Some users, especially those who aren’t running Windows XP Service Pack 2 occasionally receive messages to their computers with the title “Messenger Service”. This is not to be confused with “MSN Messenger”. These messages commonly say you have viruses, adware, Spyware or other nasties on your system and you can fix them by going to their site and buying their software.

Here is an example of a Messenger Service scam message:

Messenger Service Scam/Spam Popup

Messenger Service is not adware that snuck onto your computer. It is a part of Windows that is designed for computers on a network to send messages to each other on the same network.

Unless you use this service to send messages to other computers on your network we can safely switch it off to stop them showing up.

How to stop Messenger Service Popups

Go to Start > Run and type in “services.msc” (without the quotation marks)

You will see a window called “Services” with a list of services which are available on your system. Scroll down though this list until you find a service called “Messenger”.

Once found, RIGHT click on the word “Messenger” and choose “Properties”.

Finding the Messenger Service

Now Press the Stop Button and wait for the service to stop.

Stopping the Messenger Service

When the service stops we now need to make sure it doesn’t start up again, so under the “Startup Type” dropdown choose “Disabled”. Then press OK.

Disabling the Messenger Service from Starting Up

Done, you should no longer receive Messenger Service popups.

Why did this happen?

By default, Messenger Service is switched on when Windows XP is installed. However, you shouldn’t be getting any of these messages from the internet. This is due to you not having an active firewall. Unless you have a good reason not to run a firewall, you should turn on your Windows firewall or install a 3rd party firewall.