IE is running in the background.

I use a desktop running WinXP home. Recently, I began using Mozilla Firefox as my default browser. I haven't opened Internet Explorer in over a month. However, I find that IE is running in the background whenever I turn on the system. An occasional pop up gets thru the pop up blocker and there is IE. I have checked msconfig and the services menu and haven't been able to find anything that will disable IE in this mode. And, even though it's running, it doesn't show up in the Windows Task Manager.

How can I disable IE from running in the background? Can I uninstall it? I'm using Outlook Express and wonder if an uninstall would take OE too.

I am grateful for any suggestions.

Thanks.

 

An occasional pop up gets thru the pop up blocker and there is IE.

It probably is not IE from what you describe.

Try this:
- click on start, click on run, type in services.msc and OK
- in the new window, locate an item in the left col. named Messenger (and this has nothing to do with any AIM app you might be using)
- right-click on it and click Stop
- when it has stopped, right click again, select Properties, and change the startup type to Disabled
- close the Services window.