Upgrade from Hell

By JOSHUA QUITTNER

Is it just me, or has installing software become harder? It used to be that setting up a new program simply meant sticking a disc in my computer and clicking yes when asked if I agreed to an unfair and unintelligible licensing agreement. My computer would then crunch away for a while, restart, and--voila!--the application was ready to go.

Lately, though, installing software feels like a cross between talking to a telemarketer at dinner and a national referendum on health care. Do you want the program to be your default browser? Do you want to overwrite an earlier version of DirectX? Do you want to register online now or the next time you reboot, or should we remind you every two weeks for the rest of your life?

It is clearly not just me. Last week a class action was filed against America Online on behalf of certain users who upgraded to Windows version 5.0 and found they were then unable to connect to any other Internet-service provider. Apparently some of these folks got confused during the installation process when asked via a pop-up window, "Would you like AOL to be your default Internet connection for Web pages, newsgroups and e-mail?" The right answer for them--and probably for most people who use a Net-service provider in addition to AOL--would have been no. Indeed, the default is no, and if they had just ignored the question altogether and hit return, they would have been fine.

But perhaps because they were understandably suspicious of the question, they replied yes. And now when they try to fire up a connection to, say, Mindspring or AT&T or UUNET or any other Net-service provider, their AOL dial-up muscles in and blocks access to their old ISP. Some 7 million of AOL's 21 million subscribers have upgraded to 5.0. While no one knows how many of them are afflicted, it was apparently enough to attract lawyers.

Unfortunately, unless they have a computer-science degree or access to a highly motivated 13-year-old, the folks who are now stuck with AOL's loading whenever they want to go online are probably faced with calling AOL's customer-service number to fix it. Why AOL--which is buying Time Warner--doesn't put its fix-it recipe online or on its start-up screen is beyond me. But that's not my problem; you are. And I'm here to help, dear reader.

Before I do, though, let's briefly digress to try to understand how this happened. After Microsoft introduced Windows 98, it became the practice to embed all kinds of Net functionality into programs. For instance, live links to websites suddenly became commonplace in e-mail; if you were reading a message, you had only to click on the blue text to launch your browser automatically and go to the website. This was a good thing; it made life easier. But for it to work, Windows needed to know how to get to the Internet on your computer. That's why this business of designating a default browser, an e-mail program and a newsgroup reader is relevant when you add a piece of software, such as 5.0, that does any of those things.

O.K., so how do we fix this problem? Go to your Start button and select Settings, then Control Panel, then Internet Options. Next, select the Programs tab and hit the button that says RESET WEB SETTINGS. That should restore your PC to its previous defaults. Gee, that was simple, wasn't it?

For more advice about dealing with AOL 5.0, visit time.com/personal Questions for Josh? You can reach him at [email protected]