Does anybody have any messenger killers that work. I have 2 seperate pop up killers and neither work on the new scourge of the net.... these little greyed out boxes. Any thoughts?

Hi rastus

I'm not sure which ones you're talking about. Are you talking about pop-ups/unders that appear halfway off the screen so the buttons are hidden? Just click and drag them to the left, or right click on the title bar and click close.

I don't do either; I use CookieWall and POW! to control my popups and cookies. Both are free and let you selctively pick which ones to kill.

I'd also recommend you try Spybot S&D which searches for any spy/ad/mal ware that may have made its way onto your PC...and is possibly attracting some pop-ups. If you've got Hotbar, Bonzi, Comet Cursors, Xupiter (these are all bad news) you need to get rid of them immediately. Hotbar and Xupiter can be tough to get rid of; here's a previous post of mine on them:Hotbar & Xupiter removal. There are tons of others but Spybot will help you with those. This is also freeware.

Hope this helps

sonnett
I'm not sure if I have a localized problem with my cable supplier, but what I get are greyed out boxes that advertise everything from cell phone covers to web cam sites. I get 2-20 per night. I found out that it is possible to disable this(I'm running xp pro), but I still can't get rid of all of them.From what I understand this is a function of xp,nt.and 2000 to allow admins. to send a message over a network without going through e mail.

I'm not sure if any of these will help because this doesn't sound like your normal breed of pop-ups, but...
I use cookiecop2 (you have to go to pcmag.com to register, but it's free). I also use a different web browser (www.opera.com) that has an option to block pop-ups. This is either free with a (non-obtrusive) banner ad or costs something like $15 to get rid of the ad.
ivnj has recommended stopzilla (www.stopzilla.com), which you can try for free for 15 days but then have to pay for.
MkStnfz recommends Akiller, which is free from www.buypin.com

Yep I gots em too.

I'm running Windows XP and Broadband, and I get these litting grey messenger service pop-ups coming up.

One of them even offer a $30.00 fix, it tells you to go to http://messengerblocker.com/

There we are informed that:Congratulations, you've been hit by the newest form of unwanted advertising, or spam. This message was sent to your computer through a built in feature that Microsoft included in your copy of Windows 2000, NT, or XP. These types of spam messages are worse than unwanted e-mail since you dont even need to have an e-mail account or web browser. If you are one of the millions of people who get unwanted messages like these everyday, there is hope.

After doing a little research I found the only way to block these spam messages from ever appearing on my screen required doing extensive tweaking and configuring of my computer. It didn't seem right that I had to go through so many hoops just to stop these unwanted messages. I can see how it can be almost intimidating to some people. To help out the millions who don't want to receive these messenger spam pop-ups but are to intimidated to do anything about it, I came up with an easy solution. With Messenger Blocker, you can block these unwanted and illegal pop-up messages forever with the click of a button! No longer do you have sit and wait as your computer freezes or crashes due to one of these messages. Messenger Blocker will block each and every pop-up ad sent through Microsoft's Messenger Service.


BEfore you go out and Get it, Maybe one of the Computer Gurus here can confirm that XP is running hidden files which have this intended flaw within them. I would rather do the 'extensive tweaking' of my computer than spend another blasted dime on this system.

Armed with more data, what does everyone have to Say?

David

I'm running 98se and XP Pro on a partitioned hard drive, and havent had these "messenger popups" to popup on me. I use Popup stopper to get rid of popups, and rarely does it not stop ANY of them. Of course, if I get a one that I cannot seem to close with my mouse pointer, I minimize any other open windows so that the offending window is highlighted, then push "control" and "w" at the same time, which will close it. Maybe something here will help, I hope so!

chris

I just got one of those annoying grey message boxes. Whoever is sending those messages is exploting a network feature in Windows 2000/XP called "Messenger". It is easy to turn off the messenger service. YOU DO NOT NEED TO PAY ANY MONEY! IF YOU ARE TOLD TO PAY MONEY IT IS A SCAM!

In Windows XP/2000 (The only ones that get those message boxes):
1. Open Control Panel
2. Double click "Administrative Tools"
3. Double click "Services"
4. Scroll down to "Messenger"
5. Right Click "Messenger" and click "Properties"
6. Click the "Stop" button
7. In the list that says "Startup Type", select "Disabled"
8. Click OK

Your computer will not show those annoying message boxes again!

JWooden271,
Does your suggestion turn windows messenger completely off, or just those annoying popups?

chris

I finally found a FREE one that works!

http://download.com.com/3000-2381-10138193.html?tag=lst-0-7

It says (Problems with Web Page might prevent it from displaying properly)! So U know its blocking the popup window! The only problem is that it blocks all popup windows and not just adds! So unless U disable it in the oiptions for it on the task bar U can't post here!

StopZilla was the best cuz it only worked on adds and it asked U if U wanted to accept or block! And it could always be deleted form the list so U have the option again to accept or block!

ivnj

Here is a program that will turn off the Messenger service for you, in case you feel nervous about following my previous instructions. http://grc.com/stm/ShootTheMessenger.htm

This is the kind of popup is blocks: http://www.technoblog.com/archives/2002/images/mess-spam.jpg

Windows Messenger (aka MSN Messenger) is NOT affected by my previous instructions or this program.

JWooden!

I followed your instructions!
THANK YOU very much! I was
getting mighty sick of those
pop-up messages!

I looked all over the place
wondering how to turn them off.

Thank you, again! (whew!)

JWooden,

Just to let you know - I'm soooo
happy! Haven't got a single one
since I followed your instuctions!

Thanks again!

JWooden271, thanks for that great tip about shutting the messenger service off in Windows XP.

I has completely stopped those awful grey pop up message boxes.

Thanks,

Dwight

I am glad that my tips are helpful to you.

AOL also has a one-click method of blocking those messenger popups. See KW: Messenger Pop-Ups