Foolishly, I set it up. Now, I want it gone. It don't wanna go.
What to do.....?

Not a fan of MSN Messenger? don?t want Windows Media Player on your system? Fair enough, but if you go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, by default none of Windows XP?s ?built in? programs are visible. it?s fairly easy to change, though... just open the file X:\Windows\inf\sysoc.inf (where X: is the drive letter where Windows XP is installed) in Notepad. You should see a section of the file something like this:

[Components]
NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4
WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7
Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupProc,,7
Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7
NetOC=netoc.dll,NetOcSetupProc,netoc.inf,,7
iis=iis.dll,OcEntry,iis.inf,,7
com=comsetup.dll,OcEntry,comnt5.inf,hide,7
dtc=msdtcstp.dll,OcEntry,dtcnt5.inf,hide,7
IndexSrv_System = setupqry.dll,IndexSrv,setupqry.inf,,7
TerminalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,hide,2
msmq=msmqocm.dll,MsmqOcm,msmqocm.inf,,6
ims=imsinsnt.dll,OcEntry,ims.inf,,7
fp_extensions=fp40ext.dll,FrontPage4Extensions,fp4 0ext.inf,,7
AutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,au.inf,hide,7
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
RootAutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,rootau.inf,,7
IEAccess=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,ieaccess.inf,,7

This is a list of all components installed at the moment. I?ve taken the example of MSN Messenger - the program entry called ?msmsgs?, third-last line. You can see the word ?hide? highlighted - this is the string which tells Windows not to display the component in the Add/Remove Programs list. Fix this up by simply deleting the word ?hide? like so:

msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7

To this:

msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7

Now, after restarting, you should be able to see MSN Messenger in the Add/Remove Programs list. If you want to be able to quickly view and remove all components, simply open the sysoc.inf file and do a global find and replace for the word ",hide" and replace it with a single comma ",".

Great...thanks.

thanks for the helpful info

Odd...it didn't seem to work for me...

how come it didn't work for you :( i found a similar page in Paul Thurrot's WinSuperSite. just check it out http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_tips.asp it should work for you if u r using Windows XP.

P.S: i c, u may be not using XP. no one thought of that :lol:

Never thought of that either...LOL

And I did get that from WinSuperSite.

It worked pre SP-1. I don't think it works with SP-1 installed

Just for the heck of it go to c:\program files\messenger

and rename the messenger folder to messengerOFF. Then try it and if it don`t work all you have to do is change the name back. Nothing to lose or damage and it might even work

Used xp-antispy...did the trick, tickety-boo...