Shoutbox

I've not heard anything about ZapMessenger not working on Vista, no-one's reported problems here with it.

Programs & Features is in the Control Panel, it's what replaced Add/Remove Programs in Vista.  That should allow you to find Windows Live Essentials and remove Messenger that way.

Programs should ONLY be removed via this interface or by using an "Uninstall" link in their start menu entry, just deleting files, etc won't work and will leave lots of nasty remnants of the program.

ZapMessenger is a last resort and should only be used if uninstalling via Programs & Features, or by running the Windows Live installer again and deselecting the Messenger component doesn't work