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AOL (aka the devil) claims my friend's PC

F

FSUpaintball

Banned
AOL has taken over my friend's computer, and I can't get rid of it.

Here's where his problems start.

I am very good with computers; he is not. He has Windows ME (bleh). He used AOL for awhile, then got cable modem (AOL doesn't support broadband in this area). He uninstalled AOL, but now when he launches IE, it doesn't launch IE. Instead, it brings up a large AOL popup window that has 2 buttons:
"Sign up now!"
"Cancel"

Either way, he can't get into IE. I've dl'd the latest ie version (using another networked PC), I uninstalled/reinstalled, I made sure AOL was uninstalled, I tried getting into IE using the desktop shortcut, the start menu shortcut, and the actual executable file. NOTHING worked.

Then I ran ad-aware on it, which came up with 200-odd trojans/spyware/etc crap (he's not PC-savvy), but no AOL stuff. I even brought up the popup, pressed ctl-alt-del, and looked at the name of the program. Did a search on his hard drive for everything resembling that name, and deleted the stuff I found. Still didn't work; all I got rid of there was a couple of graphics in the popup.

I've told him he has two options: I'll format his computer for him, or he can download Netscape, Opera, or Mozilla from the other PC and install it on his.



Do you guys have any other ideas on how to get rid of this AOL infection?
 
I personally have always resorted to the reformating option. Its a battle I have never won myself. It is usually other problems though. It is a very intrusive piece of software. You might try fighting the registry and I know 98SE had a I.E. repair tool in system information. Not sure if ME does and I don't have a machine with that wonderous OS on it to check.
 
Well it sounds like a registry entry to me. I would call AOL tech support, I'm sure they have dealt with this before.
 
Delete all AOL entries from the registry. If that doesn't work, try reinstalling IE, it usually overwrites everything.
 
I tried reinstalling IE. I scanned the registery, too. Someone has told me that they successfully got rid of it, but it was some sort of registry entry that was NOT called "AOL" or anything of the sort, and it was very, very, VERY hard to find. Of course, he didn't remember what it was or where he found it. Bleh.
 
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