I doubt they get paid to keep them open... but I woudln't be surprised if Gates might try to save some money and not get too indepth with testing for holes in the security... plus no one to date has cared, they keep using M$ products. Just make sure you stay up to date...

As for your popup problem, check this out:

Thats a messenger service that is most windows computers. It allows messages to be sent by knowing the ip address of computers. To disable it in Windows 2000 go to start-->Programs--> Administrative tools--> services. Scroll down till you seee the messenger. Rightl click the highlighted line and choose properties then click stop.
Also select disable or manual in the startup type scroll bar then click ok.

I found this information here at http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~rakerman...e-mess-serv.txt
That was taken from this thread


~AciD