1) First, if you have any version of AIM already installed on your vista machine, remove it now.
(goto start>run and type in appwiz.cpl -> find aol instant messenger, click uninstall)

2) Download AIM 5.9 from www.oldversion.com (Communication > AOL Instant Messenger > i recommend version 5.9.3702)

3) Once installed, the program will work fine. After a restart or a closing of the program, sometimes it’ll refuse to open unless you uninstall it and reinstall. When the program refuses to open, we need to kill the task. Open task manager and end the process called aim.exe (press ctrl+alt+delete and choose start task manager. right-click on task bar and press task manager. OR we can just goto start>run and type in taskkill /f /im aim.exe)

4) When the task has ended open up the registry editor. (start>run type regedit & press enter)

5) Browse to this location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\America Online\AOL Instant Messenger (TM)\CurrentVersion\Misc. Here you will find a value in the right-hand side titled DataPath. Double click on it and remove its contents. Click OK and close regedit. AIM will now open.

6) This is ONLY a temporary solution. I’m still unsure as to what is causing it to save this path, but we can take all these steps and throw them into a double click to make it easier next time. Open Notepad and create a new file. Add the following and save somewhere as AimPatch.reg (the extension MUST be .reg and not .txt for this to work!!)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\America Online\AOL Instant Messenger (TM)\CurrentVersion\Misc]
“DataPath”=”"

Next time aim refuses to open, use task manager to kill aim, then double click on your reg file! When the box comes up, click Yes and you’re done! Open aim and move on with your life. Good luck!

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