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)

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

How to disable it manually 2003-10-24
Anonymous

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

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

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 avoided any criticism by simply having a pop-up dialog like this:

"AOL is disabling the Windows Messenger service. This service has been widely used to send unwanted pop-up advertising, and is not useful to most AOL users. This will not affect MSN Messenger or AOL Instant Messenger. [OK] [Cancel]"

(The last sentence is necessary due to Microsoft's annoying habit of using similar names for very different things.)

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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/articles/7278/23341#23341

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

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

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

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