minimizer gone AWOL

Can anyone help me? just recently I have noticed that my minimizer button no longer works, it just makes the page disappear so that I have to get the page back by clicking on the GO button at the top of the screen. I am fairly new to computers so could the reply be in simple terms[thank you]

 

You say it disappears is there still an icon for it on the taskbar (the bar at the bottom of the screen where the start button is)?

 

Thank you for your reply. As I am new to computers I hope you will bare with me! a few weeks ago I went to click on the minimizer button at the top right hand corner of my screen,where you have the minimizer button/maximize button and the one to switch off. I just wanted to minimize the page I was on to the bottom left hand corner of the screen,[just above the START button]but it just disappeared, the only way to get it back was to click the GO button where the menu of all the sites you have typed in to find are. I hope this makes sense to you???????

 

To be honest that doesnt make sense.
But computers are very strange when you first start.
When you press the minimize button the window you are on should go to the task bar then on the task bar there will i little rectangle with the name of the site it was if you click on it then it should restore .

If i have got the problem wrong reply again and me or one of the other guys and girls wil help.

 

It look's like i am not very good at trying to explain my problem LOL, Let me try and start from the very begining, when I first got this computer[XP pro]I could open a page and if I wanted to keep it but not delete it I could click on the tiny tiny button on the top right hand corner of my screen that has three symbals-one for minimizing, one for mazimizing and the one to close [I have AOL dial-up ]but just recently this button just get's rid of the page I am viewing, if I want to get it back I have to press the GO button that has stored the information on the sites I have been using[where you write out the web addresses]Thank you for being patient with me I am still learning

 

are you using the aol program?