I changed the name of this thread to make it easier to find with a search.
This thread is for anything computer oriented.
Advice, Suggestions, Discoveries.
This thread IS NOT for debate. PC or Mac? Who gives a rats ass?

If you have a computer related news story, such as ATT taking over the internet,
please post it in the regular forum.

This thread is strictly for the exchange of advice concerning home computers.




The question was asked,
How to successfully remove AOL from your hard drive.
This is my non-expert attempt to answer the question.

AOL tends to propagate it's self into nearly anything to do with your internet connection.


The reason that AOL is as popular as it is, is also the same reason some people consider AOL a computer Virus!

What is a computer Virus?
It's any software that causes your system to run poorly, or otherwise cause anything unwanted.
And by that, AOL is a virus!

AOL gets it's popularity from being extremely user friendly.
But all those little helps, each and everyone are an opportunity for something to go wrong.
It;s like having a 15 speed bike instead of a one speed. There's just more to break!
And in software coding, there are always bugs. If you have ever seen root code on paper, and see just how much coding has to be done to make even basic things operate, it's mind boggling. That's why more and more basic code tasks are bundled so the programmer can simply "plug in" an application.

Also, all those graphics AOL uses. They all eat up ram, and they all have to load before things can move on.
My first computer had 4 megabytes of ram! The one I'm using today has over a gig of system Ram and 512 megs of video ram. I also have installed 3 extra mondo fans in my tower in an attempt to keep the processor cool. If you find your system is running sluggy, try taking the cover off. Heat is the first curse of your system. Optimal top end temp range at wich your system will operate is less than 100. My processor normally runs at about 95 degrees, so cooling is critical. Before the big fans I had processor temps of about 103 - 105, and my machine ran very slowly.


Anyway, there is only one good way to get rid of AOL completely, and if you're using ExPee, that's gonna cost you a bit of change.
Reformat! This means you'll have to buy XP again because MS in all it's wisdom to fight pirates will only let you use it once. MS figures yes, you bought the disk, but you LEASE the OS from them, and you get ONE LICENSE for your money.

So, back everything up onto CD's or DVD's, and then reinstall your operating system, which will format your hard drive in the process, which will essentially erase your system, and you get to start fresh and brand new.

First thing to install AFTER you reformat should be Nortons "Ghost".
This software offers the ability to mark your hard drive in various times in it's expanding and growing life, and give you the ability to go back to that point. So, you don't have to reformat ever again. Ghost in essence does that for you. The MS restore function in XP sucks. Ghost actually works!


Anyway, I'm not a puter guru or a fixer. I'm just a guy that learns almost everything the hard way. And right now, thanks to a very nice gift, I have 3 towers and 3 laptops to rebuild. I'll be lucky to get two towers and one laptop actually working, but hey, it's free! These are older, but still good working machines which I will likely give to friends and family. I spent 5 hours yesterday trying to get the one working tower to recognize the wireless network card, (instead of a modem) and I'm stumped! Oh well! I got everything else working in that tower, so when my kid visits he'll have his own machine and won't bug dad for his!



My advice. You wanna get rid of AOL?
Reformat, reinstall your OS, and start clean.
Yes it's drastic, but it's also the most effective.

If you don't want to go through all that hassle,
Learn how to clean up the root keys in the registry.
BUT BE VERY VERY CAREFUL HERE.
One wrong move and nothing works!
Playing with the registry is for experts, I won't even touch it!

Editing a registery is far easier then it sounds. All that doom and gloom just scares people. The same problem Sky mentioned to fix AOL would also fix a broken Registery, so why not play with it? Its yours.

Think of the Registry as the computers planner. It tells the computer what to do when a certain action happens. Like when you want to print something. The registry tells it what your default printer is, where it is located on a network, the printers default printing options and a few more tidbits.

The best thing is to also BACKUP up your registry on a outside media source and also having your CD drivers placed in a self executable to run from DOS is also a huge plus for recorvery issues.

WHen it comes to removing AOL, best advice...never install it. If that is not an option, itis still easier to just wipe your hard drive. It really is that hard to get rid of. Also, if you bought the computer and it was already installed on it when you booted it up for hte firs time, Take it back and demand they remove all the crap they installed. Infact when you buy a new computer (I recomend you build your own) tell them to send you a "vanilla" version of the OS. If they dont know what you mean, then dont buy your computer from them.

I'm impressed MM,you seem to know what you're talking about. I don't know much about the technical stuff but I do know you should never give the bastards your credit card number. They flat out told me that even though I didn't want and wasn't recieving their service they wouldn't stop charging my card! Called the card company and the customer svc rep said she had the same problem only they were taking the money directly from her checking account, she just gave up and stayed with them. I went a step higher with my card company and we had a three way conversation with AOL and finally got them to stop by threatening to close the account. At that time there was a website called AOL Hell.

Thanks sky... I almost screwed up, but luckily I only deleted files with AOL in them... luckily I didn't inadvertantly get rid of AIM (AOL instant messenger) because a family member WANTS to keep that . AIM had an AIM root in it. The rest with AOL roots got deleted , including the crappy AOL tool bar.

BTW, AOL sucks

MM,

YOur advice is good advice, but when giving general advice in a forum such as this,
you haveto assume the lowest common denominator.

In other words, i don't want anyone pissed off at me because they screwed up attempting to follow my advice.
And if they get mad at me, they might well get mad at TJ, for allowing their incompentance to be mistaken for ability.

YOU may completely understand what you mean, but I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts there are people reading this thread who don't even know what a root key is, let alone be able to modify it without screwing up their OS.

So, I would again caution anyone attempting to modify the registry to be very careful.
If you inadvertantly remove part of some software off the Hard Drive, your computer will still work.
You can delete things from the registry, and nothing will work.
I'm not saying don't do it. I'm saying understand that there are dangers in there for the novice.

My dear MM,
That was not a debate.
It was an explination as to why I didn't advocate playing with the Registry!

All I know is I did a search for AOL in all files in the C drive, and started deleting AOL stuff, and then emptied my trash bin. I'm glad AOL is gone

I hate to tell you this Yank, but AIM is worse then AOL. Just look at the what a resouce drain it is on your machine.

Yeah, you are probably right, but somebody else INSISTS on keeping it.... so much for my house, my rules "power"

Speaking of AOL, I just had to deal with something interesting.


I'm at work, and we have millions of dollars spent on our servers.
This means we also have the very best on Anti-virus software, and ad ware killers.

Well, as most of us know, AOL is over loaded with graphics.
I log into AOL through the internet to check my mail, then let it sit minimized til lunch is over in the event I wanna send something I find to anyone. I'm sittin here listening to Bootliquor radio on the internet, and reading the threads on the forum and "BING", Trojan alert!. I closed it. stuff happens. Then "BING" again. The pop up doesn't tell me much, like where the threat is coming in from. Does say though that the offender is a GIF and it's in the temp internet folder. That's where images are stored for a while so that you don't have to redown load an image every time you go into a site. So, I shut down the radio. "BING" still coming it 2 at a time. Then I remembered AOL's graphics and I shut that down. No more Bings!

Think about that! I'm sure it was not a malicious threat, but the AV software saw what appeared to be a Trojan coming from AOL. Think how that crap mess's up your hard drive!

I think I get to doing whaty I have put off for too long and dump AOL. Problem is I have been on AOL for over 12 years, and everybody knows my e-mail. Since AOL will not forward mail from canceled accounts, it's gonna be a hassle to inform everone of new e-mail accounts, especially those with any official capacity, and including all the news letters and alerts I get!


Not long ago Time/Warner bought AOL. I thought it very interesting that Time/Warner, even though they owned the worlds largest e-mail system, refused to use it! That sure does say something about AOL!

Same thing happened to me today sky, after I opened that weird "room" post with all the gobbledy gook in it. I think someone put a virus in here. My Panda anti-virus went nuts till I deleted files & cookies, I couldnt get back in POAC!

I'm on it.

I dont have any Anti-Virus Software or Anti-Spyware Software on my machine at all. Nor do I have any problems with ether. Gee I wonder why.

That post was a script attack and I put a warning up for it, but it would have had to open the post to see my warning. Luckly an admin deleted it before to many saw it.





Your company got ripped off then if you spent that much on a system that uses Software to deal with these issues.

I signed off for a while, and it happened again until I del cookies & temp files. somebody is trying to fuck this site!

TJ, did you check out the link I placed in the deleted thread?

They have everything available.

But they use software, because they can't make every employee not open and execute crap from people they do not know.

The accident that someone deliberaltly did is the most common entry for attack.

By the way, software is another, comparitively cheap layer that can be added for protection.

There is a simple cure to that problem. Your IT guy should be smart enough to be able to let you to open any email you want, without worry of something unloading a scirpt and downloading itself and then further execution of code. If not, just buy some hardware that does it for you. For people that still download crap on purpose. Fire the stupid bastards. That is the problem.

Software is good if you dont know what to do, but all it does is change system settings on the machine and hunt down certain code strings. That is about as special as those old "punters" and "Phishing" tools from AOL.

First of all, you don't know our system.
Second, our 6 IT guys are all smart guys. They know what they're doing.
Third, are you a corporate IT guy?

Question:

How do you make a link shortened by name i.e. THE LINK
Someone told me to do [name no space url i need the ]

it didnt work for me

Skyt, I am not going to debate you on this issue. For several reasons....

1) You dont know what you are talking about on this issue.
2) You dont know what machines you are using.
3) The fact your company has a multi-million dollar system with only Six IT guys doesnt help your story at all.
4) Yes. I was. For Marconi Gilbarco in Greensboro, NC. But since they made gas pumps and I am a man of honor, I quit and decided to become a School Teacher.

Now to answer Wire. There is a button on just above the text box. Its the one with the little globe and a piece of chainlink. Click that and two boxs will appear in single order. In the first one put the link and in the second one put the name you wish displayed in your post in the second box.

WHEN I CLICK IT I ONLY GET ONE BOX
(sorry about the cap lock, typo)

Yes, in the first box, place the URL. Then press enter and another box will appear. In the second box, place the word you wish displayed in the thread for the link. This will place the word with a hpyerlink embedded in it where ever the cursor was when you hit the button.

Got it, thanks!!!! I was hitting OK, not enter first. Duh

Sweet! Glad you got it. Now remeber, lefty has a copyright on using....

The Link

Rules are meant to be broken buwahahahahaha. huh Linky, I mean lefty?!?!the fake link

I have a couple of suggestions for those POACers here who want good reliable protection from internet hackers and also spyware and malware.

For hunting down and eliminating any spyware/malware on your computer, I recommend a program called Webroot Spy Sweeper. It finds the shit that other so-called spyware scanners miss. As long as you keep the definition database updated on a regular basis, it'll do a great of protecting your computer from spyware. It'll also prevent any website with evil intentions from being able to secretly upload bad shit to your computer while you're on their website.

For preventing hacker attacks, I recommend a firewall program called ZoneAlarm. When it's properly set up, you'll be virtually invisible to any punk who is scanning IP addresses for vulnerable computers to hack into. I use ZoneAlarm as a second layer of protection for my computer network. I already have a good hardware firewall that I set up with my wireless broadband router but I figure that it doesn't hurt to have a little more protection especially in this day and age. The best part of ZoneAlarm is that they have a free version for home users. It's a bare bones version of their Pro version but it does a decent job. At least you can't beat the price!

Links:

Spy Sweeper

ZoneAlarm

I recomend taking a computer course at your local Community College, learn how to deal with this yourself without software doing it for you, and not give any of those bastards any more of your money for simple problems you can fix yourself.

Another great Spyware program is Ad-Aware.

It's free, and can be found here:

LINK

Just remember to keep it updated.

I use both Ad Aware and Nortons.

As for firewalls,
First, I'm on cable. The modem is a firewall, plus I'm usiing Nortons Internet Security.
Yes I pay for it, because after so many years of creatively acquired software
and freebies that fall behind, I wanted something more consistant, and dependable.


So far my security net seems to be working just fine,
though the most effective tool I have available to me, is common sence.

You're right, rcorporon. Ad-Aware is a decent anti-spyware scanner. I use it along with Spy Sweeper whenever I want to do a thorough and complete scan of my network. If one program doesn't detect a bad file, the other one usually will. A little extra insurance never hurts.

Does your computer seem to be running slower than frozen molasses? It could be because it has a lot of junk files and obsolete registry entries bogging it down. There's an easy way to eliminate all the computer crap that may be slowing you down. I use a neat little FREE program called CCleaner that does the job very well. It'll help to make your computer a lean mean running machine. Check it out by using the link below.

Get CCleaner Here