Woundup Zapping the ads in MS Messenger

Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome sent this in: "The MSN Instant Messenger, while functional, is far from full-featured. The banners are... wait a second. Hey, if you move this IM past the bottom border of your screen, you can make the advertisements completely disappear! Don't want it talking to the ad server if it doesn't have to? Well, first find its default folder (search for Messenger). Open LINKS.TXT and clear its contents. When finished, save the file and pull up its properties from the Windows Explorer. Place a checkmark in the 'Read-only' field (Lockergnomie Chris Johnson told me about this tweak). Get the picture? Not anymore.

"And speaking of images, we're not done with customizing this client. In the same folder, you'll find the LVBACK.GIF file. Open it in your favorite graphics editor and... edit. I'd suggest keeping the white background behind a light grey company logo. Hrm... this IM isn't so bad after all." Microsoft will love this one! (You might also care to edit the sign-up message people get when you invite them to use Messenger. This is MAILTMPL.TXT, and to get your juices flowing there's a sample edit below* - Ed.)

After much speculation, Internet Explorer 6 will not be for Windows XP only, reports Paul Thurrott. IE6 will be available for download for all versions of Windows, not just Windows XP. Expect a Beta release soon after Windows XP Beta 2 is released.

A recent TechWeb article outlines the release schedule for Windows XP. Tomorrow, Microsoft will hold its Experience Music Project (EMP) in Redmond, where they are expected to release much information on XP but not Beta 2, expect to see that the 28th of this month. Many quotes throughout the article talk about the "different" GUI. Maybe Microsoft heard our pleas? Thanks to Andy Lindeman for the tip.

Also, to read more about the new UI in Windows XP, read this article at InfoWorld.

* ${brandname} is an evil viral plot by the Beast of Redmond. It tells you when your friends are online and empties their bank accounts for Bill.

It's fast and easy to sign up, and it's forever! If you don't already have the software, just click here to go to the ${brandname} web site to get more information and to install it. You might as well, as your computer will install it anyway if you don't.

Once you're stuck with ${brandname}, you'll want to come round to my place and rip my lungs out: my e-mail address is ${usermail}. (You might want to write my address down because you will need it when sending me 5 gig PDFs.)