Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Ridding myself of AOL on Gateway laptop

Dec 8, 2003 11:01PM PST

I am helping out a friend who just had cable Internet service installed. He is using a Gateway laptop which came preinstalled with AOL. Upon hooking up the service, the technician attempted to open IE and was presented with a popup window saying to use AOL and then IE closed itself. The same thing happens when you try to open Outlook Express. How can I get rid of this crap? Is it as simple as uninstalling AOL? As I recall, AOL does not take too kindly to being uninstalled although I have to admit I have no experience past AOL 2 (I swore that garbage off years ago). Thanks for any input anyone has.

Steve

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Re:Ridding myself of AOL on Gateway laptop
Dec 8, 2003 11:36PM PST

After you find a way to save their emails and favorites, I would ask why didn't you uninstall it?

Then we can move to more drastic measures.

Bob

- Collapse -
Re:Re:Ridding myself of AOL on Gateway laptop
Dec 9, 2003 12:24AM PST

I hope it is that simple. Thankfully, they are just learning to use the computer and do not have a Favorites list or any emails of consequence. I hope uninstallation works. Otherwise I fear I may be forced to reinstall Windows ME. I can get around the web browsing issue by using Mozilla but that will cut the computer off from the Windows Update since MS has made IE a requirement of Windows Update.

- Collapse -
Reinstalling the OS is not required.
Dec 9, 2003 12:28AM PST

If I need to eject some version of IE/OE and lay down another version, this method works. It's not pretty and not without error messages (which I ignore and finish the install.) It's downright simple.

1. Download the IE that you want to run from http://browsers.evolt.org/
2. Run IERadicator from http://www.litepc.com/ieradicator.html (pwoof, IE/OE all gone.)
3. Install the IE from step one.

Bob

- Collapse -
Re:Reinstalling the OS is not required.
Dec 9, 2003 5:35AM PST

Thanks Robert. You are the man.

On a side note, I couldn't find the ZDNet message boards anymore. Do they still exist?

SK

- Collapse -
This is now this place.
Dec 9, 2003 6:53AM PST

Weirder software. But this is it.

Bob