Windows Live Messenger sign-in error

After being forced to upgrade to the latest Windows Live Messenger version yesterday, I had to find a solution for the wlcomm.exe error reports I kept getting with this version.

I kept using the old (8.5?) version ever since a new Live Messenger version came out earlier this year because in these new versions I couldn’t sign in: a Windows error report would be generated with each sign in attempt.

The error report showed:

AppName: wlcomm.exe     AppVer: 14.0.8098.930     ModName: crypt32.dll
ModVer: 5.131.2600.5512     Offset: 0000ed05

Several possible solutions failed to fix it for me (and with a search for messenger + wlcomm.exe clearly for a lot of other people too).

While there seem to be different causes, if you have a NVIDIA chipset and use their driver package, the solution is to uninstall the NVidia ForceWare Network Access Manager and you are good to go!

Apparently it is some kind of firewall software for the NVIDIA chipset.