Turning Off Live Messenger Advertisement

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Guest

Hello.

How can I turn off the Advertisement at the bottom of the Live Messenger
window? If that's not possible, what do I need to block at the firewall to
prevent access and force the default "Windows Live Messenger" logo in place
of the ad?

Thanks - Dave
 
Dave said:
Hello.

How can I turn off the Advertisement at the bottom of the Live Messenger
window? If that's not possible, what do I need to block at the firewall to
prevent access and force the default "Windows Live Messenger" logo in place
of the ad?

Thanks - Dave
Click to expand...

Just HOW do you expect Microsoft to obtain the revenue that pays for the
Live Messenger servers, the electricity it takes to operate them and the
salaries of the staff members that keep them running? The advertisers
are paying Microsoft to display the ads to you. Where the ads promote
other Microsoft/MSN services, those other services display paid
advertisements. In some cases the ads promote Software packages like
Office or Vista. Without those ads Windows Live Messenger would only be
available to people paying a monthly subscription fee.
 
Dave said:
Reeeeeeeally

So, do you know how to turn off or block the advertisements?
Click to expand...

Sure!

Just right click on the Messenger icon in the notification area and
click "exit" in the resulting context menu.

I just can NOT see why some people think they should be able to use a
FREE (as in doesn't cost you money) on line service without putting up
with some advertisements. Objecting to pop-ups, pop-unders, layer ads
that block content, noisy ads and multimedia extravaganzas that have
hundreds of KB to load I can see, but a few banners or sidebars are to
be expected. You should be glad you don't actually have to buy the
advertised products to use the instant messenger.
 
Robert,

Obviously you feel passionate about watching ads on your computer. Me, not
so much. I also noticed that you've helped a lot of people on this forum
with their questions. Thank you for that contribution.

To put the ad thing in perspective ......

In 2005 MS boasted around 500,000,000 active MSN users. I'm sure there's a
lot more than that now, but I'll use 500M for the example.

Say it takes $25M a year to stand up servers to help IM users find each
other, and keep some developers making incremental improvements to Messenger.
I know that $25M is a lot of money, servers are getting cheaper all the
time, and that IM clients are a dime a dozen. But large companies can't seem
to do anything without a big budget, so I'll stick to $25M a year.

With 500,000,000 (2005) active users, that works out to around $.05 per user
per year. I'd gladly send my $.05 portion to MS's Paypal account to cover
that cost. Maybe they could make that an option for turning off the ads !
Or, maybe MS could add a $1 to the cost of my next Windows or Office
purchase. That would cover my portion of Messenger use for several years.

Until then, I found some interesting reading to help out.
http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/atdmt.com/postid/?p=212972

Take care -- Dave
 
Greetings Dave,

There's some patches like Mess Patch or A-Patch that will remove if you must do so. You can
Google these yourself.

Or you can block rad.msn.com.

I'm afraid I agree with Robert on this issue though.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2007 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
 
Thanks Jonathan


Jonathan Kay said:
Greetings Dave,

There's some patches like Mess Patch or A-Patch that will remove if you must do so. You can
Google these yourself.

Or you can block rad.msn.com.

I'm afraid I agree with Robert on this issue though.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2007 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
Click to expand...
 
Dave & RobertVA

I seriously doubt Microsoft are in need of what little revenue those ads
could possibly generate for them. But putting that aside -- this same
question has been asked over and over and over -- customers don't like it,
plain and simple.

The facts:
1. Messenger did NOT always have "advertisements" yet I didn't notice any
drastic revenue slides at Microsoft because it didn't have this "feature"
that the user can't turn off.

2. Messenger communicates with at least 4 different servers (possibly more)
so long as it is executing -- security risk, you bet ya! Some committment to
security.

3. iChat and a host of other instant message related software doesn't
require advertisements?

4. Just another bandwidth consumer that a paying OS customer can ONLY turn
off by either going to an older version of Messenger (probably why 5.1 is
still most popular download) or removing Messenger completely.

Do either of you understand the term "junk mail"? I guess this is the image
you want people to feel is associated with all things Microsoft? Junk?

But more importantly why aren't you listening to your PAYING customers?
We're the ones that pay considerably more than those advertising in Messenger
considering Vista Ultimate is $400 and XP Pro is $200. So what rights do we
have since we're the majority investors in your product?

Before you say, well just go back to an older version, that's not the point.
The point IS you are NOT listening to your customers. But again, that might
be exactly why Vista is a significant flop both in terms of sales and feature
content.

Rob.
 
Many have asked the same questions before Dave, with pretty much the exact
same responses from the dog and pony show.

See my post below in response to Dave and RobertVA.

The irony is that Microsoft still believe they have "the leverage" -- they
really don't any more. But let them push on in the direction of ignorance to
the paying customers and pander to the advertisers -- blue light special
anyone? It's a road travelled by many that leads to no where. When will
Microsoft understand?

Rob.
 
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