AOL 9.7 instalation program

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Phil P
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Joined: January 28th, 2013, 10:59 am

AOL 9.7 instalation program

Post by Phil P »

Hello

I decided to download and install AOL 9.7 on my wife’s computer this morning.

The installation program downloaded and started. I got the windows 7 box wanting permission to allow the program to modify my computer. I clicked yes.

That was the end of ever bring able to control that computer.

The computer locked almost immediately after I clicked yes. I waited for about 30 min to see if the program would come back to life.

I found that the only thing that would work was Control-Alt-Delete although I was unable to use the mouse I was able to use the tab key to navigate to the shutdown button.

After using safe mode and rolling back 2 days on system restore I called AOL.

The first tech I got didn’t even know what a Toshiba Laptop was. It went down hill from there. After 4 hours of being chased around from software support to hardware support and AOL computer checkup, being cut off several times and the last time after I refused to pay AOL to fix the problem I was hung up on I called the last time and got a recording that their tech support was not available because of excessive calls.

Just for everyone’s information DO NOT USE AOL installation until they get it fixed.

I am going to reinstall the operating system in order to get control of my computer.

Phil P
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LoudNoise
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Re: AOL 9.7 instalation program

Post by LoudNoise »

As far as I know AOL 9.7 hasn't much if anything to do with a variation of Fx. Moving to tech.

That said, if the tech didn't know what a Toshiba Laptop was I suspect it would have been difficult to go uphill from there... :)
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Grumpus
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Re: AOL 9.7 instalation program

Post by Grumpus »

Most people don't understand AOL is a shell over the natural internet. There used to be a toggle-out to go to the raw internet without the AOL shell.
One of the early reasons folks went with Netscape 20 odd years ago, was the toggle-out and freedom from internet shells like Compuserve and AOL.
Some modern ISPs almost try and create the same form of content control when they provide a page which pops up when a search term isn't understood in your browser. Usually these pages are full of non-sequitur suggestions and advertising.
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Bluefang
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Re: AOL 9.7 instalation program

Post by Bluefang »

I decided to download and install AOL 9.7 on my wife’s computer this morning.

There's your first problem. If you're using AOL software or ISP, you're taking a stroll back to the 1990's.

Most people don't understand AOL is a shell over the natural internet. There used to be a toggle-out to go to the raw internet without the AOL shell.

WTF is the 'natural internet'?

AOL (the suite) was a Trident (Internet Explorer) UI, and defaulted to the AOL portal site. That's not any different from installing Maxthon and making your homepage Yahoo.

Yes, in the earlier years, you needed to have the AOL browser open and logged in to have internet access, but (IIRC) as long as you kept it open, you could use any browser you wanted. Forcing you to use a specific browser is vastly different than altering the content being served.
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Omega X
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Re: AOL 9.7 instalation program

Post by Omega X »

Back in the day, IE without the suit of armor was a lot better than the AOL software itself. Was faster too. People got tired of that crap and moved on. Only the diehards were left using it.
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Re: AOL 9.7 instalation program

Post by Grumpus »

Bluefang wrote:
I decided to download and install AOL 9.7 on my wife’s computer this morning.

There's your first problem. If you're using AOL software or ISP, you're taking a stroll back to the 1990's.

Most people don't understand AOL is a shell over the natural internet. There used to be a toggle-out to go to the raw internet without the AOL shell.

WTF is the 'natural internet'?

AOL (the suite) was a Trident (Internet Explorer) UI, and defaulted to the AOL portal site. That's not any different from installing Maxthon and making your homepage Yahoo.

Yes, in the earlier years, you needed to have the AOL browser open and logged in to have internet access, but (IIRC) as long as you kept it open, you could use any browser you wanted. Forcing you to use a specific browser is vastly different than altering the content being served.


Unfortunately I go back to the very start of AOL and it was incapable of free roaming or browsing outside of the AOL shell or "world." Any browser capability did not exist. It was only after a while you could log out from the constraints of AOL and actually do any real, non-AOL browsing. Finding the exact words which technically explain it is a bit difficult for me at times.
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Phil P
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Re: AOL 9.7 instalation program

Post by Phil P »

Hi

I finally got my wife’s laptop running by reinstalling the OS from the “restore” partition.

I never dud get the touch pad back and I know it was working before I downloaded AOL because I use my laptop for document research and commonly don’t have room for a mouse so I use the torch pad from habit. I used it to download the AOL installer.

That computer is now 3 years old. I guess I will have to see if Toshiba will refurbish it for me.

Phil P
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