Windows messenger is new spam vector

[FollowThisLogic]

if you just want to turn off the messenger, just type "net stop messenger" on the command line. Just thought I would write that out there for the computer impaired people.

Yeah, this is right on the money - although you probably want to visit Services in the Administrative Tools and set the Messenger service to Manual or Disabled, so it won't start back up when you reboot.

When they said "Windows Messenger" in the article, they misspoke. "Windows Messenger" is that stupid MSN client that comes with XP. The "Messenger Service" is what they were talking about. This service is only useful in a corporate network, so the administrator can send out mass messages to users....... on a home system, you don't need it to be running.