XP login - how do I stop new email alerts?

Please forgive me if I'm asking a stupid question, or I'm missing the obvious answer, or I fail to provide all the appropriate information. I'm fairly illiterate when it comes to the ways of a computer, but here goes.

I have Windows XP which, upon startup, takes me to the 'login' screen on which I can log-in either as myself (the administrator) or as the other user of my system (this is a shared computer).

Beneath my user name there appears a message 'You have 5 new emails.'

When I hover the mouse over this message, a dialog box apears detailing that these messages belong to my hotmail account.

I presume the fact that Windows is doing this is related to the fact that I have installed MSN Messenger onto my computer.

My basic question is: how do I stop Windows from telling me this upon startup? Does the appearance of this message mean that something is lingering in my system that shouldn't be?

The trouble is, because I'm on a wireless network, my computer is not connected to the internet all the time. Rather, when I startup Windows, I must first enable my wireless connection BEFORE I am able to connect. So Windows can't possibly know how many emails I have without being online.

Also the number it gives is inaccurate and does not change, regardless of the number of emails that are actually in my hotmail inbox. Again, this suggests that the message is the result of something in my computer system that is for some reason telling Windows I still have mail when it can't possibly know that.

I have tried uninstalling MSN Messenger and reinstalling to no avail.

I realise this is a pretty small problem in the grand scheme of things, but you know how it is - one little annoyance soon snowballs into a whole bundle of annoyances. I've only had this computer a month and I don't want it full of useless stuff just yet!

Many thanks for any help and time anyone can give me!

It has something to do with the .NET Passport associated with your user account. You have to go into the Control Pannel > User Accounts and get rid of the .NET Passport there.

That mail notification can be disabled via the registry. Copy and paste the following code into a text file, change the file extension to .reg, then double click on the file.



You can also manually change the value to 0 using regedit.

Thank you Jim! It was creating the .reg file that worked in the end. *does the dance of joy*

You're welcome.