Hmm, intresting indeed. Anyway, if you just want to disable the IM thing for good, you can just uinstall it - it's no possible via the Add/Remove Programs feature in Control Panel (click avast and select Change).
BTW, Culperer, would you mind narrowing your 'fetch doggie' lady picture a few pixels? It's preventing your posts from being displayed properly (at least on my machine).
Thanks,
Vlk