Windows Live Messenger - Disable Advertisments

[Pradeep1210]

The advertisements in windows live messenger is causing a lot of problems with my routine work.

1. I'm getting the errors as shown in the screenshot to frequently and I must leave what I'm doing and click Yes/No.


2. Some application periodically steals focus from the current active window. So when I'm typing and suddenly it stops typing in that window, because that window no longer has the focus. I must press alt+tab or click the icon in start menu bar to first focus the application again and then restore typing into it.
I suspect Windows Live messenger is doing this, though not 100% sure.

So anyone knows any ways to disable the advertisments in Windows Live Messenger, or any other workaround to these problems.

Regards,
Pradeep

[Atheist]

I dont think there's a legitimate way to disable the ads in windows live messenger. Perhaps you should look into an alternative IM client with windows live support until the ad is fixed / removed.

[Nightwalker83]

Which applications do you have open when that message appears? I'm not sure if this will help but try disabling script debugging (in control panel > internet options).

[Pradeep1210]

I dont think there's a legitimate way to disable the ads in windows live messenger. Perhaps you should look into an alternative IM client with windows live support until the ad is fixed / removed.

This has been going on for about a month now.
Also, officially my organization allows Windows Live Messenger only communicate & share files with each other. So I can't use another messenger.

[Pradeep1210]

Which applications do you have open when that message appears? I'm not sure if this will help but try disabling script debugging (in control panel > internet options).

Usually Visual Studio, Windows Explorer and one or two instances or Word and Excel are open.

If I disable script debugging, then that would cause problems debugging my asp.net applications. So that won't be any useful.

[Hack]

Moved To General PC

[JuggaloBrotha]

I've never used this, but I did find: Remove Ads from Windows Live Messenger with A-Patch

[Atheist]

I've never used this, but I did find: Remove Ads from Windows Live Messenger with A-Patch

Wouldn't that be against the Terms of Service though?

[JuggaloBrotha]

Wouldn't that be against the Terms of Service though?

I believe it would, but I'm not the one using it (I do use Windows Live, but I don't mind the ads showing) and I don't know what Pradeep1210's ethics are

[baja_yu]

Use Trillian instead. It's a all-in-one IM application with support for Yahoo, MSN/Live, Jabber, GTalk, ICQ, Facebook, IRC, AOL, Skype (needs skype installation too) etc etc... Completely free, all without adds and all in one neat application.

[Pradeep1210]

I believe it would, but I'm not the one using it (I do use Windows Live, but I don't mind the ads showing) and I don't know what Pradeep1210's ethics are

Thanks for the link. I'll pass it on to my system administrator and see what comes out. They are responsible for enforcing licensing & terms of service etc. They read all the lines very carefully.

I don't mind the ads showing there. Who looks at those ads anyways. It is just once or twice a day the main messenger window is open. At other times I'm just required to stay logged in, so that anyone in our network can communicate with me.

But in this case, it is interfering with my daily routine work. The main window should be silent when it is minimized or hidden, Isn't it?

Use Trillian instead. It's a all-in-one IM application with support for Yahoo, MSN/Live, Jabber, GTalk, ICQ, Facebook, IRC, AOL, Skype (needs skype installation too) etc etc... Completely free, all without adds and all in one neat application.

Yes trillian is one good messenger I like the most. I use it at home. That way I can be logged in into all my messenger accounts with just a single button click and also get a consolidated contact list too.
But unfortunately in the office I'm not allowed to install any software myself other than a list of approved ones which is upon the system administrators to decide.

[Nightwalker83]

Use Trillian instead. It's a all-in-one IM application with support for Yahoo, MSN/Live, Jabber, GTalk, ICQ, Facebook, IRC, AOL, Skype (needs skype installation too) etc etc... Completely free, all without adds and all in one neat application.

I was just going to suggest that.

[Pradeep1210]

I wonder how/why I'm the only one in the organization who is seeing these problems.

[Offshoreally]

Hello, I'm a newbie here. I stumbled upon this discussion and found it very informative. Thanks for sharing this question. I would also like to know the answer of the same question for the future use.

[FireXtol]

Miranda IM is a great choice for multiple IM protocols. It's also free as in speech and beer!

One way you can block the advertisements without new software is by modifying your HOSTS file to redirect the ad servers to localhost. The file is located in windows\system32\drivers\etc. This is a touchy subject on VBF, so that's all I'm going to say about it.

[Lord Orwell]

yahoo messenger is capable of communicating with people on windows live. they use the same protocol now. Are you sure it's the advertisements causing the problem? If it's a script problem it could even be a problem with someone sending you an im with formatting. Plus doesn't it have a web-based community window that opens when you load it?

[Nightwalker83]

Are you sure it's the advertisements causing the problem?

I'm thinking the same thing! I wonder what happens if he clicks "Yes"? Does a windows appears telling him where the error actually is?

[Pradeep1210]

yahoo messenger is capable of communicating with people on windows live. they use the same protocol now. Are you sure it's the advertisements causing the problem? If it's a script problem it could even be a problem with someone sending you an im with formatting. Plus doesn't it have a web-based community window that opens when you load it?

Community window?

I'm thinking the same thing! I wonder what happens if he clicks "Yes"? Does a windows appears telling him where the error actually is?

When I click Yes, it opens msnmsgr.exe with visual studio, and highlights some script relating to advertisement. Maybe I'll be able to post a screenshot of that when I reach office tomorrow.

I use this windows live account only for my company's official account. So its a closed network and I don't have anyone outside my organization added to this network. It can't be a yahoo problem for sure.

I discovered that this problem happens only with my office PC, and has been such for the past one month or so. I tried to reproduce the problem with my home PC by logging in for a few days into windows live messenger (with hotmail ID), but never faced the same problems.
So it could be something specific to the office PC or some software interfering with windows live messenger. Maybe the firewall or the antivirus etc. could be the culprit instead of the messenger itself. Office PC has QuickHeal Total Security (antivirus + firewall) while my home PC has ZoneAlarm firewall and AVG antivirus. This difference might be significant.

[Lord Orwell]

it may be a problem with your actual script engine. Does your office let you check windows update? There may have been some kind of security flaw they fixed that live messenger is expecting but hasn't been applied. The fact it is only affecting one computer is very telling.

[abhijit]

At our workplace, we use a variation of windows live messenger, called Office Communicator from Microsoft.
It definitely doesn't fall in the "freeware" category, but is a lot more powerful than windows live messenger.

Perhaps you can ask your admins to take a look at this.

[Lord Orwell]

reminds me of netscape communicator.

[abhijit]

The name is reminiscent, but it is a completely different application than the Netscape Communicator.

[Lord Orwell]

The name is reminiscent, but it is a completely different application than the Netscape Communicator.

kinda like ie is a completely different application than opera. There is some similar functionality...

[JuggaloBrotha]

kinda like ie is a completely different application than opera. There is some similar functionality...

What about FireFox and Chrome, those too are completely different apps but don't let a FF or Chrome fan catch you saying that they're similar to Opera (or worse, similar to IE)

[Pradeep1210]

I'm not seeing those error messages for the past two days. But the problem of active application losing focus is still there.

Seems like it was a problem from their server and is being fixed.

[abhijit]

kinda like ie is a completely different application than opera. There is some similar functionality...

Well they are both browsers, but office communicator is similar to windows messenger, whreas netscape communicator was a browser.

[JuggaloBrotha]

Well they are both browsers, but office communicator is similar to windows messenger, whreas netscape communicator was a browser.

Actually Netscape Communicator was a suite of products, which included Netscape Navigator (a web browser). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_Communicator

I remember back in 1993 till 1996 using the Navigator and Composer too, looooong time ago

[baja_yu]

... looooong time ago

In a galaxy far far away?

[abhijit]

I remember using one of those products to access usenet.

[Pradeep1210]

The advertisement problem is gone. But the problem of active window losing focus is still persistent. The active window loses focus at almost every 10 - 15 minutes.

The error windows were from windows live messenger for sure and that problem is gone.
But it is entire possible that the active window losing focus problem could be due to any other application too. It is also possible that the problem is not due to windows live messenger but some other application, and I have no sure way to find out.

Anyone knows a good way to sort out these things?

[abhijit]

This kind of activity is rather difficult to trap.

There is a tool called process manager from sysInternals (now owned by microsoft). This lets you trap a process that fails to do something correctly. For instance using procmon, I found that one of the processes needed access to a specific file and so some other application was failing. I have never used to check for lost focus, but you might want to take a look into it.

[sparbag]

Hello all,

I removed all adverts, including MSN Messenger, by downloading the hosts file from mvps.org (search on google) and overwriting the one I have in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc. Mine is over 1MB in size and is absolutely free
Works with ALL versions of Windows

Kind Regards

Steve

[Pradeep1210]

Showing/Not showing the advertisements is not my basic concern. I don't want to remove advertisements unnecessarily unless they are causing problems as described in my first post. Since the problem with advertisements is already gone, I don't need to remove them any more.

Problem #1 in my original post is already resolved. So the title of the thread now may look misleading.
Problem #2 is what I'm really concerned now.

[Pradeep1210]

This kind of activity is rather difficult to trap.

There is a tool called process manager from sysInternals (now owned by microsoft). This lets you trap a process that fails to do something correctly. For instance using procmon, I found that one of the processes needed access to a specific file and so some other application was failing. I have never used to check for lost focus, but you might want to take a look into it.

I'm now using ProcMon to monitor processes. As soon as the active window loses focus, I just switch over to procmon and see what process has done some activity last. In 90% of the cases I see msn messenger. So, though not sure, but most likely msn messenger (windows live messenger) is causing the problems.

[dilettante]

This is why I groan every time I see a thread asking how to make a program that steals focus, pops windows on top, hides from Task Manager, etc.

There are "rules" in Windows to prevent this but there are also several ways around them.

The arms race between programs and users

Focus-stealing dialogs should not have default buttons

[Reac]

Ebuddy perhaps?

[Pradeep1210]

This is why I groan every time I see a thread asking how to make a program that steals focus, pops windows on top, hides from Task Manager, etc.

There are "rules" in Windows to prevent this but there are also several ways around them.

The arms race between programs and users

Focus-stealing dialogs should not have default buttons

So what solution do you suggest?

I had a look at the links but they are not clear on exactly how to prevent applications from stealing focus.

The problem is when my window loses focus, there is no foreground window. So I don't know for sure which application did that. The active application window just simply loses focus. I must click somewhere in the window again or an application in the start bar to first set focus on that application window and then resume working on it.

[Lord Orwell]

This is why I groan every time I see a thread asking how to make a program that steals focus, pops windows on top, hides from Task Manager, etc.

There are "rules" in Windows to prevent this but there are also several ways around them.

The arms race between programs and users

Focus-stealing dialogs should not have default buttons

i agree totally with the 2nd link. I was installing ie9 beta and it popped up a "restart system" dialog with a "yes" auto-focused. My wife lost about an hour of work on homework.