UGN Security Forums UGN Security: Knowledge Base Operating Systems Windows & Windows Security Messenger Service Pop-ups

Anyone with Windows XP or possibly some versions of NT would have seen some popup windows filled with advertisements/spam, when I first got my new XP box up and running I got some of these pop-ups.

In case anyone doesn�t know how to fix this, Ill give a little explenation of what it is.

Windows Messenger service has nothing to do with MSN Messenger, but is actually a small program built into Windows to allow people to receive messages from people on a LAN or local intranet. Spammers didn�t take long to find a way to exploit it.

To stop these pop-ups from ever happening again all you have to do is:

Go to Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services. Find the Messenger Service, right click on it, choose properties. Set it to Disabled.

Bum Bum Buuuuum.. And its just that easy,

Here\'s
some more detailed information about the messenger service from a Microsoft site

hehe a classic indeed!

THANKYOU! They were driving me nuts. I have mostly run the 9X versions for gaming and my VPN client. But now they have a VPN client that works on Win2k. Sooo Learner installs Win2k and starts geting all these pop-ups. Thanks Chem!!

I remember when people would say to do some shitty command in the cmd prompt, but you had to do it every time you signed on I think. I did this too, and I've lost 20 pounds since!

They are the worst when you are playing Counter-Strike. "Oh [censored] I am a [censored] ninja, I'll get this dude with the pistol, that'll teach him- Hey! What the [censored]? No...no [censored] you and your free hgh."

heh, I made a simple program that cycles through the 12. (class a) and messeges how to turn this off... because the only people that were annoying people was the people selling the thing to stop it. Thats alot of people. anyway... yeah.. I thought it was funny.

Yea after downloading several pop up killers claiming they killed messenger service pop ups. I resorted to getting friends together and pinging the crap out of their sites. Of course didn't really do much good but It made me happy that at least they were having trouble now. Considering Id be in the middle of a game of mechwarrior and get booted out of the game right in the middle of it from these jerks. Anyway thanx for the info me and my boss were having the same prob. xKarnagex x Out x