AOL contains a lot of stupid things, but WHY does AOL “force” that damn welcome screen of theirs to stay on screen all the time? What purpose can it possibly serve being there all the time? All you can do is minimize the offending window. I want to delete that damn welcome window altogether, as I am sure everyone else does. Any insight into this? IMHO this is the most annoying aspect of AOL.
There are programs that will get rid of it, or you can write one yourself.
I used to use aol, but now I have a fiberoptic connection, anyhow. and on my other comp I use a free isp. I dont know why anyone would bother paying for aol.
and try searching for aol at filedudes.com. they have tons of cool programs.
in answer to your question, they must make tons of money off of the advertisements on that welcome screen.
This is peculiar to the Windows versions of AOL. Mac AOL doesn’t allow for window minimizing – well, it does, but not quite the way Windows does – so all the windows can be closed outright, including the welcome screen.
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Not an attempt to start a “why Macs are better than PCs” discussion. I use 'em both and like 'em both (and hate 'em both, for that matter) for different reasons. 
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You should also be able to find a program that overrides the online timer so you won’t get kicked off for inactivity. I believe it’s called Wizon? Haven’t had AOL in quite some time
so I forget.
Once you’re online via AOL you can just open up Internet Explorer, if you have it, and it will use the whole screen. I don’t know if other browsers work the same way.
First, I don’t see what the problem with the screen just shrinking is, just shrink it and ignore it. (NOTE-AOL 6 is beta testing, I’m running it now in fact, and you’ll have *two *screens that will just shrink and not close, have fun).
But to answer your question there are several reasons why the screen just shrinks. First and formost, because some of those people pay to put there stuff there and AOL wants to keep you from closing it.
Second, and I an most certainly not kidding here, AOL got complaints from people that they closed the old starting screens and had trouble getting back to it so on the new versions they minimize, not close. That’s the exact reason why two different screens just minimize on 6.0.
Now before I get a lot of flack about newbies ruining AOL or AOL caving int them, keep this thought in mind, you’re damn right AOL is caving into them, that’s where they make all their money.
And it isn’t going to change, so I suggest you get used to it or get another server, because at best it will stay the same and it could get worse.
I’m on a Mac so I didn’t know what all of you were talking about until corixidae cleared things up. So you Windows users can never completely get rid of the welcome screen? Haha sucks to be you. VIVA MACINTOSH!
Seriously though, that must be a pain the butt. We Mac users can close it completely or if we want collapse it to just a title bar, that’s our minimization.
I’ve had AOL since it was first created because I like a lot of it’s functions – like how I’m using the mail feature to type and correct my replies before posting them on the SDMB.
However, I am damn annoyed with getting dropped off-line daily for (a) inactivity – that little icon doesn’t pop up to warn me at times and on those times I’m on a website which is supposed to signal them that I’m working, (b) all of those darn pop up advertisements that fill up the screen upon opening and © the cost. Plus one of the access lines here went nuts for a few months and complaints to AOL did nothing, forcing everyone to use the secondary one, which caused traffic jams.
They have a list of my complaints on file. It’s getting bigger. They offered me a credit for time lost – and when I went to the site, I discovered that it is for hourly pay customers only, not full service like me!!
I’m considering finding another ISP, but I like all of the AOL stuff on the opening screen and the free e-mail, the multiple screen names, the available chat rooms and AOL free game downloads. It would be nice if other providers would post displays of their service on the web for us to peruse.