MSN Messenger Icon in Win98

From George Walker & Racy Sanford:

Quoting Racy Sanford - 

"George Walker is a HERO again!!  He rooted out the cause of the little icon appearing next to the clock whenever Outlook Express was loaded.  The icon looks like two people with one of them having a red "x" over it.  The appearance of this little rascal was just annoying.  Placing the cursor over it produced a yellow message that said "Microsoft Messenger Service - not connected".  You could get rid of it by double clicking the icon and clicking "exit", which I have been doing since discovering it, but not anymore.

George's research produced the following:  
Settings / Control Panel / Add-Remove Programs / Windows Setup Tab / Highlight "Communications" / Click "Details" / Scroll down to "Microsoft Messenger Service" and remove check mark by it / Click OK / Click Apply / Click OK again / Restart Computer / and that little rascal does not appear anymore.  This is using Windows ME."