[brendandonhu]

If you use AOL's instant messanger, you have probably heard you can remove ads by going to the program folder (usually C:\program files\Aim95), then deleting advert.ocm, making a copy of admin.ocm, and renaming it to advert.ocm.

I was playing around with AIM's OCM files, by seeing how it would respond to removing certain ones. Actually, dont remove the files. Rename them to .old, but leave the extension. Advert.ocm becomes advert.ocm.old.

Heres a few things that happen when you remove different files, dont know what use they have except for blocking certain features or driving someone crazy i did not list the ones that just cause AIM to completely break.

ADVERT.OCM: Removing gets rid of the ads, but shows a few errors you must click through when opening or closing. Instructions for removing ads are in the first paragraph of this.

TICKER.OCM: Removes stock ticker. Can be done within AIM's settings.

Chatui.OCM: Clicking "Chat" button wont do anything. No chats

Browse.OCM: No idea what changed. Any ideas? Already checked things like links in profiles.

LocateUI.OCM: Disables "Info" button, can't view profiles.

Anything with OSC or OSCAR in it is required by AIM, oscar.aol.com is the server to login to aim.

[pyritechips]

Have you seen this B? This is what I use.

http://www.jdennis.net/DeadAIM/downloads.php

[brendandonhu]

That does has some cool features but I still prefer manually playing around with AIM to see what I can do, although I can't do stuff like the tabbed chat, I can clone AIM.

[Dark Star]

ADVERT.OCM: Removing gets rid of the ads, but shows a few errors you must click through when opening or closing. Instructions for removing ads are in the first paragraph of this.

brendan,

To remove the AIM ads entirely...

First, right-click on the AIM icon in your system tray and exit.
You cannot remove the ad banner while AIM is loaded in memory.
Go to the main AIM directory and open the file AIM.ODL in Notepad.

Scroll down to these lines:

on_group(5)
{
load_ocm advert required
}
on_group(11)
{
load_ocm advert required
}
Remove the lines inside the brackets, but leave the carriage returns (empty lines).
These lines should now look like this:

on_group(5)
{
}
on_group(11)
{
}
Save the changed file and close Notepad.
Save the file and start AIM. The ad banner will be replaced with a blank gray area.

Done deal

Or you can also use a semi-colon in front of the load_ocm lines. The semi-colon "comments out" that line of code, so that AIM ignores that line. Here is what the new code should look like:

on_group(5)
{
; load_ocm advert required
}
on_group(11)
{
; load_ocm advert required
}

DS

[Dark Star]

Originally posted by brendandonhu:
I still prefer manually playing around with AIM to see what I can do

Since you've been poking around with AIM and making some mods you may want to have a look at ...

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\America Online\AOL Instant Messenger (TM)\CurrentVersion\Users\

It's all in there and with a little patience its not too hard to make changes that you cant otherwise make from the AIM folder or from the buddylist menu and options settings.

At the present time I'm looking to get rid of the "filelib" folder that AIM makes and places in the My Documents folder.... inside the filelib folder is another folder with the AIM Username and that's where the transfered files default to once completed.

DS


DS

[brendandonhu]

You can change where transfered files are downloaded too. Thanks for posting the registry key, I will have a look at that after I am done going through my email
I have already removed ads via the way I said in my first post, it is much easier. Delete a file. Copy a file, and rename it.

[Dark Star]

Originally posted by brendandonhu:
You can change where transfered files are downloaded too. Thanks for posting the registry key, I will have a look at that after I am done going through my email
I have already removed ads via the way I said in my first post, it is much easier. Delete a file. Copy a file, and rename it.

Ok I see it now ... guess I missed it before when I read "ADVERT.OCM: Removing gets rid of the ads, but shows a few errors you must click through when opening or closing."

Yeah the REG key is where it's all happening. I'm not about to go messing with the binary data but I wouldn't mind learning how to resize the buddylist menu to get rid of and compact the area where the ads used to be.

DS

[brendandonhu]

Have you seen the "Cool AIM Tricks" Section of aimicons.net?
Good stuff. Of course, all of the AIM tip/buddy icon sites are run by the same people to make money of popups. You can tell because they all link to eachother and display more or less the same content, then each site has its own 1 section of original content.

[Dark Star]

Thanks for the link brendan

aimicons.net well I couldn't get in there just now but I'll try again later....

"Cool AIM Tricks Section"

I'm wanting to take all the extra lights, bells, and whistles out of AIM maybe I can find some in there coz I sure dont wanna add any more junk to it.

DS

[brendandonhu]

Nope it doesnt really have anything you can take out. Try AIM Express or QuickBuddy online versions.
The site is really, really, really, really slow.

[Dark Star]

LOL brendan ....

The site is really, really, really, really slow.

Well maybe if you guys paid your bills on time

[brendandonhu]

Oh oops.
Now i checked again and that site was completely gone, but the link is still on sponsors pages.

[bigmcell]

I also have been messing around with the AOL files trying to change a few settings and stuff. There are 2 things I cannot figure out. 1. I want to fill that space where the ads used to be (thanks alot for the removal help very simple and fast)... i tried useing resource hack, and opening AIMRES.dll and editing in there but i can only edit buttons, and the log in screen. and 2. is there anyway to customize the colors of ur aol program, IE THe background being say blue and the surrounding outside border, silver. stuff like that. Let me know I'd love to see what u guy's can come up with!!!

[brendandonhu]

There is a new aim app coming out
http://home.rochester.rr.com/artcfox/MyIM/
It says full buddy list customization.
You can also skin AIM, changing images and everything, I did it once. I will look for that tutorial. The problem is, you open it in Resource Hacker, and you can go through all the images, but a few of them are "booby trapped" and your whole system crashes as soon as you click on them!

[brendandonhu]

This isnt the tutorial I used, but its all the same.
http://www.carbonfour.com/version2/tutorials/aim/