Yesterday, the ObSpouse reported that when she tried to move files from a flash drive to the hard drive, it flashed up a warning message about Windows Messenger not being on, and froze. Task manager was required to restore equilibrium. She reported that she might have accidentally let go of the button while dragging; her grip on the mouse having been awkward. I investigated.
A little play found that no slip was required. We had installed Windows Messenger, and it had installed a Shared Folders icon in explorer. If you drag files across that icon, and you aren't logged in, it pops up a warning dialog. Not "if you try to drop files on it" - "if you drag files across it". The dialog steals focus, too, so your drag operation is dead. The freeze appears to be an ordinary bug, but the popup is apparently by design. What were they thinking? This is basically a black hole on your desktop - drag across it and you have to start again. Not what I wanted!
Obvious solutions: log in to Windows Messenger at all times (apparently the preferred option), or get rid of the folder. Well, Messenger can go jump; I'll log in when I'm good and ready, thanks. So how do you remove it?
Well, Messenger's Options dialog has a tab for the Shared Folders. Sadly, turning everything off does not remove the icon, even after a reboot.
Fortunately, Google knows everything. A number of sites tell you this:
Go looking in your installation for a file with a name like "C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger\fsshext.8.0.0787.00.dll". It might be in "Windows Live" instead of "MSN Messenger", depending on how you installed. Then go to Start - run, and do this:
RegSvr32 /u "C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger\fsshext.8.0.0787.00.dll"
Done. But what was that about? An annoying trap for you, only removable by hacking into your registry. What do you do if you have no confidence playing with your registry, and just want your computer to do as it's told? That folder should be easily removable from the UI; and it certainly shouldn't grab your cursor as it goes past.
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