Skimming AIM 5.5 (What to remove!)

[WhiteMateria]

Its so sad that it takes an outbound firewall to catch all the stuff that wants to connect after you install AIM 5.5.3572! So far I am finding stuff left and right I can clean out as a result of AIM 5.5's unwanted bloatware.

Follow this order exactly! I found that one of the processes running after install do not allow you to go to the ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS because it would not let me open CONTROL PANEL. You must first end these system processes. After you have done this may you go about uninstalling the last packaged software that comes with AIM known as Viewpoint.

AOD = AOL on Desktop
Q: What is it?
A: This is AOL's attempt to get you to try out America Online
Q: Does this mean AIM cost money?
A: NO! AIM is a free service and you don't owe them any money for using it. The providers of AOL also make AIM for the general public to use at company expense.

quote:FIRST: Make sure "AolAod" or "AolAod.exe" is not running. If so end the process.
You can remove it 1 of 2 ways...
http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/to...?TOPIC_ID=9142
OR
1. C:\Program Files\AOD -- Erasing this entire folder is OK! Here is a list of the files inside it.
2. AolAod.exe (AOL On Desktop)
-- System Process: "AolAod" -- Comments: Attempts outbound connection
3. aol.ini
4. timedata.ini -- Made after connection refused
5. Trainer.ppk -- Made after connection refused
6. C:\Program Files\AOD\AOL
7. aod_bb_1_73.ico
8. aod_modem_1.ico

Wild Tangent
Q: What is it?
A: AIM's new games feature use the "Wild Tangent" server. That means by removing it you won't be able to play AIM games. Its up to you if you want to remove it or not.
Q: Is it "spyware"?
A: It is considered a "low level threat" spyware: Spybot detects ONLY the registry key for it while Ad-aware ignores it. If you do not play the new AIM games and do not want certain information going to their servers then its best to remove it.

quote:FIRST: Make sure "AIMWDInstall" or "AIMWDInstall.exe" is not running. If so end the process.

1. C:\Program Files\AIM\Sysfiles -- DO NOT erase this entire directory like you did with AOD.
2. AIMWDInstall.exe (Wild Tangent)
-- System Process: "AIMWDInstall" -- Comments: Attempts outbound connection
-- May be responsable for unaccessable Control Panel when on!
3. AIMWDUninstall.exe (Wild Tangent)
4. AolOnDesktop.exe This is the installer program for AOD!

imagehlp.dll + msvcr70.dll are needed files so keep them. As a note keep viewpoint.exe until after both system processes above have been shut down and Viewpoint has been uninstalled from Add/Remove programs first.

5. C:\Program Files\AIM -- DO NOT erase this entire directory at all but look instead for these files!
6. AIMWDInstall.exe (Wild Tangent) -- May appear as Aimwdi~1.exe

Then run Spybot Search + Destroy from
http://www.safer-networking.org/ to remove a registry key from Wild Tangent.

(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WildTangent)

AIM URL cache
Q: What is it?
A: Its like a temp folder for AIM. Its used with those ads but removing them will not remove the ads themselves. Versions below AIM 5.5 have some form of this temp cache.

quote:C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Aim\*YOURSCREENNAME*\urlcache
-- Contents inside directory but don't even bother erasing the directory itself. It always comes back when you sign on with your name. Every screen name you sign on with has one.

Viewpoint
Q: What is it?
A: The mysteries of the universe take time my son. Go forth to thy vineyards and "Goggle it" till you find the answer.

quote:
FIRST: UNINSTALL Viewpoint from the Add/Remove programs.
Then deleate this directory...
1. C:\Program Files\Viewpoint -- Erase entire directory
2. C:\Program Files\AOD\viewpoint.exe

Other notes
1. Any file in the C:\Program Files\AIM with the file extension .tmp
2. C:\Program Files\AIM\Sounds (Entire directory)
*ONLY IF YOU DON'T WANT SOUNDS*

Spybot's statement concerning WildTangent...

quote:Company: WildTangent, Inc.
Product: WildTangent Visualizers
Threat: Unknown

Company URL: http://www.wildtangent.com/
Company product URL: http://www.wildtangent.com/candy/visualizers.html
Company privacy URL: http://www.wildtangent.com/candy/privacy.html

Functionality
Visualization for Media Players

Description
Configuration information is transmitted on a regular basis.

Privacy Statement
If you download our Web Driver software it will gather and store information about your computer that is specifically related to the functioning of the Web Driver software, such as processor type or the presence or absence of graphics accelerators and the related software drivers. The Web Driver software will not gather information from your computer about you, such as general application software you have installed or personal data that you store on your computer. The Web Driver software will report this configuration information to us on a regular basis. We use this information to identify your system's capability and to optimize the delivery of content to the Web Driver.

Ad-Removal for 5.5
Finally be sure to check out the ResAim.dll file provided in my signature to patch AIM and remove that cursed ad window on AIM 5.5! (AIM 5.5 ad-patch) Simply replace that file in the AIM folder with this new one provided by Jason and you are good to go.

The second option is the iMod package also in my signature. Get a whole new look and feel for AIM 5.5 with MAC like icons and ad-removal.

Doubleclick servers
Did you know that the AIM Today page that pops up and other various ads send information back to Doubleclick.com servers? You can prevent this with a HOSTS file setup so that DNS lookups for certain sites relay the IP address as 127.0.0.1 instead of going to the site. This loopback prevents any outbound packets from ever leaving your computer. You can find HOSTS file resources at the following sites...
http://accs-net.com/hosts/
http://remember.mine.nu/
http://www.everythingisnt.com/hosts.html
Its something nice to have setup for overall ad-blocking as well.

PyBoticide AIM Chat spam Filter
Last but not least get PyBoticide 1.31 and Mods 0.0.2 as Python plugins and filter out those annoying spam bots in the chatroom. Its like having an automatic ignore button for 95% of the bots. Also if you love to log chats and don't want all that SPAM in logs this is for you. In fact I would not even recommend going into an AIM chat today without it... Ask for it by name! The link is provided in my signature!

Well there you have it! If I missed anything please reply with it so we can get a full removal of all AIM 5.5 has to *cough* offer us. My suggestion? Unsinstall AIM and go back with 5.2 or better yet just get gaim .75 and be happy without the junk.

[alana0601]

can you tell me how you take out the bad stuff? id like to do that too.

[WhiteMateria]

It would be nice if someone wrote a program to remove everything crappy with AIM 5.5!

So far things you can remove are...

C:\Program Files\AOD (Entire directory)
AIMWDUninstall.exe (Wild Tangent) *You must end the process first before you can get ird of it*

More to come...

[alana0601]

sweet. when you find new things that should be deleted can you post them? cause i have no idea.

[f0rbez]

i actually have a program that does this.. but its for some of the older versions of aim and the crap that installs has changed so i dont think it will work anymore.

[f0rbez]

The things you can remove include.. wildtangent, viewpoint media player, and aol on desktop (aod). Right after you install, go into add/remove programs and uninstall wildtangent and viewpoint. then use these instructions to remove aod http://www.bigblueball.com/forums/to...?TOPIC_ID=9142
then restart and check for these folders:

"c:\program files\aod"
"c:\program files\viewpoint"
"c:\windows\wt"

also look for a wildtangent folder in program files.. im not sure what its named b/c mine didnt install. you can delete all of those after you uninstalled them.

you can also delete these installation files from "c:\program files\aim\sysfiles\" so that it cant install itself again:

AIMWDInstall.exe
AIMWDUninstall.exe
viewpoint.exe

btw, i think viewpoint is possibly part of the ad display system. you know those video/audio ads that they started using.

[alana0601]

and your sure its ok to delete all that? it wont mess up aim right?

[f0rbez]

it should be fine to delete those folders after you've already uninstalled them. the only thing that should be left in those folders are temporary files or files that were not deleted during uninstall. in most cases those folders will be deleted anyway. as for the files inside the 'sysfiles' folder, just make sure that you have everything totally uninstalled first. once your sure that the other crap is gone, then you can go ahead and delete those. none of it is necessary for aim to run properly.

[f0rbez]

i highly recommend not to simply delete the folders (the viewpoint folder in particular). programs like that need to be uninstalled. if you dont, your gonna leave files and registry entries behind, as well as leave files registered in the system that wont be there.

[WhiteMateria]

quote:Originally posted by f0rbez

i highly recommend not to simply delete the folders (the viewpoint folder in particular). programs like that need to be uninstalled. if you dont, your gonna leave files and registry entries behind, as well as leave files registered in the system that wont be there.

Ok I agree with this.. do you know the safe procedure for uninstalling this program first then is it safe to deleate the directory.