A fix for Windows Live Messenger sign-in issues

Software 1 Minute

About a month ago, Brandon LeBlanc wrote about his problems signing in to the Windows Live Messenger network. Last week, it began happening to me. I was able to install the Messenger client software on another computer and sign in, but on my main system, even uninstalling and reinstalling wouldn’t fix the problem. And Brandon says he’s still getting “tons of comments” left on the original post.

Yesterday, I sent a note to support and got the suggested fix within a few hours. Open Regedit and delete the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger\Policies

After doing that, I was able to sign in again. If you’re having this problem, maybe the same fix will work for you.

Update 8-Feb-2007: OK, I’ve now closed the comments on this post. If you’re still having problems after following the advice in this thread and in the comments (in particular, see comment #79), this is not the place to complain about it. Call or e-mail Microsoft support. That is, after all, how I got the information originally posted here.

Technorati tags:

Published by Ed Bott

Tech journalist. Author of 25+ books. ZDNET Contributing Editor since 2006. Contact info: https://edbott.com/contact-me/

Published

83 thoughts on “A fix for Windows Live Messenger sign-in issues”

  2. Why use Live Messenger? I have found it much more preferable to use a multi-protocol IM client–Gaim. Sure, I have the occasional problem with connecting to services (not as much as it was in earlier versions), but I certainly don’t have some off reason why it refuses to connect to the service.

    Just a thought.

  3. Haha – Brent, your comment is exactly what I was going to say. My wife’s messenger died a couple of days ago, and I had no idea why. Thanks Ed for the timely info!

  4. Thank you so much! I was so frustrated at my messenger, and Mercury just wasn’t the same. Thank you thank you!

  5. I wish I’d seen that solution a little bit sooner. I had 3 different Windows Live accounts (you know, the ones that used to be called “Passport” accounts–or something like that) and two of them wouldn’t sign in but the third would. Really strange.

    Uninstalling and resinstalling didn’t work. And I found out that none of my System Restore points worked–for whatever reasons. So I reimaged the hard disk with a 3 week old image (my routine is to reimage once a week, but as a world class procratinator…) and that fixed it. Of course that meant I had to copy all the backed up mail, docs and whatnot back from my second hard drive. I didn’t email MSN support–guess I should have tried that…

  6. Thanks!!!!!

    I having this problem about a week now.After i find this linfo take me a min. to fix it.

    THANK YOU ED !!!!!

  8. Thank you soooo much!
    It’s works….but what do you delete…i mean why is ‘contacts.msn.com’ in regedit????

  11. bah! it didn’t work for me. i even tried deleting the whole MSNmessenger folder.

    any other ideas?

  12. I am having a problem with msn messenger 8.0 it logs me in and then freezes saying program has no response….is there anyway to fix this?

  14. Kool, Regedit is the Windows Registry Editor. if you don’t know what Regedit is, then you shouldn’t be messing with it. Seriously. You should go to the bookstore, flip through some books on Windows, and look for the section that includes Regedit. Then read about it.

    Beth, I have no idea of how to fix MSN Messenger 8.0.

    Trav, have you tried contacting support? That’s what I did, and they got right back to me.

  15. Thank you very much for sharing this info. I too suffered from a sudden signin issue on a single machine of a network and deleting this key did the trick! 🙂

  16. Thanks for the help. This fix worked like a charm for me as well.

    I’m not sure how the original problem occured in the first place. But about a week ago, when I attempted to log in to Windows Live Messenger, it would just sit there and never login. The default Messenger 4.7 worked fine, but Windows Live Messenger just would not work. Thanks for the input!

  17. Well, I guess my installation must be different because I have no such “Policies” key at all under the MSNMessenger in the HKCU area in Regedit. And to be sure I also looked at the HKLM area but nada. 😦

    I have a “stringvalue” (if that’s the right name in English) with the value of “CachedPolicy0” with some figures in it but that’s all.

    I have the latest Live Messenger 8.0.0812.00 so I wonder what’s up!

    Thanks.

  18. I had been having this problem ever since I installed IE7 a couple of days ago. I was pulling my hair out. THANK YOU for the fix. Worked like a charm!

  21. Thank you very much… I was at wits end over this… I was about to take a shotgun and literally blow my computer to pieces… lucliky i found this in time Lmao

  22. hey i’m trying to fix my windows live messenger. it will sign me in and freeze. what do i do? i’ve tried deleting the HIKEY_CURRENT_USER thing in the Regedit but it ‘is unable to delete all specified values’…so i’m confused and frustrated, any help would be great, thanks

  24. OMG, i thank you so much! i was going crazy qithout my MSN, and your plan worked! thanks a lot!

  26. Thanks for the fix I have been unable to talk to my son for weeks on messenger.

    Thanks from a long distance father.

  27. after 2 hours i stubled on this info. simply awesome, how in the world did you figure this out?

  29. WOW! You are the best! I have been having this problem for a month, and I am not too good with computers. So I was waiting for my brother to figure it out, but he is always so busy. I did it!!!!!!!!!! Thank you sooooooooooooo much!

  30. I ran into the opposite a little while ago and that was that I wanted to stop messenger from loading up on boot up on a slow laptop. If you want to get rid of messenger you can go to a start to run and type in gpedit. This allows you to edit the group policy of the machine and you can disable messenger completely

  31. Hey, I’ve got same problem of being able to sign in from another PC but not from my own. Recently i was using Live Messenger 8.0 with an account with a domain @executivemail.co.za. I’ve reinstalled the program a number of times my problem is, it only accepts the foreign address (executivemail.co.za) but wont sign in my new hotmail.com address. I’ve tried locating and deleting the policies, either i cant find it or its not there already. Im finding my messenger pretty useless at this point in time, please assist.

    Thanks

  34. I keep trying to log into my msn but it goes onto troubleshoot, saying that it’s due to faulty ‘proxy firewall’. I’ve just started my new school and am dying to speak to my new found friends, but I can’t. Please help!

  35. when I signed messenger, it starts rotating then stoped and comment comes and tells that I have
    problem Error Code 80048823

    How to fix it?

    Br

    Mershed

  36. mi friend wants 2 make a new account and she can’t find the right site!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  38. I have been on the phone to MS and for the past 2 days we have been through lots of stuff for an hour or more each day and still having problems. It’s not only affecting messenger and email but is also playing havoc with my ftp client and posting on my website. Is it messenger that’s screwing this up? Everything worked fine until a few days ago

  40. I don’t have a “policies” in my registry either. I can’t sign in with WLM on any computer, but can sign into Windows Messenger, webmessenger, portable messengers, and 3rd party clients like Miranda IM and Gaim. Any ideas?

  41. umm i jus downloadedwindows live messenger 8.1 BETA
    and it doenst wanna let me sign in….it sumthin about a firewall…and i tried doin the Regedit thing…but there was no ” polocies” under MSNMessenger…the error code is 8007efd…CAN SOME 1 HElp!

  42. umm my windows live messnger 8.0 is not working and it something abt firewall and the error code is 80048820 plzzz help plz and when i open my id to hotmail it says something abt secrity and if i click yes others will be able to see my infooo plzzz help plzzz

  43. my windows live messeneger 8.0 is not working and it says something abt firewall and a error code is given the error code is 80048820 and when i sign in to hotmail to check my mail it asks me abt some security thing and if i press yes then it will let others see my infooo plzzz hepl plzzz

  44. i have to keep getting a new password after a short period of time i have to either reactivate my password or have to apply for a new password to get my computer to work

  45. http://www.laboratoire-microsoft.org/n/22193/

    it’s in french so luckily for me i can read it. it worked for me when only one of my
    email accounts couldnt sign in and i got an error 80048820. it says to go to “c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc” and open host.msn with notepad and add
    65.54.239.80 messenger.hotmail.com
    65.54.239.80 dp.msnmessenger.akadns.net

    to the end of the file. restart messenger and voilà.

  47. Well to start off..
    “wait! How do i open Regedit and delete the key???????????????????????? ”
    Go to start, click on ‘run’, type in regedit, hit ok. But becarful in there. But I’m having the same problem as Beth.
    “I am having a problem with msn messenger 8.0 it logs me in and then freezes saying program has no response….is there anyway to fix this?”
    I’ve never had any problems before with MSN, or Live messanger. But I got the dreeded BSOD, which for some reason my laptop gets a lot.. But this time when i tried going back into msn it took forever to come up. When it finaly did so, I loged in and it freezes. Then I close it and end the process. I went into the task manager and it said msn was open several times for some reason. I closed them all and have tried quite a few times. But after a long wait when msn does open it will just freeze on me. I don’t know if there was a suggestion for this.. But one would be nice. Thanks

  49. im having problems signing into MSN. i get an error code 80072efd everytime i try signing in. can anyone help me with this problem

  50. “i went into regedit and did the same thing because it kept freezing but i didn’t find the file ”
    It’s a folder by the way. And unless you deleted it it should be there..

    I tried, and mine still didn’t work. The next day it did.. I was using it for a while and then it started freezing again.. So i don’t know whats going on. Also it stoped working on my other computer as well. The wierd part is, I tried running msn 7 off a usb key and it freezes as well.. So reinstalling it or trying a different version won’t work. It is something in the registry and something more then that folder.

    “im having problems signing into MSN. i get an error code 80072efd everytime i try signing in. can anyone help me with this problem ”
    Does it not come up saying retry?
    I think i’ve had this one once.. It wouldn’t let me in on any computer. But I just waited it out and eventualy i could get in. Not sure if it is the same thing though..

  51. Windows Live Messenger and MSN Messenger were freezing post Sign In

    Cause:

    My Dlink 624 Router somehow had the time zone set to Pacific Time – My PC’s are set to the appropriate Eastern S Time. Once the dlink router was changed to EST, everything worked fine.

  52. Hmmm, I have a Dlink as well… I’ll have to check that out. But it could have just been a coincidence. Becuase my MSN has been going up and down. It freezes a few days then it randomly starts working for a day, then it will start freezing again..

  54. i have a dlink 624 and msn wll not work, i deleted that policy and i’ll try setting the time to see if that works

  56. I think the whole dlink was a coincadence.. I never changed anything and my msn(s) started working again. And I havn’t had the problem since.. So maybe you should try using Trillian or ebuddy for now. I’d just wait it out and see if if starts working in the next little while.

  57. i got it to work, i had a whole different problem lol. found out it was the dlink firmware. i downgraded to v2.75B02 from 2.76 and it works now.

  58. i have recently purchased windows live messenger 8.0
    and my computer is asking me for an installation code do you know what it is please any1

  59. hi guys, i have recently signed into windows live messenger. Once i sign in, it loads the names and a note telling me i have an email and then suddenly locks up for some reason, not only can i not sign into windows live messenger for not even a sec i cant view my emails aswell, its damn frustrating. Ive tried the windows messenger and that loads up fine and works normally, but when it comes to windows live messenger it just freezes and iv tried this loads of times but the same thing keeps happening, if anyone can help then it is much appreciated, cheers!

  60. hi, please help me. Ive just got a laptop which is getting the internet from my router, and ive download msn, and i sign in like normal and 5-10 mins l8r it signs me out every time. Ive checked that no firewall is blocking it…please sum 1 help me!!!!!

  61. my msn wont even open up. was i supposed to get rid of the contcts.msn in the reg edit also???

    HELP!!!

  62. These morons at microsoft need to fix this crap. This is happening on two of my systems and it happens guess when? at the login. No excuse for this. They shouldnt be relasing these betas to the public if they’re this unreliable and unstable.

  63. l0newolf, I think there are more morons around if someone thinks a BETA version of any software is going to be reliable and stable. What version of the word BETA don’t you understand?

  64. I had the same issue of Windows Live Messenger and FWD Communicator software freezing upon startup. I followed one user’s advice on changing my DI-624 Router’s date and time to current and yes, it fixed the issue instantly.

    I am not sure why such a decent D-Link router such as DI-624 won’t automatically update its date/time automatically.

    A big thanks go to Ryan for posting the fix on this issue.

  66. Seriously I’ve had this problem for almost a month now. No one seemed to know what to do and I’d end up just sitting there clicking connect for ages, or going to an internet cafe to sign in. This worked a charm. Cheers mate.

  67. People I MAY and I stress may have found a temporary fix until PeteK and the rest of the microcrap team get there heads out of their A$$ and fix this. What I did was do a clean install of xp and this is probably overkill but I needed to reinstall anyway then I installed the beta to see if it was still in fact messed up and it was so i uninstalled and reinstalled messenger 7.0 from microcraps site then I installed the latest beta of Windows DEAD over 7.0 and everything works now. This worked on both systems that were hanging and I hope it works for everyone else.

  69. I have no affiliation with Microsoft. And I stand by my question: What part of BETA don’t you understand?

  70. PeteK seriously get a life or a hobby or both. Do you live on here ? People I’m 99.9% positive the services you either have running or not running are part of the problem. For me, I checked the one computer that had no problems running messenger live and compared it with the other two that wouldnt. With this laptop which wouldnt run live I had ssdp discovery service running and subsequently turned it off , rebooted and live has been running all day without a hitch. Here are the services I do have running so you can compare and if you have them turned off or have addition services running you might be able to figure out a setup that will work for you.
    Application Layer Gateway Service, automatic updates, com+ event system, cryptographic services, dcom server process launcher, dhcp client, distributed link tracking client,dns client, error reporting service, event log, help and support, ipsec services, logical disk manager, messenger sharing usn journal reader, network connections, network location awareness nla, plug and play, print spooler, protected storage, remote procedure call rpc, security accounts manager, server, shell hardware detection, system event notification, system restore service, task scheduler, themes , windows audio, windows firwall, windows management instrumentation.

    Obviously some of these are optional like the firewall and system specific but hopefully this will help at least one of you get live running.

  71. It just happened to me, but I narrowed it down to my “D-Link DI-624 Rev C Router” like you guys mentioned because I fired up my laptop and had the same results with WLM not loading. I upgraded the router Firmware to 2.76 but that was over 2 weeks ago…WLM startup issues just happened tonight. Strange it took so long…

    So I took “sky’s” advice and did the Firmware roll back to 2.75 and all is well.( I also did the registry removal of the Policies and adjusted the time in my Router as “relativity” pointed out).

    Thanks for your research guys…I was stumped to say the least 🙂

  72. About the Lost contacts, there is a forum ( http://forum.msgshit.com/index.php?s=6a628526dc015dc95e7a636f48a3001b&showtopic=6221&pid=67371&st=0&#entry67371 ) the workarround of delitting the 2 folders suggested worked fine for me (WLM).
    The funny part is that for WM7 they missed to create those folders and your contacts would go bye-bye, in WM8 they did create them but not always fill them properly. I think they thought that most of the users have a really SMALL contact list (?)!!!!
    Well …. Hope it works for you too.
    S.

  73. Just a question, after I delete that stuff will msn work properly? I mean, the same way as before? Will it affect any of my contacts or something? Sorry about this dumb questions, but i really need to make sure I won’t loose anything. I can’t afford to loose my contacts. Tks for your time.

  76. Selissa try turning off ssdp discovery service and then restart the computer. Let me know if this helps.

  77. IT DOESNT WORK FOR ME! AND IT IS PISSING ME OFF COS I WANT TO LOG ON MY SO MY FRIENDS CAN SEND ME PICTURES! wtffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

    WHY CAN I SIGN IN? and its not my firewall, THEN WHAT IS IT?!??!?!?!?!?! ITS BEEN 2 DAYS ALREADY I CANT DO 2 DAYS W/O MSN!!

  78. People who work with Windows Live Messenger seriously need to do something because all these peope are having problems and its really starting to piss me off. I have contacted the support people and every solution they try and give me does not work. Something has to be done so people can enjoy msn without it having all these screw ups.

  79. Ok, I tried everything like you did and nothing worked.

    Until I tried this:

    First go to add/remove and uninstall messenger.
    – go to run, regedit and find
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger.
    – select the MSNMessenger folder and delete the entire folder.
    – go control/alt/delete and into Windows task manager, tab to processes.
    – Find “msnmsgr.exe” highlight and right click to end process tree.
    – click on my computer then C drive and search button.
    – Look in my local disk C, advanced tab, check off search hidden files, the
    file name to search for is : “msnmsgr.exe”
    – when found, rightclick delete.
    – go and download messenger 8.1 beta here:
    http://ideas.live.com/
    – install it. BUT DO NOT ATTEMPT TO LOG IN JUST YET!! Continue on….
    – Go here and download this…..Messenger Plus! Live
    http://www.msgpluslive.net/

    install it. Now when MSN messenger re-launches after this installation I
    was up and running with no more freezing during login!!

    I Hope this works for you!!

  80. when I open regedit and I get to the MSN messenger folder I dont have anything that says policies. Can u help me out with that?

  82. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS, I HAVENT BEEN ABLE TO USE WINDOWS LIVE MESSENGER FOR ALMOST 2WEEKS NOW. IVE CONTACT THE SUPPORT CENTER AND WHAT THE INSTRUCTED ME TO DO DID NOT WORK… I KEEP GETTING AN ERROR MESSAGE TELLING ME THAT MY FIREWALL IS BLOCKING THE SYSTEM… ITS NOT CAUSE I CHECKED AND RE CHECKED AND MY FRIEND CHECKED.. WHATS GOING ON!! I NEED HELP, I NEED SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS TELLING ME HOW TO FIX THIS CAUSE I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT COMPUTERS AND ITS SOFTWARE.

  83. 3 months without live messenger. After two minutes of working with the fixes listed above, it’s all good again. If the first recommendation does not work, then try #79. It works just fine.

Comments are closed.