I just downloaded AIM, which forced me at the same time to download AOL Explorer. Is it safe to uninstall explorer? (Asking seriously.)

(serious answer)

It should be okay. At one point of the uninstall it will ask you if you want to keep any external files or some junk like that. Tell it yes. That might be why pplz computers screw up, it's rummored to take registry files from your OS. I would go into control panel, then add/remove programs and get rid of it that way.

It doesn't show up in there, only AIM. And anywhere I try to delete it, it says that it's either just a shorcut deleted, or (in the case of the real thing) there is no uninstall option, just "Delete".

It also wound up givning me "Free AOL" thing that's the same way. A search reveals that my hard drive is now flooded with AOL-related applications.

Get rid of AIM. Get Yahoo IM.

Can Yahoo people chat with AIM people?

AIM is a path to the darkside of AOL.

But what you might want to do is unistall AIM completely and see if that doesn't take all other AOL applications with it. If it does... and you still want AIM, try downloading a diffrent installer that won't install the browser with it. In some cases it will actually ask you if you want to install other crap like browsers, search bars (ugh, I hate them), and whatnot. And all you have to do is just uncheck the things you don't want (it's standard that they are ALL pre-checked... hince the game Gay-O.L.).

try gaim (i think that is how it is spelled) its msn, aim, icq etc etc all in one. i don't use it personally but scorpion lady does and she is always telling us how much better it is. also if you download an older version of aim it might work better - the aim i have came from lone and had nothing attached (aim 4.5 i think)

Trillian's pretty good, too. It can host all of them -- but getting, for example, AIM, through Trillian, is surprisingly easy than having to download AIM's IM program. I use Trillian all the time, and I have a name on AIM, as well as on YIM.

yeah its like trillion - but better. because trillion sucks - or so i have heard a million bigillion times ><

I could care less about features. I just want to chat, with a basic who's on/off buddy list.

And I haven't heard of GAIM.

Here's the version of AIM I have from two years ago, without all the crappiness:

You are lucky to run into anything AOL that isn't crap...

Or [from AOL] eats your harddrive.

Okay, I uninstalled Triton. I can probably assume the 2-year-old version is the same that I used to use (or maybe a version later). But before I download it, would I be able to chat with people using other IMs, or am I to download multiple IMs?

You're going to have to get other IMs. Unless you got Trillian, because that service would cover all of them.

true dat...

I use MSN.... that's it.

Okay, so Trillian - good or bad IM? And how could I list such an address in my profile (I don't see a "Trillian" option).

For now, though, I'm going with that older vesion of AIM, and maybe YIM if necessary.

Trillian's really good, but really basic. It doesn't have all of the unecessary bells and whistles of other IMs, but it's great for standard IMing, and it can access all of the other IMs.

If you get Trillian, there will be a connectivity option allowing you to register an AIM account for Trillian. Basically, Trillian isn't an IM host, it's an IM program which has cross-connection to all of the different IMs. Basically you can get a name from any of the IM service companies (like AIM, or YIM), and use Trillian to access all of them easily, without having to download individual programs.

Also, if you look at my profile, you'll see that I have two different names. I have one for AIM, and one for YIM. There's three different IM servers you can access for Trillian.

Summary: Trillian isn't an IM server, it's a general cross-server IM program which can access your names on the various IM servers. Very handy, and keeps you from having to download four different IM programs.

Would I be able to be logged on to both an AIM account and a YIM account at the same time, so that I'd be available to both users at any time?

i think thats a possiblity. oh and the advice station is revived!!