Windows Update

[tamaranth]

Can anyone explain to me why Microsoft are releasing new updates for Windows 2K on a daily basis? And whether any of these will address the 'stupid pop-up messages' issue or the 'random Outlook crash' problem?
At least I know why my disk is filling up. Windows is eating it.

Comments

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

You really know the answer to these questions already, don't you?

[lostcarpark.livejournal.com]

Might be able to help with the former... depends on whether you mean "Messenger" messages of IE JavaScript pop-ups. Both are annoying, of course, but the former are messages which are broadcast over the internet rather than generated by a web page you chose to view, so I personally think they are more invasive.

There are two ways to stop Messenger messages. The simpler the first is to disable the Messenger service. To do this, open the control panel, double-click on Administrative Tools, double click on Services, right-click on Messenger, select "Properties" and change it's start-up status from Automatic to Disabled. The problem is that this also disables messages on your internal network, which you may find useful. If you need messaging on your network, I believe you can block messages by blocking port 135 on your firewall.

Hope this helps.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

many thanks for this! All quiet on the home front now, and no irritating typos as I touch-type without noticing stupid message boxes popping up and stealing my keystrokes :)

What else is covered by the Messenger service, on a standalone PC?

[lostcarpark.livejournal.com]

The messenger service really does nothing useful on a stand-alone PC. On a networked PC, it allows messages to be sent between PCs. This can be useful for administrators to warn users if a server will be down, or for print servers to tell people their print job has completed. I suspect in future versions of Windows I suspect this service will be disabled unless the PC is part of a domain.