Do I need to have it installed?

I don't do instant messaging .. I use MSN Mail with my Verizon DSL. I have
Windows Live Mail AND a bigger different named Hotmail account AND Windows
Live Space stuff ...

but the Messenger right now is acting up .. and I have to uninstall it and
reinstall (because it is doing the Windows Installer error message of 2771
when I go online) and I am wondering if I have to reinstall it. There was
all of that time where YOU HAD TO HAVE Windows MESSENGER just to log into
your MSN account and then it applied over to MSN Messenger which now has
become Windows Live Messenger.

So do we still need to have Live Messenger installed to connect into our MSN
account and our Windows Live stuff?