Update: AOL turning off users' Windows Messenger

"AOL is just reacting to customer complaints. The home user doesn't understand what's going on and the one place they're gong to go to complain is the company they have a relationship with," he said.

AOL stands firm behind its decision to deactivate Windows Messenger Service.

There was no discussion of the ethics of changing users' Windows configurations without notifying them first, Weinstein said. The online experience of AOL customers was being degraded by the pop-up spam and there was a serious security issue with the service, he said.

The feature can be toggled on and off from the operating system and deactivating it does not require a Windows configuration change, he said. AOL did consult with Microsoft prior to making the change to confirm that there would be no negative repercussions from the change, Weinstein said.

A Microsoft spokesman could not confirm that talks took place between the two companies regarding AOL's plans to deactivate the Windows feature.

However, Microsoft believes that software makers should be explicit about what their products are doing or adding to a system, the spokesman said.

While vendors like AOL are free to propose changes, users should be able to accept or reject those changes first, he said.

AOL has heard from a very small number of users who have asked the company to turn the feature back on, and a large number of users thanking the company for the change. The company will soon be promoting the change and providing its customers with links to content explaining what AOL did and providing them with directions for re-enabling the Messenger Service if they like, Weinstein said.

"We think this was absolutely the right step to take. It was an absolutely 100 percent clear decision," he said.

Microsoft should have moved to deactivate the feature long before AOL did, Smith said.

"This is something that Microsoft should be doing," Smith said. "Once spammers discovered this feature a year ago, Microsoft had a duty to step up to the plate and make it easy to turn this thing off. Instead, they just ignored the issue, put out a couple of techy advisories and let the situation get out of hand."

Microsoft is well aware of the problems with Windows Messenger Service. However, the pop-up spam messages are not a security threat in themselves -- just an annoyance, the company spokesman said.

The decision to disable Messenger Service by default is "one of many things under consideration" for future security-related Windows updates, including Windows XP Service Pack 2, which is scheduled for the first half of 2004, he said.

It is also possible that the company could move to disable the service before then.

"Conversations are ongoing," he said.

In the meantime, Microsoft recommends that its customers activate the Internet Firewall that is built into Windows XP or deploy a third-party firewall. Either will protect Windows users from pop-up spam, he said.