I heard there's a way to fix the windows messenger service so you don't recieve anymore pop-up ads, but on the microsoft site they only tell you how to do it for windows XP but I only have windows 2000 -- can anyone help me? pretty please? before I smash my computer to bits and pieces?

http://www.panicware.com/popupstopper.html

i run this at work. it works great. it doesn't work on my home computer as well, but i highly reccomend it. the only drawback (and i don't even see it as a drawback) is that sometimes there are popups you actually want to get. if you click on something and a new window doesn't open, you have to remember that you have to hit the ctrl key at the same time you click on the item.[/url]

if you put "popup killer" into yahoo and do a search, a variety of sites come up. i can personally reccomend the panicware one, though.

be sure to look at the bottom right corner for the free version. they did a good job of hiding it.

I heard there's a way to fix the windows messenger service so you don't recieve anymore pop-up ads, but on the microsoft site they only tell you how to do it for windows XP but I only have windows 2000 -- can anyone help me? pretty please? before I smash my computer to bits and pieces?
You mean the grey pop-ups with the "OK" button? If these are the one's you're talking about, you need to...

1. My Computer
2. Control Panel
3. Admin Tools
4. Services
5. Scroll down to find the Messenger program (Sorry, don't remember what it's called as I don't have it on this system)
6. Double click on the program
7. Click on the "Startup type" drop down box and change it from "Automatic" to "Manual."
8. If you don't use it often, you can "Disable" it rather than uninstall it (where you'll run into a whole BUNCH of problems).

FYI, if you need any help, I run Win 2000 Pro - essentially the same.
FYI #2, Microsoft is aware of this "fix" and is now allowing people to send these pop-ups through newer versions of IE (whether you have MSNMessenger or not). I suggest you do not upgrade your version of IE unless absolutely necessary for this (and other) reasons.

Thank you Stephanie!! you ROCK!!! that was the info I was looking for...

:DD