AOL Security Edition 9.0 SUCKS !!!!!

Two days ago, I stumbled upon a post on TECHDIRT about AOL going free for all, I tempted to download AOL SE 9.0 and registered for AOL and it turned out to be a havoc on my system. AOL installed a whole lot of stuff I didn't want to install without any prior notice or warning dialogues. Its a bundleware and after installation I had:

> A Windows AOL Deskbar (a search box that would sit in the Windows bar)
> An Internet Explorer AOL Toolbar
> A Windows Tray Icon which can’t be disabled (not by clicking exit, sign-out, etc.)

First, I deleted all the shortcuts on the desktop and then tried to uninstall AOL SE 9.0 from ADD/REMOVE programs. I clicked the remove tag and I saw something like "AOL is serching for available SE versions on your computer....Please wait...." I waited...and waited.. and waited.. and to my frustration.. nothing happened. I googled for the solution and found out on BLOG OUTER-COURT that I was not the only victim.

I literally wasted an entire day to get rid of all unwanted crap.
Here is what I did:

1.I deleted all the shortcut icons from the desktop.
2.I removed the applications that could be removed from the START>CONTROL PANEL>ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS.
3.I deleted all the AOL/america online files and folders from the registry.
START>RUN> type REGEDIT> and find the folders
4.I also overwrote the deleted files using free ERASER APPLICATION (Thanks to Wired Magazines' August Issue, " How TO" section.)
5.I performed the search START>SEARCH>ALL FILES/FOLDERS using file name AOL and america online and manually deleted each and every file.

Performing above five steps was irritating and frustrating because after every step, I had to reboot the system. The system got froze for a couple of times. It slowed down the system.

After suffering so much of labor, I still have stains(some files and folders that didn't let themselves get killed (what the heck!!!!)) but, its okay. Atleast I got rid of the AOL SE 9.0 icon from the Add/remove program application and AOL icon from the system tray. My syatem has come to its normal operational speed.

No doubt, AOL sucks and AOL is an evil.

Special Thanks to: Google( ofcourse), BLOG OUTER-COURT,
ERASER APPLICATION and Wired magazine.

UPDATE: On 29th of August, Over at VariableGHz,an article lists *detailed* instructions as to what it would take to FULLY remove AOL 9.0 Security Edition from your system. Here's the LINK