I appear to have 2 versions of MSN Messenger on my PC. One apparently came with windows as standard (an old version of MSN), and the other (V7.5 the most current) - which I downloaded and installed myself. Oddly enough - unlike other programmes MSN does not detect and / or remove previous versions so I ended up with 2 versions.

The problem is that they seem to be fighting with each other ! I constantly get a message saying that the new version has been closed because i have signed into msn on another computer (I haven't) and then the new one closes and the old version pops up.

I know what you are thinking - simple! just delete the older version from your pc !!!

hmmm I would if I can find it - it is part of the windows installation and when I went via 'explorer' and tried to delete what I thought was the older version - it wouldn't allow me.

My friend called me yesterday with the same problem and I can't help so can anyone give me any help ?

its not life and death but gets bloody annoying at times - as do most computer problems !

Thanks - Paul

Paul, if you have XP then it isn't too bad.
Click the Start button, and select Control Panel.
In the Control panel window select Add or Remove Programs.
A new screen will come up and eventually show you all the programs on the PC. Highlight MSN version whatever and you will be given Change and Remove buttons. Select the Remove button and it will do so.

You might actually need to remove both versions and re-instal 7.5 as I think they probably share some files and the removal of the old version might get rid of these shared files - although, in some cases Windows has ask me if I want to remove a shared file when it get to it while removing.

Do a Google search:- (type in:) " Remove MSN rundll " Note the two ll's, dont type the quotation marks!

Then select the first listing ("richard's ramblings") - open that, and that tells you what to do. I have Windows XP and I ONLY did number 4.

Note particulalry no 4 then. You can highlight what to key in, starting from the open quotation marks " ...... " to the close quotation marks, and then, edit, copy.. and across to:

..the desktop, Click on Start, then - Run, copy it in, then OK and that should take care of it for you. I did none of the other instructions, apart from no 4, and it worked fine.

You will have to re-start your PC again.

Rj

Are you sure that the original version is MSN and not windows messenger?

This is the program that usually comes with any windows installation, in which case you need to disable it by using the following instructions:



Windows XP Home

1. Click Start->Settings ->Control Panel
2. Click Performance and Maintenance
3. Click Administrative Tools
4. Double click Services Scroll
5. down and highlight "Messenger"
6. Right-click the highlighted line and choose Properties.
7. Click the STOP button.
8. Select Disable or Manual in the Startup Type scroll bar
9. Click OK

BB thats the messenger service between Clients and Servers, it would not interfere with MSN. and nothing would pop up.

rj I think that will take all of MSN Messenger out of action; was that your intent? Did that work? and just leave you with the latest version which I think is what Paul wants.

Bobs solution is the cleanest and safest, unless you are happy hacking about in the registry, and will work even if you do not have XP, as add/remove programs started back with Windows 2000 I think, maybe earlier, NT and Windows 98 are getting hazy in my memory.

However it won't stop the thing trying to make a reappearance and some of its supporting processes are sucking up processor cycles even if you do not use it. I suspect they are the ones that reinstall it if you are not careful Careful use of step 6 in rj's link may be required.

If you get really stuck Paul, one of the PC Admin people at my work has a script that kills MSN stone dead forever, but you will need to reinstall the latest version. This is for XP Pro however, so it's at your risk if you do not have that. This is to get it off when people download and use it at work; we still need to leave the "ports" it uses open.

Killjoys huh???

Yes, Yorkman, it worked perfectly. I only get the latest ersion (7.5) loading up now. And I only did no 4 of the instructions.

The advice was given to me in response to me relaying on Paul's original question to a PC expert friend of mine. I had been experiencing the same situation, so thought I would try and kill 2 birds with one stone.

It works fine now, with just the latest version in play. I don't know if maybe I have an odd unnecesary file still floating around somewhere.
Rj

There are actually 2 versions of MSN messenger, the version 7.5 which you download and install yourself. The other version is 4.7 which is part of your IE browser. They will work independly of each other if you use different logon ID's.

Paul, make sure your browser version doesn't have the options set to logon automaticly when browser is opened.

Pop's

yorkman wrote:BB thats the messenger service between Clients and Servers, it would not interfere with MSN. and nothing would pop up.

Hmmm, yep you are spot on there yorkman, I must admit I did only read the 1st 2 lines of Pauls post though (solution for me would be not to post whilst being semi intoxicated on a Friday night) and apologies for the mis information guys.

Yorkman - that is automatically disabled with the latest service pack, and if you are not running the latest service pack i suggest everyone on here install it!!

What you want to know about MSN, is that as Pop's says MSN 4.7 is installed with windows xp, it is a core program which means you cannot remove it from add/remove programs. it is purposely hidden.

So when you install a new version both versions are installed. In the add/remove you can only uninstall the new version.

So the only way to get rid of the first older version is to do the following.

Open a command prompt by clicking Start/Run
IN the run prompt paste the following
rundll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %systemRoot%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

That should sort any conflicting MSN problems anyone has.

If you want more information google - remove msn rundll - as previously advised

arjay wrote:Yorkman - that is automatically disabled with the latest service pack, and if you are not running the latest service pack i suggest everyone on here install it

"that is"??? what is? Messenger I guess..yes it is. I was just trying to address any confusion BB might have thrown in to this..see his last post

Paul did not say he was running XP so SP2 might not be a lot of use For all who are yes, virtually essential. Except for the "bittorrent" people with older service packs.

Step 6 of your link exposes 4.7 for removal; the problem is that it was not stated which "old" version he was trying to remove. Or 4.6 or 5.0 which have at various times come with XP. Incidentally and slightly off topic, Microsoft were a few days ago fined $32M in South Korea for doing this, which they are appealing.

If Paul does not come back to say whether he has fixed it or not, you seem to have hit the nail on the head rj as a best guess.

John

OMG ! I will have to do this in a less intoxicated state - i never knew there was so much in it
Stand by !

Yep, less beer when posting helps; although I see you have a standard disclaimer on every post so thats ok.

BB has no such excuse; does he hammer around with his cleaver in an intoxicated state as per the avatar??

Has he still got fingers? Or indeed a hand?

Claiming insanity I suppose is a disclaimer too.

Waiting with baited breath (or beery breath) for the conclusion to the Paul MSN saga

John

yorkman wrote:BB has no such excuse; does he hammer around with his cleaver in an intoxicated state as per the avatar??

Only on a friday night

yorkman wrote:Has he still got fingers? Or indeed a hand?

Yep, but nearly lost one of both on a couple of occassions, glad they are still with me though, would make posting on here much more of a chore without them

yorkman wrote:Claiming insanity I suppose is a disclaimer too.

Sounds like you got me sussed John

arjay wrote:Yorkman - that is automatically disabled with the latest service pack, and if you are not running the latest service pack i suggest everyone on here install it!!

What you want to know about MSN, is that as Pop's says MSN 4.7 is installed with windows xp, it is a core program which means you cannot remove it from add/remove programs. it is purposely hidden.

So when you install a new version both versions are installed. In the add/remove you can only uninstall the new version.

So the only way to get rid of the first older version is to do the following.

Open a command prompt by clicking Start/Run
IN the run prompt paste the following
rundll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %systemRoot%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

That should sort any conflicting MSN problems anyone has.

If you want more information google - remove msn rundll - as previously advised

Well tried this method and did a restart as required and now just wait and see what happens when I log into MSN tonight.

For the record - I am on XP pro which has SP2 also.

Thanks for the replies - keep you posted what happens

Paul, that should work fine. That is exactly what I did. You can test it straight away by signing into Messenger and see if it refers to signing you out.

Rj