Comments on: Here’s How You Can Uninstall the AOL Toolbar from Firefox and Internet Explorer

By: Jules

Jules — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:34:15 +0000

@Not Me – Thanks for sharing your experiences. Unfortunately we also see more and more integration of software with other software. Toolbars are one of the worst categories in that respect…

By: Not Me

Not Me — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:24:31 +0000

…The AOL “thanks for installing the AOL toolbar” splash screen popped up again today so I have not gotten rid of it completely. My newest theory is that it is also tied in with the WINAMP toolbar. There is an AIM icon on that toolbar that I believe may be tied to AOL AIM. Going to dump the WINAMP toolbar in hopes of killing the AOL zombie program that just won’t die.

By: Not Me

Not Me — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:42:25 +0000

Had the same problem with not being able to get rid of the AOL splash screen. I have always found AOL to be worthless. Not sure if this will work but in FF under add-ins there is a drop down window under the gear icon on the right. Uncheck “update add-ons automatically”. Shut down Firefox and then go to the control panel and under programs and features find the program named something like download manger or updater it will have (AOL LLC) in parentheses after it. Uninstall it. I think this fixed my problem. …Die AOL Die…

By: Milo

Milo — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:13:00 +0000

I have the same problem as sara but i don’t have a firefox in safemode option (the firefox folder doesn’t seem to exist), is there anything i can do?

By: Jules

Jules — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 06:54:15 +0000

@Sara Piazza – You can start FF without add-ons by starting FF in Safe Mode. In the Start menu, go to All Programs, then go to the Mozilla FireFox folder and click the option “Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode)”.
Once started, you will see a FF Safe Mode Window, where you can select to disable the FF add-ons and then restart with just that option.

Just to make sure, you have used the Control Panel->Uninstall (or Add/Remove programs) to uninstall the AOL toolbar, right? Not just by trying the uninstall option in FF itself?

As a last result option, you could simply delete the “C:/Program Files/AOL Toolbar” folder, but the disadvantage to that is that the program data, user settings and registry entries are not removed.

By: Sara Piazza

Sara Piazza — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:52:57 +0000

Jules – thanks for replying.

omg, I’m in an endless loop that won’t quit. I have uninstalled all AOL from system, but almost every time I open FF, AOL toolbar is still there with that insidious AOL page that has no obvious exit. I go over to the little orange settings button and click “uninstall” but it doesn’t go away.

When I go to “view” I can un-click aol msgr toolbar and it goes away, temporarily.

There is some trick that AOL is using to get me to install the tool bar – I click on ‘uninstall’ and it takes me immediately to FF add-ons – it’s an endless loop.

How do I run FF without add-ons?

I’m ready to leave FF forever.

By: Jules

Jules — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:29:52 +0000

@Sara Piazza – Have you checked the settings for your homepage in FF? And try running FF without add-ons to see it an add-on is used for the AOL ad.

You can type “about:config” in the address bar and check the “browser.startup” settings for any AOL url.

Which FF version are you running btw?

By: Sara Piazza

Sara Piazza — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:35:52 +0000

I have uninstalled all AOL-related items, but I still get a huge AOL ad (with no obvious way of exiting without closing my browser) every time I open FF. This is a royal pain.

How do I totally remove this garbage? I am considering leaving Firefox, permanently.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 04:58:44 +0000

My computer was also very slow until I removed the AOL toolbar. After that it returned to normal immediately.

My guess is the toolbar tries to constantly download news and other junk thereby consuming most resiurces.

By: Jules

Jules — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:04:52 +0000

@Gary A – Thank you for your feedback. I will update the article to make the commercial aspect of the uninstaller software more clear.
But, please do realize that it is mentioned as the 4th method of uninstalling and not to be the only way to do it. Furthermore, we generally mention when software is free, rather than the other way around. Most software is commercial because people spend time and effort creating it and want to be compensated. So it is better to assume it is not free rather than the other way around.