Remove that warning message within MSN Messenger on OSX


Never give out your password or credit card number in an instant message conversation. To help prevent infection by a computer virus or worm, never accept or open any file or link in an instant message until you verify its authenticity with the sender.

The first time I saw that warning message while trying to IM somebody, I thought to myself: "Awww how thoughtful of you Microsoft, looking out for me like that.." The second time it was more like "Yea man..I know". By the third time, I was looking desperately within the prefereences to turn that annoying message off.

Turns out you can't turn the message off by conventional means. I guess Microsoft believes that Messenger users have the memory span of a Goldfish, hence the ongoing warning message "feature". Fed-up of been treated like a Goldfish, I decided to finally get rid of that annoying warning message..

  1. Make sure MSN Messenger isn't running.
  2. Go to the MSN Messenger.app inside your Applications folder, and select it.
  3. Right-click (Control-Click for some), then select Show Package Contents.
  4. Navigate your way from folder to folder: Contents > Resources .
  5. Double-click on the folder that corresponds to the language you currently use. For me: English.lproj
  6. Find the file: InstantMessageWindow.strings
  7. Right-click (Control-Click for some), then select Open With > Other..
  8. Choose TextEdit and hit Open
  9. Scroll-down till you reach the line that starts with IMWarning = "
  10. Delete all the text inside the quotes. the end result should be IMWarning = "";
  11. Save the file and relaunch Messenger.
  12. Enjoy the lack of that pesky warning message.

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