Have you uninstalled the version that comes with XP? It may be automatically signing you in when you start windows.

Thanks crunchie. I tried to uninstall all previous messenger files and reinstalled but it is still happening. Am I missing something?

did you sign in on a friends comput and forget to sign out

No, have not done that so that cannot be the problem

could a mate of yours be messing about with your .NET passport??

Had another thought on this. Windows XP comes with Windows Messenger as opposed to MSN Messenger...it is possible they are conflicting? I want to keep MSN Messenger as it has more features...photos, games, etc. When I come out of Outlook Express, it seems that is when I get the message that I have to sign in again to Messenger as I am already signed in in another computer. I cannot remove Windows Messenger without messing up Outlook Express and Internet Explorer, as far as I can see. Any ideas, please?

Are you running with a firewall? A friend of mine had serious problems with Noron's jobbie, but has had no problems at all with the download available from http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/ might be worth a try

uninstall msn messenger, then go to hotmail and change your password, then reboot, and see if anyhting logs you in, (i take it you assosiated your msn account with your windows account) now reinstall it and hope it works, make sure your msn password is different to your windows one.

hope it helps

Either what suRoot suggested or simply edit your configuration to NOT sign in automatically from the version previously installed. You cannot delete Windows Messenger. The only way to deal with it is avoiding automatic sign in.