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General discussion

Good, and free, pop up manager?

Mar 19, 2004 7:17AM PST

When I start up, I keep getting a couple of AOL instant messenger dialog windows. I delete AOL instant messenger from start up but it returns every time I start up. I also had this problem something called P2P. I uninstalled it, but I might let my teenage granddaughter keep it installed if I can keep it off of start up. I don't mind her having Instant messenger, provided I can keep it out of start up.

Is there a simple, good, and free start up manager that would do the job for me? I see that there are a lot of start up managers but I have no idea how they compare.

I can't tell if start up cop has a free version or not. Also when I have tried to get to a place to download it, I keep getting, not a download window, but a window for subscribing to the magazine, PC something or other. I opted out of Goolge pop up stopper but that didn't help. If I should consider start up cop, how can I get to a download window?

Thanks, grandpaw7

Discussion is locked

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I MEAN START UP MANAGER
Mar 19, 2004 9:10AM PST

grandpaw7

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Re:Good, and free, pop up manager?
Mar 20, 2004 5:21AM PST

Grandpaw,

Those instant messenger might be rather obtrusive. I don't know AOL, but my children have MSN and that gives the same issue.

If msconfig (which you probably use to 'delete from start up') doesn't work, it's dubious if other startup managers work. Startupcop just isn't free any more. You have to pay a subscription fee for the download site ($19.95 for a year,$14.95 if you have magazin subscription). It's not much for all the good software they have. But a good and free alternative is starter: http://www.softandco.com/a/276

A better solution to suit both you and your granddaughter could be to give her her own user name/profile on your computer. She gets her own desktop then, her own startmenu, her own My Documents, her own IE favorites and you can configure quite a few things separately. One of those things might be if you want the program to be run at startup. Here I have MSN popping up at both my childrens desktop, while on mine it's just an icon in the systray (which I don't mind so much). I think I got it this way by deleting the MSN-userid/password in my environment, or something like that. Anyway, that would depend on the program, and be different for AOL no doubt.

If necessary after making her username/profile (depends on the OS also) try uninstalling the AOL messenger, then install it while logged in granddaughters account. It might be decent enough to not intrude too much in yours.

Hope this helps. Please let us know. If you need help to create profiles, post again and mention your OS.


Kees

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I am very pleased with the Google toolbar with pop up stopper....here's the link
Mar 20, 2004 6:10AM PST