My wifes computer appears of

She is going to need to give her computer a complete cleaning job because messenger takes alot of available memory:

Update and run virus control

Go to toolbar>tools>internet options>general>and delete all cookies

go to Start>All programs>accessories>systems tools>disc cleanup and run that

How many little icons does she show in the lower right corner. These are programs that are always "on" running in the background and they take a lot of memory. I can tell you how to get rid of them if there are several unnecessary ones.

Clean up the desktop. Are there a bunch of icons for programs you rarely if ever use? right click on them and delete them. This does not delete the program and you can put them back anytime.

If you have a registry cleaning program, run that

Empty email trash

Empty the trash can

Do a defrag which can be found at the same place as the disc cleanup
Now restart your computer.

Turn off all running programs using the icons in the lower right corner. Be sure to turn off your virus/firewall control.

Uninstall messenger (Save any lists just by copying them to a new text file somewhere.)

Now leaving your proggys off, download and reinstall messenger. This is called a clean install. Restart your computer once more. Do not save abunch of history in messenger. It takes up tons of memory.

Good luck.