I've only had my new computer for 3 days now, but Windows Instant Messenger is starting to annoy me. Every time I boot up, there it is, open on my desktop. I don't want it there, I don't use it, but I can't find how to stop it from coming up every single time.
I know (on XP, at least) that there is a way to stop programs from starting on booting up, but I can't find how to do it here on 7, and I'm not about to experiment with a 3 day old computer.
Can someone point me in the right direction?

(I think I'm having XP-withdrawal symptoms; I'm missing it. I know I'll be fine after I get comfortable with 7, but I worked with XP for seven years!)

You have to get into it's settings and uncheck that feature - don't remember exactly where in settings it is though

That's what I've been trying to do. I can't seem to find my way in.

The Settings in Messenger?

In the Menu bar at top, do you see Tools or something similar?
If you do, then find Options / Settings and see if it's there....

You may have to log in to see all options.

I have a friend who disabled in msconfig, changed the settings etc. and Messenger still came up each boot.

Windows 7 provides Mail, Messenger, Writer, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker and some other software as stand-alone downloads. With my clean installation I only downloaded what I wanted. When you buy a new computer all of them are pre-installed. You can uninstall the ones you don't want.

Go to Control Panel, Uninstall a Program and then find Windows Live Essentials. Select it and then click on Uninstall in the bar above. A box will pop up asking if you want to remove one or more Windows Live Programs or Repair. Select Remove and click on Continue. The next box will have a list of the Window Live Programs on your computer. Select the ones you want to unintall.

:-) You`ll get used to Win7, it's quite slick. Never understood the praise that XP gets though. We have it on an old desktop and its a complete dog - perhaps because the machine is so slow to boot and use. Also it doesnt always connect to the internet and the only way to get it to is to keep rebooting. I have VirtualBox installed on my Win7 with XP as the guest and it runs far faster on that than it does on the desktop. It`s what you are used to I suppose. I was happily using Win98 till a few years ago. Still got it.

Funny: As I was having lunch here at home, someone from Dell called and asked how I was doing with my new computer and did I have any questions.
Soooooo, while he was on the phone I asked him to help me get rid of the Windows messenger window that always popped up when I booted. He said that he had just done the same process with a woman right before me; evidently, that screen popping up irritated more than just me. He walked me through the process. At one point I asked him if he was sure he knew what he was doing. Thank goodness he had a good sense of humor, said yes, and got me through it. His timing was impeccable!

I think your problem is the computer, not the operating system. XP works fine on most computers.

I never had any problems with connecting to the Internet at all, and the computer got slow towards the end because it just didn't have enough memory to support all I was doing. Since it was 7 years old, I didn't want to invest any money in it, so I moved on to Windows 7 (once I knew I wouldn't get saddled with Vista).
I had no complaints whatsoever.

Well Windows 7 is pretty much Vista with a few cosmetic changes. It does seem to boot and close down faster though which was my main gripe with Vista.

Talk about timing! I'm curious, Mary... did he have you uninstall it or was there a way to disable it? My friend had no luck with disabling it.

I agree with Jenny. I'm still using my old XP drive. Yes, it's feels slow and ponderous after using Win 7, but it works just fine and I love my old XP too!

Did your friend check the registry? Might have been stuck in the Run folder. Also there is/was and option withing Outlook/Mail that started up Messenger. Dont know if that is still there.

@Mary As for Dell phoning you up - is that common practice in America? Never known it here. Sounds like good costomer service to me.

The Outlook/Mail/Messenger stuff is gone in Win 7. Each is a stand-alone option now. Actually, both Outlook Express and Windows Mail are gone.

Yes I forgot. I just copied the Vista version over.

Draclvr,
I had to go through the add/remove program section, find the Windows listings I needed and then find Windows messenger.

I think I could do it again, but I'm at work now and I'm working on XP here. I don't think there's a way to disable it; at least he didn't ask me if I wanted to disable it--we just went directly to remove it.

You can disable it by having it not run at boot time either by going into tools/options or by using msconfig to edit your startup.

That was my first suggestion too, mj2c, but, nope, that didn't work. We tried it.

That's good to know, Mary, because that's the only way we got rid of it in my friend's computer. I have instructions on how to do it several posts above yours about the Dell rep calling you.

So, do you have any feeling for how you like Win 7 yet, Mary? It took me a couple of weeks to feel comfortable in it.

Draclvr,
I'm still trying to get the "feel" of Win 7. It is incredibly fast compared to my old XP, but then I splurged a bit on this computer.
So far, so good (except for that messenger nonsense). I'm not sure I like that toolbar sitting up at the top in the middle of the screen. I may move that yet. The icons are so big--I should look to see if I can make them smaller.
For the time being, I'm trying different things. This weekend will be the first time I will have some time to just experiment.
I've got to get accustomed to my new wifi printer, too. Actually, the Dell Rep asked about the printer, too.

mj2c,
This is my third Dell over the years; I don't remember anyone calling me about the other machines--maybe because the others were bottom of the line models?? It was a nice touch, though, and worked out for me.

You can make the taskbar and icons smaller by right-clicking the taskbar, select Properties and tick "Use small icons".

I got rid of the toolbar at the top, too. I only have my toolbar at the bottom of the screen and a couple of gadgets on the right and a couple of icons on the right.

I like the larger icons on the bottom taskbar, though. When I boot up my XP drive, the old ones look Lilliputian in size!

Toolbar at the top? You mean the main toolbar? Was already at the bottom when I installed?

There is the regular toolbar at the bottom, but there is another toolbar with large icons at the top.

Ah that might be something to do with your makers software. Now that you mention it when I first got mine it had a HP (Hewlet Packard) thing on there. It didnt stay long:-)


Think I might be getting my Taskbars and Toolbars mixed up:-)

I'll bet mj2c is right. I've worked on a couple of Dells that had that huge toolbar at the top - it was very annoying.

It's called the Dell Dock and this tells you how to disable it. Remove Dell Dock You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them.

I was able to stop mine by signing in and going to Tools-then options- then Preferences and unchecking the: Run Windows Messenger when Windows starts and unchecking: Allow Windows Mess. to run in the back ground.
That has worked for me on both machines destop and laptop

Computer manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves with all their bloatware.

I know some companies have really cut back, but it's still ridiculous.

The thing is, the people most likely to buy pre-built computers, are also most likely not to know how to remove all the bloat that comes with them.

I might be wrong, Winfrey, but I think things have changed with Windows 7. Your method worked for me on XP, but not on Win 7.

Winfrey,
I was trying to follow your instructions above, but I don't know where you're signing in to, and where to find the "tools" you go to.

Good to know Drac.
Mary I was going to my start button at the botton of your screen clicking on All Programs and finding Windows Messenger. clicking on it and opening it up. But if you have Win 7, as Drac just noted it won't work for you.

Well Ive got windows 7 and both methods work for me

mj2c, that is great to know. My friend who tried to get rid of Messenger went in to the program and tried and after turning it off, it came back the next time she booted up. The same thing happened when she disabled in msconfig.

We were working over the phone, so maybe she missed a step. Thanks for the tip!

I guess I'm talking about two different things: I wanted to UNINSTALL it, not disable it. I never use it so there was no reason to have it there at all.
I'm just glad that I'm not staring at it first thing every morning, and it's one less thing taking up computer space (and no doubt years of updates to come).

That's what I thought, Mary. If you're not going to use it like me, why even have it!!