What is msniasvc.exe?

Can anyone tell me what "msniasvc.exe" is? I'm guessing it means MSN Internet Access Service... and I'm certain its an application of sorts. But what's it's function... and is it entirely necessary to have? Too many times my PC lags a bit, so I CTL/ALT/DEL and in the CLOSE PROGRAM file it's listed as "msniasvc (not responding) ". The only thing to do after that is to re-boot, which gets aggravating. I've tried to Google it but get minimal info. I'd simply like to get rid of it altogether, but not sure if its shared with other programs or if its removal is non-optional. And yes, I've already followed all steps in the DO NOT POST UNTIL YOU"VE READ THIS forum. Thanks in advance for any suggestions regarding this matter.

Windows 98
Pentium II 350mghz
128 meg ram
56k modem

 

Thanks Chaslang. I understand (kinda) what it is now, but it didn't really tell me how to disable it without downloading a $50 tool called WinTask5. Is there a comparable freeware tool that will do what WinTask does? I simply want to disable MSNIASVC. The site (your link) tells me it's safe to do so.

 

Msniasvc error

First off, I've gone through the Read This First procedures... downloads, scans, etc. and have run HijackThis! and posted the results in this forum a few months ago... corrected most every problem I had and I'm greatly appreciative of the help I received. Recently however, I've had a recurrence of the dreaded Msniasvc error. The error code window pops up immediately after log-in every time lately. I've scanned with Adware, AVGFree, and just about everything I downloaded in my initial visit here. I'm going to paste the error details here and perhaps someone can make heads or tails of it and suggest any remedies. My sincere thanks in advance for your help regarding this pesky issue.

The window that pops up says THIS PROGRAM HAS PERFORMED AN ILLEGAL OPERATION AND WILL BE SHUT DOWN.

This are the details of this error:


MSNIASVC caused a stack fault in module MSNIAWA.DLL at 016f:0205d255.
Registers:
EAX=00006598 CS=016f EIP=0205d255 EFLGS=00010202
EBX=00000000 SS=0177 ESP=00565d30 EBP=00565d58
ECX=00531d38 DS=0177 ESI=0001d2c9 FS=413f
EDX=00000271 ES=0177 EDI=02053c00 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
85 01 3d 00 10 00 00 73 ec 2b c8 8b c4 85 01 8b
Stack dump:
004335b8 020661e5 02053c00 00000000 023a4240 00565d80 0174cf08 00565d94 02067920 00000000 00565da0 02057ddb 004335b8 02053c00 00000000 00000000

 

My apologies. I didn't word my question properly. What I meant was I downloaded and ran everything a few months ago, and continue to do so weekly, checking for updates as well. But even after scanning with the tools, I cannot log in without this error pop-up.

By the way, if you meant uninstalling MSN altogether, then my question is, can I actually do that and still be able to go online? Also, I'd rather be safe and try disabling this from downloading on start-up, but its not found on msconfig. Forgive my ignorance on these issues.... guess that's why I'm here asking and why you all are here answering... greatly appreciated too.

 

First of all, my apologies for leaving your question high-and-dry Chaslang. I was bound and determined to fix this msniasvc.exe issue and I'm certain I've finally done so. First, I scanned with HijackThis and compared the scan with that of a "corrected" scan we did a few months ago... both were identical. Eliminating that theory, I remembered a post once that mentioned a similar problem with msniasvc.exe and he/she seemed to correct it by uninstalling, of all things, the MSN Dial-up Accelerator, a feature offered with the new MSN9. I did just that and boom..... no more msniasvc.exe error code (which caused many internet access problems). I haven't tried re-downloading it yet, but feel certain it will be fine. Just thought I'd let you know this little factoid for future references in case someone may post a similar problem with msniasvc.exe. in this forum. PC is running great again... thanks for your support over the past few months in getting this rat-on-a-wheel PC to function more efficiently again.

 

Forgive me for not delving on that topic. If you're referring to the "config.sys" tab in msconfig, there's nothing in there... empty. I looked in "startup" as well and the only thing that might come even close is possibly "Taskmonitor" or "msappau", which is an updater application. After that, there's just Microsoft Works Updater, AVG startup files, SchedulingAgent, SystemTray, MSNIA (which cannot be disabled.. regenerates itself at next startup),and my printer startup file. Other than that, there's just a few more applications left, but I disabled those long ago. So to answer your question, yes I did look for my ISP... which is MSN.... in the msconfig. Sorry about that.