How do you turn the **** thing off?

I have windows XP. I constantly get messages through 'messenger service' even though I haven't started it. When I open it, select my status as 'busy', 'appear off line', 'away' anything, then close it I STILL get messages. If I'm just cruising the internet thats one thing, if I'm gaming, which is what I like to do, it kicks me out of my game to give some @#$% message, then knocks out my sound when I get back in. As you can imagine this is very frustrating. As all things microsoft I can't get rid of it even though I don't use it. Is there some way to make it go away or permanantly disable it?! All I get through the thing is spam anyway!

PLEASE HELP

thanks,

brandon

You seem to be getting confused between Microsoft .NET Messenger and the Microsoft Windows Messenger Service. To turn off the Messenger Service, go into Control Panel, then Administrative Tools, double click on "Messenger" and choose whether or not you want it to automatically start when Windows starts. The description you've given sounds more like the .Net Messenger client rather than the Messenger Service. As for chat services (or which the Windows Messenger Service is not one), Jabber is nice and open, can be encrypted, and does not rely on the unreliable .Net Messenger servers.

start<>run 'services.msc' without the ' ' disable "Messenger Service"

On XP Professional, it's just called "Messenger", not "Messenger Service".