Remove Ads on Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger 8)
Filed in: Downloads, Microsoft, Technology, Tips n Tricks — January 14th, 2006
Have you install Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger 8 ) ? Previously, I told you how to make an ads free MSN Messenger 7.x, now I am going to show you how to remove the ads on Windows Live Messenger. Make it ads free!
Where is the ad?
So far, I only see a half banner ads at the bottom of Windows Live Messenger main window. I haven’t see any ad on message window yet.
Anyway, let’s get rid of the ad!
Patch Windows Live Messenger
In order to remove the ads, we need to modify the Windows Live Messenger core. Fortunately, someone created the tool to patch it.
- Download and run A-Patch for Windows Live Messenger.
- After launching A-Patch, tick the “Patch MSN Messenger” option. The A-Patch is a powerful tool to remove many objects from Windows Live Messenger but we are focusing on removing ads here.
- Click “Next” button twice until you are at “Page 2” of A-Patch. Tick the “Remove Advertisement“.
- Again, click “Next” button until you are at “Page 5“. Tick the “Remove Advertisement” at the bottom.
- Click “Next” button and forward until “Page 8” then click “Apply” button to patch Windows Live Messenger. Remember to quit Windows Live Messenger first.
- After applied the patch, you can launch your ads free Windows Live Messenger. Enjoy!
Note: If anything goes wrong after patching Windows Live Messenger, you can restore the backup copy by running A-Patch again (select “Restore Backups“).
Bonus: The Simple Way
Is A-Patch too complicated to you? Get the MSN NoAd (source). Simply run the downloaded “msn_noad.exe” file and you are done! (Remember to quiet Windows Live Messenger before applying patch)
My two cents
This post has been requested by a few readers. Guys, I am listening to your requests! Here you are. 
Personally, I don’t think the small ads is annoying. Anyway, the A-Patch is a powerful tool, it has other useful features such as enable running multiple instances of Windows Live Messenger and showing current WinAMP song title (instead of Windows Media Player) .
For those don’t need the extra features, simply use the MSN NoAd patch.
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January 14th, 2006 at 5:16 am
it worked just fine……
thanks a lot for the quick response!!!
January 14th, 2006 at 5:18 am
@feigenluis: you’re welcome. Thanks for the idea.
January 14th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
Yeah, I know I’m one of them who has requested this.
Thanks a lot, man!
January 14th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
thank you….so what is the main difference ar?
January 15th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
hey i have a problem, I don´t know if you wrote it but im asking again anyway. when i try to send a message, any contact, it sends an automatic message saying: “Did you know you can find out who blocked you on MSN? Check it out, it’s free http://www.block-checker.com” man It really gets me MAD!!!! help me out please!!
January 15th, 2006 at 9:19 pm
Try to kill the block-checker application…
January 16th, 2006 at 1:26 am
Thanks
I ran Norton and detected lots of publicity, so I Killed like 8 publicities including block-checker! Thank you!;)
January 16th, 2006 at 6:44 am
remove block checker under safemode. delete all folders.
January 17th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
Great Tools. The ads really take up half of my space.
January 19th, 2006 at 6:24 pm
Great program. A pity about the Islamic ads, or I’d have donated.
January 24th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
[...] Remove Ads on Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger | LiewCF.com - Technology, Computers and Internet (Malaysia) [...]
February 3rd, 2006 at 9:05 am
It’s a freaking trojan!!
now i got to clean my pc
February 4th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
pretty cool
February 5th, 2006 at 11:44 am
RE: “It’s a freaking trojan!! now i got to clean my pc” is this right?
February 14th, 2006 at 9:22 pm
Can you please say something whether it has trojan?
February 28th, 2006 at 3:00 am
Thanks for the guide! Now I can have more contacts space!
March 1st, 2006 at 2:29 pm
New msn beta (windows live) version means this dosent work any more :(..
March 1st, 2006 at 2:46 pm
dude! none of the two work on the laterst version WLM Beta - 8.0.0566…
is there a manual way?!…
is a new patch on the way?!…
thanks!
M
March 2nd, 2006 at 1:02 pm
[...] If you wanna get rid of the ads you can use thishttp://www.liewcf.com/blog/archives/2006/0…sn-messenger-8/It worked for me ——————– [...]
March 6th, 2006 at 6:31 am
Frank says:
January 15th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
hey i have a problem, I don´t know if you wrote it but im asking again anyway. when i try to send a message, any contact, it sends an automatic message saying: “Did you know you can find out who blocked you on MSN? Check it out, it’s free http://www.block-checker.com” man It really gets me MAD!!!! help me ou
Go to the blockchecker website and on thee theres a link to remove it
March 6th, 2006 at 7:55 pm
Hi, I was just wondering whether there was a way to disable the pop up ad when running MSNP13 downgrader v1.0? Thanks.
April 1st, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Um… I downloaded block checker and now whenever i talk to someone, something appears that it says that to go download block checker but then when i tried every thing to delete it, including this, it still didnt work. I was just hoping if you can tell me (whoever wrote this thing up there ^^^^) will help me get it out. If you know how i suggest you should email me. I have put my email already i hope you see it.
April 1st, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Strange, I never heard of block checker before. I installed the version just before the current release and used the Patch plus Live Connect and it worked fine. There was an ad that popped up but I guess that was part of the Live connect programme.
Well anyway, I used the Patch to get rid of the ads and it worked great. I then downloaded the latest MSN Live messenger and installed it over the old one.
The patch and Live connect still worked fine. But by that time I also got invited to use the WLM.
So after that day I stopped using Live Connect and the patch. But I still have never experienced the Block Checker thing. That’s strange.
Maybe for those of you who have that problem, just uninstall WLM, the patch and Live Connect.
Then do a scan for the traces of Block Checker and any other suspicious things that might be running on your PC.
If possible, delete them.
Oh by the way, I was reading on a WLM forum that it is now free to use WLM. There is a link that let’s everyone log in to WLM without an invite now.
So after uninstalling your current WLM and it’s patches etc.
Go to this forum and get some info on how to access WLM right away without having to wait for an invite. Oh and also this forum is working in conjunction with the actual MSN Live Team.
Here is the link:
http://ideas.live.com/nmCongratulation.aspx?VersionId=0eccd94b-eb48-497c-8e60-c6313f7ebb73
If you still get the problem with Block Checker after doing a fresh install of WLM and signing in normally, then the worst case is to format your PC….haha.
No, but seriously, if anyone out there has an idea of how to fix the Block Checker problem please post here ASAP.
Thanks for reading.
April 7th, 2006 at 8:22 am
Ok i had that problem also and now its gone, so i figure you can try this link also.. hope it work for ya’ll also
http://www.jayloden.com/block-checker.htm
April 13th, 2006 at 5:41 pm
Thank u
April 21st, 2006 at 2:13 pm
yes oh yes. no more irritating ads blinking there
May 3rd, 2006 at 3:04 am
thx, works very well! now i need something. how can i turn on winamp song in play option? i want to see same as i play in media player below my nick but with winamp.
if anybody knows, lemme know
May 4th, 2006 at 7:06 pm
http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=144799
that should do the trick.. decoder
May 21st, 2006 at 9:33 am
can someone please tell me how to remove live mail from my computer it is so not working properly and i want to get rid of it and re install it thanks
May 22nd, 2006 at 6:33 pm
Salam Bro,
You did a wickid job with this program. It removed everything perfectly.
May 24th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
thanks for this…. it helped out.
@Agagooga: So you aren’t going to donate for a useful program because the author is Muslim? That’s pretty pathetic and small-minded.
May 30th, 2006 at 10:14 am
I just have a question for Messenger Live. I downloaded the patch and removed the advertisements but which one do I check to remove the side tabs ie the ebay, fox sports and xbox.. Can anyone help me out with which one.?
June 8th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
@Tom: It’s not because the author is a Muslim, but because his evangelism through his program annoys me. It’s quite in your face.
Even though I’m an atheist, I would be annoyed by any program that includes atheist-evangelistic messages inside.
There’s an option to hide the tab bar.
June 15th, 2006 at 12:21 am
It dont is a Trojan. Its just a ad. But some Trojans are add some ad’s so it can that some people think this. BUT DONT WORRY! i isn’t a Trojan.
My answer
——————————————
My question.
Are ther other tools for windows live messenger.
(im thinking about extra skins…)
Remco
September 1st, 2006 at 4:35 am
Thanks for the instructions on removing ads in Windows Live Messenger. I hate those things. If it wasn’t for tutorials like yours, I wouldn’t be using windows messenger at all. Keep up the good work.
October 4th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
If all you are trying to do is hide / block / remove / disable ads in MSN Messenger or Windows Live Messenger, there is a much easier approach:
Add rad.msn.com to your Restricted Sites in Internet Explorer
Search on “rad.msn.com” and you’ll learn all kinds of things.
November 2nd, 2006 at 5:34 am
DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS! It is a Trojan Horse Named (Win32.NewDotNet)
It didn’t do what it said, What a load of crap, It gave me a high alert when ZoneAlarm picked it up, it removed it a piece of cake, and it also had a message at the end saying some stuff about Islam and Islamic stuff, which made me suspicious
November 9th, 2006 at 3:03 am
Works fine for me thanks Ahmad and I certainly couldn’t find any trojans, despite checking it with everything I could throw at it !
November 23rd, 2006 at 3:03 am
This patch just makes windows live messenger a backdoor. Last thing you need is someone doing a jihad on your computer.
December 16th, 2006 at 10:44 pm
Sweeeeeet! No ads, removed some buttons I never use, and way more room to view actual contacts. The ’search contacts’ function isn’t removed like I chose, but that’s not really a big deal to me anyway. Thanks so much! =D
December 19th, 2006 at 11:32 am
Great program lots of options. So what if the person is Islamic. And no, this is not a trojan. Do not listen to idiots who say a program is a trojan with out any proof. The program is clean.
December 25th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Okay, I’ve used a few versions of this program I’ve scanned pretty thoroughly and found nothing malicious… Well unless you advertise with MSN… then it’s very malicious coz it removes all your hard work from showing up on peoples screens and distracting them from their conversations to buy your goodies so you can earn money to make more detracting guff to paste all over MSN.
I found Ahmeds links at the end of A-Patch quite educational, and far less evangelical than many Christian sponsored programs I’ve used. I particularly like the fact that it holds no particular allegiances to any specific church of Isalm. I disagree with some of the rulings of the council that I read, but I disagree with a lot of the comments made by this Pope and the Last… Both of whom are good men, but still men, and therefore fallible. A-Patch is a very popular program, and is not well funded, it’s quite likely that there are corrupted (modified and infected) versions floating about, and even the initial source is open to hacking. Even Microsoft get their website hacked and their downloads infected people. Yes of course Virus and Trojan scan everything you download, but just coz you got a dodgy copy doesn’t necessarily mean the program is bad… Check your sources first.
Thanks for the Block advise, unfortunately it didn’t block my problem Ads, and I prefer to patch myself so I know exactly what has changed in what file.
To remove the main Ad on the contact window you can do this:-
1: Get ResHacker from http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/
2: backup and open msgsres.dll
3: browse to 4004/923/
4: edit line 147
original:
edit:
The line and resource changes with different Live Messenger versions but ResHacker will let you search for the string in question.
Does anyone know a similar patch for the text line Ad in bottom of the chat window? If anyone can figure that out I’d be very grateful.
December 25th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Oh! Sorry those lines got took out, looks like this side doesn’t handle posting code :\
Well it should be:-
Original
<Constrainer layoutpos=top ID=Atom(SSConstrainer) Layout=FillLayout()>
New
<Constrainer layoutpos=none ID=Atom(SSConstrainer) Layout=FillLayout()>
Where < is the less than or Open chevron that I can’t seem to enter in here and > is the grater than or Closed chevron that doesn’t come through if you just type it… Those are HTML code pass through so they may show up normal when I submit, but I don’t know so…
December 31st, 2006 at 7:55 pm
Great!! it works! I’ve downloaded the last version (non beta) and the line is correct, 147.
Many thanks bobsobol
January 17th, 2007 at 6:29 am
I used this patch in the past and it worked fine. Now Im using it after reinstalling windows and it doesn’t work AT ALL. I shut down WLM, I run the patch it reopens the ad is STILL there. infact everything i ticked for the patch to disable is STILL enabled. So i tried uninstalling doing a fresh install of WLM, installing the patch, rebooting and then restarting. the ad is still there. I have the latest version of WLM and the latest version of the patch. I also have to correct patch for my version of windows Xp Professional and it doesn’t work. I tried that secondary ad removal. WIth that it tells me there is no signature and the ads are still there. any ideas?
January 20th, 2007 at 2:14 am
Hi all,
No need to run a shady .exe (shady because you dont know the source)
open Internet Explorer (yaa i use firefox too) but anyways, open I.E and goto Internet Options, security tab,and add:
rad.msn.com
to Restricted Sites.
no morte ads in MSN /MSNLive
January 21st, 2007 at 7:15 am
Nice Idea hehe…
I’ve tried that before, if you uninstalled IE you can access this via Control Panel -> Internet Options.
Unfortunately the URL is geographically specific, so that works in the US and some EU nations, but not for my local, and many of my friends.
It also doesn’t solve my issue of the text link under the chat window, which is my main concern… I don’t have the friends list up… like eva. So it’s only the Chat window link I see and… sadly, frequently click when trying to move / resize the chat window around the tech support I’m providing over MSN.
The worst thing about this is that it indicates on my link history that I am interested in things that I really really am not interested in.
Targeted marketing? Well, not so much. hehe
January 27th, 2007 at 5:08 am
Good stuff that. I will be sticking to MSN Messenger because WLM is alot more bloated but still has the same features as MSN.
February 5th, 2007 at 1:14 am
Thanks for posting the information to access this patch. I don’t like ads and I really don’t like the objectionable content in ads often displayed by messenger.
February 14th, 2007 at 8:25 am
Great tip there bobsobol
I think there should be an article about this available on the net, especially now since I found out how to remove the text ads 
Open msgsres.dll with ResHacker
Go to 4004\920
line 40:
change to
February 14th, 2007 at 8:29 am
What the hell?! The brackets can’t get through! Sorry if I’m posting just a little too much, here it is, without the brackets:
line 40:
element id=atom(adbannercont) layout=filllayout()
change to
element id=atom(adbannercont) layoutpos=none layout=filllayout()
February 14th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Fantastic Jotaf,
You are my hero. Works a charm on WLM 8.1.
@Marc… I actually find WLM less bloated than the old MSN Messenger 7. There are definatly more… new features in WLM 8.x but it would all depend on which features you are interested in, and could make use of.
Myself I stayed with Trillian till WLM came out, because Trilli has a UI which I could skin to be something useful. WLM, like iChat already is that where MSN 7 never did it for me.
Guess it’s all down to personal preference.
February 23rd, 2007 at 11:50 pm
Million tHx, apulay from hungary!
February 25th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
i normally chat on more than one MSN Meseenger, now i have Windows Live Messenger and can’t get to chat on more than one accounts I meant MULTIPLE MESSENGER.
help
March 3rd, 2007 at 9:28 am
Tried to download the patch but the link page will not display.Can I download it from another link?I and would love to do this as I am anti ads.
Best Regards,
Noreen Wright.
March 3rd, 2007 at 9:30 am
cannot get the page to open it seems unavailable, is there another way to get the patch.
Best Regards,
Noreen Wright.
April 2nd, 2007 at 7:09 pm
[...] aqui a soluo para remover a barra de publicidade, bem como muitas outras funcionalidades do Messenger [...]
April 25th, 2007 at 8:50 am
Excellent patch, I love it.
May 2nd, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Guys, Apatch is nice enough, but there’s one feature I’d give my left leg to find (ok not really, but you get the point) - is there any way to make Messenger open another browser than IE when you click the email button?? I’m pretty desperate here, for I have no desire to ever see IE again in my life, I can’t find any way to completely remove it from my win xp install, and Messenger doesn’t seem to care about what is set as the system default browser. Any suggestions or hacks?
May 8th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
This patch is a trojan, made my antivirus go nuts, if you want a clean way of blocking ads, that is also simpler, just open up control panel and goto Internet Options,then the security tab, and add rad.msn.com to Restricted Sites.
May 15th, 2007 at 6:52 am
Thanks a lot MAN!!!!!
I hate adS!
June 21st, 2007 at 1:51 pm
w00t a-patch is so cool. XD
September 8th, 2007 at 1:23 am
Repeating that all it takes is to add rad.msn.com to prohibited sites in IE. The Ad Window in MSN goes blank
September 9th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
F is right, his advice stops advertisements (but not video clips/news..). this is a better approach than installing some unknown 3rd party crap.
September 15th, 2007 at 2:08 am
Hey
Please Can you help me? im having a problem with windows live messanger. When i want to copy and paste it wont let me do it in my personal message. im really confused and i really need your help. Please help me!
xxx
September 21st, 2007 at 5:34 pm
@whatever…its nt installing…it juz barely patch ur msn…u r free to delete the A-patch afterwards…
Using the prohibited site method…u see an awful white box…
Results from Jotti:
A-Squared Found nothing
AntiVir Found nothing
ArcaVir Found nothing
Avast Found nothing
AVG Antivirus Found nothing
BitDefender Found nothing
ClamAV Found nothing
CPsecure Found nothing
Dr.Web Found nothing
F-Prot Antivirus Found nothing
F-Secure Anti-Virus Found nothing
Fortinet Found nothing
Kaspersky Anti-Virus Found nothing
NOD32 Found nothing
Norman Virus Control Found nothing
Panda Antivirus Found nothing
Rising Antivirus Found nothing
Sophos Antivirus Found nothing
VirusBuster Found nothing
VBA32 Found nothing
If u found smth…pls tell me which AV ya using >.
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Well done mate, thanks a lot.
October 4th, 2007 at 3:42 am
I recently accepted a zip file from a friend named ‘photo album’. I extracted it and ran the file inside it (in hindsight this was a bit stupid).
So it would appear I have some sort of Trojan on my computer.
When in action it opens and closes WLM windows repetitively (presumably sending the virus in the same way as I received it). Alas, it’s happened to quite a few people independent of the apparent chain I’d got myself into, so I assume it’s more widespread than I thought.
Can anyone facilitate in helping me remove this Trojan or take appropriate action?
October 14th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Here is a virus scan of the file:
—————-
File: A-Patch130rc1b54_WLM.exe
SHA-1 Digest: 551b51f9e458271445597c73d8d521840b77d8cd
Packers: Unknown
Status: Potentially Clean
Scanner Scanner Version Result Scan Time
ArcaVir 1.0.4 Clean 4.53769 secs
avast! 3.0.0 Clean 0.03723 secs
AVG Anti Virus 7.5.49 Clean 9.28638 secs
BitDefender 7.1 Clean 14.578 secs
CAT QuickHeal 9.00 Clean 10.4989 secs
ClamAV 0.90/4540 Clean 0.277597 secs
Dr. Web 4.33.0 Clean 28.7407 secs
F-PROT 4.6.7 Clean 8.49379 secs
F-Secure 1.02 Clean 1.26025 secs
H+BEDV AntiVir 2.1.11-28 Clean 12.9199 secs
McAfee Virusscan 5.20.0 Clean 9.68599 secs
NOD32 2.51.1 Clean 8.95896 secs
Norman Virus Control 5.70.01 Clean 34.4797 secs
Panda 9.00.00 Clean 8.59989 secs
Sophos Sweep 4.21.0 Clean 15.3743 secs
Trend Micro 8.500-1001 Clean 2.11199 secs
VBA32 3.12.2.4 Clean 6.11686 secs
VirusBuster 1.3.3 Clean 5.09716 secs
———–
Looks clean to me, although Norman did take a while to scan it, so it may be sandboxed.
November 1st, 2007 at 3:34 am
hey, i wonder if anyone can help me?
lately my wlm has been sending zip files automatically to my contacts, even when i’m online, it’s something like this ;
” hey check out my new summer photos
” and below there’s a zip file waiting to be accepted.
any remedies for this? thanks in advaaaaaaaaaaance!
November 1st, 2007 at 4:34 am
@Gregans: your computer is infected by IM worm. Please scan and clean it by using updated antivirus. Click here for more information.
February 24th, 2008 at 8:49 am
This file contains a hidden trojan
Don’t say we did not warn you
You imbecile Americans
May 24th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Tried to download the patch but the link page will not display.Can I download it from another link?I and would love to do this as I am anti ads.
if you have windows live version msn8
u can dowload after you copy this link(A-Patch for Windows Live Messenger) as text than past in google search tool
than you will the reall one you wanted
after downloading you fallow the steps writteng here.
help full or not?
.