Anoying Messenger popups

[Todd]

I will install the fix per Jonathan Kay's post.

But, I have a question. Is this a security hole in win
xp? I recently installed XP for my mother in law. I
tried to make things better but was embarassed by all the
pop ups. We never had this issue under win 98. If you
have the XP firewall turned on, will you still get the
popups?

To me, 99% of all xp users cannot use the messenger
service due to all the popups. It's ashame but once
again, the spammmers ruin the utility.

Thanks,

Todd

 

[Jonathan Kay [MVP]]

Greetings Todd,

No, the firewall will block these as well.

There has actually been a security vulnerability found with this feature, so it can be called
a security hole (was patched ages ago, so I've assumed you've installed all the patches from
WindowsUpdate when you setup her PC, so this shouldn't be an issue).

Just remember that the Messenger Service is *not* MSN Messenger and *not* Windows
Messenger -- it's a separate service within Windows NT/2000/XP which allows quick messages to
be sent through networks (the problem being that the Internet is one large network, so with
the service running, anyone can send a message). The upcoming Service Pack 2 to Windows XP
actually turns the service off by default.
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com