Pistol
20th December 2001, 03:04 AM
Get Rid of ICQ Bloat and Adds!
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Bill Thursday October 26, 2000 10:36 AM Your Time
Ever since AOL (pardon my French) took over ICQ, we've seen an attack of bloatware that would make even Microsoft blush. Here we show you ways to still use the basic features without having to put up with the rest of the ****.
Find an older version: :)
OK, this is obvious but I threw it in to make sure this guide is complete, but versions before ICQ2000 are without a lot of the **** the newer versions. I feel that ICQ99b is the best balance between features and bloatware. I doubt that ICQ99b is compatible with the database from newer versions, still if your going to start from scratch its a worthy download
Disable Extra Features: Some of the features in the newer versions can disabled in the preferences menu.
Delete DLL's: You can actually get rid of the adds by deleting/renaming certain DLL's in your ICQ folder.
In your ICQ folder (usually C:\Program Files\ICQ) you can delete the following.. (If you're timid, you can always move them to another folder)
icqateima32.dll (removes advertisement downloading)
icqateimg32.dll (removes the loading of images)
icqateres.dll (removes part of the advertisement function)
You will get "ICQ ATEBROWSER 1.0" instead of advertisements..
Miranda ICQ: is a wonderful alternative to ICQ with good features but without adds and other ****, its also about 1/10 the size of ICQ99b!!!
Multiple profiles.To use them, put a profile name on the command line.
If you don't give a profile name, default it used.
Reads your ICQ messages (if you have a text to speech engine)If you want Miranda ICQ to read your Email to you, you will need a SAPI 4.0 Text-to-speech engine. Microsoft has one that you can download for free, it's called msttsL.EXEHere's a M$ page dedicated to Speech Engines.(Opens in a new window)
Send/receive messages
Send/receive URL's
Contacts listAdd contacts by ICQ number / e-mail / name
Remove contact
Rename contact
Ignore contact
Message History
Support for MegaHal Chat bot (opens in a new window)
Under Windowz 2000 Miranda ICQ supports transparent contact list (you have to see this, very cool!)
This information was gathered from the web and not tested by me as I still have ICQ99b.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Thursday October 26, 2000 10:36 AM Your Time
Ever since AOL (pardon my French) took over ICQ, we've seen an attack of bloatware that would make even Microsoft blush. Here we show you ways to still use the basic features without having to put up with the rest of the ****.
Find an older version: :)
OK, this is obvious but I threw it in to make sure this guide is complete, but versions before ICQ2000 are without a lot of the **** the newer versions. I feel that ICQ99b is the best balance between features and bloatware. I doubt that ICQ99b is compatible with the database from newer versions, still if your going to start from scratch its a worthy download
Disable Extra Features: Some of the features in the newer versions can disabled in the preferences menu.
Delete DLL's: You can actually get rid of the adds by deleting/renaming certain DLL's in your ICQ folder.
In your ICQ folder (usually C:\Program Files\ICQ) you can delete the following.. (If you're timid, you can always move them to another folder)
icqateima32.dll (removes advertisement downloading)
icqateimg32.dll (removes the loading of images)
icqateres.dll (removes part of the advertisement function)
You will get "ICQ ATEBROWSER 1.0" instead of advertisements..
Miranda ICQ: is a wonderful alternative to ICQ with good features but without adds and other ****, its also about 1/10 the size of ICQ99b!!!
Multiple profiles.To use them, put a profile name on the command line.
If you don't give a profile name, default it used.
Reads your ICQ messages (if you have a text to speech engine)If you want Miranda ICQ to read your Email to you, you will need a SAPI 4.0 Text-to-speech engine. Microsoft has one that you can download for free, it's called msttsL.EXEHere's a M$ page dedicated to Speech Engines.(Opens in a new window)
Send/receive messages
Send/receive URL's
Contacts listAdd contacts by ICQ number / e-mail / name
Remove contact
Rename contact
Ignore contact
Message History
Support for MegaHal Chat bot (opens in a new window)
Under Windowz 2000 Miranda ICQ supports transparent contact list (you have to see this, very cool!)
This information was gathered from the web and not tested by me as I still have ICQ99b.