Anti-AOL

Edited 5-23-08.

All those tests I've written about doing to find the best software to remove AOL are finally done. Frankly, I'm a little surprised at the results.

Results: Just keep on using the same old programs to remove AOL.

You'd think I could do better than that, and I tried because I love how so many of you want to find the best ways to remove AOL, but I couldn't come up with anything niftier than my current methods (well, I did find one Honorable Mention) - blame it on lack of better technology.

Honorable Mention: AOLCleanup2

I gave AOLCleanup2 (direct download link) a whirl during my testing. I tried it because the author claimed it could remove quite a few versions of AOL. It's a simple batch file that works fast to get the job done. In my tests it worked great on Vista, but didn't work at all on XP. I still give it an Honorable Mention as one of the Greatest AOL Removal Tools of All Time.

The Losers

I tested Revo Uninstaller out of sheer curiosity - the fact that it claims to uninstall unwanted programs and remove any files, folders, and registry entries leftover from them intrigued me. A program like that would be the most efficient way to remove AOL - if it actually worked. In my tests it removed only three-quarters of AOL's registry entries and just one AOL folder - and not even a hard-to-find folder at that.

Using it meant skipping the required restart to finish removing AOL, which made me uneasy. Also, this program exposes the entire registry to your editing abilities (however good or bad they are) so using it was like trying not to drop cryptonite. It was terrifying to think how easily you could remove your entire registry with it. Not to mention the GUI is so sloppy it could befuddle Einstein.

To round out my experiment I tested some other...well, for lack of a better word...crap that's not worth mentioning, but let me say this: please don't waste your time on Absolute Uninstaller or any version of jv16 PT except for the version I show you how to use here - it's as simple as that.

The Winners *yawn* are, as usual...

CCleaner and jv16 PowerTools (each link will bring you to my corresponding how-to page).

The only news to come out of a week of destroying my dual-booting 2002 eMachines for the sole benefit of the quitting-AOL crowd is this: I proved to myself that jv16 PT is best for use on XP, and CCleaner is best for use on Vista or XP. I've updated both tutorials to reflect that hard-won bit of wisdom.

I also learned that on Vista you should remove AOL with CCleaner first, then use jv16 PT to remove any leftover AOL registry entries. It's the only way to get AOL out of Vista's registry without hand-editing it, so I definitely suggest my savvier, more time-pressed readers try it.

I may update in the next few weeks - forget what I wrote last night about that - I was in a bad mood since I was so pressed for time (thanks for your emails, "Silo" and Jerry - and yes, Jerry, I do have a thing for parentheses; sorry if it made the first version of this post a bit hard to read).

AOL 9.0 SE, the product that uses 2 processes that can't be shut down unless you use Hijack This or blow your computer up, is back on my computer again. I can't get enough of how badly AOL screwed this up. My processor is three times as fast as the one I had when I started writing this blog in 2005, my hard drive is three times as large, and my computer has four times as much memory, yet AOL still slows it down; other programs crash and the computer is unusable for anything except surfing.

Firefox has crashed twice since I installed AOL 9.0 SE a few days ago. POP Peeper, which I've used for about a year to collect email, also crashed twice. Now I can count in seconds how long it takes to launch an Explorer Window. They opened so fast before I installed this version of AOL, there was no waiting.

Here I am. I've put AOL 9.0 SE on a clean install of XP, on a much more powerful computer than I've ever had before, and it's still killing it.

On AOL's new 9.0 VR Help page, they tell you not to upgrade to AOL 9.0 VR because both programs are "the same." Look at this crap:

Will AOL 9.0VR Work With Other Microsoft® Windows Operating Systems Besides Vista?

...If you are using Windows XP or earlier Windows operating systems, you do not need to update your AOL software to 9.0VR.

My foot you don't need to upgrade. That's the most inaccurate claim they've ever made. I've installed 9.0 VR at least 3 times since it came out, and it's a thousand times smaller, sleeker, and less resource-hogging than 9.0 SE ever was.

To use the old 9.0 SE on Vista if you're not familiar with how to clean Vista up after uninstalling something is just asking for trouble. Navigating Vista takes time to finesse -- it's nothing like navigating older versions of Windows: no folder trees and the weirdest Search Panel anyone's ever seen. There's nothing about it you can intuitively pick up from having used Windows before.

When I get 9.0 SE uninstalled, I'll write a new tutorial on how to uninstall it from Add/Remove Programs and Explorer, perhaps with options to use regedit and such. In the meantime I'm deleting the CCleaner tutorial. I've never been "at peace" with it (don't ask--I just don't like it), so it's gone.

Edited 02-20-2007 and 05-15-2007.

Recently I did a few drive-by reviews of Videos at AOL.com and Stage6, a new video site I learned about on Digg, and the differences between the "file-sharing" sites are staggering. All they have in common is free videos with some for sale at various prices; the only advantage AOL has over Stage6 is that sometimes they have more to choose from.

Focus: AOL HI-Q Videos

I didn't take AOL's normal (low-quality) videos into account for this article; while they're crisp and clear in their compact version (which is tiny) when you expand them to full-screen all you get is a muddy blur punctuated by a pair of eyes now and then. And don't blame that on my video card; my video card would make almost anyone jealous. I focused instead on AOL's HI-Q (HD or high-definition) videos. They're rare at best, extremely hard to find, and require installing ActiveX controls and their HI-Q Player, which was a nightmare.

For reasons known only to AOL you need IE to download the HI-Q player.

That was the first strike against it. I dislike exposing my PC to vulnerabilities in IE that will never see the light of day in Firefox. The installation file kept downloading over and over again. That was the next strike against it. After three downloads I had to make the download stop through Task Manager.

IE7 blocks scripts and ActiveX controls.

That means technically you can't download anything with it, so the next annoyance was giving the download and at least three different ActiveX controls permission to run. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most pull-your-hair-out experience imaginable, AOL's HI-Q Player was off the charts.

You're out of control!

Once you're through IE's endless warnings, beeping download blockers, awkward right-click installations and the player is finally being installed, you're out of control; there's no clue as to what's being installed or where it will land. Searching for the player in Explorer once it's installed is useless, and that's coming from someone who swears she can find anything on a PC. I finally resorted to running a product I dislike and avoid, SIW, to trace it's single running process, KHost, back to a C:\Windows directory, which still told me nothing. The executable was the only thing I found in that folder.

Is this a rootkit?

At that point I swore the program was a rootkit, so I ran it through Resplendence's Rootkit Hook Analyzer. The scan came up clean, so unless it's designed to avoid detection, it probably isn't a rootkit. That said, the only place you can access it from is the Taskbar. That's kind of scary.

How do I uninstall it?

I checked Add/Remove Programs, Program Files, the Start List, and my Taskbar's HI-Q shortcut for an uninstaller but no matter where I looked I couldn't find one. I checked CCleaner's and Spybot's Uninstaller lists but they came up empty, too. I finally found it using jv16 powertool's Software Manager but using jv16 is like breaking out heavy artillery to get rid of unwanted houseguests; it's way beyond what you should need to get rid of any program. Except, of course, theirs.

It downloads a download manager?

Not only that, but the player downloads a Download Manager that autoruns on startup unless you disable it immediately. It's always visible in the right-hand corner above the Taskbar and slows the computer down considerably.

Well, hell, let's try it out.

My favorite artist is Mariah Carey so I downloaded a few of her videos for comparison. What I couldn't find was the same high-quality Mariah video on both AOL and Stage6, so I compared two favorites, "Fantasy," which AOL has a HI-Q version of, and "It's Like That," which thanks to Stage6's file format is high-quality.

Letter-boxing and ads?

Once the player was running I was unpleasantly surprised by full-screen mode. It's the format of the box around the video that I disliked. It takes up major screen real estate and makes videos look low-rent. See for yourself below (I can't capture video with my under-capable technology but I hope you get the idea). Another serious drawback: there's at least 30 seconds of ads you have to watch before each video starts.

No Local Hard Drive Storage

In one of the weirdest twists I've seen in P2P playback, AOL's HI-Q videos can be "downloaded" and played back but cannot be stored locally on your hard drive. Downloading is strictly peer-to-peer, not server-based, to save AOL money, uses digitally signed videos that only AOL can upload, uses a grid framework similar to BitTorrent, but it stores your downloads in one place only -- on an IE page.

More disadvantages...

To watch the same video again you have to open AOL's Download Manager, which opens a page in IE with a list of your downloads. From there you can play them back or download more, but there's no way to store the files on your computer. All videos are protected with Windows DRM. You have to acquire the rights to play a video at least once and sometimes each time you want to watch it (my experience varied depending on the song). Example screen shots are below.

AOL Hi-Q sucks!

This added up to one bad experience that I wouldn't repeat except that AOL has a few high-quality videos you can't find on other video sites, but since I can't store, share or even work with those videos (for instance, I'm fond of decompiling video for stills but that's impossible with AOL's technology) I'm limited to local playback on IE after I acquire the rights to each video yet again. It's not something I feel is worth wasting time on.

Compare HI-Q to Stage6 and DivX.

After you zip through a quick Stage6 sign up page, you can download the DivX player and codecs from any browser (and that's not as hard or as time-consuming as it sounds). The DivX Player gives you control over what's installed, shows where files will be stored, lets you change the destination folder, and moves along quickly so you can you create, upload, download, and share files on their website or offline using a high-def file format similar to MPEG-4 (it's said to be a hacker's rendition of the format, but who cares...it works).

Advantages of Stage6 and DivX...

There's no DRM, no Download Manager, and no downloading files and playing them back exclusively from IE (a slow and laborious process at best). Stage6 gives you the freedom and control to do what you want. Full-screen playback is also seriously awesome on Stage6. There's no ads before a video starts; in fact, there's no ads at all. To access video controls, just right-click the video, even while it's playing.

Conclusion: Don't bother with AOL Hi-Q.

Using the DivX player is like heaven on a PC. Forget YouTube with their crappy Flash videos that you have to rip with possibly illegal software and AOL's DRM'd offerings, played back against a less-than-ideal backdrop. If you're looking for the best in free, high-quality video, without the annoyances and limitations of AOL, Stage6 is your best bet.

Visit these sites for more information:

Stage6
How DivX Works

Edited 2-03-2007 and 5-19-2007.

Everyone's talking about how "AOL is in the iPod business now." AOL unveiled this hideous mp3-playing monstrosity at the CES show in LA like it was the cure for cancer. It got people murmuring about "how much AOL has changed" and "how innovative" they are and whether or not this shiny piece of crap will be "the next iPod killer," inspired ooohs and ahhs from the tech community and made Steve Job's cadre of devotees have fatal heart attacks. Time to sort out the truth from the bullshit so you can discuss the "killer player" without giving AOL credit that they don't deserve, which might make me have a fatal heart attack. Don't make me have a fatal heart attack...I'm only 35.

The Bullshit

"AOL invented this new media player!"

The Truth

No, they didn't. The media player is not AOL's invention, nor will it be sold under their name. Haier didn't make it, either, but tragically, they did make the hardware for it. If you're not familiar with Haier, don't feel bad; I'm not, either. They're an obscure Chinese appliance company that makes refrigerators, washers, driers and TVs. They don't boast of one glamorous, must-have product worth discussing.

The Bullshit

"AOL wrote software for the new iPod-thingy!"

The Truth

AOL did not write software for it. Tegic, another tiny, obscure company (a subsidiary of AOL), whose biggest claim to fame is coding software that powers text messaging for certain hand-held mobile devices, wrote it. It's called SmartScreens.

The Bullshit

"It's the iPod killer!"

The Truth

No, it's not. It's the iPhone killer. None of the i-stuff can hold a candle to this thing, which can do almost anything except watch your six year old. I'll give it credit for it's exhausting list of options, if nothing else. It's the first all-in-one BlueTooth and wi-fi enabled player that runs on open-source software, downloads streaming music and content, and handles any file type except Apple's including WMA files, AACPlus, AACPlus Enhanced, WAV, MP3, MPEG-4, WMV 7/8/9, H.264, AVI video, and JPG and PNG images (source: swik.net).

Why it will never kill the iPod or the iPhone

The Haier mp3 player is unwieldy.

At a little over one pound and roughly 4.5" by 2.48" by 0.46" it must be one pain in the ass to lug around just to listen to music and make phone calls. Why not lug my hard drive around? They look the same and it will surely get me more attention than their mp3 player, especially once I trick it out with a touch screen, audio playback and BlueTooth. Haier certainly has no size advantage over any other portable player like SanDisk, Creative, or Apple.

The Haier mp3 player is ugilicious.

Young boys and men will go wild for it because it's rugged and "manly" looking but it inspires nothing in me but disdain. Did I mention it's awfully big? That it's heavy? That the brushed stainless steel case shows every smudge and fingerprint so you'll have to wipe it down every three seconds if you have even a light case of OCD like me? That it photographs poorly because it has so much shine? That it has no sex appeal, no portability, nothing that says, "Just grab me and go?"

The Haier mp3 player uses a fairly obscure OS.

It runs off of an open-source client (Linux) which is going to turn off 99% of the market because most people use Windows or Apple, and don't even know what Linux is; end of story.

The Haier mp3 player has AOL content and "AOL software."

Although the software belongs to AOL in only the loosest of fashions, much like Time Warner, the early press made it sound like AOL owned it and it will be hard for them to undo that image now. Plus AOL all but gave it away during and after CES that the mp3 player will feature their own content, an instant turn-off for anyone who's tech savvy or even just smart enough not to touch AOL (their service is hard to cancel and their software gums up your computer, in case you haven't heard).

My final thought is no one will buy it except Linux fans who like AOL and don't mind the lack of trustworthy names behind this gimmick. As you can imagine, there will be about 3 people who fit that description. Linux users are geeks and geeks almost never use AOL, so that rules out most of the mp3 player's target audience before it's even out of the gate.

Also see How to Uninstall AOL.

Edited/updated 12-08-2006.

After I ran tests a month or so ago, I concluded neither Mr. Tech's AOL Cleaner nor the PC De-Crapifier do a good job of removing files, folders, and registry entries when they uninstall AOL, but I did my tests on a PC with 9.0, OpenRide, AOL's Safety and Security Center and Security Monitor installed -- more crap than either could handle, and didn't test them until I'd already "uninstalled" AOL using AOL's own uninstallers.

It hit me later these tests weren't good enough to base my results on, but neither cleaner did much better the second time around, so for the tech guys who deleted 2 podcasts about my uninstall and how-to cancel pages after I stopped recommending the PC De-Crapifier (update below), I'm hoping your site won't be the last one to notice little ol' mine.

For the latest tests I installed 9.0 on a recently restored eMachines XP Home, after removing pre-installed AOL 8.0 from it with jv16 powertools. To make the tests evenly weighted I didn't install OpenRide or any external AOL malware programs, didn't use AOL's uninstallers first, and cleaned AOL off my PC with jv16 powertools before re-installing AOL to test the next removal product. The results were quite different this time.

First, what's installed with AOL 9.0 SE:

• AOL Connectivity and TopSpeed, added to Windows Services
• 117 files and folders
• 5 programs: America Online, Screensaver, Coach, Connectivity Service, and Spyware Protection
• 1,092 registry entries

Mr. Tech's AOL Cleaner

Mel Reye's notes say it uninstalls almost everything except 9.0, which is what most people want to get rid of.

It didn't remove any files or folders. It was good at removing registry entries, with only 2 keys left out of 1,092, but those, along with two processes still running, waol.exe and aolscd.exe, were all AOL's software needed to reconnect, much to my horror.

The PC De-Crapifier

Jason York's notes say it's for removing pre-installed AOL, which I haven't used it for. It does a decent job on a fresh download -- not great.

The good news is you can't reconnect to AOL with what it leaves behind. The bad news is, it leaves behind a lot, including AOL Coach, Screensaver, and Diagnostics, 34 files and folders out of 117, and 871 registry entries out of 1,092.

AOL's Own Uninstaller

I didn't use any of AOL's uninstallers listed in Add/Remove because I was tired and knew it would take too long, so I went to aol.com and got OpenRide because it has an uninstaller you can use in place of them (how's that for lazy?).

They've improved the uninstaller since last summer so you can't reconnect to AOL after you use it, and HijackThis! no longer flags their Connectivity Service after the uninstall, either, just the dialer, which can't do anything by itself. All the same, AOL Coach and Screensaver, 56 files and folders out of 117, and 879 registry entries out of 1,092 were left behind, along with nearly every program AOL installed in the first place. AOL's own uninstallers merely stop AOL from connecting by removing a bare minimum of files, folders, and registry entries.

Out of the four programs I tested, there was just one that uninstalled everything I could find, so I suggest using jv16 powertools to uninstall AOL with or to clean up what other uninstallers will leave behind.

Update: I never saw either of the TechCasts mentioned above, (the first recorded on April 9th) so I wrote last week and asked them if they would send me the links. I told them the shows the search engines linked to don't mention my blog anymore, and asked if their discussions were in fact deleted. One of them wrote back a few days later. He used his real name but I'm omitting it. Hi Marah, I do recall seeing this [sic] a while back ago, but I've just done a search on my web-site at www.techcastnetwork.co.uk, but was unable to find anything about it. I do however have two podcasts that mention AOL which turned up on my site search engine: http://www.techcast.co.uk/?p=127 http://www.techcast.co.uk/?p=131 ...Hope this helps and thanks for your email. Regards, "Whoever," TechCast Network

Oh, well.

Check out my how-to uninstall AOL guides.

Using AOL's software is like giving your computer cancer. It uses hundreds of program files to change IE's default settings, reconfigures your modem and dialer, installs Real Player and other unwanted programs, adds up to 1000 registry keys (sometimes more, depending on which version you use) and it sets itself as the default dialer so getting online with other dial-up ISPs is difficult, if not impossible.

AOL 9.0 SE keeps nine processes running at all times - even when you're signed off. Other versions of AOL keep up to 5 processes running (including AOL 9.0 VR - which uses 4 processes to stay "always-on" and connected). AOL's constant, intensive use of your computer's resources slows it down and wears the hardware out before its time.

This page, Mr. Tech's AOL Installer Overview, lists 13 programs that AOL installs and 5 AOL processes that run even when the software is not in use. It's required reading if you want to know how AOL's software works. This experts forum also has plenty of opinions on why you should stop using AOL and explains why it slows your computer down, so check it out.

One more thing: AOL's software doesn't let you surf the Web. Instead it connects your computer to a network of proxy servers that store cached copies of sites you're "allowed" to see. Yes, some sites are actually forbidden to be seen by AOL's subscribers! If you visit them but get a "404 Error" you might be seeing AOL's site-block in action. So you "surf" AOL's proxies, looking at day-old content and paying AOL as much as $25.90 a month for this so-called "privilege". Even if you're not paying for AOL, why continue to use it? See Info at AOL.com and Axe-s.com: Why I Like AOL for more.

Now that you've had my crash course on why you should stop using AOL, you should uninstall it carefully to prevent copies of it from being left behind and data loss, which a sloppy uninstall is known for causing.

If you've used this page before and want to know why I don't suggest certain removal products anymore, read this page.

You can also check out my how-to uninstall AOL guides if you're ready.

Further Reading: Use my How-to Section to find every way under the sun to get AOL out of your life. Why America Online can bite me explains what I went through to cancel my AOL account and Pass me my coaster...I mean, my AOL disc is my follow-up to that story.