{mosgoogle}The NTFS File system comes with security built-in meaning that access to files, folders and programs can be limited. This is precisely the method which we will use to stop these pesky programs from loading.

Open up a Windows Explorer window and navigate to where these programs reside. For "Windows Messenger", it should be in your "C:Program FilesMessenger" folder and is called "msmsgs.exe". Right click on the file and click on the "Security Tab". The security settings will show. Basically you want to apply the "Deny" access for all users and administrators. Do this by selecting each group and then clicking on the "Deny" checkboxes. When finished, click on the OK and you're done. The next time you restart the system, this program will be denied access to run. There are many who will rightly point out to me that there is an easier way to do this and that is to run Windows Messenger, navigate to the Tools menu and turn off the startup option. I have done this in the past but find that when a service pack or patch is loaded, that this program sometimes notoriously starts up again, so the Deny option works permanently. Windows Messenger is a useless program and is superseded by the MSN Messenger program.

Repeat the same for the Quicktime Task program which you can find by doing a search for "qttask.exe". You should find it in the "C:Program FilesQuicktime" folder.

You can deny access to any program that you don't want to run. This is a powerful method of controlling your environment. It can be reverted by unchecking the Deny boxes at any time.

For those running Windows XP Pro, by default the Security system is disabled. This is easily fixed by opening up "My Computer" and selecting "Tools, Folder Options, View". The item either last on the list or close to last on the list will read something like "Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended)". Uncheck the box and click OK and your system will now have full security settings on all file or folders. The properties window of any file will then have the "Security" tab.

There is also the possibility that you have a Windows XP Pro system running the FAT32 file system instead of NTFS. The FAT32 file system does not have the in-built security of NTFS and will not allow you to allocate Deny permissions on files, folders or programs. You can however, easily convert the FAT32 file system to NTFS though using tools in XP. To find out how, do a Google search for "convert FAT32 to NTFS".

I wish you all the best with your computing experiences.

Balraj Dhaliwal is an Internet Consultant for BSD Domain Registry.