AOL woes

[Sakaris]

Hey, I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place to post this but I'm having some AOL woes. As a general rule I don't install AOL software on any system I use, but my parents are bound and determined to keep aol on their computer, and nothing I say is going to deter them from doing so. That computer lags like none other, its a dell with plenty of bloatware as is. After wiping and reloading the os and picking my way through uninstalling this and that I'm still having problems with this computer and AOL. Given that uninstalling aol altogether is not an option, my question is: is there a way to install aol in such a way that it won't commandeer the system and load all of the proprietary security and "quick-fix" nuisance crap? Just about everyone I know who has used aol in recent past has had these issuesas well? Any advice? Thanks.

 

[folken]

I havent been forced to deal with aol stuff for a while but (if that is dialup) could you use the winxp dial up connection maker?
Just put in the username, password, and number to connect without any aol garbage. Not sure if aol will let you do that but if it is a dialup connection it is worth a shot.

If it is a broadband connection winxp can make pppoe connections also.

 

[blue68f100]

I know what you mean. That AOL VIRUS will not die. I have had many friends that swear by them, but after having to pay to have there computer reloaded every 6 mo. One finally figured that the extra preimum they were paying for was to much. Swiched to dsl for the same amount of $$$$$.

The biggest problem you will have is keeping them from pushing all of there 2nd party software. I do know of any option on there system to prevent this. If you do an uninstall of aol, you will have about 200 items left behind, and 50 items in the register. On a friend of mine that had them and switched off, had 10 different revision folders. Like they don't want to delete anything.

Make a BIG SIGN AND PUT IT ON THE MONITOR READING

DO NOT ACCEPT OR INSTALL ANY THING FROM AOL PARTICULARLY IF IT IS FREE.

It might work for one item.

If they had to pay for tech support, they may give it up quicker.

 

[luminaris]

There's really no way to load just the stripped down AOL software. No matter how hard I tried, it wouldn't work. Every time I install it, it loads up all of their garbage with it. I'm in the same situation and my wife will not allow me to cancel it even though, we have a broadband connection.

So with that in mind, I took a machine that I don't use as much and loaded it up on that box while keeping it off of my others. Most people don't have the luxury though.

 

[Thrawn717]

I had the same problem with my parents. I finally convinced them to switch to MSN internet browser. It is just a easy to use, and you don't have to deal with all the AOL crap. But I guess the hard part for you would be to convince your parents to switch from AOL.

Good Luck!!!

James

 

[riser]

Install the software.. Use IE or another browser instead of AOL's. You can configure IE under Tools - Options - Connections to log in and whatnot to AOL's system.

You can also try going to Start - Run- type MSConfig.

This will bring up all the start up programs and Services. On the Start Up tab, go through and try to pull out any AOL or 3rd party stuff it installs that you were unable to uninstall from Add/Remove Programs. This helps a little bit.
On the Services Tab, check the box to Hide All Microsoft or whatever it is. Those are normally essential services. This way, all the services that are loaded are not essential. Go through and disable anything else AOL installs on there. Feel free to experiment with it.

Once you finish that, you'll need to reboot to set them. You'll get a prompt stating you're running with a selective start-up, check the box and hit Ok.

That should help out a lot if you're able to find some of those services and start-up things running. You can use this method for other things as well.

If you encounter problems, go back in and re-enable what you disabled one by one or so until you find the fix.

 

[Mutt]

There is an answer to all your woes....... or at least part of them, after all it is still AOL

AOL has recently released a new product called AOL SUITE you can d/l online. Instead of one big combined program that hogs all your resources, the suite will let you open only the portions you want to use.
For instance if all they want to do is check email or IM someone, there is a module for just that. If they want to open a chatroom theres a module for that.

Like I said its still AOL so its not a perfect fix, but the new product does deal with the resource issues pretty well. I know several who have used it and will never open the full program again.

GOOD LUCK