How to Manually Remove Ads in AIM Version 6.9

I thoroughly enjoy manually removing ads in my messengers. I recently had to do a forced upgrade of my AOL AIM because they shut down the lower versions. I found this most annoying as the newer versions of AOL AIM seem to be a RAM hog as well as an ad hog. So I downloaded AOL AIM version 6.9 off of oldversion.com and began tweaking my settings, and going through hard drive files. I simply knew there had to be a way to manually remove AOL AIM ads.

To manually remove ads in AIM version 6.9, you can either go to start, search, and find files searching for "strings.xml" or you can manually go hunting. Bring up your windows explorer, and go to where you installed the program. If by default it should be under: C then click the plus by programs, the plus by AIM6, click the plus by imApp, the plus by resources, and finally click on the folder named en-US. In that folder down at the bottom you will see the file strings.xml. Right click select copy, and then right click, and select paste. You have now just created a backup of the file in case you do something wrong.

Open the strings.xml file with notepad. Once the file is opened go to edit at the top of the file on the menu bar, and type in "bl.adHeight" without the quotes. Change the number beside it, to zero. Do the same to adWidth, aimadrotateinterval, and adUrlFormat. Go up to file menu bar, and select save. If your AOL AIM is open, exit, and restart. You will now notice a brief AOL logo at the top of your AOL AIM, and then a blank box where the spam ads use to be.

Now if that bothers you, you can remove that too by going C then clicking on program files, clicking the plus by AIM6 clicking the plus by services, click the plus by imApp, click the plus by the version you are using, the plus by content, click the plus by bl, and finally click on the file named " aolBuddyListAd.js" go to edit then click on find and type in "adcontainer" without the quotes. Change collapsed=false to collapse=true. Then go up to file and click on save, and exit out AIM.

Now every time AOL AIM starts you will notice their logo at the top, and it will disappear. Enjoy a quicker spam free service, and be proud of yourself for not downloading a hack, but manually removing the ads in AOL AIM yourself.