system
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Sorry for the delay in a reply. Messenger was originally for use on intranets … or local nets as if you have one or more computers connected at home. It was so that intranet administrators could send messages from one computer (or a mainframe with work stations connected) to another. But hackers, malware writers, and pop-up users learnt how to use this to get into individual computers.
To find out if this is active on your computer, go to My Computer and double click on Add/Remove. Now click on the Windows Setup tab and scroll down the list to System Tools. Double click on System Tools to open it’s box. Scroll down the list to the bottom where you will find either WinPopup or Messenger … depending on your OS. If the checkbox to the left is checkmarked, click the checkbox once to remove the checkmark. This will disable the service and close an open back door.
The above has nothing to do with Instant Message programs which are a completely different set of programs.