So it's not every day I ask for help here but this one has got me completely screwed.

Whenever I launch Windows Live Messenger, immediately after I sign in it crashes - this is also the time that our little friend, the Sun Java icon shows up in the system tray - which leaves me to believe it's some dodgy Java incompatibility of vista.

Screenshot: http://surfionline.com/misc/java_wlm.png

I found another thread here which describes a similar problem however it seemed to be happening at random intervals for him and me, well it's just whenever I sign in.

Now, it worked fine right up until I installed Java yesterday. THe easy solution to solve it may be to remove Java completely altogether again - but the thing is, I need Java installed to run the CRM application I use.

Furthermore, it seems only to be a Vista problem as I have the exact same versions of Java & WLM running on another machine.

WLM Version: 8.1.0178.00
Java Version: 1.6.0

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas.

That's really quite strange. Have you tried using Java 5 (1.5.0 U 11 or whatever it's at now), or does that not run the program you're using?

Apart from that... I've nothing helpful to add.

Yeah - tried that too, older versions of Java 5 don't work either and have some weird compatibility issues with Windows Vista.

Apparently JRE 6 was supposed to have full Vista compatibility.

have you filed or looked at Bugs concerning this @ sun java website?  ( i just got my Vista ultimate delivered ) hearing this has kinda turned me off from installing it yet  Sun Java's Forum

also look here, dunno if this is any good to you but might help clear up a few bugs  your getting

Haven't got to that stage.

Weird thing is - nobody else is experiencing it.

Though it could only relate to Australian users:

Whenever I signed in without Java installed previously I would get that IE alert "The web page you are viewing requires the Java Runtime Environmen" (worded similar) and I was just closing & ignoring it.

It makes me think that our localised ads (NineMSN) or the today screen (NineMSN also) are what is causing this. I've tried disabling the today screen but it doesn't make a difference.

Need someone else in Australia running Vista and WLM as well.


[edit] Matter resolved - for some reason when I disabled the today screen the option didn't stay disabled - as a result it was loading the today screen but would crash right before it. (And you can't see the setting to disable the today screen until you're fully signed in either)

[edit 2] For future reference, .Lou also believes it could have been the Video Carousel functionality included with Messenger.