Experienced XP'ers please ?

I am brand new to XP and want to get rid of any dead wood - Yesterday I managed to seek out a one line 'safe' method to get rid of something called
'Windows Messenger' - Can someone please help with a few other items,

1) In Add/Remove Programs there is MSN 25.39 MB's - Can I safely get rid of it ? or is it attached to important items ?

2) There is a thing called 'Net Meeting' in Program Files - Can someone say if I can safely get rid of it ?

3) This one is a nuisance because it sits in my sys. tray doing bugger all from when I start up the machine - Its a TINY icon of two 'dead' monitor screens with a Red X on the icon, and when I hover the cursor on it the text says,
'Local Area Connection
A Network Cable is Unplugged'.

Unfortunately I can't see a way to get rid of it - Right clicking it gives two options - 'Change Windows Firewall Settings or Open Network Connections'.
Any clues how to lose it please, if it's safe to do so ?

 

Whoa, slow down there First of all, just disabling Windows Messenger from running is fine, if you were worried about the security vulnerability of it. That "MSN" could either be MSN Messenger (likely considering the size of the file) or your ISP software if you use MSN as your ISP. Obviously you don't want to get rid of your ISP software

Net Meeting can be disabled too in your Services config. That "two dead computers" icon means your network connection is down or has something going wrong. (check your router connection and cable modem connection first) That is your real trouble, the other two things can be disabled and forgotten about. (removal can be a problem sometimes because of other operating system files they may use or simply because Microsoft wants to make it a pain in the butt to remove their creations that they think we'll all love).

 

- Windows Messenger and MSN Explorer are safe to remove.
- To get rid of the network connections icons in the systray, right-click "My Network Places" and go to "Properties". Right-click on any connection that you don't want to monitor in the systray and go to "Properties" again. Uncheck the last two checkboxes and click "Accept". See the screenshot (Spanish Windows)

 

Try this...

Start Button > Settings > Control Panel > Network Connections > right-click Local Area Connections > Properties > Uncheck "Notify me when this connection has limited or no connectivity" > click OK

NOTICE: I am not responsible for any problems that may result from following my advice. This includes, but is not limited to, computer failure, erectile disfunction, PMS, the heartbreak of psoriasis, or your daughter running off with a biker gang. Follow my suggestions at your own risk.

 

MICRO

Check out this website:
http://www.tweakhound.com

DO NOT start tweaking XP until you start understanding the basics. This site will help you to get started figuring some things out.

XP was a big leap from 98/Me, and it can be tricky for a while, but it's IMO the best Windows version.

You could also try getting the "Windows XP for Dummies" book.

ROTFLMAO

 

Thanks to everyone for the help here - Lucas this 'Network Connections' you
show has the tiny icon with the Red X and when I right click on it, and click 'Properties', it shows the dialog pic. you give - with the two boxes at the bottom,

"Show icon in notification area when connected" is not checked at the moment but the other is checked, it says,

"Notify me when this connection has limited or no connectivity"

I 'unchecked' both and clicked OK but nothing happened to the Red'exed icon in the sys. tray or in the 'Network Connections' area - however, however, upon replacing the check in the lower box and clicking OK - still nothing happened ! However again - In that
'Network Connections' area where the Red'exed icon sits - I right clicked
the icon but instead of clicking 'Properties' I clicked the first word on the
list 'Disable' - Wallah !! the Red X was gone off that icon in NC but more to the point the sys. tray icon vanished immediately and took the Red X with it.

Thanks a lot Lucas - I've been making those moves as I type - if anything gets sabotaged I can click on the first word on the list which is now
'Enable' of course.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Only other thing is that while in that same NC area I see 'Connection Manager'
and it's MSN - So I am wondering if that means it also manages MY connection with my ISP - In other words if I give it the big A will it take MY
dial-up connection with it ?

 

I hope you have an imaging program with a clean unaltered copy of your XP.
I agree with what was said before.
Take a little time to learn your system.
And I'm not sure it's necessary to remove stuff from XP.
Disabling the stuff you don't want should be just as good.
Enjoy yourself.
Hugger

 

Thank you very much Bell. - C'mon mate take a bit of responsibility with this business, make a decision here ! LOL ! - you were in the right area fair play.

 

As bellgamin Said,It Is looking for for your ethernet cable,And the other Is probably your wireless Wifi.It sounds like both items are Enabled you would have to disable them.Are you using dial up connection?

 

Yes djohn Dial-up - No sign of wireless,broadband or routers etc.

These guys very kindly guided me onto the persistent track and that did the job.

 

Be aware that you've disabled a NIC. Doing what I've suggested is enough, maybe Windows was a little slow at updating the state of the systray

 

Being an Ol` Biker and having ridden with an International Club I strongly resemble that remark.

 

Thanks a lot HURST - I shall check out "Tweakhound" - I can do with any info. re. this XP because I was hoping to die sitting in front of 98se - perish the thought that I must move on, bah humbug, all good things come to an end.

 

What's a NIC Lucas ?

 

NIC
If you're on dial-up, you don't need it to stay enabled.

 

a bit OT though but from yo screenshot,spanish windose,living in france and using english here at Wilders ! WOW

 

Hello,
He used to live In France in 1968, a-ha!
Which makes him into Antonio Banderas' father - it's the only logical explanation.
Mrk

 

Great if that is true then i like to have a personal signature from Lucas. LOL

 

@Micro
Dont forget:
http://www.blackviper.com/
A very useful tour guide.

 

ROFLMAO

Check the link in my sig and you'll know the answer I live in Argentina and I only speak Spanish, although I understand written English very well. I have very little knowledge of Français

 

(Che lucas, saludos desde el otro lado de la cordillera)

I would say you also write English very well

 

Besides disabling I think that after unticking Show icon and Notify me options in nic properties the icon with the red x won't show after a reboot?

I've got rid of a quite a bit of XP's excess baggage using Bold Fortune's slimming XP guide.

I haven't slimmed XP to the extent of some users of Bold's guide mainly getting rid of the larger XP files/folders that I deem unnecessary as I employ ghost images for backing up with an imaging app being a must have before doing any tweaking/slimming.

 

Thanks a lot LB, sounds good - Jees it must be hit & missing down at your place, Randwicks too heavy for me today.

Regards.

 

Thanks Franklin -
Your first question is very probably what Lucas was trying to tell me (Reboot) but I didn't pick it up quick enough - I did reverse my move and gave it half an hour to no avail - I might reverse it again when off the net and go via a reboot as you suggest.

B-F's slim down method looks good to me - I already made one bad Blue - I made an ATI but should have made sure the M$ hotfixes were all on board b'4
losing some of the rubbish - I shall have to hope like hell that giving
W Mess. and MSN the big A b'4 I had the HF's doesn't end up biting me on the ass.

 

To the contrary, I have found his advice quiet dubious.

I and others have spent time debunking his advise.

Knowledge of of how windows works I recently wrote: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1238746&postcount=39

At Anandtech there was discussion, with benchmarks: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=34&threadid=1678445&enterthread=y&arctab=y

The performance difference in total was something like less than 1% using various real world benchmarks.

The only time I disable services is to improve security (and then this is only on live web facing servers, never desktop machines).

On Arstechnica there have been a few good threads on the subject as well, I will dig them out later.