[Boris]

So -- I don't have MSN Messenger OBVIOUSLY open.

When leaving it I always sign out and exit out of the tool bar. So WTF is happening for the message window to pop up and some spammer try to engage me in HIS meaningful conversation.

Is this thing always lurking and providing a legitimate back door into my system?
How do I rid myself of the problem, but without uninstalling the product?

[jayinhongkong]

Right click on the MSN icon in the bottom right corner of your screen and click "Exit."

[PDLM]

He said he'd done that...

Use Trillian or something else as your client would be my suggestion.

[jayinhongkong]

Oh ok, you're right PDLM. That really is weird. Are you using the latest version of MSN?

[jgl]

Originally Posted by Boris

So -- I don't have MSN Messenger OBVIOUSLY open.

When leaving it I always sign out and exit out of the tool bar. So WTF is happening for the message window to pop up and some spammer try to engage me in HIS meaningful conversation.

Is this thing always lurking and providing a legitimate back door into my system?
How do I rid myself of the problem, but without uninstalling the product?

So you've exited the application, but it still pops up? Very weird. Have you confirmed that the MSN Messenger process isn't still running? I think the process name is msnmsgr.exe.

[Boris]

OK - looked in Task manager and found that. Ended the process so no doubt I am free of it -- FOR NOW !!

I am interested to understand WHY, when I have signed out and exited, that the .exe file would still be in task manager and messenger, obviously showing me as active to others.

Come on guys - prove to me your all true geeks !!!

[freeier]

you might have previous versions of it that engaged your msn ?

msn also has this habit of telling you that you cannot close msn because you have other programs using it. if you have disabled that message it might mean the system automatically keeps your msn in background as it encounters other program tagging onto the msn infrastructure.

those are my guesses. and i am no longer geeky enuf to understand all the intriques.

[Alexander Crowe]

I had a colleague in the past, who had set his office computer to automatically sign in to messenger. However, when he left that office (which was in Japan), he forgot to change the setting ... consequently whenever the next person to use that computer booted up, the pop-up box would alert everyone that he had just signed in. Unfortunately it became incredibly annoying as two people jostled over the net and pop-ups popped up.

Basically I'm saying is it possible you are still signed in on another machine?

[Boris]

No - I only have a laptop in addition to the problem machine and thats off.

[Pekkerhead]

I thought you had to explicitly give other people access to see you on messenger. If someone adds you to their contact list, you should be prompted to allow them or block them. I know this doesn't solve your problem but I am wondering why any old Johnny can try and get hold of you. Could be a symptom of a wider issue.

Actually. I did have a similar situation whereby even after ending messenger it would automatically restart - I had inherited my PC from my Brother-In-Law and he was a frequent user. In order to stop it I ended up renaming the executable. Fixed the issue eventually by just installing the latest version. There must be a setting somewhere to stop it but I'll be frigged if I know where it is