re: MSN Messenger won't start
Sunday, June 9, 2002 at 11:24 pm
Windows 98 Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by rundll
(331 messages posted)
*reminder* for all troubleshooting make sure your antivirus is disabled.
there are a few things to try...
uninstall msn messenger, reboot and reinstall it again...i know what you are thinking...we
are gonna do something different though...
windows has a bad/good feature of maintaining references from a previous installation
of software when you update it. if references are garbage, they may not be fixed.
this helps preserve personalized settings which makes people happy because they
don't have to reconfigure everything but can make troubleshooting a real PAIN.
after you uninstall msn messenger and reboot, browse to your 'program files' folder,
right-click on the messenger folder and choose rename. rename it to messenger.old
or something. this is in case the install routine trys to pull information from
the messenger folder by default. now reinstall msn messenger *antivirus is disabled
right?* but when it asks you where, instead of \program files\messenger, put it in
\program files\msn_messenger. this will cause some registry entries to be rewritten
and might fix the problem. after installation is complete, reboot and test.
if this didn't help and you are familiar with backing up and browsing the registry,
try this:
open the registry editor (click Start, then click Run, enter "regedit.exe" and click
OK), look for the following key (they look like folders): My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Messenger\Client
If you can find it, click on it, and then look on the right side of the registry
editor. If you see something called 'PreventRun', click on it, then click the Edit
menu, and then select Delete. Confirm the operation and then exit the registry editor.
You may need to reboot.
the above information was culled from a post to a microsoft news group by www.jonathankay.com.
he also has an msn messenger troubleshooting
site though i didn't see a reference to your problem.
if this does not help, there is an msn
fix provided by charter communications.
non microsoft fixes always make me nervous but it would seem on the up-and-up as
charter is a major company...ie, the fix is probably not hackerware but i would save
this for the last troubleshooting step to try as they do not say anywhere what it
does or what it changes...except for one thing...it wants to overwrite stdole32.tlb.
this points in a new direction. stdole32.tlb can be updated with microsoft components
through the DCOM98 for
Windows 98, version 1.3 update. download this file, reboot your machine so you
are starting form a clean slate, make sure your antivirus is disabled and no other
programs are running and install the update. reboot and test.
post back.
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