aol

[LOS]

Just joined this great site - however could not even cut and paste the web address supplied in the welcome e mail without AOL sign-in appearing! I disposed of their services months ago but just can't get rid of them from my computer. Can someone help me please?

[Ethel]

Firstly - have you removed AOL through the Add/Remove Programmes?

[LOS]

Could you please tell me how I do this?

[Cetti]

Hello Los - and welcome to AB!

Getting rid of AOL is not something I've had to do thank goodness, but reading posts on various computer Help sites over the years it seems it's a common problem which involves digging into the registry to remove the wretched thing!

I've found a site with a poster crying out for help and 8 very helpful answers with the solution. See what you think:

http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6121-0.html?forumID=45&threadID=33094&messageID=381206

[Ethel]

LOS - if you have not done so, and apologies if you have:

Click Start
Control Panel
Add or Remove Programmes.

(You may have to wait a minute or so)

A list will appear

Click AOL and choose Remove.

Good luck!

[Quicksilver]

I found by experience that the only way to get rid of ALL of AOL was to wipe my hard drive and start again. It would appear that the dreaded AOL software alters your registry. Sorry!

[ajmmac]

i have some years of experience removing aol--i troubleshoot pc's--even if u do what ethel suggests aol leaves many entries in your registry which i found you have to remove manually--go to start/run and type reg edit--the 1st thing to do is go to file/export registry--choose a file name --say regbak--and folder to save it in--this is important --it backs up ur registry so u can restore it if anything goes wrong--next go to file/find and type in aol--the first instance will be found--the reason for doing this manually is that "find" will find entries with the letters aol that have nothing to do with amer on line--do not delete these--if is a genuine amer on line entry delete it then press f3--it will find the next entry--check entry and delete if appropriate--continue until u have gone thru the whole registry--u'll get a message telling u this--reboot ur computer and u should be ok--occasionally u may miss something or not deleted something cos u were not sure if it was an amer on line entry and have to do it again--good luck

[Ralph]

ajmmac's advice is right, but I would recommend staying out of Windows Registry unless absolutely necessary. Getting something wrong in there can mean you'd have to reinstall your operating system.

Read THIS page first before you take on the drastic action! You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed but it's more than likely on your PC already.