Roadkill in the browser wars

[jducoeur]

Well, *that* was an interesting new wrinkle. When I started working today, I discovered that my IE setup had mutated. My Google toolbar was now shoved over to the side, with the AOL toolbar taking up most of that space, and my browser bars were locked into that position. I know that *I* didn't do that. It's hard to be sure -- there's always the possibility that Windows just decided to rearrange everything on a whim -- but it does rather look like the pushing and shoving in the Toolbar Wars (the latest twist on the Browser Wars) is getting a bit more aggressive.

But okay -- I'm enough of a geek to know what to do about *that*. Time to disable the AOL toolbar, and only let it out of its cage when I actually need it. (No, I can't uninstall it: since I'm responsible for *our* IE plugin, I need to have all the others around so that I can debug bad interactions. But if AOL isn't going to play nice with others, they can damned well sit in the corner the rest of the time.)

Is it just me, or has AOL gotten more annoying and antisocial lately? They now open up a full-scale browser (a customized and locked-down version of IE) when you open AIM, which takes a *ton* of screen real estate, and I can't figure out how to turn the damned thing off. Having to keep an eye on the competitors is getting to be more and more of a pain in the butt...

Comments

[dsrtao]

Sounds like you need to get a VMWare license and keep virtual machines around for debugging interactions so that you can get your own work done the rest of the time...

[jducoeur]

I've considered it. Haven't quite gotten annoyed enough to go to the hassle, but one of these days...

[umbran.livejournal.com]

They now open up a full-scale browser (a customized and locked-down version of IE) when you open AIM, which takes a *ton* of screen real estate, and I can't figure out how to turn the damned thing off.

Try:

My AIM > Edit Options > Edit Preferences > Sign On/Off > uncheck "Show AIM Today windo at sign on" box.

[jducoeur]

Ah, lovely -- thanks! Foolish me, I was expecting the control for the browser to be somewhere *in* the damned thing...

[fitzw.livejournal.com]

Not only is it buried in the Options, it gets turned back on every time that you update AIM.

Regards,
Lyle
(Hi, Justin. :) )

[jducoeur]

Well, isn't that just... typical.

[fitzw.livejournal.com]

Oh, and they also put back all of the "Free AOL" links when you update...

[jducoeur]

Yeah, I'm painfully used to that.

(And welcome to LJ!)

[nazrynn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the fact that AOL was continually taking over my machine was the primary reason why I ditched the AOL service, along with the "extras" they would give you without asking permission first.

[doubleplus.livejournal.com]

Well, they're getting more obnoxious for those of us who use their free products. They've always been pretty obnoxious if you're actually an AOL user. AOL installation used to actually alter the TCP stack on Windows! One of my friends who worked there was part of the project to fix that a few years ago.

[jducoeur]

Yaas. It's one of the reasons I'm glad that ASAP is *not* free -- we don't get the pressure from management to come up with irritating new ways to raise revenue...

[mr-teem.livejournal.com]

It isn't you. I haven't liked (or needed, frankly) any of the improvements that they've been shoving into my abused PCs for the last, say, two years. On one machine, AOL decided to hose IE so much that the MSDN site won't work properly with it anymore. Now they're on a PC security kick so they're pushing tools at you that are a frequent annoyance to decline. (At least they're still letting me decline.)