I asked my Son this question and here is the response that he told me to put in.

"Those grey popup adds are as far as I know not ACTUALLY being sent through the messanger program. And even if you WANTED to remove messanger there is no way on earth that windows would allow you to.

Anyway, the easiest way I have found to nearly eliminate those annoying webads are to install several specialized programs.

The first and most important thing to do is install a proffessional security program that includes a Firewall and an Anti-Virus program. The one I highly reccommend is Norton Utilities 2003. Another good one is Zone-alarm, but that doesn't, as far as I know come with anti-virus protection. The Important thing is to buy Retail and make sure to subscribe to the updates as new exploits come out pretty much weekly.

The next thing to do is get yourself a copy of Lavasofts ad-aware 6.0. To do this go to Cnets downloads.com and type Ad-aware into the search box. This is an advanced program and can screw things up if you don't know what your doing so make sure to read the instructions and follow the tutorial if your somewhat of a computer Neophyte.

The next one I highly reccommend is actually a "free" program called Spy-Bot Search and Destroy. Go to Downloads.com and get this one also. This program is even more dangerous to use then the previous one so once again make sure to follow the tutorials and FAQS that are included.

With ALL of these installed you should eliminate nearly 90% of your pop-ups and spyware programs."