Anti-AOL

AOL Is LYING

I'm not going to beat around the bush: AOL is run by liars, thieves and crooks. Take this lie slapped across a cancel page on aol.com:

"If you cancel you will no longer have an Internet connection, live technical support or security software."

FACT: In the US, most of you will NOT lose your high-speed connection to the Internet if you cancel AOL.

There are a few exceptions:

1. If you use AOL Broadband in the UK, you will lose your connection to the Internet if you cancel AOL, so be sure to sign up with another Internet service provider before you cancel. A rough outline on what you will need to do to switch from AOL Broadband in the UK to another service provider is here.
2. In the US, if you use AOL dial-up, or if your high-speed connection to the Internet is through a partnership AOL entered into with the following DSL and/or cable companies: BellSouth, Qwest Communications, AT&T, Covad, Clearwire, or Charter Communications, you may lose your connection to the Internet if you cancel AOL.
   Question: "I have high-speed through one of the AOL partners listed above, so how I can tell if I can cancel AOL without losing my Internet connection"?
   Answer: Check your monthly credit and debit card statements for charges from AOL for service. If AOL charges are present, chances are good you might lose your connection to the Internet if you cancel AOL, so be sure to sign up with another service provider before you cancel.

AOL makes an inaccurate blanket statement to scare you into not canceling your account: that you will lose your connection to the Internet if you do. They don't bother explaining that if you don't connect to the Internet through AOL dial-up or through a high-speed provider that has partnered with AOL to bring you service, you won't lose a damn thing.

AOL is playing into the fears of uncomputer-savvy folks who might believe this bullshit. These are the same folks who think clicking the AOL or IE icon "starts the Internet". I'm not trying to make fun of anyone, but I'd like to point out that for many people in the US, their level of computer knowledge is no greater than that, and AOL is taking advantage of it to scare them into keeping accounts they no longer want or need. That is morally wrong and does a serious financial injustice to AOL's customers.

Before you read this, it's important to know that you don't need AOL software anymore to read your AOL email. If you cancel AOL and remove the AOL program from your computer, you can just sign in at AOL.com to check your email online.

The online version of AOL email does everything that the offline version does: it saves hard copies of email to your PC, it allows you to read and reply to email using rich or plain text formats, and it stores an unlimited amount of your email.

If you would like to use the AOL program on your computer despite this warning, read on.

A Sample of My Recent Email

    From: [redacted]@aol.com <[redacted]@aol.com>
    Subject: Thank you for your web site... a few questions, please
    To: [me]@rocketmail.com
    Date: Thursday, April 23, 2009, 3:23 AM

    You have done a wonderful service with your Anti AOL web site. I hope you'll be patient with my questions. I have a high speed ISP (AT&T) and they tell me that my free AOL account is just slowing everything down, etc. I've disliked AOL for years but my wife is very concerned about what might happen to our important files, saved emails, pictures, etc., if we remove all traces of AOL from our computer and just go with the ATT service. Also, she's an avid user of instant messaging and ATT does not offer this feature. Do you know how we can be sure not to lose our files, saved emails, email address books, favorite places, etc. when removing AOL? Can all of this simply be transferred over to our AT&T account? We want to retain our AOL email addresses. So, in order to check our email (once AOL has been removed from our computer), would we have to type aol.com into the browser bar to get to the aol page to access our email?

    Thanks,
    Elliott K.

My Response

Hi Elliott,

Sorry for taking a while to respond but I needed time to get my thoughts together to give you the best answers possible.

If you're on a computer with less than 1GB of RAM and less than 2GHz of processor power you may encounter problems with AOL slowing down your computer and Web browsing.

Browsing the Web with an AOL desktop client will be slower than browsing with IE, or Firefox, or Safari for Windows, or Opera, no matter how powerful your computer is - in my experience, anyway. Your mileage may vary.

I would suggest what AT&T suggested - backing up your needed AOL data, removing AOL from your computer, and moving on to a faster browser that will not tie up your computer with so much RAM and CPU usage. I wrote about why here.

Before you ditch AOL altogether, I should probably point you to this...if your computer has at least 1GB of RAM and at least 1.80 GHz of processor power, you may want to switch to AOL 9.5 Classic. I panned it in my first review, when I was running the Beta version, but my opinion of it improved somewhat with the final release. Read the second half of the post, which is sub-titled "Update: AOL 9.5 Is Out".

I tested AOL Classic on my own computer, and the final version worked pretty well, not tying up the computer much at all. Your web browsing may be much slower than it would be in a traditional (non-AOL) browser...that is my only caveat.

[This didn't make it into my original reply: Once you back up your AOL email by following the steps here you can import your email from one version of AOL into another by following the steps here. It's also worth mentioning that AOL offers online file backup but it's incredibly expensive.]

If you're still determined to remove AOL completely, importing your AOL email and AOL Address Book into Outlook is explained here.

Pop Peeper, a free email notification tool with limited reply and email formatting capabilities, can import AOL email that still resides on AOL's servers and lets you send and receive current email from your AOL account. How to set it up to work with AOL is explained here.

If Pop Peeper is not for you, you can try a program called ePreserver. It costs $24.95, and it's specially designed to import your AOL email, your AOL Address Book, and your AOL Favorites into it's own viewer, and/or into Outlook, GMail, or Windows Mail. ePreserver's download and purchase page is here. A tutorial on how to use their program to import data from your AOL account(s) is here.

[This also didn't make it into my original reply: If none of those options are for you, About.com has an almost endless list of tutorials for importing your AOL email into any number of email programs, including IncrediMail, Outlook Express, and Mozilla Thunderbird. You can also try TrueSwitch, which costs $19.95, but is free of charge for existing Comcast and Yahoo! members.]

Once you've imported all of your data from AOL's software, my suggestion is to start here [How to Remove AOL with CCleaner] if you just want to remove AOL quickly and pretty thoroughly, or here [How to Remove AOL with jv16 PowerTools], if you want to be remove it more thoroughly.

To answer your question, I'm not sure what you mean by backing up "pictures" since AOL Pictures and BlueString closed down months ago. I wrote about the closings here.

To answer your other question, you cannot simply transfer your AOL data to AT&T. If you could AT&T would be one hot property, since everyone wants an ISP that automatically imports AOL's data for them. :)

As to how to check your email from now on, if you do go with AOL 9.5 Classic, you'll be able to check your email directly from the AOL desktop client, just as you always have, but if you remove AOL completely, you'll need to sign in at aol.com to check your email online from now on.

As to your wife's desire to use instant messaging outside of the AIM client, there are many options to choose from.

If you want to remove AIM from your computer, I have several tutorials for that (scroll down to the one you need, or let me know if you need a tutorial on it that I don't yet have).

Good replacements for AIM that allow you to use your AOL screen name to sign in and chat are:

• Digsby
• Pidgeon
• Trillian
• Miranda

If you don't mind, I may republish your email and my reply to you (slightly edited) on my blog in the near future to further educate others. One of the biggest complaints I get is that I don't write nearly enough about how to export and import AOL's email, Address Books, and Favorites; the amount of email I get on those topics reflects that.

Thanks for writing to me and for visiting my blog, and good luck getting your computer back in shape.

Sincerely,
Marah Marie
http://anti-aol.livejournal.com

---

Elliott soon wrote me back to say:

Dear Marah Marie,

    First of all, you are amazing. Not only did you answer all my questions (though I obviously have a lot of learning to do about all this)... you actually apologized for taking a few days to get back to me. I had to call my wife into the room because we don't run across folks like you very often. It's a pleasure.

    One thing I noticed from your email is that my system may not even be worth the effort of going through all this. It is a Dell Dimension PC, 4550 series, Intel Pentium 4 Processor at 2.40 GHz. It came with 512MB DDR SDRAM at 333MHz. The computer is 61/2 years old and is left on for 16 hours a day (every day). Do you think that maybe we are dealing with a computer that, even purged of AOL, will still never be very fast (at least not fast enough to notice the extra fast AT&T DSL connection that I pay extra for??

    I would value your opinion before I get further into this process. If the computer is not worth the effort, can you recommend a replacement? Are you an Apple fan?

Thanks a million,
Elliot K.

My Next Response

I think the idea that Elliott's system "may not even be worth the effort of going through all this" is absurd, so I wrote him to say:

Hi Elliott,

Your processor power is certainly more than adequate for surfing the Web, reading and writing email, working with basic photo programs, watching videos online and offline, etc. If your Dell's motherboard supports it, I would suggest bumping up the RAM to a 1 Gigabyte. If it's possible to fit another 512MB stick into a second memory slot, that will be the cheapest way to go; otherwise you might want to make a tiny investment for a full 1GB memory stick - it will pay you back in spades with vastly improved computer performance.

RAM is quite inexpensive these days; good deals are available both online and in places like Best Buy. I was ready to replace my 7 year old eMachines desktop (born in 2002!) that I'm typing this email to you on when someone convinced me to try a simple RAM upgrade first, so I did what I'm suggesting to you: I doubled my RAM from 512MB to 1GB. The difference was huge and immediately noticeable; it was like buying myself a new computer for a tiny fraction of the cost.

I'm sure Macs are fine computers, but as a Windows person who has not used Mac extensively since 1990 I shy away from giving my opinion on whether or not it is worth buying a Mac - especially when the computer you have needs no more, in my opinion, than a RAM upgrade to get it fast enough to do what you need.

---

Any additional advice from readers for Elliott and others in the same boat? The amount of email I get on the above topics is somewhere between frequent and never-ending so I'll take any help I can get. Given the way AOL ties your data down into proprietary formats and makes leaving so difficult, crowd-sourcing the best answers might be the way to go.

"Invasive AOL updates!"

A young lady from Los Angeles emailed me this week asking, "Are you familiar with these invasive AOL updates? Can you help me???"

I test AOL's software for my blog, so the answer is, "Yes and yes".

One nearly fool-proof method to make AOL's forced updates stop is to delete the stick.dll file.

You can also delete the entire folder mentioned below - either method works on AOL 10.0 Desktop but not on AOL 9.0 VR, which I need to play around with a bit more. The full path to the file on a Windows PC should look something like this:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\1144194954\ee\services\softwareUpdate\ve r1_13_8_3\

On older versions of AOL like 9.0 VR you can try deleting anotify.exe, which might stop the white auto-update nag above the system tray but will not stop AOL from notifying you the old fashioned way that it wants to update - by covering your AOL window with a huge "now or later" nag with some buttons on it to click for "now" or "later".

My reader goes on to tell me that she can't stop using AOL dial-up because:

1. I have lots of email that have important information and don’t want to lose them, so I need to go through all of them and get what I need before I cancel (case in point: I just retrieved some emails 6 months and older today with very imp info).
2. My neighbor shares his DSL with me (I can’t afford my own right now), but every once in a while I don’t have a connection and I need to use my AOL dial-up to get online and pay a bill on time.

How to import AOL email?

I would simply import AOL's email into POP Peeper. When you set up POP Peeper, and before you use it to fetch email from AOL, make sure you change its settings to ensure your AOL email gets copied to your hard drive: Go to Options, Set Options, Storage, then set POP Peeper to "Store Entire messages to disk" and check the box for "Save messages periodically". Here's a screen cap of the window you'll use for that.

If for whatever reason POP Peeper is not for you, you can do a web search for "how to import aol email". The first result will normally be for the ePreserver program. It costs money, but many of my readers swear by it, so listen to them, not me, when you're trying to decide how best to fetch your AOL email.

How to switch to another dial-up provider?

If you need to use AOL only infrequently, why not use Net Zero for free instead? (This is the first time I've recommended a dial-up ISP in almost three years of writing for this blog, and I'm suggesting Net Zero only because her need for dial-up is not 24/7). They offer a decent plan with 10 hours free each month. That should more than meet your needs. Before you switch, find out how to switch your ISP without losing your connection to the Internet.

The best way to remove AOL?

My reader continues:

Once I get rid of AOL, I plan to copy all of the files on my computer, reformat my hard disk, and start all over to make sure there is nothing from AOL left on my computer. I know this may sound extreme, but I believe it is the best way to completely remove AOL, as suggested by close friends!

Gotta love them "close friends"! My boyfriend and I cannot even agree on this. He insists I should wipe my hard drive and re-install Windows when I'm done with my bi-annual testing of AOL software (we've argued about this for three years). I insist it's easier (and quicker!) to get the computer "like-new" again than it is to format and re-install Windows - but I don't constantly complain of AOL's ravaging effects on my computer for nothing, so I'll flip our "close friends" a quarter for suggesting a computer is much better from scratch than it is after AOL has been on it - even if you remove every last trace of AOL's invasive software. Ultimately, the choice is up to you.

Hi, and welcome to Anti-AOL, a blog about how to cancel, uninstall, or file a complaint against AOL that also covers the latest bad news about them.

How to find what you need: All the tutorials and help pages are here.
All tutorials work on Windows XP except those written for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users.

Here are questions people typically ask me when they're ready to leave AOL.

Questions

• How do I contact AOL to cancel my service and/or change my price plan to "free"?
• Do I need to use AOL's software or keep paying for AOL if I connect to the Internet with another ISP?
• If I cancel AOL, can I use my existing AOL email addresses with AOL's free email service?
• How do I uninstall AOL/AIM/other AOL products?
• What other help can I find here?

Answers

How do I contact AOL to cancel my service and/or change my price plan to "free"?

You can reach AOL by mail, phone, or fax, or use their online cancel form. If you get your Internet connection from AOL, I suggest you sign up with another ISP before you cancel AOL, to ensure you can continue to connect to the Internet without any interruption.

Here are all of AOL's phone numbers and addresses so you can cancel your account. Both free and paying members of AOL can also use this link to AOL's online cancel form to cancel AOL. Check my tips on how to use the online form to cancel your free or paid AOL account.

As liber_cogito (a former AOL call rep) kindly pointed out to me, you can also go to AOL Keyword: My Account and change your price plan to Free. Read more about what AOL offers for free as of Aug., 2006 at Bob Rankin's blog.

AOL's software, email, content, and most of AOL's online services are given away free of charge since August of 2006.

You can stop paying for AOL now (even if you use AOL dial-up, AOL for Broadband, or an AOL high speed partner - just be sure to sign up with another Internet Service Provider before you cancel). To cancel your AOL account, you can call AOL or go AOL Keyword: My Account, or use AOL's online cancel form.

You cannot reach AOL by email to cancel your account. 4-28-08: AOL does have an email system for an online support desk of some sort - if I ever find the link I'll post it here.

Here's everything in the known universe about how to cancel AOL. Write to me if you still can't find what you need.

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Do I need to use AOL's software if I connect to the Internet with another ISP?

No. A few exceptions are listed below. See this article for more information.

1. If you use AOL Broadband in the UK, you will lose your connection to the Internet if you cancel AOL, so be sure to sign up with another Internet service provider before you cancel. A rough outline on what you will need to do to switch from AOL Broadband in the UK to another service provider is here.
2. In the US, if you use AOL dial-up, or if your high-speed connection to the Internet is through a partnership AOL entered into with the following DSL and/or cable companies: BellSouth, Qwest Communications, AT&T, Covad, Clearwire, or Charter Communications, you may lose your connection to the Internet if you cancel AOL.
   Question: "I have high-speed through one of the AOL partners listed above, so how I can tell if I can cancel AOL without losing my Internet connection"?
   Answer: Check your monthly credit and debit card statements for charges from AOL for service. If AOL charges are present, chances are good you might lose your connection to the Internet if you cancel AOL, so be sure to sign up with another service provider before you cancel.

If you want a new dial-up provider, all the information you need to switch providers before you cancel AOL is found at Easy Call. Once you've chosen a new provider, you can cancel your AOL dial-up subscription and remove AOL's software.

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If I cancel AOL, can I use my existing AOL email addresses with AOL's free email service?

Yes, but if you don't use your existing AOL email addresses within one year of canceling AOL, they will be deactivated and purged from AOL's system.

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How do I uninstall AOL/AIM/other AOL products?

AOL's instructions for uninstalling your software are often inadequate and won't help you remove AOL 9.0 SE Optimized, some versions of AOL OpenRide, and other (older) versions of AOL software. AOL's instructions also won't help you get rid of files and folders that are left behind after you remove AOL.

Here are the best ways to...

• Remove AOL from XP, Vista and Windows 7
• Remove AOL when it's not listed in Add and Remove Programs on XP
• Remove AOL when it's not listed in Add and Remove Programs on Vista and Windows 7
• Remove AOL if it "freezes" during uninstall or still runs after you uninstall it
• How to Remove the AOL Wan Miniport Adapter
• How to Remove the AOL Uninstaller From Add/Remove Programs

AIM users: Information on how to remove AIM is here.

Here's everything in the known universe about how to uninstall AOL. Included in those pages are tips on how to use the greatest AOL removers of all time so you can get the job done right.

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What other help can I find here? How about filing a complaint against AOL? Learning about the latest AOL email issues?

You can find all of that here and more; just check the Tags and the How-to Index.

If you want to import your AOL email contacts into Outlook, about.com has an easy tutorial.

If you want a free email "collection service", my POP Peeper tutorial might be just what you need.

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If you have a question that's not answered here, or in the How-to Section, or in the other FAQs please feel free to send me an email.

Last updated 10-1-09.

Yes, you can use AOL's software and email now - for free!

The emails about how to cancel and remove AOL are piling up in my inbox again - in fact, that's nothing unusual - so let's go over this one more time, folks:

You can use the AOL software that's already on your computer, or download and use the latest AOL software from aol.com, and use AOL's online email service for free since August of 2006. Find out how to cancel your monthly charge for AOL here. Scroll down the page linked to in the previous sentence to choose the cancellation method that best suits your needs.

Exceptions to Using AOL for Free

1. If you still need to use AOL for a dial up connection you must pay a monthly fee for it.
2. In the UK, if you still use AOL for a broadband cable connection you must pay a monthly fee for it.
3. The US dial up and UK broadband connection plans each include an AOL web browser and email.

No, you do NOT need AOL's software in order to use Roadrunner, Comcast - or any other ISP!

Don't let AOL or your ISP fool you. Are you paying an extra monthly charge because AOL or your ISP told you that you must use AOL's software in order to keep your connection to the Internet alive?

Unless you have one of the plans mentioned here (check with your ISP first) they are not telling you the truth. Learn how to cancel AOL's monthly charge to your credit or debit card here. Scroll down the page linked to in the previous sentence to choose the cancellation method that best suits your needs.

Yes - AOL 9.0 VR and AOL 9.1 Are Causing Your Connection Problems!

Not only have I had a lot of problems maintaining a connection to the Internet with AOL 9.0 VR or 9.1 installed; so have other people. I get email every week about this. In my experience, AOL 9.0 VR and AOL 9.1 are the most likely culprits for being unable to make or keep a connection to the Internet on a clean computer that had no connection problems before installing AOL. The AOL Adapter used in those versions is most likely at fault.

To restore your Internet connection, follow the steps below, and follow them in the exact order they're listed in.

General AOL Removal Instructions

1. First remove AOL from XP - or remove AOL from Vista - and be sure to follow all of the steps on those pages in the exact order they're listed in.
2. Next, remove the AOL Adapter.
3. Lastly, reboot your computer and check your connection again.
4. If taking the steps above does not restore your connection then AOL's software might not be at fault so take your computer to an authorized repair shop or seek help from an online computer-help forum to determine what the problem is.

"Marah, if Time Warner owns AOL and Roadrunner doesn't that mean that I can't..."

Yes, Time Warner owns AOL and Roadrunner but that does not mean you must use AOL's software in order to use Roadrunner Broadband. I don't. That's right - Roadrunner is my ISP, too, and I'm going to sue them one day for throttling my bandwidth - but if you're happy using Roadrunner then just keep on using it. You can still cancel and remove AOL from your computer if you like - you will not lose your connection to Roadrunner over it at any point. You don't need one to use the other. It's as simple as that.

It's True: AOL 9.0 SE Cannot Be Removed Using Any Normal Method Known to God or Man

I did find one safe way to get AOL 9.0 SE off your computer, though, and it's not hard to do; follow the instructions here.

To Recap

This post has covered all the questions that I normally get by email. Each and every one of these questions has been answered on my blog. If you want to email me with any questions not covered in this post I will simply refer you to one of my other FAQs. I will only answer in more detail if you ask me a question that I haven't covered at some point. Thanks for reading!

Updated 7-22-08.

Software: AOL Email.

Replacement: POP Peeper.

Difficulty Level: Easy

For people who've never had any ISP (Internet Service Provider) except AOL, "How will I survive without them?" is a good question. POP Peeper can download your AOL email to your Desktop so you don't have to sign into AOL for it. You can read and write messages directly from it. If you're planning on canceling AOL and want to try this out, you should sign up with a new Internet service provider and install POP Peeper before you call AOL to cancel your account.

Send and receive AOL email from your free POP Peeper email client instead of logging into AOL.com or using AOL's software. It's no harder than typing in your AOL screen name, password, the name of AOL's email server, and asking for SMTP Authentication just one time. Set it and forget it. On a scale of 1-10, this is just plain easy. Download POP Peeper here, then follow the steps below, which show you how I set up my AOL email address to work with POP Peeper.

1. Add a new account...

Open POP Peeper and click the Accounts tab on the top left-hand side of the window. Click Add.

2. Click Create, then click Next.

An Account Wizard will open and ask you to either Import or Create a Single Account. You will be creating a home for your AOL account, so click Create a Single Account, then click Next.

3. Add your email address...

Type your AOL email address (such as xyz@aol.com) into the Wizard. Click Next.

4. The correct settings are auto-filled...

The name of the email account (in this case, the name of it is AOL) and the default mail protocol (AOL uses IMAP) will be filled in for you by the Wizard. Leave these settings alone and click Next.

5. Fill in name and password...

Fill in your AOL screen name and password when the Wizard asks you to. (My AOL screen name is itcouldntb, which I chose because aolsucks was taken.)

6. Settings again are auto-filled...

AOL has two mail servers: imap.aol.com and mail.aol.com. Choose imap.aol.com. The port number for the server, Port 143, is filled in for you. Leave these settings alone and click Next.

7. Choose how POP Peeper connects...

This part of the Wizard asks, Do you want to enable SMTP support for this account? Check Yes. Leave the box for the Name blank. At the bottom of the window, it will say, Server Requires Authentication. Check the box next to those words. The correct port number is already set for you (Port 25). Click Finish.

8. Now you can read your email...

To read your AOL email from POP Peeper, click View and Account Mode. Once Account Mode is enabled, right-click the name of each email account to check for new email or to read what you've already received and reply to it. That's all there is to it - it's as easy as pie.

See my How-to Section for more ways to get AOL out of your life.

Last updated 3-11-09.

This FAQ is for people having problems removing AOL. It is not a replacement for my how-to-uninstall AOL tutorials. Please see the tutorials if you missed them on your way in. Leave a comment or send me an email to get other questions answered or to offer up your own solutions.

The instructions on this page will work for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 users. My tutorial index and FAQs are constantly updated to reflect changes to AOL's and Microsoft's software.

Questions

• I can't uninstall AOL because it keeps running - or I can't delete an AOL file or folder because "the computer won't let me". What can I do now?
• If AOL isn't listed in Add/Remove Programs, how do I uninstall it?
• I've uninstalled AOL. Is it safe to delete AOL's leftover files, folders and registry entries?
• Do I really need to remove AOL's files and/or registry entries?
• When I uninstalled AOL I deleted a [file, folder, program, etc.] that I need very badly. How do I get it back?

Answers

I can't uninstall AOL because it keeps running - or I can't delete an AOL file or folder because "the computer won't let me". What can I do now?

If you're trying to uninstall AOL and you can't because the AOL program won't shut down (you may see a message to this effect on your screen) or if you can't delete an AOL file or folder from XP after you uninstall AOL (but see this page if you can't delete an AOL file or folder from Vista or Windows 7), most likely you have a copy of AOL 9.0 SE installed. It's defective by design, so to uninstall it you must first shut the AOL Connectivity Service down.

To shut the AOL Connectivity Service down, click Start, right-click My Computer, and click Manage.

The Computer Management window will open. Click Services and Applications at the end of the list you'll see on the left hand side, then double-click on the word Services.

Find the AOL Connectivity Service on the Services list on the top right hand side of the window. Right-click and choose Properties, then click Startup Type Disabled, click Apply, then click Service Status Stopped and click OK. Now the AOL Connectivity Service is disabled.

Once the Connectivity Service stops running, AOL will uninstall smoothly and you will be able to delete any AOL file or folder leftover from uninstalling AOL. (I tested this using HijackThis to determine the Service's status both before and after, and it did the trick.)

Note: Once AOL's Connectivity Service is disabled, you'll be able to remove AOL no matter what other AOL processes are still running on your computer.

If your AOL software is missing the AOL Uninstaller you will need to disable AOL's Connectivity Service, then run an older version of AOL's uninstaller buried deep in AOL's program files (see the next answer).

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If AOL isn't listed in Add/Remove Programs, how do I uninstall it?

1. First double-check Add/Remove Programs. If you're using my jv16 tutorial to remove AOL, you can check the jv16 PowerTools Software Manager to see if it's installed. Tip: you can sort jv16's list alphabetically, by date, or by author. If you're using my CCleaner tutorial, you can check CCleaner's Uninstall List for the AOL Uninstaller, and run it from there.
2. Next, right-click your Taskbar, click on the words Task Manager, then click the Processes tab, and check the list for any AOL processes. You can sort the list alphabetically by clicking the "Image Name" tab. For guidance, the next screen shots show my computer's Processes List with a variety of AOL products installed: AOL 9.0SE, OpenRide, and assorted McAfee products included with AOL's recent software. Click on each image to expand it to full size.




3. If AOL isn't listed in Add/Remove Programs or in your Software Manager, and no AOL processes are running, then AOL isn't installed. Simply delete all of the AOL files, folders and registry entries you find now. If AOL is installed, these are the instructions for removing it for XP users; these are the instructions for removing it for Vista and Windows 7 users.

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I've uninstalled AOL. Is it safe to delete AOL's leftover files, folders and registry entries?

Yes, it's safe to delete them. AOL comes with most PCs, tosses files all over your hard drive, and it's hard to get rid of, but once it's gone, the leftovers can go, too. Just so you don't mess anything up: Make sure you double-check each item you're about to delete before you delete it. Try to be careful the first time around.

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Do I really need to remove AOL's files and/or registry entries?

No, it's not necessary to remove them. It's simply the best thing you can do for your computer (to make it cleaner and faster) but it's not worth doing if you're unsure how to do it, and it will take longer than simply uninstalling AOL.

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When I uninstalled AOL I deleted a [file, folder, program, etc.] that I need very badly. How do I get it back?

I've done research since I took that question and learned Windows never erases anything, even if you delete it, overwrite it, use Eraser, have a system crash, or reformat your hard drive. That said, System Restore cannot bring back a lost folder, file, or document. It can only restore lost settings and some lost programs.

If you've checked your Recycle Bin and C:\RECYCLER and the missing item isn't in those places, and if System Restore can't bring it back for you, try typing "restore lost files" or a similar phrase into any search engine to look for programs that might restore it for you.

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