I’m traveling to Texas (the funny hat state) next month, and although my ISP has access numbers all up & down the east coast, they have nothing in TX. So I’m toying with the idea of going over to the dark side of the force just for two weeks.
I’ve got the latest 7 million (or whatever it is this month) free hours AOL disc, and thinking that I can install it in my laptop, use it for two weeks while in Texas, and then simply uninstall it after that.
Is it that easy? I’ve heard people say thet AOL never really “lets go” once it’s installed, even after an uninstall. Whatever do they mean by this?
I can’t specifically answer your question, BUT i have heard that AOL 6.0 is the worst in that situation. I tried to install a free disk on someone’s machine and noticed they have aol 3-6 on the disk, if you “explore” the disk instead of using autorun to setup 6.0, you’ll see the different versions. They do this because 6.0 is selective about what OS’s and service packs it will install with.
Also, it’s not “free” in that you HAVE to give a credit card number and your info, and if you don’t cancel, they charge you. So don’t just uninstall it, you also have to CANCEL.
I had AOL 5.something for a while. Uninstalling it was difficult. I was finding bits & pieces of it still on my machine for months afterward. AOL 6.0 is probably worse.
When my father visited a few months ago, I installed AOL 6.0 so that he could access his account. AOL updated my version of I.E. without asking, and once it was loaded I could no longer connect to my ISP, for unknown reasons. (It would dial my ISP, but then just hang and never connect).
However, running the standard AOL uninstall did restore access to my ISP. And, after searching the harddrive, I found another uninstall program which restored my original version of I.E., which apparantly had been saved as a backup, although again without telling me. I also found a bunch of other big install files etc. which the AOL uninstall had not removed, but I was able delete without problems. So, overall, I was able to get things back to the way they were after a fair amount of work. And I haven’t seen any lasting problems that appear to be related to the AOL install.
Ha! In the pit. I should have known as much. I guess I better steer clear. Sounds like installing AOL temporarily is like having a temporary cockroach infestation.
I see Netzero has access numbers near Plano, and 40 hours should be more than enough for two weeks.
I don’t know about your computer, but I have found that they try never to let go of your share draft account! I went to my bank and stopped the sharedraft thing, and next month, voila, they had deducted more money! They have some back window way of doing it…so, if you are a sap like me, you’d better check your bank statements! Sorry for the semi hijack!
When you sign up for AOL, you have to give your credit card nbr…I did that & also cancelled like you are planning to do & they kept on charging me, so then you gotta call them.
You can uninstall AOL & then manually you have to uninstall the AOL directory cause it likes to keep personal information you have in case you need it later see?