I've just finished my second year of college and have grown unmentionably addicted to AOL IM. I'm now home for the summer and unlike at school, I no longer have the luxury of a LAN connection. Also, I stay at a few different houses which do not particularly care for AIM being installed on their computers.

Anyway, my question is: How would it be possible for me to install AOL Instant Messenger, and my various accessories, onto a CD-RW that would enable me to travel with my AIM (and settings) and not disrupt the hosts?

I've attempted to install straight to the CD-RW, copy the Program Files folder, then all the required .dll's, nothing seems to work. Is this possible? Or are my hopes too high?
Please Help!

Unfortunately, this isn't possible. Windows programs such as AIM need to be installed to the operating system, which includes writing registry keys to the system registry, etc.

A viable option is to use the Java version of AOL Instant Messenger, AIM Express, which is a java applet that runs from the aol.com webpage.

You can go here to run it: http://www.aim.com/get_aim/express/aim_expr.adp

Because it's just a java applet, it doesn't have many of the features of the regular AIM program. However, you could still talk to your buddies online, and perhaps that's the most important thing.

I agree with Dani. Try using the applet version. Depending how new the computer is, it will work (you might have to download a plugin for the Applet or even install a newer version of IE - just do it while they're not looking ). If you're really desperate, you can try going to ftp.aol.com and see if they have older versions of AIM. What you're trying to do with the CD I think used to work with older versions. Even if it was on CD, AIM used to write temp files to the hard drive. Give it a shot if you're desperate.

If you REALLY need your AIM then you can go to most libraries and use it. Just be prepared to have some web page up with complicated diagrams and text that you can ALT-TAB to when a library person walks by. 8)