Thoughts, rants and commentary from a husband, father of five and professional web geek

Uninstalling Windows Live Messenger on Windows XP

Posted on November 1st, 2009 in Geek Stuff, Microsoft, Personal Messages, Rants

The other day, while doing some routine cleanup on my machine at work, I ran into a bit of a snag when trying to uninstall Windows Live Messenger. Unlike most common software packages that include an uninstall utility, Windows Live Messenger, in a move typical of the Redmond Beast known commonly as Microsoft, does not.

After searching for a tutorial on how to remove this piece of crap software from my machine I decided to just try something.

Quick sidebar: If you are ever at the point of not trying something yourself in favor of asking someone how to do what you need to do, slap yourself three times, repeat “I am not a n00b” to yourself three times, send me $10 then try something. Seriously, just try something.

What I did was launch my Add/Remove Programs utility from the control panel (Start -> Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs) then, after much searching, cursing and an increased disposition to hate Microsoft, finding, I decided to click on the Windows Live Essentials package and click the Change/Remove button.

From there I was presented a dialog box that gave me two options: Uninstall and Repair. I selected Uninstall and was then taken to a menu of currently installed Windows Live software. That list, for me, included one application: Messenger. I checked the box next to messenger and started the uninstall process (which I cannot show you because I was so excited to actually get this off my computer that I forgot to take screenshots… and no, I am not reinstalling it just so I can uninstall it again to get screenshots).

Anyway, after a few minutes of working and thinking and more working, Windows reported to me that the application had been successfully uninstalled. Which is way better than I can say for the instructions I found at these two links:

So if you are tired of having Messenger on your system this is the fastest and most efficient way of getting it off of there. Enjoy!

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8 Responses to “Uninstalling Windows Live Messenger on Windows XP”

  1. Thanks for the article. (I’m a senior and don’t have the patience to keep up with all the new fads). I have XP and Office 2003 and do not want to use windows live messenger, or upgrade to windows 7.

    If I uninstal/remove the whole windows live essentials suite as you did, I’m worried that it will have a negative impact on the non-live suites I have and am comfortable with. Here’s what I use daily and don’t want screwed up by deleting windows live essentials: office outlook 2003 for mail; also a google mail account; windows media player for music; nero 8 essentials for DVDs; and skype for live audio/visual chats. So can you advise me as to whether or not removing Windows live essentials suite could have any negative affect on these? Thanks!

  2. I am running outlook as well and it didn’t do anything to it. It didn’t mess with my Windows Media Player either. Not sure if it would have any impact on any of the other apps as I don’t run those on my machine. I’d imagine that if worse came to worse though, you could always reinstall the others. Skype installs easily and keeps your configuration separate from the application. Not sure about Nero though.

    Hope I was able to help even a little.

  3. The instructions published on Tech Noxx show you how to uninstall Windows Messenger on Windows XP, or Windows Live Messenger on Windows Vista. In Windows 7, you have to voluntarily install the Windows Live Essentials package in the first place (as Windows Live Messenger is no longer pre-packaged with the OS). What OS were you running at the time of this post?

  4. As the title of the post suggests, I am running Windows XP. ;)

  5. In that case, you voluntarily installed Windows Live Messenger. The tutorial shows you how to uninstall what is known as Windows Live Messenger in Vista, but what is known as Windows Messenger (the former version of Windows Live Messenger), in Windows XP. Cheers, and I’m sorry about the misunderstanding.

  6. True, I did install Windows Live Messenger voluntarily and was looking for a way to voluntarily uninstall it. I too apologize for any misunderstanding.

  7. Hello! I really enjoy read your blog.

  8. Thank you. I appreciate the comments.

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