Best thing you can do is get rid of anything AOL, I would ever have anything to do with them....

I agree I will not allow anything AOL related on my computers and if they come with it that is the first thing that gets thoroughly removed, but it is hard to get rid of it.

I am one of many folks who went with AOL right from the start. Only later did I hear of people's dislike of AOL.

One reason I haven't dumped them is I must have hundreds of
"favorite" websites. If there was an easy way to copy those into Firefox I'd do it.

As I discuss this I realize this may be the time to switch from AOL. I've been wanting to change my email address to my own name and I understand a good way to go is to get my own domain name at Go Daddy or similiar.

Ginny

Ginny,

What does AOL do after it opens or did you close it immediately? The reason I ask is if AOL is setup as your default browser and the Picasa help files are in html format, maybe AOL is automatically opening to show you the help files.
Just a thought.

Terry

Try using another browser, your fav list should be there..then of course you can get rid of AOL uninstall what you can, then go into my computer, open folders delete anything AOL

I have never used AOL so not sure how it works but firefox will ask during install if you want to import your favorite sites to firefox, I know it will import them from IE, you would have to ask someone who has AOL experience.

I found these directions, not sure which version you have or if this will work for you, but worth a try.

"Click on "Favorites". Go down and click on "More Favorites". On the bottom
right hand corner, click on "Save/Replace". On the next screen click "OK".
On the next screen go to the black arrow at the top to do with "Save In" and
click on it. It will bring down a menu from which you can choose "Removable
Disk". Before you choose "Removable Disk" have your cd, floppy or Zip in the
slot. Click "Save" and you are on your way. After you sign off, if you
want, you can stick it back in and verify that indeed the favorites are on
there."

I also found this info:
"How to transfer your Address Book from AOL to a new email client (eg, Thunderbird). Here's the drill:
- In AOL's address book, click on one address then "Select ALL" (eg, Cntl-A), then "Copy" (eg, Cntl-C).
- Open Excel or another spreadsheet; paste into a worksheet (eg, Cntl-V); you'll see your correspondent (LN, FN) and email address, separated by a Tab. Widen the first column, if necessary.
- Do any editing, deleting.
- Do a "Save As..." and for file type, select "TAB-DELIMITED CSV" or just "CSV (Windows)" and save it to a familiar place (I give it the name "AddrBookFeb06.csv").
- In your email client (eg, Thunderbird -- should be similar on others), Select "Tools/Import..." or similar, select the "CSV/TEXT/ETC" option, and browse to the CSV file's location.
- Complete the Import, and you'll find all our AOL addresses in your new program. Not quite the way you'd like them (it won't import phone numbers, etc, and the LN,FN are all in one field), but this new Address Book is now available.
- You can use them this way: select the new Book (give it a name - "Addresses from AOL"). Thunderbird will find them by alias, FN, LN, start of email, etc.
- I'd copy (Cntl-A, then drag) these into the Personal Address Book, then edit them when you have time, to change them to true FN and LN fields. I like to have mine sort this way "LastName, FirstName".
See if this general technique works for you -- perhaps a similar method would work for AOL's "Favorites".

this service is free if you happen to be going to one of their isp partners.
http://www.trueswitch.com/

directions
more instructions here

this is a program that will supposedly do all the moving for you of all your AOL stuff, I know nothing about it just saw it mentioned in forum. I will link it at the bottom in the helpful link area.

OH !!! wait wait wait I just found the instructions on the mozilla forum on how to move them from AOL to firefox!!

1. Save your AOL favorites. In your AOL interface, go to Favorites > Favorite Places > Save/Replace. This will save your AOL favorites to a .pfc file. Remember where you saved this.
2. Go to LinkaGoGo. Make sure that the input is AOL PFC and the output is Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox.
3. Click the "Browse" button and find the .pfc file you saved earlier.
4. Click on the "Convert" button. You should be prompted to save the bookmarks.html file. Remember where you saved this, as well.
5. Open Firefox's Bookmark Manager (Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks)
6. From the File menu, choose Import. Then find the bookmarks file you just saved.

And her is a link with directions on how to move all your AOL mail that you have saved over to Thunderbird mail.
mail convert

Hope some of that helps you out.

Here is a link that might be useful: AOLconverter

Ginny,

No guarantees, but here's something you can try.

On your 'AOL sign in screen' click on 'Connect Options' to the left of the 'Sign On' tab. I'm using a broadband connection so I click on 'Advanced Broadband settings'. If you're on 'dial up' I forget what the option was that you click on. Find the 'Advanced Settings' page and select the 'Dialer settings' tab. Set the 'Current Default Dialer' to 'AOL dialer'. If you have 'America Online' set as your default dialer, AOL will start each time you need to connect to the internet.

See if that helps.

Witz

After I figured out how to check, I saw AOL was my default browser. I've changed it to Firefox.

Ravencajun, thanks so much for that information about how to save my favorites and AOL mail. Yep, I need to take all that with me, mail especially.

I'll look into those ideas. I know it's time to make a switch.

Thanks to all for your ideas on this.

Ginny

You can still use AOL for free email. I do and its just an email client like Yahoo or MSN. You can keep all your favorites, etc. Just uninstall AOL and sign in to the free AOL email. I'm assuming you don't need it as a browser. Just use Firefox or IE and sign into AOL to get your mail.

Jane