Shane Mitchell’s Weblog

How to Easily Disable MSN Live Messenger Forced Virus Scan

I never like updating my MSN messenger, and a few weeks ago I was reminded why.  The new Windows Live Messenger forces scans of some inbound and outbound filetypes, and catch this: you can’t disable it without installing a Virus Scanner (recommended Microsoft OneCare).  How inconvenient.

The fix is simple: create a dummy program that acts as a virus scanner.
The fix is small: 4KB.
The fix is easy to compile: You need .NET 2.0 installed.
The fix is already compiled: If you don’t want to compile it yourself, I’ve attached a zip file with the compiled application (if you trust me!). See below for this.

Step 0. Download Precompiled Version (Optional)

If you don’t want to compile yourself, download the precompiled version here: Compiled Null Application

If you choose to do this, skip straight to Step 3.

Step 1. Create Null.cs

Open notepad and save a file on your C:\ (or wherever) called Null.cs.  Paste or type the following code into the document, save and close.

namespace Null
{
    static class Program
    {
        static int Main()
        {
            // Goodbye
            return 0;
        }
    }
}

Step 2. Compile into Null.exe

Open command-prompt and go to the directory containing your Null.cs.  Type the following command:

"%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\csc.exe" /t:winexe Null.cs

Depending on your installed version of the .NET Framework, the “v2.0.50727″
section of the path might change. You can see what versions you have installed (and hence change that path), by navigating your Windows Explorer to C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\

Once you have completed this step, you will now have a Null.exe program.

Step 3. Set the Virus Scanner path to Null.exe

In Windows Live Messenger, click Tools in the main menu (press the Alt key to see this), Options, File Transfer. Check “Scan for files using”, uncheck “Automatically reject file transfers from known unsafe types”, and press Browse and locate your Null.exe file. For example:

Windows Live Messenger Options

That’s all!

Your MSN file transfers should work normally as before!  If you couldn’t or didn’t want to compile the application yourself, please see the ZIP file for one I prepared earlier.

Precooked version: Compiled Null Application

Shane.

Tags: Disable, Forced Virus Scan, MSN, Windows Live Messenger