And, even worse, a hacker can use the Windows Messenger Service to break into your computer and do all sort of nasty things 'including installing programs, viewing, changing or deleting data, or creating new accounts with full privileges.' īy the way, you DON'T need to worry about the Windows Messenger Service if have a Mac, a *nix box, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, or Windows ME, or Windows XP Service Pack 2.

The problem is that the Windows Messenger Service can be used by unscrupulous spammers to send you an untraceable pop-up message even if your Internet Explorer is closed. The Windows Messenger Service is, by default, enabled in Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP (Home and Professional), and Windows 2003.Īnd it's about as useless as giving a job application to my brother. Windows has a similar, built-in feature called the 'Windows Messenger Service.' Now this is NOT to be confused with 'Microsoft Messenger' or 'MSN Messenger,' Microsoft's free instant messaging program (a la AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, or IRC.) WINDOWS Messenger Service is a way for mainframe and network administrators to broadcast an emergency text message to all users. So, built into mainframe operating systems like VM/CMS and UNIX are commands like TELL and WRITE that let you broadcast a simple text message to a specific user or group of users. SQUADRONS OF SQUIRRELS SPOTTED IN THE VICINITY OF THE SEEBECK COMPUTER CENTER! YOU WOULD BE WISE TO IMMEDIATELY SAVE YOUR WORK AS WE WILL SOON BE PLUNGED INTO SQUIRREL-INDUCED DARKNESS. THE PRINT CENTER CLOSES IN 15 MINUTES! PLEASE PICK UP YOUR PRINT JOBS IMMEDIATELY.

How to Disable the Windows Messenger Serviceīack in the days of mainframe computing, and WAY before the days of instant messaging as we know it, the folks at computer centers needed a way to send emergency text messages to everyone announcing things like

Window messenger