Stopping msmsgs.exe

I use Zone Alarm Pro. This morning I finally got round to upgrading my Norton AntiVirus 2002 to 2004. I then noticed that among the messages Zone Alarm throws up was one about msmsgs.exe, and it kept coming back every few minutes. I would click "No" every time, to block the program from running, but a few minutes later the same message would pop up again. I went into the programs list in Zone Alarm and blocked Messenger, but that had no effect. I went into Windows Services (Start > Run > services.msc) and edited the Properties for the Messenger service, changing Startup Type from "Autostart" to "Disabled". No effect either.

Eventually I tracked down the problem to one of the options in Norton AntiVirus. I should have made the connection between the upgrade and the Zone Alarm message quicker, but it was first thing in the morning and logice hadn't got past first gear yet.

In Norton AntiVirus 2003 and 2004 you can set Instant Messenger options. One of them is the option to protect Windows Messenger. If you select that option, NAV run msmsgs.exe every few minutes, even if youâ € ™ve disabled Messenger in Services and blocked it in Zone Alarm. Removing the selection on this option solved the problem.

For more details on how to stop msmsgs.exe, if the above doesn't work, see:
www.itauthor.com/notes/stopping-msmsgs.html