okay. so i've been a user of Windows Live Messenger since 8.0. now comes update for 8.1, i install the update.. after the install it works, everything is perfect. now its time to restart. good? no not really. now my wireless card connects, BUT live messenger is nowhere to be found. the msnmsgr.exe is shown in the processes, BUT NO LIVE MESSENGER. NO MORE CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET. now comes time for 8.5 any luck? NO worse! the same problem continues. and after looking through just about every thread i come across for this. no help has been served. and here i am left without working live messenger or internet. no viruses, found at least. even after a clean install of Windows XP Pro SP2. the same problem occurs.
microsoft never fails to disappoint i guess.

Windows XP Pro SP2
AMD Athlon 64 1.8 GHz
ATI Radeon x850 256MB
1gig ram
Linksys wireless card (11mbps)