How To Uninstall Live Messenger
Microsoft’s Instant Messenger (IM) program, “Messenger” is now a part of the “Live” family of downloadable programs and utilities, (see, The “Live” Line – Microsoft’s *New* Product Family) and like the others, is now called “Live Messenger”. The “Windows Live” programs you can download are: Messenger, Mail, Writer, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Family Safety, and Toolbar.
Some of those are keepers for sure, but renaming Messenger to “Live Messenger”, and giving it a fancier look, um, er, well, let’s just say I don’t want it on my machine. If you have it, and do not want it either, keep reading.
How To Uninstall Windows Live Messenger (or other Live program):
1) The normal way to remove (technically, “uninstall”) programs from your computer is to use the “Add/Remove Programs” tool in the Windows Control Panel (called “Programs and Features” in Vista/Win7). And this is where you go to uninstall Live Messenger too.
“But Paul! I looked there already! Messenger isn’t there!“, you say? Well, yes it is, but it’s kind of hidden. So click Start > Control Panel > Programs and Features >Uninstall a program. And let the list “populate”.
The “pack” of downloadable “Live” programs – including Live Messenger – is called “Windows Live Essentials” so that’s is what you want to look for. (Click on images to see larger versions.)
2) Click on “Windows Live Essentials” to ‘select’ it, and then click the “Change/Remove” button. A new window will open.
3) Select the “Uninstall” ‘radio button’ (if it isn’t already) and click “Continue”.
4) Place a check in the checkbox for Messenger (and any others you no longer want) and click “Continue”. Follow the steps until it says “Finished”, reboot if necessary, and that’s it, you’re done. Live Messenger will be gone.
Today’s free download: For my Instant Messaging (aka “chat”) needs, I use Trillian Astra, which lets me monitor multiple ‘identities’. (Works on Macs now too.)
Connect to IM & Social Networks. Trillian lets you connect to multiple IM and social networks at the same time, managing contacts and real time status feeds efficiently.
AIM , 
Yahoo! , 
ICQ , 
Windows Live (MSN) , 
MySpaceIM , 
Google Talk , 
Jabber/XMPP , 
Facebook , 
Twitter , 
Skype , 
Bonjour.
Copyright 2007-2010 © Tech Paul. All Rights Reserved. 
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• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
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Tech - for Everyone 
It works! Glad to be rid of it, thanks.
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JR Bean,
I am glad you found my article useful. I hope you will visit often.
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Hi Paul,
Thanks for the tip, like you I like to use a different IM Program.
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Cappydawg,
When I first started using IM/chat, Messenger wasn’t too bad a little program; but I had not used it since I discovered programs that could handle multiple accounts and access Inboxes (such as Trillian and Digsby).
Recently, though, I tried the new “Live Messenger”, and did not care for it too much. So if I was a Messenger user, I would want to revert to an older version.
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TechPaul,
Great article that will surely help many people with removing Messenger from their machine. I’m like Cappydawg, I use Pidgin (portable version at that) to do any online chatting, etc… Like you, Messenger is history on my PC.
Rick
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Rick,
Thank you.
I have not looked at Pidgin in some time (though I have the portable version on several thumbdrives [see, How to install a program on your thumb drive] which have the PortableApps suite onboard), but I will give it another look-see.
See what kind of clout you have with me? Thanks for stopping by, and keep up the great work on What’s On My PC!
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Definitely needed to know how to do this! Thanks!
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Richard,
I am glad you found my article useful. Thank you for commenting, and I hope you will visit often.
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[…] Tech-for Everyone How To Uninstall Live Messenger […]
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I don’t IM but it’s good to know this tip to help friends.
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Adrian,
This is the procedure for any of the “Live” programs that may find their way onto your PC, so it can come in handy to be aware of the naming, yes. Thanks for your support.
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