FAIL: Microsoft wedges own app by sending bad data from the server

Microsoft managed to brick MSN Messenger rendering it not startable because the server sent corrupted configuration data to the client, which the client subsequently stores in the registry. I had to remotely dial in to my parent’s PC to fix this.

A fix for MSN Messenger crashing on start-up is here:

Start > Run > type “regedit” and hit ok.
In the registry editor, navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftMSNMessengerPerPassportSettings

Under “PerPassportSettings”, you may have multiple entries with numbers representing each Live account you’ve logged in with. In each (or if you only have one), expand the numbered key and look for the string “UTL”. delete the value within “UTL”.

After the UTL value has been cleared from each Passport, your Windows Live Messenger should open without crashing.

The UTL value contains various bits of XML data related to your Live account. It would seem in the past week especially, there’s been a small server glitch resulting in “bad data” being stored in UTL. This “bad data” causes Messenger to crash on startup. The data in UTL will be restored with correct data on your next login.