Anti-AOL

Every now and then I make my stats viewable, regret it, then close them again, but at any rate, limited stats for my current counter are open again; my last counter's stats (it broke - my counters for this blog break all the time) will be open indefinitely.

After writing about AOL's "Back to Classic" link malfunctioning, I shot a complaint off to AOL saying that if they want users to see the Classic AOL look, then they shouldn't provide a "Back to Classic" link that doesn't work.

As a mostly unwilling beta tester, I submit feedback to AOL fairly often, but I never get a response (I often curse out whatever product I'm "discussing" before I'm done - I guess that scares them?) but this time AOL's data-mining software must have bounced me to a human support person or something fairly humanoid (perhaps a reply bot?).

According to AOL, there are four ways to restore the Classic look (but as I said in my last article, if you delete your cookies after applying these changes, you will have to restore the Classic look all over again). After I read AOL's reply, I saw that the broken "Back to Classic" link on AOL.com has also been fixed.

Reverting to the Classic look does not restore the Classic AOL.com home page - the colors are off (it's not the same shade of blue that I recall, for instance) and the logo behind the name "AOL" in the upper left-hand corner cannot be killed with anything except the AdBlockPlus add-on (which is only available to us lucky Firefox users). But I guess it's close enough.

Why AOL can't just make the Classic look a permanent setting via Options once you're logged in is probably the next thing I will complain to them about.

To sum up, there are four ways to restore the Classic look:

• Click this link for the blue theme
• Click this link for the classic theme in 7 colors, including blue
• Look for the Classic theme logo in the "theme strip", on the far right, at position #10 (I must correct AOL's word on this: it's in the row of logos along the top of the page, and in the tiny little thumbnails above those; both are at position #10).
• Find it in the "More" link next to the theme strip (I must correct AOL on this, too: I do not see and cannot find the "More" link.)

In order to completely return to the Classic look, you will need to kill the logo strip that runs across the top of the page. The "Back to Classic" link at the bottom of the AOL.com home page and the options listed above will not remove the logos for you.

To turn off the logos, look in the top upper right-hand corner of the AOL.com home page. You'll see a strip of tiny thumbnail images. There's a link to the right of them that says Close. Just click it and the logos will disappear. You'll have to keep cookies enabled or the logos will come back each time you re-open your browser and/or refresh the page.

AOL's Reply to My Complaint

Feedback Reply: New WS

We want to thank you for your recent feedback about the AOL homepage. December 10th was a big day for AOL! We officially became an independent Internet company once more, and the unveiling of our new logo and visual identity was tied to that major event.

We really appreciate you taking the time to let us know your thoughts on our new look. We know that it may have been a surprise at first, but we hope that in time you will embrace the new look and feel of the site. Please do know that we are looking closely at all of the feedback received and determining what additional improvements we can make.

We will be adding new themes in the very near future, and many of them will be shaped around requests we've received. While we have retired most of the older themes from AOL.com and Enhanced AOL Welcome Screen, we have still kept the classic blue theme available. If you are looking for something right now which is a little darker than our new set of themes, we recommend you try the classic blue theme. You can apply that theme right now by clicking here. (Please note, once you click that link, the blue theme will automatically become your set theme.) You can also find it in the theme strip in the upper-right corner of the page in the far right position (#10) as well as in our theme chooser (if you click on the "More" link in that same space). It will say "Click here for the Blue Classic theme" when you hover over it. All you have to do is click once to set it.

For more info and FAQs on our new look, please visit our homepage blog.

If you prefer to return to the "regular" Welcome page, the Classic page, please use this link: http://www.aol.com/?src=classic

Please check back soon for more new themes! And please continue to use the Help & Feedback link any time you'd like to get in touch with us with suggestions.

Thank you so much!

The AOL Homepage Team

And the goggles, they do nothing!

If you don't use AOL or visit their home page you might not know that in honor of their newfound freedom from Time Warner and their Dec. 10 IPO (they're trading on the stock market again under their own ticker - AOL - for the first time in years), they got rid of their pyramid/evil eye logo and replaced it with wow, about twenty new logos, which mostly look like food-colored brains and jellyfish (it's just AOL's way of Rorschach testing you folks, don't worry).

The new logos, designed by random guys that AOL's devs found in San Francisco on whoah-groovy-man acid trips and psychiatrists who administer the latest in Rorschach tests, now run along the top of the AOL.com page in one big, ugly clusterfuck. The new look is, among other things, disgusting, nor is it easy to get rid of, since the link on the bottom left of the home page, clearly marked "Back to Classic", just changes the backgrounds without getting rid of the logos - or the new look.

So much for AOL's "Classic" look (which I never liked, anyway); it seems it's been laid to rest along with AOL's UK message boards, Hometown pages, and Xdrive, among other things that AOL users actually (how could you guys?) liked.

Unfortunately, the only workaround I can suggest for now is to use Yahoo!, MSN, NetVibes, or another home page for your email and news. If the "Back to Classic" link ever gets fixed or a workaround presents itself, feel free to share that in the comments or to send me an email.

If you just want to turn off the logos, look in the top upper right-hand corner of the AOL.com home page. You'll see tiny thumbnails of the brains logos. There's a link to the right of them that says Close. Just click it and they're gone. You'll have to keep cookies enabled, though, or the jellyfish logos will come back to torment intrigue you each time you re-open your browser and/or refresh the page.

So I've been involuntarily offline the last few days. I moved to a new place...a homey, rustic cabin on the water - just what I wanted (I'm so proud of this place - and so happy with it - I could spit). My Internet just got turned on this morning. Yipppeee!

I have 5 days of news and reader's email to catch up on, and I haven't checked AOL's stock quote yet, but I have checked micwa's latest comment, which lead me to this hilarious re-branding video of AOL's (the rebranding is in effect as of today). If the first five seconds of it don't send you hurtling off your chair laughing, nothing will, and the rest of it is pretty funny, too.

Just for my readers (I love you all!), the night before I moved, I made a logo to show my strong commitment to AOL's new branding strategy. Enjoy. ;)

This how-to is for people who get an error message when they try to remove AOL from Vista. If you are not getting the error messages mentioned in this post, please see How to Remove AOL (any version).

So you're an ex-AOL user who's moved on from Windows XP to Windows Vista. You put 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 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

The Uninstaller just hangs 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.

But...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 possible...

If any AOL programs are open on your computer, you should close them now and follow the next steps.

To find AOL programs, click the Start Orb and Control Panel. In the next window, look to the top right for the words View by, then click the choice next to it. Set this to show "small" or "large icons" or you might be unable to get to the Uninstall List.

Now click Programs and Features in the Control Panel. When it opens, look for every AOL program except for "AOL (Choose Which Products to Remove)", since that's the one 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. Click each program to uninstall it. This may take a few minutes and might or might not require some computer restarts.

If you don't see these programs, that just means your copy of AOL didn't include them, so you can jump to the next step now.

2. Next, let's shut down AOL's background services...

Click the Start Orb, then on the right-hand side of the Start List right-click Computer, then click Manage on the drop-down menu.

In the next window, on the bottom left, click the tiny gray triangle next to the words Services and Applications, then click the word Services to open the window.

AOL has one or two services that need to shut down to delete the main AOL program entirely. One is AOL Connectivity Service and the other is AOL Top Speed. To shut them down, right-click either one and select Properties from the drop-down menu.

The first button in the next box says: Startup type. Click it and a drop-down list will open with the options Automatic and Disabled. Click Disabled, then look at the next row of buttons: one says Start and one says Stop. Click Stop, wait while the service stops, then click Apply and OK on the bottom right.

Repeat for all AOL services on the list.

3. Next, let's shut down AOL's processes...

Right-click the bar along the bottom of your Windows desktop and choose Task Manager from the pop-up list.

In Task Manager, click the Processes tab, then click the Image Name tab to sort them from A-Z.

Look for processes with the word AOL or aol in the names. Right-click them one a time, and choose "End process" from the list. Wait while Windows ends it, then repeat for all processes with AOL or aol in their names.

Now scroll down the list and look for these names: shellmon.exe and waol.exe. End these processes, too. There may be many AOL processes, so this might take a few minutes.

4. Let's finally delete AOL...

To make sure Windows lets you see all files and folders, click the Start orb, click Documents, right-click the top breadcrumb bar, then click "Show menus". In the Menu Bar, click Tools, then click Folder Options on the drop-down list.

In the next box, click the View tab, then scroll down to the option for Show hidden files, folders, and drives. Make sure it's checked. Find the other options in that list for showing hidden files and folders, and make sure they're also 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), then right-click and delete them. Click the Common folder open and right-click and delete the AOL folders in there, too.

Now click the Start orb and type the words aol and america online into the search box on the Start List, then right-click and delete any files and folders that turn up.

If you have trouble deleting AOL's files or folders, 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 still giving you grief, you can also try this registry edit to take ownership of it.

The only AOL file and folder I was unable to remove was aolshare, because of the aolshcpy.dll file inside of it. You can leave those on your computer; they'll do no harm once your other AOL files and folders are gone.

With this method you'll have tons of leftover AOL registry entries, but they won't harm your computer. The only concern is they might slow your computer down by increasing RAM usage as Windows searches through them to find what it needs.

If that concerns you, there are several registry cleaners, like jv16 PowerTools and CCleaner, that you can use to remove AOL's registry entries.

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.

So last week was Retro Week at the house of Anti-AOL. Just for old time's sake I installed AOL 9.0 Optimized and AOL 9.0 SE on my computer (both ancient versions of AOL, in case you didn't know), confident that my own how-tos would help pull me out of any issues removing them.

Boy, was I wrong.

I spent days trying to understand why what I wrote to guide others through this very problem was made out of pure fail. The problem itself was this: the AOL Uninstaller (Choose Which Products to Remove) hung while searching for other versions of AOL, regardless of which version of AOL I installed - at one point, I had both versions mentioned above, plus AOL 9.0VR, but still, no dice.

It's not that I suck - is it?

By last Friday I was ready to leave myself a comment on most of my removal articles saying that I suck and to just delete the entire blog to save face while I still could, but then I thought better of it, if only because I was finally getting a little much-needed attention in News. With so many eyes on your blog you can't just go...

I give up - AOL wins again!

So anyway, I'm going to guide others through removing AOL from Vista by doing the very thing I hate doing and have told others not to do dozens of times - just delete it. It's not as easy as it sounds, it's not fun, and it's not quick, but it can be done safely and effectively if you take the steps in the right order. My next post will have the actual how-to.

This post is just me letting off some steam before I write it.

What puzzles me the most is, I've had dozens of AOL installations on my Vista systems over the years (purely for testing purposes) and removed them without hassles in almost all cases. When I did run into hassles, my own tutorials got me through them.

This marks the first time I've understood what everyone else is talking about when they email me that a certain how-to (or none of the how-tos) is working for them. My guess is that having Vista fully updated to SP2 might have something to do with AOL's wayward inability to uninstall. But honestly, I just can't figure it out.

So far readers have thanked me for helping them get back over $1,200 from AOL. This is not chump change.

Reading my blog helped Sarah discover that even though AOL was still charging her every month for an account she canceled almost a year and a half ago, there was still hope she could get back the $400 AOL had taken from her bank account without her permission by the time she wrote to me. In Sarah's own words:

I bought a computer in February 2008. The computer came with a free trial offer to AOL. I signed up for the offer on a Friday. I decided to choose a different internet provider and canceled my account the same weekend. I never received a letter, email, or phone call from AOL until June of 2009, when my card expired and AOL could not process my payment. I had no idea they were even charging my account until I received the letter. I tried calling and after about 15 minutes of prompts finally got someone who's English was obviously his second language.

When I tried explaining my situation it was like he wasn't even listening to me and was continually trying to sign me up for more services. He got me so upset I ended up hanging up on him. My husband called back demanding to speak with a manager. We ended up speaking with a another non-English speaking person who informed me that I could write a letter explaining what I wanted them to do along with copies of my bank statement showing what I had been charged. I did this, sent the letter, and never heard anything back.

In July I got a bill from AOL saying that I owed $51.80. I sent another letter explaining the situation again, and both letters have included my work and cell numbers where I can be reached. I have yet to hear from them. Now today I received another letter saying that it is now going to collections. AOL owes me between $300-400 dollars. I have accepted the fact that I will probably never see a cent of this money, however now I have something that I don't even owe going on my credit report. What advice can you give me?

I explained to Sarah that she should file a complaint against AOL with the BBB and told her how doing so helped another reader get back over $800 from AOL. I also suggested she file complaints with the FL Attorney General (she lives in Florida and has given me permission to use her name) and with the FTC. I also suggested she file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Bureau. When AOL deducts money from your debit, credit card, or bank account without your permission, that's online fraud - and that's a crime in all 50 states.

That was in mid-September. She wrote me again a few days ago with the good news:

Thank you so much for your help with this matter. I wanted to let you know that AOL paid me back the $414.40 they owed me. I was really set to the idea of never seeing the money again. I was very surprised but when I filed a report with the BBB, within a month the money was back in my account. Thank you.

I want to keep publishing these emails to show my readers that if AOL won't let you cancel, or if they won't let you cancel without slapping you with erroneous, outrageous fees, or if they simply won't stop billing you once your AOL account is canceled, the BBB is on your side.

It seems like once you contact the BBB, AOL will almost instantly bend over backwards to resolve your issue (you can scroll down this page on the BBB to see just how many cases AOL has either resolved or "tried to resolve" - that's all of them).

The BBB even "tried to resolve" my issue with AOL years ago, which did not stop me from starting this blog.

It's not the fastest or easiest way to get your money back - but it works. I encourage you, if you're getting taken advantage of by AOL, to file an online complaint with the BBB.

The account for this journal was set to expire, based on when I started paying for it back in 2006, on Jan. 24th. While I usually renew early - in case, I don't know, I get hit by a train or something - thanks to a contest I entered on LiveJournal that I won, I can go back to my more natural inclination to put off renewing for a while. But I will be putting one more year of paid time on this blog before next June or July - it's got nine lives, somehow.

You can read more about the contest here.

So you're ready to make the big switch. You've set up an account with a new service provider so you won't lose your Web connection, you've saved your AOL email, Favorites and AOL Address Book, and you want to call AOL soon to cancel your account.

In the meantime, you're looking to get rid of AOL's software and on the lookout for a way to get on the Web that's fresh, fast, and fun. Maybe a friend or co-worker told you about Firefox and you're intrigued. You should be. Nearly 25% of web users worldwide are devoted to Firefox, with it's clean, simple look, exceptional speed, excellent pop-up controls, and awesome private browsing features. (Edit, 12-21-2009: Firefox 3.5 is now the most popular browser in the world.) This article will help you make the switch.

Wait...what is Firefox?

Firefox replaces AOL's program with a much lighter, slimmer one called a "browser" that you can surf the Web with. It doesn't include an email or IM program (a fact I'd really like to change), but with so many free online email and instant messaging services to choose from, and tons of free, high-quality email and IM clients that are just a click away once you install them, that's no big deal.

Where is it?

The latest and greatest copy of Firefox is always right here. To get started, just download Firefox and run it's installer program. Once the installer is done, keep the check box filled for "Run Firefox now" so you can start surfing right way.

Where's what I use in AOL?

The difference between using AOL or IE and Firefox goes like this:

• Instead of clicking View - Refresh to reload a page, in Firefox you'll click View - Reload.
• Instead of saving pages in Favorites in AOL or IE, in Firefox, you'll save pages in Bookmarks. The Firefox Bookmarks offer tons of helpful sorting and tracking tools, and there are many add-ons (I'll get to those in a bit) that can help you do even more with them.
• Unlike the way you clear cookies and "tracks" in AOL or IE, in Firefox you can clear them manually whenever you want or clear them automatically at browser shutdown.
• Instead of clicking a "Search" button to search the Web in AOL or IE, in Firefox you'll use a tiny search box that's always visible in the upper-right hand corner. Firefox is set to search Google by default, but if you want to try another search site (or try them all) you can do that.
• Unlike the way search results open in the same page of the AOL Search window, in Firefox, your search results will open in a new page; you can just use the Back Button to return to the page you were on.
• Instead of using clunky pop-up dialogs for downloads in AOL or IE, in Firefox you just use a Download Manager. You can start installing or viewing downloads right away from Firefox's Download Manager, or get to them whenever you like from the folder they're saved to on your computer.

Flyin' Now

Once you start surfing the Web with Firefox, you'll notice web pages look better than they do in AOL or IE, websites load faster, a lot of content that's blocked or unusable in AOL or IE will finally show up and look just the way you want it to, and you'll feel cool knowing Firefox is one of the safest, most secure browsers on Earth.

Pimpin'

Firefox is made with "open source" code that anyone can draw up, so anyone (yes, even you!) can create an "add-on" to add to how Firefox looks and feels. Luckily, there are so many add-ons (estimates say maybe tens of thousands!) that you don't have to make your own to get every sort of cool thing you could want. You can find and download all the free, high-quality add-ons you want here.

There's also a set of steps for how Firefox runs that you can see by typing "about:config" into Firefox's address bar. You can change any of those steps so Firefox will work just the way you want it to.

For more on what you can do with Firefox, here's some posts on the Web that go on where I'll leave off:

• How to Customize Firefox
• Have It Your Way In Firefox!
• 20 Firefox Tips and Tweaks

Want to see my Firefox add-ons? (I think I have over 60 of them!) They're here.

Admittedly, I haven't kept up with how many people get laid off at AOL. There are so many layoffs every year, all year long at AOL, that keeping up is rather time-consuming. Luckily, Alley Insider has picked up where I left off with a much better chart than the one I made (it's also better than Valleywags's, which was the one I tried to improve upon) with a new layoff chart of their own.

I like it better than Valleywag's or my own chart because a) you can see it (I seem to have lost the bigger copy of my chart), 2) it lists the name of the CEO who presided over each layoff in chronological order, and c) it's bigger than my chart, or did I say that already? oh, and d) it's up to date, which the other charts no longer are.

If I were to get really ambitious, I'd compare all three charts (it would help if I could see my own chart, of course, but I can't) and come up with an improved version, if needed, that I could add to this December or next February (depending on which rumor you believe) when the bulk of AOL layoffs are supposed to happen (rumors place the upcoming body count between 1,000-2,000 people).

My apologies to Alley Insider: LiveJournal forbids embedding of iframes; thanks to JavaScript hackers weeks ago, LJ's own embedding format is still disabled except for video, so I can't use the codes given on AI to embed the chart properly.

ETA: As soon as I wrote this post, I found a bigger copy of my chart, linked to right under the smaller copy. Since it's my usual habit to link bigger images to smaller ones (but not to place the link to the bigger image underneath), I thought I'd lost the bigger version, which pretty much sums up what I would think.