AOL quietly changes Windows settings to combat pop-up spam

AOL quietly changes Windows settings to combat pop-up spam
Anick Jesdanun, The Associated Press 2003-10-23

Even more annoying than junk e-mail are all the spam messages that "pop up" through a little-used feature in Windows. As part of its spam-fighting efforts, America Online has been turning off that feature for its customers without telling them.

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AOL quietly changes Windows settings to combat pop-up spam 2003-10-23
Anonymous (1 replies)

"It's a very dangerous precedent in having companies go into your computer and turn things on and off."

Well, the fact of the matter is that companies (and Websites) are doing this anyway, except it tends to be in the form of malcode, spyware, and the exploiting of unpatched vulnerabilities in In...

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AOL quietly changes Windows settings to combat pop-up spam 2003-10-23
Good info needed (2 replies)

Of intrest to me is what as a non AOL user I need to turn off... for the same result, and where I find the darn thing

...

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How to disable it manually 2003-10-24
Anonymous

In Windows NT:

Open the Control Panel and double-click Services. Look for Messenger and select it. Click the "Stop" button, then click the "Startup..." button and select the "Disabled" radio button.

Windows 2000:

Open the Control Panel and double-click Administrative Tools. Double-click Serv...

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AOL quietly changes Windows settings to combat pop-up spam 2003-10-24
Texas

goto control panel

goto administrative tools

goto services

scroll down & look for "Messenger"

right click on it, and goto properties

click STOP

then change it from Automatic to "Manual OR Disabled"...

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AOL quietly changes Windows settings to combat pop-up spam 2003-10-23
Tim (1 replies)

Just because it's beneficial to most users doesn't make what AOL is doing right. It's as if they are coming into your house at night and turning off a light you left on. Helpful maybe, but you never know what else they are doing and looking at while they're there.

They should at least notify users ...

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Still...why would they want it on to begin with? 2003-10-24
Anonymous

Still, I can't think of any reason a home user would want to have Messenger turned on. No one using AOL is going to be on a corporate LAN where Messenger is actually useful. The only reason people have it turned on is because Microsoft stupidly has it on by default.

I do think AOL could have av...

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AOL quietly changes Windows settings to combat pop-up spam 2003-10-24
Anonymous

They are lying when they say they have not had complaints. I just fixed a computer today that was acting up because of the script they run that uses remote call procedures to turn off Windows Messenger. The script kept trying to run remotely, but kept crashing my staff member's system. I finally ha...

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AOL quietly changes Windows settings to combat pop-up spam 2003-10-24
meowmix

As much as I don't like AOL I agree that the messenger service shouldn't be on. It's quite a far cry from disabling competitors software. On top of that you do have to take everything into context. The type to use AOL isn't exactly the type to get up in arms that an almost useless feature is turned ...

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AOL quietly changes Windows settings to combat pop-up spam 2003-10-24
Chris Caydes

I sincerely believe that AOL did the right thing. Sure, just like most security pros, I wouldn't want AOL making any quiet changes in my system. But the bulk of AOL aren't security pros, they cannot deal with the problem themselves, and they should not have to deal with the problem themselves.

I ...

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AOL quietly changes Windows settings to combat pop-up spam 2003-10-24
shyamanta(aol tech)

aol does not automatically alter any controls to block the pop ups .it is upto the members to use the auto fix to turn off the messenger popups by using the keyword MSPOP.hence it is upto the members whether they turn off the pop ups....

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