Removing AOL

[Tony Cooper]

My daughter's Compaq Presario laptop came stuffed with programs that
she'll never use. Some, like Vongo and AOL, are not listed in the
Add/Remove list and can not be deleted using that function.

Is going to C:>Program Files>Online Services>AOL and deleting that
folder sufficient and safe as a way to remove all AOL?

Vongo is virtually unremovable. I finally just disabled it in
Start-Up. There are web references to removing it, but they don't
seem to work. Vongo is like a herpes infection...it just goes out of
sight but not away.

I'm in the process of tracking down what each entry in Start Up
(through msconfig) does with an eye to disabling it, but that's a long
and tedious process.

 

[me]

My daughter's Compaq Presario laptop came stuffed with programs that
she'll never use. Some, like Vongo and AOL, are not listed in the
Add/Remove list and can not be deleted using that function.

Is going to C:>Program Files>Online Services>AOL and deleting that
folder sufficient and safe as a way to remove all AOL?

Vongo is virtually unremovable. I finally just disabled it in
Start-Up. There are web references to removing it, but they don't
seem to work. Vongo is like a herpes infection...it just goes out of
sight but not away.

I'm in the process of tracking down what each entry in Start Up
(through msconfig) does with an eye to disabling it, but that's a long
and tedious process.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290301

Sometimes this utility will list programs that don't appear in the
Add/Remove list.

 

[Rock]

My daughter's Compaq Presario laptop came stuffed with programs that
she'll never use. Some, like Vongo and AOL, are not listed in the
Add/Remove list and can not be deleted using that function.

Is going to C:>Program Files>Online Services>AOL and deleting that
folder sufficient and safe as a way to remove all AOL?

Vongo is virtually unremovable. I finally just disabled it in
Start-Up. There are web references to removing it, but they don't
seem to work. Vongo is like a herpes infection...it just goes out of
sight but not away.

I'm in the process of tracking down what each entry in Start Up
(through msconfig) does with an eye to disabling it, but that's a long
and tedious process.

You may end of having to do a clean install without those programs. Just
deleting the program folder can create other problems and leaves the
settings in the registry. That is not the way to remove a program.

 

[Guest]

You may end of having to do a clean install without those programs. Just
deleting the program folder can create other problems and leaves the
settings in the registry. That is not the way to remove a program.

Try going to the folder where these programs reside and see if they have
their own uninstall program, if they do not and they don't show up in the
Add/Remove programs then they are quite difficult to remove. The big problem
with some of these invasive type programs is that they leave entries in the
registry which re-install the programs. The only way to remove them
completely is to delete the programs then go to the registry and remove all
the entries for those programs particularly any that install an icon.
One BIG word of warning if you aren't experienced or knowlegeable in
registry settings and entries then on no account should you ever attempt
changeing, altering or deleting anything in the registry, if you change an
entry used for the running of the computer you could find that your computer
will not startup or if it does it may not run properly.
If the programs need the registry to be altered in any way then find someone
who knows what they are doing, on no account try this yourself.