AOL tentacles - a newbie question
I am a newbie and I am posting this question re: AOL because I believe it may be relevant to
security issues -
I recently uninstalled AOL IM because, like other AOL software, it seemed to take over my computer.
I'm using Win98 and I went to Start/Find/Files or Folders and typed in AOL -
MY GOD!!
LOOK AT ALL THOSE DAMNED AOL FILES!! WHERE THE HELL DID THEY COME FROM??!!
Well, it was like flicking the lights on in the kitchen and seeing cockroaches everywhere.
Those files gotta go.
So how does this relate to security? I believe that if a software company can drop that many files
your hard drive without your knowledge (and I suspect it happened whenever I loaded any
major store-bought software which AOL is included with - i.e. anything bought in a store)
that anyone else, with a little work could drop this much software into your harddrive.
Can I go to Uninstall, or back to that pathway I mentioned at the top of this message, highlight
all those AOL files, and hit delete? Or are have some of these files married themselves to
critical files in my system? I hope other newbies will benefit from this.
Re: AOL tentacles - a newbie question
Quote:
Originally posted here by dmedici
LOOK AT ALL THOSE DAMNED AOL FILES!! WHERE THE HELL DID THEY COME FROM??!!
erm, all WHAT files? there may be lots of different programs that use dll's/other files that have "aol" in the name, so its kinda important to be spefic about exactly WHAT files you are refering to.
Quote:
So how does this relate to security? I believe that if a software company can drop that many files
your hard drive without your knowledge (and I suspect it happened whenever I loaded any
major store-bought software which AOL is included with - i.e. anything bought in a store)
that anyone else, with a little work could drop this much software into your harddrive.
erm, well i can say that i am about 99% sure it was not installed by store-bought software without asking first, and it does take more than just "a little work" to just push software onto sombody's HD...even when they are running M$ software.
Quote:
Can I go to Uninstall, or back to that pathway I mentioned at the top of this message, highlight
all those AOL files, and hit delete? Or are have some of these files married themselves to
critical files in my system? I hope other newbies will benefit from this.
well, as i said before, that would depend greatly on what the files actually ARE. the first thing i'd do would be to go into "Add/Remove Programs" in the controll pannel and remove AOL if its listed...after that i wouldn't indiscrimimantly delete files.
