removing aol

:confusedHate to even mention the acronym, but, I want to get rid of aol--all of it--hate it. I've heard it's difficult to remove--true?---or is it just a matter of going to add/remove programs.

 

Believe it or not there are programs available to remove aol:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t523319.html
I have copies of them but have never used nor can vouch for. I usually just uninstall and then search for files containing aol and after being certain they were created by their program delete them. Remember having hundreds of empty hidden folders left by the software. And ccleaner is also a must, especially for the registry. Also have this copied to a text file on an external:

Start, Search, All files and folders, type in aol under All or part of the file name, under Look in: choose Local hard drives (C: for sure), under More advanced options: Type of File: All files and folders.Put a check mark in each of the first three boxes, Search system folders, Search hidden files and folders, Search subfolders. If you have been running aol for a while it may take some time, and there may be a plethora of hidden files. Not all files with aol in them might need to be deleted. right click the file and choose properties to check it out if in doubt.. Most of the files will be in My Computer, Local Disk (C), Program Files, Common Files, some probably in Application Data folders under Documents and Settings as well. You may also need to go to folder options in the control panel and make sure that under the View tab, under Hidden files and folders, you have Show hidden files and folders checked. Good luck. You can use aol without their software by going to www.aol.com, unless aol is your internet service provider. If you must use it go back to 8.0. www.oldversion.com, run ccleANER slim.

 

Greetings everyone,
I'm cleaning up a (previously non-working) lap-top given to me.. it has AOL folders, but apparently it was never installed. I did see some registry entries, but I think they were just PATH statements. I ran Revo Uninstaller, and CleanUpAOLFull.. but I still have the near complete folders of AOL and AOL Companion files. When I had previously tried to run uninstall.exe, it stated that the necessary file was missing. I had then tried to INSTALL AOL, (to do an immediate uninstall) but that didn't run (I may be lucky there!)

My options now? I can do a back up, then delete them.. but just asking advise here. Any programs available to verify if any of those files are associated with, or need to be saved for other functionality? Thanks in advance for any input. It's nice not to have this as a big issue.. just a clean up.
Jerry