How to Completely Delete AOL From Vista
So you're an ex-AOL user who has moved away from Windows XP and now uses Windows Vista. You put your old AOL software on your new Vista computer or added it to a new Vista install on your old computer back when you still paid for AOL.
Now it's days, months, or years later, you've finally canceled AOL, and you no longer want to keep AOL installed, even if you can still use it for free, but you can't get rid of it no matter what you do.
Symptom of Uninstallable AOL Blight, #1

When you click on the AOL Uninstaller (found in the Control Panel, under Programs and Features), before it even runs, you get an error message saying the Uninstaller has "stopped working" and Vista needs to close it.
Symptom of Uninstallable AOL Blight, #2

You get an error message saying you "must be logged in as the Administrator" to run the AOL Uninstaller. Even if you switch to the Super-Administrator account, you still get this message.
Symptom of Uninstallable AOL Blight, #3
When you run the AOL Uninstaller, Vista doesn't tell you that it's stopped working or that you have to be logged in as the Administrator - the Uninstaller just hangs forever without finding any version of AOL (outside of maybe just the Connectivity Service) for you.
Ah...frustration! It seems like still another tool in AOL's fat arsenal of psychological weapons to keep their software connected to both your wallet and your computer forever, doesn't it?
You can delete AOL from Vista completely!
You read that sentence right. Here's how (these steps should work on Windows 7, too).
- 1. First, let's remove as many AOL programs as we can...
If any AOL programs are open on your computer, you should close them now and follow the next steps.
To find the AOL programs you can remove, click the Start Orb, click Control Panel, and in the next window that opens, look in the right-hand corner for the words View by and click on the choice next to it. You should set this view option to show "small icons" or "large icons" or you might not be able to get to the Uninstall Panel at all.
Now click on the words Programs and Features in the Control Panel. When the Uninstall Panel opens, look for every AOL program except for the one labeled "AOL (Choose Which Products to Remove)", since that's the one uninstaller that won't work.
You should see AOL Screensavers, AOL You've Got Pictures, AOL Coach Version, AOL Connectivity Service, AOL Spyware Protection, and so on in the Uninstall Panel. Click on each program to uninstall it. If you've got a lot of programs on this list, this may take you a few minutes and might or might not require a few computer restarts.
- 2. Next, let's shut down AOL's background services...
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Click the Start Orb, right-click Computer on the right-hand side of the Start Menu, then click Manage on the drop-down menu that pops up.
In the next window you'll see, click the little gray triangle next to the words Services and Applications on the bottom left-hand side to expand the list, then click on the word Services to open the Services window. This will show you a list of all the background services on your computer.
AOL has at least one or two background services running that you need to shut down in order to delete the AOL program entirely from your computer. One is the AOL Connectivity Service and the other is the AOL Top Speed utility. To shut them down, right-click on either one and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
The first button you'll see in the next box says next to it: Startup type. Click it and a drop-down list will open with options like Automatic and Disabled. Click Disabled, then look at the next row of buttons: one says Start and one says Stop. Click the Stop button, then wait a second while Windows stops the service, then click the Apply and OK buttons on the bottom right.
Repeat for all AOL services that you find in the Services list.
- 3. Next, let's shut down AOL's running processes...
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Right-click the little bar along the bottom of your Windows desktop and choose Task Manager from the list that pops up. The next window you'll see is the Windows Task Manager.
In the Task Manager, click on the Processes tab, then click on the Image Name tab to sort this list from A-Z. An image name is the generic name Windows gives to various processes on your computer. Processes are instructions that AOL gives to Windows. We're going to make AOL stop giving instructions now.
Look for processes at or near the top of the list with the word aol in the names. Right-click them one a time, and choose "End process" from the list. Wait until Windows ends the process, then repeat for the next process you see with aol in its name.
Now scroll down the Image Name list and look for these names: shellmon.exe and waol.exe. End these processes, too. There may be many AOL processes, so this step might take a few minutes.
- 4. Let's finally delete AOL...
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To find the rest of AOL's files and folders, make sure Windows allows you to see all of your files and folders by following these steps: Click the Start orb, click Documents, right-click on the top breadcrumb bar and choose "Show menus", then click on Tools in the Menu Bar, and choose Folder Options from the drop-down list.
In the next box that opens up, click the View tab, then scroll down until you see the option for Show hidden files, folders, and drives. Make sure it's checked. Find the other options for showing hidden files and folders, and make sure they're checked or unchecked as needed.
Click the Start Orb, click Computer, click Local Disk (C:), click Program Files, find your AOL folders (anything with the name AOL in it qualifies), and delete them.
Now click the Start orb and type the words aol and america online one at a time into the search box at the bottom of the Start List, then right-click and delete any files and folders that turn up in Windows search results.
If you have trouble deleting files or folders belonging to AOL, see my article on how to take ownership of files and/or how to run as the Super-Administrator on Vista.
If a file or folder is really giving you grief, you can try this registry edit to take ownership of it.

The only AOL file and folder I was unable to remove by any of these methods was aolshare, because of the aolshcpy.dll file inside of it. You can leave them on your computer; neither will do any harm once the rest of your AOL files and folders are gone.
That's pretty much it. Using this method, you'll have a ton of AOL registry entries leftover, but unused registry entries in and of themselves won't harm your computer. The only concern with having too many of them is that they might slow your computer down by increasing RAM usage as your computer searches through them to find what it needs.
If this concerns you, there are several registry cleaners I suggest for removing AOL registry entries, like jv16 PowerTools and CCleaner.
Related posts:
- How to Remove AOL 9.0 VR (Vista Ready), AOL 9.1, and AOL Desktop From Any PC
- How to Uninstall AOL Without the AOL Uninstaller On Vista
Questions? Comments? Let me know in the comments, or check the sidebar for my email address.





