Shoutbox

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Originally posted by MsgPlus! changelog
Since Messenger Plus! version 1.00, the way the software attaches itself to Messenger had not changed very much. Some people have always experienced startup problems, caused by different kinds of programs installed on the computer. These problems should now be solved thanks to a new option added to Messenger Plus!. Read the following only if you're interested in technical details .

The Misc section of the preferences now offers 3 methods to control the way Messenger Plus! hooks Messenger: Default Mode, Default Mode - Forced, and Alternate Mode (only available in Windows 2000/XP).

Default Mode is the way Messenger Plus! has always used so far. Keep it that way if you never experienced problems related to the Plus! menu disappearing for no apparent reason. Default Mode - Forced is equivalent to the previous "Enable Force Mode" option and is just a trick applied over the same Default Mode to try to compensate for poorly designed softwares when the system startups.

Alternate Mode is the new mode of interest. This mode sets a special registry key in Windows (called AppInit_DLLs) to ask Windows to load the MsgPlusLoader.dll directly when a new process is created. The end result is the same as with the Default Mode, however, this technique normally prevents other softwares from breaking the hook chain.
Alternate Mode is in theory better than Default Mode because once it's activated, MsgPlus.exe does not need to be running for Plus! to attach to Messenger. Note that MsgPlus.exe is still not automatically removed from your computer startup when Alternate Mode is selected, that's because MsgPlus.exe is responsible for doing some basic installation diagnostic and displaying the Recovery Window. However, if you remove the MessengerPlus3 value from the Run key, everything will continue to work properly (see below).

More and more software now monitor registry changes to "protect" users from unwanted programs. Depending on how those software are configured, changed in the Run key may be prevented automatically or by default, creating the now well known "I have to reinstall Messenger Plus! every time I restart my computer" problem. Messenger Plus! now checks for the existence of its value in the Run key and if it can't find it, Alternate Mode is automatically selected to repair the problem.
Note that the registry key used to activate Alternate Mode could also be monitored by a software installed on your computer.

Trying to enable Alternate Mode and preventing the registry change to occur will simply result in Messenger Plus! not working anymore. As any other program, Messenger Plus! adds/changes registry settings to function properly. Badly designed registry monitor programs cause much more problem than they prevent, for any program.

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