Msmsgs.exe question.

Hi once again, everyone.

So, today on my laptop, I noticed that the process msmsgs.exe was running. Though Windows Messenger was not open, nor could I see the thing in the bottom right to show that it was open but minimized. This program hadn't been open before, but recently I accidentally opened Windows Messenger. Can that cause this program to start running on startup?

Basically what I want to know is, does this program run on startup if it's never been used before? Because I had never opened it on my laptop until a few days ago, and after that, this program seems to have run itself on startup. Using the search function, I figured out it seems to be in the right place. I just removed Windows Messenger through the uninstall windows components thing, and deleted the Messenger folder. No problems at all. Just curious if I should worry at all, or not bother spazzing about it :P Thanks for your time and attention!

You deleted all that stuff and it's still running? That could be cause for concern.

The best thing to do with this annoying program is to disable it via the services manager. Go to Start -> Run and type:
I can't remember what the service is called offhand, but you should be able to find it by scrolling through, or a quick Google search. Just shut down its service and set it to Manual or Disabled.

Even though you may have not run it before I think it would have been loaded and running the service anyway. It is sort of installed waiting to go as the default from memory.

Although you only just ran it and noticed it was there on startup it was most likely there before.

If you want to, run a virus check over your drive just to be safe.

I hate the messenger service. Follow arch's advice and disable it, I think it runs out of your system32 folder which is probably why deleting live messenger didn't kill the service.

Also a virus scan wouldn't hurt like John said, there have been a lot of viruses that either use that service, and mimic it, making it appear to not be a virus

Oh, no it stopped running after I deleted it from the Programs/Messenger folder (In fact, I deleted the whole Messenger folder). The only reason I was worried about it is that I could SWEAR that it only started going up on startup recently. I was thinking that maybe if I had only run it once EVER (the other day), that might have activated Windows setting it to open on startup or something. Either way, I don't think it's opening anymore.

A virus scan/malware scan from Spybot and AVG detected nothing bad, so I think I should be good. I was just worried because at some point when my PC (this is my laptop) was infected, I noticed there was msmsgs.exe running and someone noted that it could have been a virus or something, though I know it is also for Windows Messenger, which I basically never have run on this computer, until I accidentally opened it the other day.