Stacy’s Pick: AOL Computer Checkup

AOL, perhaps best known for their online community software, which boasted over 30 million members in its prime, recently released another impressive software title for PCs. It’s called AOL Computer Checkup, and though it sounds like yet another diagnostics app, it’s much more comprehensive, going above and beyond the average performance boosting software to provide Internet security, privacy protection, and file backup among other optimization features.

The software is designed to keep computers protected and running smoothly with minimal effort. System security is high priority, so the software will automatically check to ensure that your data is protected from online threats by looking for Windows Updates as well as keeping your antivirus, antispyware and firewall software up-to-date. AOL understands that privacy protection is another important issue for many Internet users, so they’ve included a few tools to assist: the file shredder deletes all traces of files and folders while file encryption keeps sensitive files private. Traces of Internet browsing history can be removed, and in the interest of running a cleaner, faster computer, the software can delete cookies, old cache and temporary files as well.

AOL Computer Checkup also identifies and removes broken and missing registry entries that could be slowing a computer down, tackling yet another area of concern, especially for inexperienced users. Problems many of us face, however, are the junk files left behind after applications have been uninstalled, temporary and duplicate files, as well as the unnecessary programs that run in the background or launch at startup. Again, AOL Computer Checkup saves the day by identifying the trash, cleaning it up, then defragmenting the hard drive to free up space and improve overall performance. What’s more, you can schedule regular backups, including critical system files, which in turn allows you to recover lost and accidentally deleted files.

It should probably come as no surprise that the folks over at AOL would know a thing a two about the Internet and the repercussions of browsing without a safety net. Putting their expertise to the test, we conclude that it would be far more advantageous for new computer users to install this well-rounded suite of performance and security tools than to install several different applications, each designed to handle one or two specific tasks. AOL Computer Checkup is sort of a jack-of-all-trades but it masters them all, and because the service is affordable at $4.99 per month, it further eclipses the competition. Don’t just take our word for it though; AOL offers a 30 day free trial, and I’m willing to bet that convincing you won’t take nearly that long.