Do you happen to have any ad removal, firewall or virus protection programs installed on your system? These can act as roadblocks on the way to a fabulous Yahoo! Messenger experience.

If you have any applications of this type installed, it's time to bid them adieu. Please disable them on your computer and then reinstall Yahoo! Messenger with the aid of these (apologetically) long-winded directions:

You may have a corrupt file in your Yahoo! Messenger directory. To fix the problem, you need to manually delete the " Yahoo! Messenger" directory on your "C: drive" (default), then reinstall the Yahoo! Messenger program.

1. Close the Yahoo! Messenger program if you currently have it running. Also please make sure Internet Explorer is closed completely. Make sure you don't have multiple IE windows still running.
2. Go to your desktop and double-click My Computer.
3. Click C: drive.
4. Go to: c:\Program Files\Yahoo!\ WARNING: We're about to have you do something that will delete all of your archives. If you want to save them first, please stop what you're doing and follow the instructions below for how to copy your Message Archive.
5. Highlight the Yahoo! Messenger folder and press the Delete key on your keyboard. (NOTE: All archives will be deleted if they're not copied! Please see below.)

1. Close all running programs except for your Internet browser.
2. Please visit the Yahoo! Messenger home page.
3. Click Download Now.

1. Close Messenger (if it's currently running).
2. Go to your Desktop and double-click My Computer.
3. Select C: drive.
4. Go to: c:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\Profiles
5. Your "Profiles" folder contains your complete Message Archive. Copy it to the same location on another machine if you want to view it elsewhere or copy it to another location on your computer if you just want to save it.