SuperWasp

Productivity tips, reviews, tools, software and gadgets.

FIX: Remove and stop respawning of My Sharing Folders

In my previous post I quickly explained how to remove the "My Sharing Folders" shell extension via the command-line. All things work fine, until you restart your computer (or WLM) and notice that it has reinstalled itself.

In this post I will go a bit further, and explain how to stop automatic reinstallation of "My Sharing Folders", as apparently Microsoft has changed the latest Windows Live Messenger.

I assume you're familiar with Regedit and you have sufficient knowledge of Windows to play around with administrative rights. Obviously, I'm not responsible for any damage you might do to your machine - you're on your own there.

Let's get started:

1. Exit Windows Live Messenger (not just sign out)
2. In a command prompt, type: regsvr32 -u -s "C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\fsshext.8.5.1302.1018.dll"
   
   Note: you might need to change the numbers in the filename to match your version.
3. With Explorer, go to "C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\" and rename the fsshext.x.x.xxxx.xxxx.dll file to .old (replace X with the file version from your directory).
4. Next, open the registry editor (regedit), go to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\(your userid)\Products\577EC8054AB4847428FDEF82ADF9300B\Features and rename the "MsgrFeat" string to "MsgrFeat-old". Don't change the contents of this string as you might need it someday to uninstall/change Windows Live Messenger.
   

Start WLM, all should be ok now. Let me know if it worked out ok for you... and Digg me!

Labels: fix, hack, Live, Messenger, Microsoft, registry, Vista, Windows, Windows Vista, WLM

» Full Article

  Posted by oVan on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 | PermaLink | 3 comments

Removing "My Sharing Folders" from Windows Live Messenger

Here's a quick tip to remove the "My Sharing Folders" shell extension that Windows Live Messenger installs.

Open a command prompt (cmd.exe) with administrative rights. (In Vista you need to right-click and choose "Run as administrator", or type "cmd" in the start menu and press Control-Shift-Enter.)

Copy or type this command:

regsvr32 -u -s "C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\fsshext.8.5.1302.1018.dll"

Note that you must check the correct filename first, as this changes with every version of Windows Live Messenger.

Update: I've posted a follow-up article to solve the reinstallation problem created by the latest Windows Live Messenger (WLM) versions.

Labels: Live, Messenger, Vista, Windows, WLM

» Full Article

  Posted by oVan on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 | PermaLink | 0 comments