How to get rid of Messenger Service Spam popups

What is it? That annoying Windows system popup advertising products, services and porn every time while you are online. (Note: I am not referring to browser popup ads). Every Windows XP & 2000 PC runs “Messenger” as once of its system services. This is a normal part of the OS that is used for NetSend and system alerts. This problem is not related in any way to Windows Messenger or MSN.

How is it done? Spammer software scans thousands of IP addresses and checks to find PCs that have certain UDP ports open. When the software detects PCs running the “Messenger” service on these ports you get sent the spam and annoying windows popup suddenly appears.

To remove the messenger service: Go to the START menu, select Run… and type in services.msc. Your system services will display. Locate the “Messenger” service and double-click to edit its properties. Under ‘Startup Type’ select Manual or Disabled. Then STOP, APPLY and OKAY. Problem solved. Please note that this will also stop you receiving netsend messages from your network admin or alerts from your PC. If this is an issue for you then you should install a personal firewall to protect your ports from being scanned. I recommend Zone Alarm which works wonders on browser popup ads as well.