I don't know if this problem is still current for anyone or not, but just wanted to say that I was able to get rid of that AOL Core Services Update pop-up by conducting a hard-drive search for all files with "aolsoftware" in their names (they were all in Program Files/CommonFiles/AOL/1100810015/ee), and deleting them. The pop-up is evidently triggered by the AOL system link in the desktop tray, which is why it activates even when you're not connected to the internet. So if you subscribe to AOL, when you delete the "aolsoftware" files, the AOL link will disappear as well, along with its access to system information. I imagine there's a way to get rid of the pop-up without losing the link altogether, but I was so irritated by the time I got to this point that I took a slash-and-burn approach.