Shoutbox

Understandable. It's all too easy to get paranoid about PC stuff these days. That' why I think more ICT needs to be on the national curriculum. And none of this 'This is how to write a letter' crap: I'm talking about the real deal here. Internet, OSes, hardware, adware vs spyware vs viruses vs trojans vs worms, security, stuff like that. How the frigging things work! Without even the most basic info in how PCs work, how can you make your mind up about PC stuff properly?

Here is the complete page which you should see....

It is NOTHING more then a big "message box"-type of text, explaining you did something wrong because you did not followed the clear instructions given in the setup of a perfectly harmless, non-adware, non-spyware, non-malicious plugin for MSN Messenger, despite what you may read on unofficial sites about this where people blame everything on spyware....

Those saying it is a trojan or what not, are simply and totally wrong. And proofs only that they don't know about what they are talking about (and also that they can't read clear instructions in the first place)... Sorry to sound so harsh, but it is how it is...

Also look at the URL itself. It is very clear with that alone what kind of page it is and why you get it: http://blasphemy.killercarrot.co.uk/error.php?a=InkRedist



The page itself from that URL:

quote:

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MSN HandWriting Error

Hello, you where redirected to this page because you have the MSN HandWriting Plugin for Messenger Plus! installed, but forgot something!
Please read this before pulling any conclusions about spy- or adware.
For MSN HandWriting to function correctly, it will need two things:

1.The Ink Redistributables

2.Windows 2000/XP/2003 or higher.


If your PC did not match this profile, you where redirected to this page. this is not malware/spyware/adware or whatever you call that crap, I did not use a MessageBox for a very simple reason: it would lock up your MSN Messenger login process, and you would no longer be able to log into msn!
Now, the next step:

How to fix this

Yes, this is obviously what you where looking for, so here's a quick run-trough to see what went wrong:
- Are you sure you are running Windows 2000/XP/2003 ? if not, proceed to Removing MSN HandWriting
- Are you sure you installed the Ink Redistributables for "All Users"? if not, proceed either to Removing MSN HandWriting or Installing the Ink Redistributables
- if those two questions did not solve this page, then I would have no clue what the hell you did wrong, and you'd probably be best off by Removing MSN HandWriting

Installing the Ink Redistributables
The Ink Redistributables is a package for windows to enable the handwriting control needed by MSN to work with handwriting
You can obtain it in three ways:
First thing to try is to see if you can find your Windows 2000/XP/2003 CD, and try to install "Microsoft Journal Viewer", to my knowledge this includes the neccesary components for the MSN HandWriting plugin.
If that did not fix it, or you where unable to find the CD, you can download a seperate Ink Redistributables package from one of the mirrors below Please make sure you install for "All users" and not for "Just me"!:
- Mess.be (ink redists are included in this packge)
- Kaonet.net (ink redists are included in this packge)
- Messenger Plus! Plugins database (ink redists are included in this packge)
If installing the Ink Redistributables did not help, you should try to proceed to Removing MSN HandWriting


Removing MSN HandWriting
MSN HandWriting is a DLL that resides in your Messenger Plus! Plugins folder, usually located at:
C:\Program Files\Messenger Plus! 2\Plugins\
Before trying to remove the dll, make sure MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger are completely turned off, so also close them from your system tray.
After that, you should try to locate MSNHandWriting.dll in the above mentioned folder, and delete or rename it to something not ending in .dll
If you cannot find the dll, please make sure that system files are not hidden.
If Windows refuses to remove the dll, Please make sure with the task manager that neither of these processes is running: msnmsgr.exe, msmsgs.exe, msgplus.exe
If this did not yet fix your problem, you can try HandWriting DLL Uninstaller by Sk3tch...[*]


If these steps still did not solve your problem, you can try to find help at the Messenger Plus! Forums

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[*] PS: instead of using the DLL Uninstaller from Sk3tch, use the Handwriting Uninstaller from Matty.