12th February 2001

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 gray company logo. Hrm... this IM isn't so bad after all.