Uninstall Windows Messenger in Windows XP

Can I uninstall Windows Messenger in Windows XP?

Yes. You can also uninstall it although I don’t recommend it. You’d be better off if you just disable it. Read this tip on how to do it: Disable Windows Messenger in Windows XP.

If, however, you do want to uninstall it, there are at least 2 ways to do it:

First method

XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it show up everything.

If you’d like Windows Messenger to show up in the list of programs you can add and remove from Windows, navigate to C:’WINDOWS’inf (substituting the correct drive letter for your version of Windows) and open sysoc.inf. You’ll see a line that reads:

​msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7

Change this to the following and Windows Messenger will appear in Add or Remove Programs, then Add/Remove Windows Components, then, and you can remove it for good:

​msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,7

You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.

Second method

Make sure you close Outlook, Outlook Express and the Messenger client.

Run this command in the CMD window (line may wrap, just copy/paste it):

​RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%'inf'msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

Note: This will prevent a long delay when opening Outlook Express if you have the Contacts pane enabled. To prevent this, click Start, Run and enter REGEDIT Go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE'Software'Microsoft'Outlook Express

Right click in the right pane and select New > Dword value. Give it the name Hide Messenger

Double click this new entry and set the value to 2.

Related articles

You might also want to read the following related articles:

• Configure Instant Messaging in Exchange 2000

• Configure Instant Messaging SRV Records

• Disable Windows Messenger in Windows XP

• Download MSN Messenger

• Download NetMeeting for Windows 9X/NT 4.0

• Download Windows Messenger

• Download Windows Live Messenger

• Find your Microsoft Passport Password

• Hide the Windows Messenger Icon in Windows XP

• Replace Windows/MSN Messenger

• Update Windows Messenger

Links

Windows Messenger homepage