Greetings Morten,
Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger 6.0 are separate products, hence why MSN Messenger
did not upgrade Windows Messenger.
You can remove Windows Messenger, but if you do, you will be preventing Remote Assistance,
Whiteboard, Application Sharing and any other applications that utilize Messenger from
working (or loading without problems). You can just disable Windows Messenger, by opening it
up, click Tools, Options, Preferences tab and unchecking 'Run this program when Windows
starts' (or 'Run Windows Messenger when Windows starts', depending on version). As well, you
can disable it further by going to Start, Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, Add/Remove
Windows Components on the left, uncheck Windows Messenger in the components list and click
Next >. Note: this is only available if you've installed Windows XP Service Pack 1 -- if you
haven't, visit
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com. This won't remove Windows Messenger, but
it will let it stay out of your way, and allow MSN Messenger 6 to work properly.
If it's still loading after this, do you have Norton Antivirus 2003 installed? Norton added a
new "instant messaging scanning" feature to Norton Antivirus 2003, which can conflict with
Messenger and cause this behavior. To stop it, open Norton Antivirus (Right-click on the
Norton Antivirus icon in the System Tray/Notification Area (by the clock), choose 'Open
Norton Antivirus'), click Options, then Instant Messenger then uncheck MSN Instant Messenger
and click OK.
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Windows MVP, Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources -
http://messenger.jonathankay.com