Windows Live messenger (aka MSN Messenger) has two settings for controlling startup behavior; one to tell it to auto-start at windows startup and one to tell it to open the main window when it starts. For unknown reasons, Microsoft decided to turn on the later option and DISABLE it if you turn off the former. This means that if you do not auto-start Messenger, the main window will always open when it starts. This is annoying but fortunately there is a way to work around this by modifying the registry:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger\AppSettings] is a REG_BINARY of which the first BYTE will be F0 to enable opening the main window at startup and D0 to disable this. After you have turned off auto-start, you can modify this value using regedit.exe to stop the main window from opening.
1 Comment to “MSN/Live Messenger: Disable “Open main window when Messenger starts””
2009/12/15
In my system the values are different: first byte 42 means disable, while enable is 62. I found somewhere else in the web other different values (22 and 42), so I suggest a “universal” way. Use simple one-feature no-install application Windows Enabler by Stephen Hewitt to disable the feature even if it’s grayed. That is very cooool. I disabled, clicked on apply, and settings was recorded and wasn’t changed furthermore by Messenger.
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