AIM Ad Hack
Open-knowledge reference entry
AIM Ad Hack was a free third-party add-on for AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) created by Cuban-Aftermath Software. The add-on removes advertisements from the GUI of AIM. AIM Ad Hack can also be used to remove spyware such as Viewpoint Media Player and WildTangent, which were commonly included in AIM installations. Unlike add-ons like DeadAIM, AIM Ad Hack actually modifies AIM itself to remove advertisements and spyware, making it unnecessary for the program to load every time AIM is started.
Operation
AIM Ad Hack may be run as a stand-alone program or as an add-on to an existing installation of AIM. When AIM Ad Hack is run, it downloads the AIM setup files if AIM is not already installed, and it prompts the user which components of AIM should be blocked or removed. It also provides the option of downloading plugins from AOL and various third-party plugins from AOL Greenhouse. If there is any malware or spyware found on the computer from a previous installation of AIM, such as WeatherBug or WildTangent, AIM Ad Hack will remove it as well.
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This entry incorporates text from “AIM Ad Hack” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.