active update-aol core services - software update -Is this from AIM?

[Ultraseamus]

Wow that pop up window has been bugging the %!@* out of me, it is nice too see that i am not alone. I hate AOL and never trusted them and avoided getting aim for as long as i could, untill it was all but necessary to talk with my peers. Anyways, i recently tried just searching for the install number and deleting all the files it found (like other people here have), so far it seems too be working. If it comes back i may just go ahead and delete all traces of AOL on my computer and resort to using AIM express.

[Ultraseamus]

the pop up is back

[fishman9]

I did some digging trying to find a registry entry to disable the ActiveUpdate. Well there is no registry entry that I could find.

Here is what I did learn.

1. The ActiveUpdate process is part of the AOLSoftware program. That is why some people have been able to get the popup window to go away when they stop the program in the task manager. However the AOLSoftware.exe program starts right back up after you stop it in the task manager.

2. AIM needs the AOLSoftware.exe program to function properly. I found the exe file and renamed it to see if that would stop the popup. However AIM would not work after I renamed the file.

3. The ActiveUpdate is definately part of AIM and if AOL is claiming it is not then they are feeding people a load of you know what.

There is a file usually located in the documents and settings/all users/Application Data/AOL/User Profiles/All Users/SUDS/METRICS called Stic. This is an AIM log file that can be opened in note pad.

This shows entries where the AOLSoftware program checks the NagDelay to see if it is time to open the popup window. There are also entries refering to the 3899.1.16 and 3881.7.19 updates people have mentioned. The entries for this show they are forced downloads. That is why people are finding entries on their hard drive as one person had mention. They do not install until you execpt them but they are downloaded without your permission.

From what I can tell all of this is executed from the Stic.dll and is an embedded part of AIM.

I also found several XML files that show the code for display perametters for the popup window.

AOL can denie all they want that this is not something from them, but this stuff is all over AIM files.

Okay, enough on the cause what about a fix.

Well I cannot guarantee this will work for everyone but so far the popup window has not return and I am not seeing any ill effects to AIM so far.

Do a search on the file name Strings.XML. You should find it in the Program Files/Common Files/AOL/1137608115/ee/services/softwareUpdate/ver1_14_2_2/resources/en_US

Others might have a different path to the file. Just be sure you are in the AOL directory. Rename the Strings.XML file. I renamed mine to renameStrings.XLM. That way I could undo the change should I find out later things are not working right.

I also deleted any reference to the 3899 and 3881 updates since these are what were downloaded originally. That way I could see if my change worked or not if these files were re-downloaded.

I cannot promiss this will work for everyone but so far this has worked for me.

[kasykd]

I tried your suggestion and the one where I deleted the #5 folder in the Persistent file. Hope it works! I could care less whether we have any aol files on the machine but those darn kids...!!
I'm probably the LEAST computer savvy of everyone who's posted here so I'll definitely be back if this starts more problems.
Thanks to those who've taken the time to research.

[dobalu]

i don't know about others, but for me, none of the suggested things worked. i couldn't find any "persistence" file (or whatever it was) anywhere on my computer, but found a zipped file named "ActiveUpdate". I deleted that, the popup hasn't come back YET, but it's only been like half hour (it used to come up every 5-15min, and even if it was already up, it'd close and reopen itself, minimizing my fullscreen game). I'll tell you if it comes back for me or not.

EDIT: alright, it came back up, so i decided that since nothing else is working, i just deleted the stic.dll file. if that doesn't work, i'm just going to restore stic.dll and deleting sudsConfig. and yes, at this point in time, i'm just guessing, i could really care less if i screw up my AIM.

EDIT (July 19): Deleting stic.dll seemed to work for me. It's been almost 24hr and no pop-up yet. And everything seems to be working correctly too.

[gusverdun]

AIM Triton installs in the same shared location as AOL Explorer, AOL Suite, AOL Spyware Protection and other AOL software. This is AOL's new platform.

Every time you run any application, like AIM Triton, the platform's update mechanism is also loaded. This tool checks to see if there are updates to any software that you have installed (not just what you are running).

If, for example, you are running AOL Triton and there is an update for AOL Suite (perhaps this is the core services mentioned in the post), then you will see the message informing you of the update.

If you don't want to receive updates for some of the AOL products, you can uninstall them by going to the control panel, then selecting add or remove programs and finally look for a program name that starts with "AOL Uninstaller". Click on Change/Remove and follow the UI. From there you should be able to uninstall the portions you dont want.

Hope this helps,

Gus Verdun
http://www.gusverdun.com

[dobalu]

i don't know about anybody else, but on my computer the only thing in the add/remove progs from AOL was AIM. but if others have it, that should help a lot. dunno, my computer has been a lot different from other peoples.

[fred-bob]

I believe I have the problem solved. I used the AOL Uninstaller to remove Triton and everything that came with it (did I really want another web brower?). Then I installed AIM Classic 5.9 from http://www.aim.com/get_aim/win/other_win.adp?aolp=0

This way my daughter gets her AIM, and I don't have all the stuff that came with the Triton preview on the machine.

[dobalu]

SOLUTION #1

Originally Posted by fred-bob

I believe I have the problem solved. I used the AOL Uninstaller to remove Triton and everything that came with it (did I really want another web brower?). Then I installed AIM Classic 5.9 from http://www.aim.com/get_aim/win/other_win.adp?aolp=0

This way my daughter gets her AIM, and I don't have all the stuff that came with the Triton preview on the machine.

SOLUTION #2
That right there is a great way to get rid of the pop-up, but some of us (like myself) prefer AIM Triton.

To stop the Active Update without having to stop using AIM Triton, I deleted stic.dll. That annoying pop-up hasn't come up for me in over 5 days, and nothing seems to be working wrong.

Here's my path to the file for my computer, your's may be different, but it should give you an idea of where to find it:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\AOL\1144194954\ee\services\softwareUpdate\ve r1_13_8_3\

There should be a file in there named "stic.dll". All I did was delete that file and the Active Update pop-up hasn't been back since!

[jscrilla]

^found that file hopefully it works for me