Is the culprit aol or vista

Hey,

I am so hoping somebody here is more knowledgeable than I am. I just bought a new emachine, came loaded with all kinds of stuff:vista, Officw trial, oodles of games and.....ta-da! AOL! - (read "satan"). It will not uninstall. I cannot download and use ANY free antivirus software. I cannot download and use ANY free firewall. I have so far managed to restrain the urge to toss the whole computer through the nearest window, but I can't make any promises about the future. Help, please, someone? (Whimper)

geminisoup

By the way, I have tried the remove programs in control panel, I have tried regedit with search (it gave me an error that said "error" and closed the whole window), have tried jv16 power tools, and am now at my rope's (or intellect's) end, optionwise.

 

Thanks, I am unfamiliar with the process here. Maybe I can go to software and "hunt"?

 

:wave and welcome to MG's..