The Last Podcast Opinionated Web 2.0 News and Commentary

AOL OpenRide – A Review

The buzz in the blogosphere this morning is all about AOL’s new OpenRide all-in-one browser/email/IM/video application. Even MSNBC.com put the AP story based mostly on AOL press release on its frontpage.So I saw a lot of talk, but the only review I saw was on PaidContent.org, so I thought I would give it a spin and write my own.

With some trepidation I went to install AOL software for the first time in many, many years.

The install is not that bad actually. The software does install AIM and a number of other services. My firewall definitely popped up number of times to warn me about new programs being installed. It’s a pretty flashy installer app, but really nothing new to report about it.

First start:

• AOL want to help me with a “connectivity service” – ask whether I want to use Dial-Up or Broadband
• I tell it to go for broadband and it disappears – for a while – it then comes back and asks me the same question again… I answer again and it seems to be gone now
• a small video displays the function of the four panes and how they move
• the memory footprint seems reasonable – somewhere around 40mb

Browser:

• this looks like IE – I do not see a way to bookmark anything – kind of strange…
• there is a build in feed reader somewhere

• just like in Firefox, a little RSS icon shows in the address bar and clicking on it subscribes me to the feed
• not sure where the feed reading function is, though

Mail:

• the mail window is very standard – very Outlook like – just extremely simplified
• a huge flash banner pops up in the middle of the screen (it’s the middle, because the browser thumbnails take over the bottom)
• you can add POP3 mail accounts to this (interestingly, they specifically mention gmail – maybe because the other big providers (MSN, Yahoo etc.) don’t offer free POP3)
• nothing spectacular here

IM and Video:

• nothing spectacular either – very streamlined, clean interface
• the IM would be more useful if it interacted with other services, but you can’t really expect that from AOL, I guess

Shutting Down:

• an AOL icon remains in the taskbar…
• first fuction: AOL dialer
• second: OpenRide
• two tasks called “aolsoftware.exe” remain open, both taking about 9mb of memory
• no mention of anything being moved to the taskbar was ever made by the program and right clicking the icon does not show a way to shut down everything

• come on AOL – a simple ‘quit’ function can’t be that hard to program

• aolsoftware.exe comes back
• aolnotify

• I had to kill it three times before it stopped coming back…

Summary:

I salute AOL for trying to innovate on the GUI front with regards to wen enabled applications. I can not see any tech savvy person using this, but former AOL dial-up users and college kids (they use AIM anyway) might find this useful. I don’t like to give up this much space to programs that I could have running in the taskbar and I sure don’t use IM, so those functions don’t matter to me and neither does the video, radio etc. functionality.

The app does feature some cool innovations with regards to the interface. It is a bit cluttered for my taste, but not as much as one would imagine such an all-in-one app would look like. I won’t give up Firefox anytime soon. There are no plug-ins, no easily accessible bookmarks and I still haven’t figured out where the RSS feeds are going.

In the long run, though, this might become a hit for the non-techie AOL crowd, though.

If you want to get an impression of what the app looks like without installing it, AOL has a pretty good video explaining it.

Link to AOL Hopes Users Will Take a Free Ride — AOL OpenRide, That Is | paidContent.org

I agree. I installed ti myself, but it was just too heavy to be worth keeping on my system. So I uninstalled it. The only problem I am having is trying to organize the address book on the free aol account.

Hi
the Bookmarks in AOL are called Favorites. you can save a favorite/bookmark by clicking the red heart on the page you want to keep. you can see the listing of Favorite Bookmarks by clicking the red heart in the upper right hand corner of Aols new Desktop.
Jeannie

For the first time since AOL came about, I’ve uninstalled it. In itself, that was no easy matter. Went to control panel and uninstalled it, it got rid of Openride, but 9.0 was still running. The aolsoftware.exe’s in the Task manager not only took up a lot of memory, every once in a while they would take off running and use up to 50% of my computer’s processing time. Doing what I don’t know. I finally got everything removed and have like 8-10 fewer processes running in Task Manager. My computer runs better, don’t know if I’ll put anything back or just use aol.com from IE.

Gerry, same experience here – it’s sad that a big company like AOL could put out such bad software and even advertise it on TV.

i installed openride and didnt like it at all. how do i uninstall it. i looked for the
aolsoftware.exe program but couldnt find it. i have aol broadband. thanks.

I installed it. However – installation proved to be quite frustrating. I was wanting to install OpenRide to my external hard drive. However, there is nothing in the program to let you do that. So – I ended up installing in on my “C” drive. Then I discovered that the video search does not pick up everything if you use an external drive – and – there is no “Browse” feature available for video files. Overall – it’s an o.k. program – but in the end – I choose to uninstall it.

Paul – welcome to the joys of AOL software that allows zero customization. I was more than happy to get it off my system right after installing and testing it.

Ricky7 – try the Add or Remove Software function in your Control Panel. Open Ride should show up in there.

I will uninstall also , it cause more problem with hang-up than I have ever had before, plus whenever internet explorer is used freeze my system , I am tired of (ctrl alt delete ).

I have tried to find out how to uninstall AOL open ride and can’t find it in Control Panel add and remove programs.
Please help.

Everyone seems to have the same problem but no one can post a solution. I can’t get open ride off and I get a pop-up from them every two minutes telling me to upgrade. It’s very frustrating. Any solutions?

Please help I am also trying to uninstall Openride but can’t figure out how to do it. I went to control panel (add/delete programs) and I cant find it. PLEASE HELP ASAP, tired of pop ups regarding upgrades. Thanks so much

please tell me how to uninstall openride

JUST LIKE THE OTHERS I INSTALLED OPEN RIDE AND CANNOT FIND IT IN ADD OR DELETE PROGRAMS. AND IT HAS SEVERELY SLOWED MY COMPUTER DOWN AND I HAVE A VERY HARD TIME TRYING TO SIGN ON. OFTEN HAVEING TO REBOOT 3 AND 4 TIMES OR MORE. I AM VERY FRUSTRATED. WISH I HAD JUST LEFT MY AOL 9.0 VERSION ALONE. IT IS STILL IN MY COMPUTER BUT I CANNOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO DELETE THE OPEN RIDE. PLEASE HELP ME.

Please uninstall the active update for aol openride or me. I don’t know how to do this.

Fanchon

I had tried to remove AOL Open Ride and now am getting constant update reminders. How do I end this madness? Thanks!

I cannot find Open Ride on my control panel and it is half installed. How do I UNINSTALL what’s there?

How does one uninstall Open Ride? Help!

pleaseeeeeease delete

Can someone please tell me how to uninstall AOL open ride. I cannot find it in my Add/Delete Programs in Control Panel either. Does someone know the secret?????????????

I think AOL should be crucified for foisting the Open Ride travesty upon us.
I experienced that problems of others.

I had even more:
1. When I write emails they go into a draft folder and won’t send so I cut and pasted into AOL 9.0
2. Mail received did not go into existing mailbox on AOL 9.0
3.The upgrade corrupted my 9.0
4. Tried to download 9.0 but AOL only allwed me to down load AOL vr.
5. Turns out it has some of the same problems as open ride.
6. I finally found a copy on the internet.
All told I spent dozens of hours before I got back to AOL 9.0
And the worst part is the AOL support staff new of the draft problem yet AOL continued to tout it knowing the draft folder was a proble.
I understand problems occur. To me it is criminal to continue to tout it and knowing that simple functions do not work. How many tens or hundreds of thousands users wasted their time because AOL pawned a known piece of crap software on us?

I want to uninstall AOL openride from my computer, and do not know how to do it. It is not on my add/remove programs list. Please send me something on how to get rid of it…I do not like it, I do not use it, etc etc…..need to remove it. thanks , Debbie

THERE ARE WAY TOO MANY UPDATE,INSTALLNOW NOTICES THAT POP UP
I WANT THIS FEATURE REMOVED A.S.A.P
CAROLE

I have AOL OpenRide on my home Dell PC! I am now at the North Myrtle Beach attempting to access my E-mail, and I cannot get in [enter]? What gives?

Freddy
Chapin, SC

Since I installed AOL Open Ride, I can’t get windows to shut down, neither can I figure out how to uninstall Open Ride. Any help out there??????

please stop sending open ride updates.i uninstalled open ride almost immediately after i downloaded the programplease stop updates

I am so thoroughly disgusted with OpenRide that I am ready to pitch my computer. I DO NOT WANT IT AND CANNOT UNINSTALL> It does not show up on my “add/remove” yet I keep getting active updates pop ups every few minutes I am on line……Please tell me how to uninstall….Am on the edge of just cancelling AOL period.

Okay…I am not sure how to uninstall AOL open ride..but I think you should try going to your task bar, and right clicking the AOL symbol. Go down to Notification and then click “View Notification History”. It should show you the notifications that you receive. You should then be able to delete them. Hope this works for you

I don’t know how to uninstall aol open ride… it’s driving me nuts with all the updgrade updates…
I went it gone… it’s slowing down my computer

Not happy with Open Ride, how do I get remove it please.

I too have tryed aol open ride.While I liked it.I found it to be too much of a memory hog to be usefull.If it wasn’t lagging it had to many bugs.Right now im using the ordinary aol browser Its not as heavy so to speak.But the problem I’m having now is I can’t delete things out of one of my aol fav. folders other then that its alright.

i too have tried a million times to get rid of that annoying aol open ride…….those damn popups….but heres whats funny on my normal sat virus cleaning it seemed to make it DISAPPEAR……I HAVENT HAD A POP UP ALL WEEK………

HOW TO UNINSTALL AOL OPENRIDE? Go to Add/Remove Programs, when it populates click on AOL Uninstaller … AOL OpenRide is contained there, at least the last time I uninstalled it. I have been attracted to its dynamics 3 – 4 times in the hope that AOL fixed the problems … BUT NOT !! Good Luck.

An archive of AOL OpenRide is available for download on my aol download site for it.

To serve as a free way for people to get it, since aol killed off their links.

http://members.aol.com/iloveopenride/

I want reinstall openride. thank you

I want to uninstall openride. I can’t get it in my name!

I want to uninstall openride.Please how do i do that.I cannot find it on add/remove panel.Thank you.

Hey All!!!!!!!!!!!!!Got it!! here is how to uninstall AOL’s Open Ride. Go to START, then Control Panel, Then ADD/REMOVE Programs,,, scroll down on next page til you see AOL UNINSTALLER, click on CHANGE/REMOVE and wait a few minutes for the next list to pop up. When it does check the box by AOL Open Ride then on UNINSTALL There you go,I just did it myself; HAGD All- Pam

Hi! My name is Maricar from AOL® Live Help. I am the consultant you spoke with earlier.

I understand that you keep receiving the Software Update pop-up for AOL OpenRide.

UNINSTALL AOL SOFTWARE USING THE AOL UNINSTALLER.

1. Click START, select CONTROL PANEL and double click ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS.
2. Select AOL UNINSTALLER and click CHANGE/REMOVE button
3. In the AOL UNINSTALLER window, click the link for SEARCH FOR OLDER AOL VERSION.
4. Once done, checked all the boxes and click UNINSTALL button.
5. Once finished, restart the computer.

DELETE AOL FILES AND FOLDERS.

1. Double click MY COMPUTER in the Desktop Screen.
2. Double click C:Drive or LOCAL C:.
3. Double click PROGRAM FILES folder.
4. Right click on the AOL folder or AMERICA ONLINE folder and select DELETE.
5. Click YES when prompted to send it to the Recycle Bin.

NOTE: Repeat 4 and 5 steps if there are multiple copies of AOL listed.

6. Double click COMMON FILES folder.
7. Right click on the AOL folder or AMERICA ONLINE folder and select DELETE.

NOTE: Repeat 6 and 7 steps if there are multiple copies of AOL folder listed.

8. Close the window by clicking the “x” button located in the upper right corner.
9. Double click MY COMPUTER in the Desktop Screen.
10. Double click C:Drive or LOCAL C:
11. Click TOOLS menu and select FOLDER OPTIONS. Click VIEW tab and select SHOW HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS then click OK.
11. Double click DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS folder
12. Double click ALL USERS
13. Double click APPLICATION DATA.
14. Right click on the AOL folder or AMERICA ONLINE folder and select DELETE.
15. Click YES when prompted to send it to the Recycle Bin.

NOTE: Repeat 14 and 15 steps if there are multiple copies of AOL folder listed.

To download the AOL Desktop please visit AOL Keyword: AOL DESKTOP and follow the onscreen instructions for downloading.

I will appreciate if you could send me a feedback about the steps I provided so I can make sure you receive all the help you need on this matter. Feel free to email me back.

If you prefer to be assisted via phone, you may call us at our toll-free number: 1-800-827-3338. Consultants are available 24 hours a day. Thank you for choosing America Online (AOL).

Sincerely,

Maricar/AOLTechMMB
Technical Support
AOL LLC