Disable defaults on AOL

Q. How do you fix the problem of AOL's automatically initializing when you look up My Computer or Control Panel? I have tried disabling, but to no avail. It's quite annoying. Is this an AOL 9.0 optimized function?
A. There are three places where America Online's software can be toggled to enable or disable certain Auto Start defaults, and I fear you fixed the wrong one.
The one you describe is invoked by right-clicking on the AOL icon that the software puts in the system tray in the lower right-hand corner of the Windows display.
That brings up the commands that let you enable automatically running AOL once an Internet connection is established, which is a feature on Version 9's broadband scheme.
The idea is to ensure that AOL customers always have the service's software available when their high-speed links are active, which many people always leave running.
There is another setting that orders Windows to dial the telephone whenever an Internet connection is not established. This is part of Windows and should not be activated on your machine.
Go to the Start/Control Panel folder and select Internet Options. In that display, click on the Connections tab, then find and deactivate the radio button over the command to dial whenever an Internet connection is not present, and the automatic dialing probably will cease.
However, settings elsewhere for your modem also can trigger these spontaneous outbreaks of unwanted dialing.
The modem's settings can be reached by opening the My Computer icon and selecting the Hardware tab. Then click the button for Device Manager and scroll down the list of equipment on your computer to the modem.
Give a right-click on the modem and pick the Power Management tab in the resulting display.
There you will find a check box to make the modem automatically dial when the computer is taken from standby status.
Q. I once had a program called Instant Print Screen that printed whatever was on the screen, all of it, when the Print Screen key was pressed. The program is no longer available.
Does something like that exist under another name maybe? I don't want to capture a screen, nor crop and print part of it. I just want to print the entire screen, all of whatever is on the monitor, and none of the pages following.
Sometimes it's a series of directions, or it might be something I want to print, scan, keep a copy and send another copy to someone else. Surely, a simple program like that must exist for downloading. Thanks for your input (output?).
A. The answer lies closer to you in Austria than to me in the USA.
Software that fills the exact set of features you want are in a free program called ScreenPrint32 from Provtech Ltd. at www.provtech.co.uk. That's ".uk" in the address, as in United Kingdom.
ScreenPrint32 runs in the background, and when one taps Print Screen, it directs a picture of the screen to the default printer.
Pressing Alt + Print Screen sends only the window that is active. You can set the size of the printout as a percentage of the original.
There are other features, such as using the mouse to outline a segment of the screen to print what you want. ScreenPrint32 worked great for me, and you can't beat the price.
An alternative is simply to run the built-in Windows Paint program that is listed under the Start/Accessories menu. Then you can tap Print Screen or Alt + Print Screen, go to Paint and tap Control + V to paste the image, and press Control + P to print it out.
If you do this, it's best to set Paint to make images 50 percent of actual size to save ink and paper. Click on the Image menu in Paint and then Stretch/Skew to change the size by percentages.
XContact Jim Coates via e-mail at jcoates@tribune.com or via snail mail at the Chicago Tribune, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611. Questions can be answered only through this column. Add your point of view at www.chicagotribune.com/askjim.