AOL is always adding (or attempting to fix glitches) stuff with their updates. It shouldn't last FOREVER though. I'm not an AOL hater like many people, but it does often mess up people's systems. I keep it around on my daughter's system for the parental controls. If the 'problem' persists, I believe you can go to keyword: help for online assistance. Don't bother with their tech support unless you have a speaker phone (so you can kill time while waiting). I upgraded my daughter's AOL to 9.0 on her 98 system and it kept crashing, called tech support, was told something stupid, and ended up finding a fix via google. If AOL is otherwise working, I guess you may have to live with it. Good luck.