I hadn’t gotten around to installing AIM on the new machine and went to do so last night. I’d also read some articles about software that is piggybacked onto popular programs that you allow by blindly clicking the EULA ‘accept’ button. So I decided to actually read the entire EULA from AOHell, and sure enough-you have to accept installation of Wild Tangent, which is a dataminer program. I sent a nastygram to AOHell, which I’m sure will be ignored. Would Spybot S&D totally remove the Wild Tangent after I install AIM?
There are lots of third-party AIM clients you can use, such as Trillian or Gaim.
You may be violating the EULA by disabling Wild Tangent and continuing to use the rest of the software (I’m not sure). I’d suggest friedo’s idea. I used to have pretty good luck with Trillian.
Thanks for the advice. I remember having a helluva time with Wild Tangent on my old machine but didn’t know where I picked it up. I’ll check out Trillian-heard other people talking about it.
I had Wild Tangent on my machines not to long ago. It is sometimes installed with certain games and such and appears not to be totally bad. There is some more information here about what it does when installed with AIM. The last time I saw it you could actually remove it in Add\Remove Programs list.
If you’re into the open-source idea, then you should be using gaim. Trillian is also good, but they do charge for the full blown version.
Another option, which is what I do, is get an older version if AIM. The added beauty is that the older versions can have AIM+ od DeadAim installed on them.