Ah man you installed AOHell. Chances are its part of their "terms of service" kind of like a toolbar that causes undesired operation or a "free" wallpaper that promises it will work for free so long as you don't uninstall their precious tool bars and auto start programs.

Some stuff you can try:

Download and install CCleaner and run it with Firefox closed. Then open Firefox in safe mode and attempt to set your home page to what it was. Use CCleaner or msconfig from the run command to see what processes are starting up when your PC boots and remove the AOL entries.

Off the top of my head and with out being there to see it in person there's not much else I can think of on the fly, but I hope the on screen thing is worth it. AOL sucks!

Hi Britton; Thanks a bunch for your reply! I have run the cleaner in "Safe Mode"! I have gone in to "MS Config" and the only "AOL" function showing is the "AIM" , so I can`t shut it off because I`ll loose my on screen PC display. Roadrunner gave me the tech line to call AOL .When I called them, they told me that I wasn`t a member and they couldn`t help me! They gave me a web site to try. I opened that web site and they told me, (live chat), that I was not a member and it would cost me $$99.98 for them to give me any assistance. THESE PEOPLE ARE REALLY S-W-E-E-T!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I`m sure I`ll use them as my ISP REAL SOON!!!!!!!!!! Thanks again for trying to assist, Dulley

Well actually you can remove the auto loading entry for Aim, that will just cause the program to not run at start up. However if the on screen tool your using is part of the aim software, then you'd have to run it from the startmenu programs list or from a shortcut icon some where else.

You could try disabling it temporarily and rebooting the computer. Maybe if Aim isn't running when you try to change your homepage it will stay changed. It's just a guess really, you could also see if there is any other 3rd party programs out there that can do the same function as Aim but with out the cost of having it hijack your browser. Also check your addon's and extension and disable any Aol related stuff you find in there, could be that's how Aim is able to keep resetting the home page to Aol.

Perhaps this software will replace what aim is doing.

http://www.phonetray.com/ptfree_faq.htm

Good Luck and thanks for choosing my answer, its my first one :)

Hello Britton, I checked my "Add Ons" and the only thing an there was "AOL Messaging Tool Bar" I shut it off and tried it and it made no difference at all!! I will inform RR as to AOL`S antics and see what they can do. I,also informed FCC about them forcing their way into my computer! We`ll see what happens! Thanks for all of your help Dulley

I'm surprised no one else has chimed in with their take on the situation and offered you some advice. The Aim tool bar is the source of your browser woe's, it has to be. I suggest you remove the tool bar part only and see if your browser is still unable to set the home page. While AOL claims it does not use spyware, it is clear they do but call it something else, and you automatically agreed to installing it and a mess of other things when you installed Aim. (it won't let you install anything until you check off the agreement box) The Aol/Aim software has done more than just set your home page it has made changes to your entire computer, including adding new files to the system folders, modified the registry, and even setup autorun commands to load its garbage upon boot. If that ain't spyware, I don't know what is.

Personally I'd uninstall all the Aol software and never look back. About 8 years ago AOL was the only means I had to connect to the internet and I had to use their garbage dialup software. Long story short, the only way I ever got that particular computer to work properly afterwards was to reinstall the operating system. Now I'm not saying to format your PC and start over, no that's just to much, but I wanted you to be aware that it may reach a point where nothing you do will fix the damage caused by AOL. It's the reason they were sued in a lawsuit several years ago. Looks like some company's never learn.

Now it appears based on your description so far that you only installed the Aim software, that's like installing MSN or Yahoo Messenger, it's just AOL's version of the same thing. Those programs will change your homepage as well but they do not prevent you from changing it back. You best bet at this point would be to completely remove the Aim software, you can try a program called RevoUninstaller, it's pretty good at removing 3rd party programs and it takes a lot of the junk files that get left behind with it. Once you've cleared the aim software off as best you can then you can reset your homepage and then try to reinstall Aim, but on the second install be sure to look at the installer options very carefully and make sure you uncheck stuff like "install optional toolbars" or even "set your browsers home page to AOL". They are required by law to inform you of those types of changes to your system, but many people simply don't read the installer and let AOL install everything. All you want to install is the Aim client, and that's it everything else is just junk that you will never use and your onscreen caller ID is more than likely built into Aim somehow, hence why it has to run all the time for it to work.

Hello again Britton, WOW thanks for all of your help and concern, I really appreciate it! I did delete the AOL Toolbar completely but that did not help! I was able to get some help from Roadrunner, however, they are REALLY GREAT!! I will recommend them to everyone. I have had 3 other ISP`s and they,(Roadrunner), are the absolute BEST!! Anyway, they gave me the answer to my problem and I`ll share that in case anyone else is having the same problem: [1]; Open "AIM". [2]; Open "Options",(upper right corner).[3]; Scroll down and click on "Settings".[4]; Click on "Sign In/Sign Out,(left side of page). [5]; At the top of the page, unclick the dot before "Welcome Page" and click the dot before "None". [6]; Then "Apply" then "Save". And that`s it, your done! The question is why could AOL not give me this information in the first place??? Dulley