Cannon Uninstall AOL

[DJ]

I have just purchased a brand new laptop with Windows XP and I am trying to
uninstall some of the unnecessary trial software that came on my computer.
One of them is AOL (which I absolutely detest). When I go to Add/Remove
programs, AOL starts up and then says "Searching for installed AOL programs"
and then another window pops up and says there are no installed versions of
AOL on my computer. However the program shows up on my list of installed
programs in the "Add/Remove" window and there are numerous files on my
computer when I do a file search.
Short of having to completely install the program to try and uninstall, what
is the
the best way to completely remove all traces of AOL from my computer? Would
deleting all the files be sufficient since it says there are no installed
versions on my computer? And what about any files that may be in the
registry?
Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

 

[Peter Foldes]

To completely eliminate AOL from any system it is advisable to do a clean reformat.

 

[RoadRunner]

Hi ... When ever you want to uninstall programs ? Always go to the add and
remove programs area and click uninstall , Then afterwards go to the
explorer ( right click the start buttom and select explorer ) expand the "
Program Files " under the C Drive ( If this is where windows is install )
Now look for a AOL folder, delete the folder and , You can also do a file
and folder search for AOL and delete all the perfetch files , afterwards
then delete the recycling bin , Now would be a good time to reboot , Thats
it ...

.......

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I have just purchased a brand new laptop with Windows XP and I am trying to
uninstall some of the unnecessary trial software that came on my computer.
One of them is AOL (which I absolutely detest). When I go to Add/Remove
programs, AOL starts up and then says "Searching for installed AOL programs"
and then another window pops up and says there are no installed versions of
AOL on my computer. However the program shows up on my list of installed
programs in the "Add/Remove" window and there are numerous files on my
computer when I do a file search.
Short of having to completely install the program to try and uninstall, what
is the
the best way to completely remove all traces of AOL from my computer? Would
deleting all the files be sufficient since it says there are no installed
versions on my computer? And what about any files that may be in the
registry?
Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

Sadly, the only practical way I've ever found to completely
remove AOL from an operating system is to format the hard drive and
perform a clean installation. I absolutely loathe having to resort to
a hard drive format to fix what should be a relatively minor issue,
but it takes a lot less time than manually removing/replacing all of
the Windows system files that AOL replaces with their own versions and
the hundreds of unnecessary registry entries.



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Plato]

Short of having to completely install the program to try and uninstall, what
is the
the best way to completely remove all traces of AOL from my computer? Would

Sadly, its wiping the drive and installing your OS fresh.

 

[bdog]

I have just purchased a brand new laptop with Windows XP and I am
trying to uninstall some of the unnecessary trial software that came
on my computer. One of them is AOL (which I absolutely detest). When I
go to Add/Remove programs, AOL starts up and then says "Searching for
installed AOL programs" and then another window pops up and says there
are no installed versions of AOL on my computer. However the program
shows up on my list of installed programs in the "Add/Remove" window
and there are numerous files on my computer when I do a file search.
Short of having to completely install the program to try and
uninstall, what is the
the best way to completely remove all traces of AOL from my computer?
Would deleting all the files be sufficient since it says there are no
installed versions on my computer? And what about any files that may
be in the registry?
Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

Do a google search on remove AOL. There used to be some programs out there
to clean it off the system completely.

bdog

 

[RoadRunner]

DJ >>> Correct me if I am wrong but isn't your computer ( laptop ) an
preinstall operating system of windows xp ? If so , If DJ was to clean
install ( reformat ) wouldn't that just reload all those programs back as
well ? , Or do you have an OEM disk without all those programs install ?
And those programs that you don't care to have are they on a different disk
?

 

[Ed]

I have just purchased a brand new laptop with Windows XP and I am trying to
uninstall some of the unnecessary trial software that came on my computer.
One of them is AOL

First, are you sure it is installed or that the icon on your desktop
and/or entry in your Start/All Programs is a setup/AOL installation
process? Right click on the AOL icon or entry in the Start/All
programs list and then choose properties and see if it is to run the
AOL executable or to run a SETUP executable.

It you find it is installed, then like everyone else says, the only
way to get rid of the AOL Virus is to format/Reinstall.

However, it should NEVER have been installed on a NEW computer in the
first place. All new computers I have ever seen had an AOL icon which
would be used to install the program but never have I ever seen it
already installed.

Also, if it was installed, and this is a new computer, I'd complain
and have them straighten the mess out as they should NEVER have taken
it upon themselves to install that.

Who'd you buy this laptop from so everyone will know who did this and
avoid them.

Regards,
Ed

 

[Ed]

DJ >>> Correct me if I am wrong but isn't your computer ( laptop ) an
preinstall operating system of windows xp ? If so , If DJ was to clean
install ( reformat ) wouldn't that just reload all those programs back as
well ?

The AOL virus should never be installed by default even via an OEM
restoration process. It should always be an optional install. If the
OEM is making their restoration cd's default to installing the AOL
virus, then they are no better than AOL themselves and should be
avoided.

FOX news had this thing on a while back where someone was questioning
why the United States Postal Service allowed displays of the AOL Virus
Disks to be displayed for postal customers to take but would not allow
other national or local to postal area ISP's to do the same. They had
a representative from two national ISP's on the program asking why but
representatives from AOL and the United States Postal Service had
refused to come on the program or even offer a statement.

Regards,
Ed

 

[RoadRunner]

Reason as to why I was asking is because my first computer was an IBM
preinstall of windows 98 , It was a product recovery disk ( OS ) and
everytime when ever I did a reformat it would load all these programs that
IBM added , One of them was AOL , The only way I could remove them was to go
to the add and remove programs area , I thought maybe the brand names comps
still do this ...

....

 

[Michael Stevens]

The AOL virus should never be installed by default even via an OEM
restoration process. It should always be an optional install. If the
OEM is making their restoration cd's default to installing the AOL
virus, then they are no better than AOL themselves and should be
avoided.

FOX news had this thing on a while back where someone was questioning
why the United States Postal Service allowed displays of the AOL Virus
Disks to be displayed for postal customers to take but would not allow
other national or local to postal area ISP's to do the same. They had
a representative from two national ISP's on the program asking why but
representatives from AOL and the United States Postal Service had
refused to come on the program or even offer a statement.

Regards,
Ed

Probably cause AOL paid for the placement. USPS is a business.

--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[Ed]

Probably cause AOL paid for the placement. USPS is a business.

The other two national ISP's said they were open to whatever deal AOL
and the USPS had together in order to get their disks displayed there
but since the USPS and AOL refuse to even comment on it much less
reply to requests for information, it is assumed that there may be
more to the marriage between the USPS and AOL than meets the eye (this
is what is said on the interview, no me). Whoever that Judge they have
on FOX that comments on legal issues said that something sure smelled
about the whole thing and the more closed mouth the USPS and AOL were
about their partnership, the more it smelled (again, their words not
mine). He continued to say that he just had a hard time trusting any
ISP that was in bed with a federal agency... especially an ISP that
requires one to install a software package on one's computer that
essentially takes over the computer (again, his words, not mine).

I wish I had taped the interview so I could get all of it into text
and post it. It was very interesting and left a lot of unanswered
questions about just what is going on between the USPS and AOL or as
they suggested in a few places, the Federalis via the USPS and AOL.

Now My Words...... If this whole thing were some grand conspiracy to
spy on the public, I would have used M$ instead of AOL to do it. I
would have subpoenaed Big Bill to appear before a Senate Investigation
Panel to face charges about his questionable business practices. All
the while, I would be making deals in a back room with him to trade
out going to jail for his questionable business practices by adding
code to his operating systems to provided data to the federalis on
what is transpiring on each computer that operating system is
installed on. He could disguise the code's transmission of data by
making it look something like, well.... how about some type of
verification during the downloading of updates or something like that.
Of course the last paragraph is all fictitious and nothing more than a
joke for everyone's pleasure as we all know that nothing like that
could ever take place in America.

Regards,
Ed