Uninstall AOL Uninstaller?

[CarLBanks]

I installed an AIM Triton alpha/beta a while back and it installed AOL Uninstaller which I want to uninstall; but can't figure out how to. Can someone please help me?

[Tokar]

I think you are going to have to contact AOL about this issue.

I have the same problem after uninstalling AOL Explorer 1.2.XXX.

[HyperVigilant]

I installed an AIM Triton alpha/beta a while back and it installed AOL Uninstaller which I want to uninstall; but can't figure out how to. Can someone please help me?

I was searching the internet for this same reason, and the only hit I got that even referenced uninstalling the AOL Uninstaller was your dialogue. I can't tell you that I found a packaged solution, but I did get rid of it. It was a bit unorthodox, but it worked. I went into MS Dos and typed this command > DIR AOL* /s/p. I got pages and pages of AOL files spread across my system. My determination shows here, as I basically went out and deleted any folder with the name AOL in it, and anything that looked executable, or was a shortcut (.dll, .exe, .lnk).

Note that I stayed away from the Windows folders (didn't want to risk messing up the registry).

Some files didn't want to go away, so I either renamed them and deleted them after rebooting, or went into SAFE mode and deleted some more.

After all of this, when I went back into Add/Remove Programs, and selected the AOL Uninstaller add/remove button, I got an error that it couldn't be found, and would I like to delete the entry from my program list?

Yes, of course! It's gone now, and I don't get AOL attempts to update my computer anymore.

Hope this is useful.

[richard.dogood]

Thank you 'Hypervigilant". I too tried to remove aol uninstaller from my control panel. When I found it couldn't be done. I googled and only techguy seemded to have an answer, too complicated for my pea brain. so in my journey to get rid of aol uninstaller I ran the regular 'search' program with advanced options for sub-folders and deleted over 200 entries which the aol uninstaller said weren't there, but couldn't delete 9 files. I then googled again and found your instructions on Neowin Forums. Sure enough by changing the names of just the first three files then going to Add/remove programs when I clicked on aol uninstaller I rec'd the error message with the query do I wish to delete aol uninstaller. clicked yes and bye bye aol... Thanks 'HyperVigilant'. Someone needs to get this infor out there. It Works!!

I was searching the internet for this same reason, and the only hit I got that even referenced uninstalling the AOL Uninstaller was your dialogue. I can't tell you that I found a packaged solution, but I did get rid of it. It was a bit unorthodox, but it worked. I went into MS Dos and typed this command > DIR AOL* /s/p. I got pages and pages of AOL files spread across my system. My determination shows here, as I basically went out and deleted any folder with the name AOL in it, and anything that looked executable, or was a shortcut (.dll, .exe, .lnk).

Note that I stayed away from the Windows folders (didn't want to risk messing up the registry).

Some files didn't want to go away, so I either renamed them and deleted them after rebooting, or went into SAFE mode and deleted some more.

After all of this, when I went back into Add/Remove Programs, and selected the AOL Uninstaller add/remove button, I got an error that it couldn't be found, and would I like to delete the entry from my program list?

Yes, of course! It's gone now, and I don't get AOL attempts to update my computer anymore.

Hope this is useful.

[Sparkyuiop]

The best way is as previously stated. Use windows search to search for 'All files and folders' and type 'AOL', click the 'More advanced options' and check the boxes for, 'Search system folders / Search hidden files and folders / Search subfolders'.

Click 'Search'

There will be many files located and it is possible that not all of them will be for AOL although all of mine were as 'aol' is not a common set of letters that go together. Example: If you have a file called 'Lambada old.mpg' which is a video file you downloaded, it will also be displayed in the search results because your computer will see the letters 'Lambada old.mpg'. Obviously you don't want to delete that interesting sounding example!

If you are unsure hold your mouse pointer over the location text, 'i.e. C:/documents and settings/Ow...' until the full location is displayed, 'C:/documents and settings/Owner/My Videos/Lambada old.mpg'.

Once you know all of the files that you want to keep, right click each one of the determined AOL files and delete them. There are many I know but using 'select all' and 'delete' will not work easily in this case as you will be left with five or so files that you can't delete and it will stop the deleting process.

Once you have done this you will see a few folders left that you can't delete and a few system files (I forget their names, sorry but it doesn't matter it will be obvious enough as the system file will be displayed with an unidentified type icon.

There is one file that you will need to go to manually and that?s, ?Recent Documents?. Follow the address bar and open the file. Delete any shortcuts / files inside.

Press 'Control / Alt / Delete' together until the 'Windows task manager is displayed', Click 'Processes' and look for the system file you found in search and were unable to delete.

IGNORE ANY OTHER AOL PROCESS SUCH AS 'AOLSOFTWARE.EXE' FOR PRESENT.

Left click the system file once, and then click, ?End Process?. A dialog box will appear with a warning about ending the process, just click, ?Yes?.

Now you can do the same for any other AOL process. When you have done, check to make sure that none of the AOL processes have restarted.

Hopefully if all has gone well you can now delete the rest of the found AOL files.

Now perform the search again as described earlier and any AOL file should be located in the ?Recycle Bin?.

Go to ?Control Panel, Click ?Add / Remove Programs? and click the AOL entry. You should be told that there is an error and would you like to remove it from the list, click ?Yes?.

Reboot your computer. If all is OK and you get no errors then empty your recycle bin and your done!

Hope this has been of some help to you.

Sparkyuiop.

[Sparkyuiop]

REVISED - The best way is as previously stated. Use windows search to search for 'All files and folders' and type 'AOL', click the 'More advanced options' and check the boxes for, 'Search system folders / Search hidden files and folders / Search subfolders'.

Click 'Search'

There will be many files located and it is possible that not all of them will be for AOL although all of mine were as 'aol' is not a common set of letters that go together. Example: If you have a file called 'Lambada old.mpg' which is a video file you downloaded, it will also be displayed in the search results because your computer will see the letters 'LambadA OLd.mpg'. Obviously you don't want to delete that interesting sounding example!

If you are unsure hold your mouse pointer over the location text, 'i.e. C:/documents and settings/Ow...' until the full location is displayed, 'C:/documents and settings/Owner/My Videos/Lambada old.mpg'.

Once you know all of the files that you want to keep, right click each one of the determined AOL files and delete them. There are many I know but using 'select all' and 'delete' will not work easily in this case as you will be left with five or so files that you can't delete and it will stop the deleting process.

Once you have done this you will see a few folders left that you can't delete and a few system files (I forget their names, sorry but it doesn't matter it will be obvious enough as the system file will be displayed with an unidentified type icon.

There is one file that you will need to go to manually and that?s, ?Recent Documents?. Follow the address bar and open the file. Delete any shortcuts / files inside.

Press 'Control / Alt / Delete' together until the 'Windows task manager is displayed', Click 'Processes' and look for the system file you found in search and were unable to delete.

IGNORE ANY OTHER AOL PROCESS SUCH AS 'AOLSOFTWARE.EXE' FOR PRESENT.

Left click the system file once, and then click, ?End Process?. A dialog box will appear with a warning about ending the process, just click, ?Yes?.

Now you can do the same for any other AOL process. When you have done, check to make sure that none of the AOL processes have restarted.

Hopefully if all has gone well you can now delete the rest of the found AOL files.

Now perform the search again as described earlier and any AOL file should be located in the ?Recycle Bin?.

Go to ?Control Panel, Click ?Add / Remove Programs? and click the AOL entry. You should be told that there is an error and would you like to remove it from the list, click ?Yes?.

Reboot your computer. If all is OK and you get no errors then empty your recycle bin and your done!

Hope this has been of some help to you.

Sparkyuiop.