Two of my favorite whipping horses, but today I want to provide some information to help AOL users who might be moving to Windows Vista. I discovered today that a standard AOL disk will NOT work in Windows Vista. Most disks available at your local retailers or that you may have received via US Mail were minted in 2005 or earlier. That was the last time a major revision of AOL was released. Unfortunately, this version is not compatible with Windows Vista.
If you are planning to upgrade to AOL and want to continue to use the AOL software, you will need to download the AOL version called AOL 9.0 VR . It can be found at this link , but you MUST download it on a computer with a high speed connection then copy it to a CD or flash drive and take it back to your new computer.
One other snafu…when you use the link above, it copies only a download starter that is less than one megabyte. This won't help you on your new computer. You need to double-click on that little file it downloaded and start the next step of the download, a screen will show up that indicates that the download is starting and its progress. The download is nearly 60 megabytes and will take up to 20 minutes on some high speed connections…an impossible download using dial up.
Once the download finishes, AOL will attempt to install the product. Simply click cancel and then navigate to this location on your computer: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\AOL Downloads\waol and copy that entire folder to a CD or flash drive. When you open the disk on your new computer, look for the file named "waol-0.4327.165.1" and double-click on it to install the new version on your PC.
A lot of work, but it will at least get your AOL working on Vista. Is it worth all this effort to use an inferior and out-dated Internet service?
Related articles:
- Add a new entry to the Send To menu
- Is your computer ready for Windows Vista? Do you care?
- What I like about Windows Vista
- AOL Users – Find your downloads
- Windows Vista: Is it worse than we thought?
Tags: copy, download, install, Internet, navigate, new computer, upgrade, Windows
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HelpMeRick.com started as a monthly tip site for beginners in 1996, and now supports our popular call-in computer show, and hosts thousands of useful computer tips and links.
Who in their right mind is still using AOL?
Gary Smith
Spokane, WA
AOL = Almost On Line
trying to intall the aol 9.0vr on a computer that currently has vista. Followed all options and downloads but aol still gives an error referencing the vista operating system…any thoughts as how to get the operating system to accept the aol?
ok.. done all those things there and i still have some troubles. i wonder why when i enter aol… it changes my ip.. then when i enter whit IE (internet explorer) its the same ip that i have.. some programs don’t accept this kind of features.. and on XP i didn’t experinced any stuff like this because AOL changed my ip on every site that i runned into it.. so if anyone can please help me or give me any hint please reply here.. THx
AOL is no longer a legitimate Internet provider and their software is ancient. IP addresses are assigned to us when we log into our provider and DO NOT change randomly. I’m not sure what you think is changing, but it is not your IP address from your provider.
Gary – get a grip – tons of us are still using AOL.
M
I had problems with AOL until I re-installed with the vista ready cd. I googled AOL 9.0 VR VISTA CD and found several places to get one.
Here’s a couple of the sites I found but there’s more!
http://www.angelfire.com/hi5/hausermail
http://www.aolcollecting.com
Can’t beleive that people actually collect AOL cds.
Good luck,
inseattle