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View Full Version : Two Straight "Tips of the Day" that don't seem to work?

fatgreta
01-29-2005, 10:45 AM
Whoa - two straight tips of the day from the PC Mech Newsletter don't seem to work! That's never happened before.

First, from 1/28/2005:

Stop Messenger from Loading on Outlook Startup


By default, Outlook Express and Outlook both will load up Windows Messenger when they start up. This causes a delay when all you want to do is check your email. To stop this is easy.

If you have Outlook Express 6, go to Tools > Windows Messenger > Options > Preferences and in the general area uncheck "run this program when windows starts" and "allow this program to run in the background." After doing this, Messenger does not load on startup and OE loads as usual.

For Outlook users, to to Tools > Options and go to the "Other" tab. At the bottom, uncheck "Enable Instant Messaging in Microsoft Outlook".

I use Outlook Express 6. When I go to Tools there is no Windows Messenger option. When I go to Options, there is no tab for Windows Messenger, and no check mark related to it that I can find. I'd like to keep it from loading, does anyone know what's what?

The second one isn't such a big deal, but I'd be interested to see if I'm missing something. From 1/29/2005:

View System Uptime


To view the time XP has been running, you can make use of a little systeminfo utility at the command line. Simply open up your command prompt by going to the Start > Accessories > Command Prompt. At the prompt, type "systeminfo" and press Enter. After a few seconds of scanning, some info will pop up tell you all kinds of stuff about your PC. Scroll up to the near the top and you will see the total uptime of your computer since your last restart.

I have WinXP Home. When I do this, I get the following message:

'systeminfo' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Chris
RJ
01-29-2005, 11:33 AM
I use Outlook Express 6. When I go to Tools there is no Windows Messenger option. When I go to Options, there is no tab for Windows Messenger, and no check mark related to it that I can find. I'd like to keep it from loading, does anyone know what's what?

In OE6, go to tools > options, then it's the 4th checkbox.
Here: http://www.fixyourwindows.com/images/wxp/Outlook-Express-Options.gif

Uncheck that box ane Messenger won't load with OE anymore.

RJ
rjfvillarosa
01-29-2005, 11:43 AM
If you are running messenger 4.7 that came bundled with XP then do as RJ says, if not and you are running 6.2 then you must open messenger, click options and then the general tab and it is the first box in the list, BUT also make sure that you uncheck messenger in msconfig>startup, because messenger is sneaky and if not disabled in startup ,it will just reactivate start with windows.
HAL9000
01-29-2005, 01:20 PM
I found that the systeminfo tip didn't work on my XP Home machine but did work on my two XP Pro machines. Copying the file from the Pro to Home made it work.
fatgreta
01-29-2005, 02:35 PM
If you are running messenger 4.7 that came bundled with XP then do as RJ says, if not and you are running 6.2 then you must open messenger, click options and then the general tab and it is the first box in the list, BUT also make sure that you uncheck messenger in msconfig>startup, because messenger is sneaky and if not disabled in startup ,it will just reactivate start with windows.

How can I tell what version of Messenger I have? There is no icon or or start menu command to messenger, I don't know where it resides on my harddrive. The link from RJ looks like it leads to an older vesion of windows. That is not how my screen looks when I follow the links he provides, and that fourth box is not there.

Thanks,

Chris
rjfvillarosa
01-29-2005, 02:40 PM
Did you download messenger or is it the one that came bundled with XP home?
fatgreta
01-29-2005, 02:49 PM
Did you download messenger or is it the one that came bundled with XP home?

It came bundled, I never downloaded it.
rjfvillarosa
01-29-2005, 02:56 PM
The version bundled with XP is 4.7 and is primarily for talking to people on your own network and it is not really internet compatible. Nine times out of ten I uninstall this version on new installs because people always complain that it is starting when windows starts and they don't want it to.
To uninstall it, simply click Start>Run and cut and paste all of this script into the run box and click enter.

RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove

If you want to use messenger to talk to people on the internet simply download 6.2 from Microsoft, and use the other info I gave you to stop it starting with windows.
Should you ever need 4.7 in the future it can be reinstalled from your XP cd.