killing the process, but either way, I don't think any of this will help him, as it's been pointed out that if he kills Microsoft Messenger, it will also kill his MSN Messenger, which he wants to use.

I have no ideas on how to solve this.

On Windows XP there are three Microsoft applications that are all known as "Messenger". There's Messenger which handles alerts like net send commands. Then there's Windows Messenger which is the built in IM client that comes with XP and runs as msmsgs.exe. Then there's MSN Messenger which, if I remember correctly, runs as msnmsgr.exe and has more robust IM client capabilities for the MSN IM community.

Hope this helps.

Helps me I have a better understanding of these services now. Hope it can help resolve Karki's problem somehow.

Disabling Windows Messenger - click this link!

I have Windows Messenger Service disabled on my systems and MSN Messenger works just fine! The two are NOT co-dependent, in my experience.

This topic has gotten somewhat muddy, so I'm going to rehash it here for clarity, hope no one minds:

The guy has:

Microsoft Messenger IM client.

MSN Messenger IM client.

(Windows Messenger alerter service is not involved in this problem).

His problem:

Both Microsoft Messenger IM client AND MSN Messenger IM client are loading at startup, fighting to see who's gonna log him in, even though he has set Microsoft Messenger IM client to not load at startup, and to never run.

That's the issue he's having.

So, I see at least a few possibilities: He somehow ended up with multiple entries for MSMSGS.EXE in his registry/MSCONFIG startup list, or he has a copy of Messenger in his Startup folder.

If the former is true, he can simply open msconfig and remove the check in front of any entry for msmsgs.exe. If the latter is true, he can delete the copy from his Startup folder.

If neither of these apply, first, what the heck is making it run? lol

Second: I'd try renaming msmsgs.exe, and seeing if MSN Messenger IM client still runs. If it does, he's golden. If it doesn't, I'm mystified.

Hope that clears this one up a bit.

heh...ok i was kinda avoiding this thread for a specific reason...I already know this problem and I don't think there is a solution...maybe an updated version of Windows Messenger would be fixed, it doesn't happen to me anymore -- I'm using 4.7. DI has the right idea in taking it out of msconfig - and that will work for a while but every now and then it seems to creep back in there. This thread has gotten rather muddy and I don't feel like reading it again but maybe this would be a situation to remove Windows Messenger since it sounds like MSN Messenger is the desired IM client and I think someone already posted how to remove it. Here's what MS says about it, but it looks like a lot of work.

I also found this rather interesting since we're talking about it coming back on its own:
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Windows XP Home and Windows Messenger 4.0
If you are running Windows Messenger version 4.0 on a machine that’s running Windows XP Home Edition, you’ll have to use a different procedure. Open Windows Messenger and click Tools | Options. When the Options properties sheet opens, select the Preferences tab. Deselect the Run This Program When Windows Starts check box and click OK. This will prevent the Windows Messenger from running when you start Windows, but users can still start Windows Messenger manually and it may be started automatically when you run Outlook or Outlook Express.

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I have no idea what version it's up to now but this is the latest from MS... would try that first. Good luck.

Yup, the bit about it opening with Outlook is true even with the latest version, which is why mine's been renamed for over 3 years now. It also opens if you hit Hotmail's website, (odd that).

Anyway, thanks for that, that's good info.