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What are the system requirements to run AOL computer check up program?

What is the AOL Computer Check-Up program?

If you have problems running the AOL computer checkup program, make sure your Windows Registry is updated, clean and error-free.

AOL Computer Check-Up program is an application that is designed to improve the performance of a computer’s system. Running this application alerts users to problems with existing hardware or software on their machines. This troubleshooting and maintenance application used advanced technology features to locate strategies that should improve your computer’s performance.

The features available through AOL Computer Check-Up include:

• Access to automatic updates
• The option to perform manual checkups at anytime.
• An automatic scan once during a two week period with the option to change the scan to run more frequently or less frequently.
• Help knowing where to adjust your computer’s performance features.

The basic version of the AOL Computer Check-Up application is free to anyone who wishes to use it. Members of AOL Dial-Up Advantage or AOL High-Speed Essentials have access to the Premium version of this utility. The Premium version can back up critical system files, improve your computer’s start up time, and enable programs to open more quickly.

What are the system requirements of the AOL Computer Check-Up program?

As with any computer application, minimum requirements exist for the installation and subsequent use of the AOL Computer Check-Up 4.0 program. In order to access this application, your computer with a Windows operating system must have the following minimum specifications:

• AOL 8.0
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher version
• Pentium II or higher with 300 MHz processor or greater
• Windows software in one of the following versions: Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows XP, or Windows Vista
• Minimum of 10 MB of free hard disk space available
• Minimum of 110 MB of RAM available
• A 28.8 Kbps connection or greater
• A screen resolution of 800 x 600

AOL Computer Check-Up Download

This application downloads quickly, so only a few minutes are needed. You should sign in with your AOL membership name. Make sure that you click on the box that indicates that you have agreed with the AOL policies as they relate to this application.

There are many things you can do to speed up your PC. Try these to see if they give you better performance:

Free Up Your Disk Space

There are many ways to do this:

• Remove temporary Internet files
• Empty the Recycle Bin
• Remove anything on your desktop that you don’t use regularly
• Use Disk Cleanup

Go to Start and then choose All Programs.

• Click on Accessories
• Choose System Tools and then Disk Cleanup
• Tell Disk Cleanup which drive you want to clean and let it run
• Defrag Your Disk

Over time, the files in your computer become fragmented and spaced out all over your machine. By compressing them, you can make the system run faster. It is recommended that you run this monthly at least.

• Go to Start and then All Programs.
• Choose Accessories and System Tools and then Disk Defragmenter.
• Choose the drive you want to defrag and the press Analyze.

Run Antispyware and Antivirus Programs

One of the most important things you need to do on a regular basis is to make sure your computer is protected from viruses and spyware. If you don’t have a good program installed, stop what you are doing and go and download one right away. You can either set these to run automatically, or run them manually on a regular basis - but make sure you actually do it. If you aren’t sure which programs are worth putting on your computer, we have a comprehensive review of some of the top products here. Spyware is everywhere and having it on your computer can slow it down at the very least, and crash your system at the very worst.

Turn Off Windows Services

Windows comes with many services installed that you may not need. Turning them off can speed up your system. The list is long, so click here for an article on all of the unneeded Windows services you can turn off to make your PC run faster.

Manage Startup Programs

Having too many applications running at any given time will slow your PC dramatically. Many of these programs start automatically each time you load Windows. Are these programs necessary? If not, stop them from auto-loading by going to the Start button, clicking Run, and typing: msconfig. Next, click OK and then click the Startup Items tab in the next screen. Remove the checkmarks in the boxes next to any non-essential programs that are automatically loading each time.

Turn Off “Eye Candy”

If your computer has Windows Vista, the Aero interface is visually appealing - but at a performance cost. Go to the Control Panel, find Performance Information and Tools, and then click on Adjust Visual Effects. From here, you can either let Windows adjust for performance or make your own selections. While in the Performance Information and Tools section, explore the different options for speeding your computer including managing the startup programs, indexing options, power settings, disk cleanup, and advanced tools.

Any of these things will speed up your system - if you do all of them, you should get the best performance you can out of your current setup.

Our PC’s performance is not satisfying us although it has 1GB RAM. Its working speed is not much better and it has been attacked by viruses.

PC Performance Tips

Even with one GB of RAM installed, if your PC is running Windows Vista, you may find one gigabyte is not enough. My daughter and I have nearly identical laptops running Vista. Hers has one gigabyte of RAM, mine has two. The difference is dramatic.

However, your PC may not be able to take more memory. If you can’t add more memory, you can still take proactive steps to squeeze out more speed. Let’s take a look at the options available.

Combat the Viruses and Spyware

You mentioned that viruses have been a problem, so let’s tackle that issue right away. If your computer has been attacked in the past, there’s a good chance that you have quite a few viruses and other forms of malware on your computer. Not only can these malicious programs damage your computer and steal confidential data like account numbers and passwords, they sap performance. Plus, vulnerable systems beget more malware, which compounds the problem. Your PC may have dozens of hidden programs all running at once - each taking up its fair share of available memory. In addition, many malicious programs called “downloading Trojans” actually invite other spyware and viruses into your PC.

Obviously, you’ll need a solid defense and a way to clean these infections. Check out our reviews of anti-virus applications here. Several of the products that we reviewed are available for free for “personal use” while others require a yearly subscription. Unfortunately, in this connected environment, these products are an absolute must.  

Remove “Start Up” Programs

After removing spyware and viruses, you should notice an immediate boost in performance. After all, if you had numerous hidden applications running without your knowledge and now they’re gone, they will no longer be gobbling up your computer’s memory. Now, let’s stop all of the legitimate programs from doing the same.

When installing software, many of us just click the “OK” and “Next” buttons without giving it much thought. By doing so, we often allow the software to set itself up for automatic startup each time Windows boots up. Unless you use these programs each and every time you use your PC, there’s no need to load them because they’re just taking up memory that you’d most likely appreciate having available for other tasks.

You can prevent programs from automatically loading by going to the Start button and typing msconfig into either the Search bar (Windows Vista) or the Run dialog. Once launched, click the Startup Items tab. Remove the checkmark from any programs that you would prefer to load on demand only. For example, if you rarely use QuickTime, remove the checkmark from the QuickTime box. In the future, you can launch QuickTime by using its icon or shortcut found in the Programs list.

Vista Performance Center

Vista includes an entire section dedicated to performance, the Performance Information and Tools center. This section is found in the Control Panel. Spend some time exploring this area and making adjustments to your PC. For example, you can adjust startup items, visual effects, indexing, and more - all of which can improve your computer’s performance. The Advanced Tools section is particularly useful with detailed performance reports and specific suggestions offered for improving your computer’s performance.

Other Tips

There’s so much that can affect performance ranging from having too large of a desktop image set as your background wallpaper to errors residing in your Window’s registry. Spend some time looking through our PC Performance section where you’ll find loads of advice for speeding up sluggish computers.

My PC will not open any windows pages or and/or am I able to use my defragment device for my hard drive. My PC freezes on the start-up and takes a long time to start-up and shut-down.

It sounds as though one of several different scenarios could be going on here. First, you might have inadvertently gotten some spyware or a virus on your computer. Secondly, you might not have enough memory on your computer to allow it to function properly. Thirdly, you could have some corrupted files or drivers. It’s good that you tried to defrag your computer. It’s unfortunate that it didn’t work. Run through each of these scenarios to help put your computer back to functioning well.

Boot Up into Safe Mode

First, I want you to boot up the computer in safe mode since this uses the fewest applications, drivers, etc. If it loads up without freezing, that is a good sign. To boot up in safe mode:

1. Turn the power to the computer on.
2. Immediately begin to press the “F8″ key on the keyboard.
3. Select “Last Known Good Configuration.”
4. Press “Enter.”

Run an Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware Application

One of the first scenarios that I tend to suspect when my computer doesn’t work properly is to check for spyware and viruses. If you have an application that will do that for you, you need to run it now. If you don’t have one, I can recommend Anti-Virus Plus to do the job. Both spyware and viruses can be resource hogs that slow your computer down to a real crawl at times. Removing any that exist should help with the performance of your PC.

Use System Restore

If you haven’t been able to complete any of the tasks that you want, you might want to try the “System Restore” feature. This puts your computer back in time to a place when it was working properly. Use these directions:

1. Click “Start.”
2. Select “All Programs.”
3. Select “Accessories.”
4. Select “System Tools.”
5. Select “System Restore.”
6. Follow the “prompts.”

Run chkdsk

It is possible that your system has a few disk errors, so running the chkdsk utility could be beneficial. This tool will locate directory errors, bad sectors, cross-linked files, and lost clusters. To do so, follow these directions:

Follow this path:

1. Click on “Start.”
2. Click on “Run.”
3. Type in “cmd” in the open box.
4. Press “Enter.”
5. At the prompt, type in “chkdsk volume:/r” This step should recover readable information, locate bad sectors, and repair errors.

Free Up Memory

One of the other steps that I use whenever my computer tends to get pokey is to delete any unwanted applications, files, emails, documents, drivers, etc. For example, if you recently purchased a new printer, you can eliminate the old drivers associated with it. Pictures and music files in particular take up a lot of memory so deleting any that you no longer want to store can free up memory. Alternatively, you can add memory to your computer.

It’s seems almost incomprehensible that hard disks measuring in the hundreds of gigabytes range can quickly become filled to the brim. But as disks get larger, so too do the programs and file sizes. In fact, downloading a few high resolution images and short video files can quickly take up huge chunks of hard drive real estate. Before you know it, your disk is nearing its capacity.

Signs of a Full Hard Disk

You’ve probably already experienced the symptoms of a nearly full hard disk including sluggish performance, computer errors, data access errors, file save errors, failed downloads, failed software installations, and other undesirable symptoms.

Checking Free Space

In addition to these clues, and errors that flat out tell you that your disk is running low on space, you can also check your computer’s disk to see just how much free space remains. The easiest way to do this is by going to My Computer (or Computer if you have Windows Vista) and finding your hard disk in the display. Depending on your operating system, you may have to right-click the drive and choose Properties before you can see how much hard drive space is left. In Windows Vista, you’ll immediately see a graphical bar icon representing how much disk space has been used and how much remains along with a text description such as, “57.9 GB free of 147 GB.”  

How to Free up Disk Space

You have several steps that you can do to free up disk space. First, use the built-in Disk Cleanup utility to clear out your temporary files, temporary Internet files, offline Web pages, log files, Recycle Bin files, and other unnecessary files taking up space. This utility is located in the Start button under Programs> Accessories> System Tools> Disk Cleanup. Select the file types to remove and view the display of how much disk space you will recover before clicking OK.

If you need to free more space, click on the More Options tab and click the Clean Up button next to Programs and Features. This takes you to the Control Panel’s Programs and Features utility (in Vista) or Add and Remove Programs utility (in Windows XP). From here, you can remove programs that you no longer need or desire.

For even more space recovery, click the link for turning Windows Features on or off. Many of Windows features take up huge amounts of disk space, and if you don’t actively use the feature, can be safely turned off. For example, if you don’t play games, you can turn off all of those Windows games like Solitaire and free up disk space.

Remove Data

Another option is to remove data. Of course, you’ll want to use care. Go through and see if you’re storing huge files that you don’t really need. For example, if you downloaded and saved a huge real estate brochure while house hunting three years ago, do you still need it? If not, get rid of it.

Photos and videos are huge files. Consider burning your digital photos to disc, uploading them to a photo hosting or online storage site, or even storing your digital photos on an external hard drive or USB stick rather than your primary hard drive. If you edit your home videos, once you are done editing, burn your finished video to a DVD, create a backup copy, double check that the DVD works properly, and then delete the source and edited videos from your computer.

These tips should help you recover quite a bit of disk space. If your hard disk consistently fills up after doing these steps, you may want to consider other solutions such as an external hard drive or using an online storage site to store data.

How to Speed up your PC: A Beginners Guide

Is your PC running slow to the point that it has become an annoyance?

Do you find that it takes much longer to complete tasks that would normally take a few minutes ?

Do you find that your PC takes so long to boot up that you have enough time to use the bathroom and get a quick snack?

If this sounds like your situation, here are some steps you can take to speed up your PC.

Disk Defragmenter

First, run the Disk Defragment tool. You’ll need to do this weekly because when you are using the computer on a daily basis, the hard drive becomes fragmented. Fragments of data will disperse in places they don’t belong causing your computer to lag.

In order to run the Disk Defragment tool, you’ll first need to go to the

• Start menu.
• Then, you’ll hit All Programs.
• Look for the Accessories menu.
• Once you’ve found that, scroll down until you see System Tools.
• Under the System Tools menu, you’ll see the Disk De fragment option.
• Click that, and you’ll see the screen pop up that will give you some options.
• You’ll need to click the button that says, “Defragment.”

Once you’ve done this, just let the program run. Don’t touch the computer while it is going through the defragmenting process. Leave it be until the program is finished doing its job.

Disk Clean-up Utility

The second thing you can do to speed up your PC is to run the Disk Clean-up utility.

This utility will clean your hard drive of all temporary files that slow down your PC’s performance. The path that you’ll need to take to get to this is the same as it would be to get to the Disk Defragment tool.

But, if you are confused, follow the same steps outlined above to get to the System Tools menu.

Except for this time, you’d not click on Disk Defragment.

You’ll be clicking on the option that says, “Disk Cleanup.”

Once you’ve done that, the Disk Cleanup utility will scan your system.

Depending on how cluttered your hard drive is, it could take awhile. Once the scanning is completed, a checklist will appear. The most common places that need to be cleaned on the hard drive will be checked by default. It would be a good idea to leave those be if you are a novice computer user and are not sure what you are doing.

But, if you do understand a little more, you could check additional options along with the ones already checked. After you have checked everything you want, hit the button that says, “Okay.”

This will launch the utility, and the process of cleaning up your hard drive will begin. It is important that you do not touch the computer while it is going through this process.

let the program run its course.

Use a good Antispyware tool at least weekly

The third thing you could do is to install and run a spyware cleanup utility.

This will cleanse your hard drive from software and other unwanted programs that could do harm to your computer. Spybot Search & Destroy is one of the most recommended spyware removal programs. Not to mention, it is free. A good commercial-grade malware removal tool is XoftspySE - it’s free to scan your system and if any infections are found (that weren’t removed by the free Spybot), then it may be worth the $30 for this one to clean them out for you. What’s 30 bucks if it means your computer and your personal information is safe, right?

Taking these measures are sure to speed up your PC. You won’t find yourself becoming frustrated to the point of feeling like you want to take a hammer to your computer.