I've been using Messenger Plus! for maybe a year with MSN Messenger (MSNM) on my Windows XP Pro machine. I had everything set up so Windows Messenger (WM) never started, and all was well. The versions I was on a few weeks ago were MSNM 6.1 and Plus! 2.54.74 or 2.54.75 (not sure which), and everything was working fine.
Incidentally, both MSNM and WM were set
not to auto-sign-in: WM just in case it ever got started accidentally, and MSNM simply because I prefer to not sign in sometimes.
Anyway, I upgraded Plus! to 3.01.94. Suddenly, during my login to Windows,
WM began starting up in the background (no tray icon) and auto-signing in. MSNM would start as well, but not sign in, just as it's supposed to do. I did some experiments, and here are the results:
Without Messenger Plus! running, everything is normal:
- If I start WM (I never use it in practice, this is just for the experiment), it's normal: It starts normally, with a tray icon. It does not sign in (as per its settings), and no other hidden programs get executed.
- If I start MSNM, it's normal: It starts normally. It does not sign in (as per its settings), and no other hidden programs, including WM, get executed.
Now if Messenger Plus!
is running:
- If I start WM, it's normal, exactly as above (except the Plus! extension are there).
- Now here's the case that's FUBAR. If I start MSNM, it starts normally and does not sign in (as per its settings). However, WM inexplicably starts in the background (no tray icon). Further, it signs in automatically despite its prefs being set not to do this. If I give WM a few seconds to complete sign-in, then I can sign in with MSNM, and I get the toast message from WM stating that I've been signed in at another location (confirming that it was signed in). I can then kill WM from the task manager and everything is ok for the rest of the session.
It was around this time that I learned MSNM 6.2 was available. I decided to upgrade to it to see if this resolved my problems. It did not. The same case (starting MSNM with Plus! running) exhibited the same behavior, but now with the added wrinkle that MSNM locks up for about 10 seconds on its first startup then crashes. If I restart it, it works fine, and I can sign in, causing WM to sign out, etc. Note: MSNM 6.2's lockup & crash only occurs if Plus! is running, but it may be caused by WM being starting up in the background, rather than
directly by Plus!
In all cases, please note that I have neither Outlook nor Outlook Express (which I never use) running. IM is disabled in both, anyway, but for the purpose of these tests, I made sure they had not even been run at all during that session.
It's really annoying having to do this every time. This just seems like a Plus! bug to me, since the problem only exhibits itself when it's running. If it's not, please enlighten me.
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