AOLsucks. com is really driving me up the wall. And since I installed 5.0 everyday is another trip down the rabbit hole. I would like to change ISPs, but per the TV the other night, AOL 5.0 interfers with other ISPs as it will always be the default ISP. It said on the TV that it was difficult to uninstall, but could be done. Otherwise, I will have to do a restore on this thing. That means reloading all of my software. Duh!! Like y'all didn't know that did ya? Any help for idiots would be appreciated. And no, I don't need a Village....I already have one. Taz

-- Taz (Tassi123@aol.com), January 25, 2000

Answers

Taz,

OK, you may want to write this down. Ya' ready?

Type format C:\ Press enter

Sorry, but uninstalling that mutha is a real mutha!

Jimmy ;-)

-- Jimmy Splinters (inthe@dark.com), January 25, 2000.

Taz,

Kindof reminds you of the Borg in Trek - Next generation (you will be assimilated -- resistence is futile), doesn't it?

I haven't tried the following, so you'll have to make allowances.

What AOL5 probably did was overwrite settings in your Registry (asuming you're on Win95 or 98). It probably did not remove (as in deinstall) your old non-AOL stuff. It probably did import your older AOL messages. If you need to save them, you'll need to export them, along with your lists of addresses. If you do an export somehow (I don't have AOL, any version) do it to a text file. You should be able to do a deinstall (Start | Settings | Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs). If you want to stay with AOL, you'll need to reinstall the older stuff. If not, you'll need to try to import your messages and addresses into something like Outlook. If you had a secondary ISP, you can now reinstall their stuff, reentering your accountid, password, etc.

One final caution: I'd suggest that you wait until someone more knowledgable with this particular mess responds. Checking new.microsoft.com for win95 or 98 setup groups might be another source of leads.

Sorry I can't help more!

-- Redeye in Ohio (cannot@work.com), January 25, 2000.

Ah, AOL v5.0, aka "The Upgrade of Death". Apparently Windows Magazine just kicked the crap out of AOL for this latest offering, and Associated Press was none too happy either: Critics say new AOL software interferes with rivals

It appears that AOL is trying to pull a Micro$oft and have its "browser" take over a lot of the user's desktop.

...``If a member picks yes, we make their lives simple,'' said Jeff Kimball, AOL's executive director for its client software. That means AOL seizes responsibility to display all Web pages, send all e-mail and exclusively perform other tasks online...

See? They're just trying to help. What a great bunch of folks, eh?

AOL's stock has lost 30% of its value since the Time Warner deal was announced. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch...

-- DeeEmBee (macbeth1@pacbell.net), January 25, 2000.

For whatever it's worth, here's the Windows Magazine article:

AOL_5.0:_The _Upgrade_of_Death?

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), January 25, 2000.

AOL v5.0 Uninstall......uh yeah.........go buy a couple of really large industrial magnets and attach them to the side of your computer overnight......

Works like a charm.

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), January 25, 2000.

I have to second the motion to go to the "AOLv5; upgrade of death" site. The article is written by Fred Langa who has been around computation since the year dot. He writes a simple straight forward weekly newsletter about some of the bugs, quirks, issues and breaking news that concerns the layman/laywoman depending upon a PC for their livly hood. You can easily subscribe/unsubscribe at http://www.langa.com/

No BS, he's just tellin it like it is, like the AOL v5 thing.

-- Can I say (optimistically@home in the woods.org), January 25, 2000.

AOL sucks. It's for the sheeple. Support a smaller ISP like Earthlink or Mindspring. Don't let AOL rule the Net by having everyone on Planet Earth signed up with them. Just say NO. Thank you.

-- ~***~ (~***~@earth.ebe), January 25, 2000.

My neighbor asked me if I could get rid of it for him. You would not believe all of the sneaky places it pervades. Eventually gave up and told him to burn the PC.

-- Surrounded (hiding@thefirststate.com), January 25, 2000.

I've just uninstalled several versions/remnants of 4.0 and the latest version of 5.0 ! Good ridance. I am saving some text files and going to reformat C, as well.

BTW, our first ice storm of the year is going on right now up here Northwest of Boston. This is on top of 8 inches of snow. No reports of power outages up here yet but if mine goes out, I will be heating off the woodburning stove.

It is so relaxing to lounge-around a good fire. The place gets so hot, you must open a window and breathe the fresh cool night-air.

You can go outside in sub-freezing temps for a quick cool when your body is that hot -- kind of like an outdoor hot tub.

-- Cant Say (NoWay@Chicken.com), January 26, 2000.

Hi Taz: Uninstalled 5.0 the other day, and no big problem! Am currently using 4.0, and it runs a lot smoother. This is the process I used: (1) Go into your AOL 5.0 files, find the file called "ORGANIZE". Drag it onto your desk top. This file contains your old email and favorite places. (2) Then go to "MY COMPUTER", click on "CONTROL PANEL", then on "add/remove programs", and select AOL 5.0 for removal. The windows process will locate all versions of AOL on your computer and ask you for verification of the one you want to remove. If you install the older 4.0 version, you can then drag that "ORGANIZE" file from your desktop, and drop it into the 4.0 version. You wont loose one favorite place or juicy email. Didnt have any problems in removing 5.0 or in reinstalling the older 4.0. Also once a month or so, back up that organize folder, by just draging and dropping it onto a diskett. Just an easy way to preserve things if the computer does crash for any reason. Good luck.

-- suzy (HAYSandCO@aol.com), January 26, 2000.

I've done it successfully. Like this:

Control Panel Add/Remove Programs Double-click all AOL programs one at a time. Close control panel

Then the tricky part...

NOTE: I don't recommend this unless you're familiar with the Registry Editor. If you delete the wrong keys you'll end up with a dead O/S and a hard drive format will be in your near future.

Start Run Type "Regedit" without the quotes enter (or click OK)

press F3 for search in "Find what" type "AOL" again without the quotes click "find next"

Delete all references to AOL in the registry. When your search finds AOL in the right side of the reg editor, use TAB to the Key folder on the left. Delete the entire key.

Take care before you delete that you aren't deleting the wrong keys, or that your search didn't find the string "AOL" in the middle of another word.

Good luck.

-- Powder (Powder47keg@aol.com), January 26, 2000.

I installed 5.0 a few weeks ago. What a mistake, everything started going wrong. Uninstalled and went back to 4.0 the next day. Everything back to normal since then. Well, you know what normal means as far as AOL goes. If I remember correctly I used 'add/remove programs'. It walks you through the process and prompts you to save address book, etc. OS is Windows 98.

-- Kyle (fordtbonly@aol.com), January 26, 2000.