Unwanted Add/Remove Programs Entry

[\(yet another\) Steve]

My daughters' XP Home Dell computer is about two months old--it was a x-mas
gift. Having bought other Dells' I made sure when I ordered hers that I
*didn't* want the AOL 'free-whatever' option because I didn't want AOL
installed on the PC. After we received it I checked the Add/Remove Programs
list and saw an entry for AOL. After saying some nice things about Dell
under my breath I proceeded to uninstall AOL, which went smoothly, without
any errors. After the uninstall I rebooted the machine and everything went
fine.

About a week after having the PC I was looking at the Add/Remove Programs
list again and I saw the AOL entry still there. It shows a program size of
about 65Mb. When I went to uninstall it again (thinking my memory failed me
on the first removal) the uninstall wizard searched the disk looking for the
AOL program---it found nothing---and replied there isn't any AOL program to
uninstall. This was not an error message, just a normal response from the
wizard. About a week later I tried the uninstall again with the exact same
results.

Here's my dilemma, I know how to edit the registry and get rid of AOL once
and for all (I'm an engineer--EE} but she also uses AOL Instant Messenger
(which I downloaded as a standalone program and installed myself). AIM also
has its own entry in the Add/Remove Programs list. Because she uses AIM, I
couldn't globally search the registry for instances of AOL and delete them
because some would be for AIM and not AOL. I don't want to uninstall AIM
because she has it all set up for herself which was a lot of work--its her
most-used/favorite program.

Are there any good utilities (read safe) out there that could get rid of the
AOL entry in the Add/Remove Programs list? Its not really a big deal because
it does no-harm and the PC works flawlessly--but I keep thinking about
getting rid of it. I also wouldn't want to introduce a new problem trying to
fix something that wasn't really (causing) a problem either. Any help is
greatly appreciated.

Steve

 

[kawipoo]

There is probably a file in documents and setting (under her name if you
have seperate signons which is labeled AIM. This file contains all her
setting, (check the folder to make sure)etc. Make a copy of that file in
another directory and then uninstall everything and remove AOL and AIM.
After which uninstall AIM and replace the AIM file in documents and settings
with the previously copied file.

 

[Kelly]

Hi Steve,

Remove the entry from here: Start/Run/Regedit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Uninstall

All other steps are listed here on my site:

Troubleshooting, Removing and/or Cleaning Add or Remove Programs
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_a.htm#addremove

 

[\(yet another\) Steve]

Thanks! I'll give it a try (after backing-up the registry of-course).

Steve