“Windows NT, 2000, and XP hide an hidden Internet server that is running by default. It receives and accepts, among other things, unsolicited network messages that cause pop-up dialog boxes to appear on the desktop. Internet Spammers have discovered this and are spraying pop-up Spam across the Internet. The Windows Messenger server should never have been running by default, and Microsoft has finally fixed that in Windows 2003, but users of previous Windows need to take responsibility for this themselves.”

This is from grc.com as a description for their free utility called Shoot the Messenger. It is a very small utility that simply disables or enables the Windows Messenger service. Even if you don’t use Windows Messenger, many times it is running anyway. It is unnecessary and does open up a potential security hole. Simply download this tiny EXE file, run it and click the button to disable the service.

www.grc.com/stm/ShootTheMessenger.htm

Thanks for Laurie for submitting this recommendation to us!