Never had AOL(thank god by the sounds of it ) but have you tried going into control panel "administrative tools" and then "services" and then look for AOL? its in alphabetical order so it should be near the top? if so double click and then stop the service.

Also download this http://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/ once downloaded, open it up, click on "registry" then click on "scan for issues" and delete whatever it finds, then reboot the pc and see if thats done anything