Industry guru Dave Taylor offers free tech support on a wide variety of technical and business topics, including HTML, Apple iPhone, online advertising, Cascading Style Sheets, Web design, management, Unix, Linux, search engine optimization, online dating, Mac OS X, shell script programming and Microsoft Windows.

What's AOL Coach?

Dave, I just bumped into something called AOL Coach that came with my AOL installation and I'm wondering what it is. Can you figure it out?

Dave's Answer:

It's been a while since I used AOL in any form, thought I still have a spam collector, um, account with AOL. Fortunately, my pal Aunty Spam also recently blogged about this very topic, so I'll quote liberally from her article here:

There are two different things called AOL Coach, actually, one that's a helper application called, logically enough, "AOL Coach", and there's also a separate online self-help and life-improvement program.

AOL Coach (singular) is the program which runs AOL Auto Fixes for you. It should run automatically when you start up your AOL software and shouldn't be anything you need to worry about.

If your AOL Coach program is damaged, howver, AOL Auto Fixes will fail to work, which would be a potential problem given the never-ending waves of spyware, viruses and other junk that attacks AOL and your computer. Fortunately you can usually resolve this by simple uninstalling and reinstalling the AOL Coach program.

Here are the instructions for removing and reinstalling the AOL Coach, straight from the horse's mouth:

Click the START button, then click CONTROL PANEL.
Click the ADD OR REMOVE PROGRAMS button.

Note: In Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows 2000, click the Start button, select Settings, then click Control Panel. Next, double-click the Add/Remove Programs button.

On the list that appears, select the latest version of AOL Coach Version (1.0 or 2.0), then click the ADD/REMOVE or CHANGE/REMOVE button.

Restart your computer, then sign on to the AOL service again.

Try to run the Auto Fix. The AOL Coach will download again and the Auto Fix should work properly.

For completeness sake, AOL Coaches (plural) is another matter altogether. AOL Coaches is a new AOL offering made in conjunction with Better Life Media, intended to provide to consumers avenues for self-improvement, and featuring such top-selling life-improvement authors as John Gray, Tom Peters, and Stephen Covey. Content and other resources offered by the AOL Coaches is available to AOL members at AOL keyword "coaches".

My thanks to Aunty Spam for letting me quote extensively from her own article on AOL Coach

Help others find this article at Del.icio.us, Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and Stumble Upon

Categorized: Computer and Internet Basics (Article 3932)
Tagged:
Previous: Roxio EasyCD prevents access to Win XP CD and DVD devices?
Next: Can't install Sun Star Office on Windows XP?

Subscribe!

Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader.

Comments

Aol Coach doesn't reinstall. How do i get it to reinstall manually.In advance thank you for an early reply.
Thaddeus

Posted by: Thaddeus Chauvin at October 13, 2005 5:56 AM

I have tried to delete AOL Coach Version 2 without success Any Ideas

Cal Tofte

Posted by: Calvin Tofte at January 6, 2006 12:58 PM

uninstalled coach version 1 and 2 how do i reinstall the 2 coaches

Posted by: gail smith at February 1, 2006 10:28 AM

I was trying to eliminate programs on my computer that I don't use and inadvertly deleted AOL Coach. How do I get in reinstalled?

Posted by: Nancy at July 19, 2006 3:01 PM

I need help re installing aol coach as well can you help me?

Posted by: kayko at August 12, 2006 9:41 AM

I too have tried this after an error code suggested I unistall aol coach. That was the easy part, but nothing tells you how to run the auto fix after restarting...how do I do this? has anyone received an answer?

Posted by: mka at October 4, 2006 5:03 PM

Yes I uninstalled coach version how do i reinstall. I got fix it but i look in add and remove and its not there where do i find the download to manually download auto coach this is so stupid just give me auto coach download then i can download it myself

Posted by: John at October 27, 2006 9:13 PM

I have recently had AOL 9.0 se installed, now it seems I dont have too much space left on my computer, should I go back to another aol if so which one would be best or should I delete some of my programs, and if so what do I delete? I dont know what I should have or shouldn't have, I read somewhere that you shouldn't have over 255 programs and I have 325 on mine, I appreciate any help thats offered.

Posted by: Sandra at October 30, 2006 1:56 PM

Dave I deleted my aol coach ,can you tell me how I can reinstall it thank you lucille

Posted by: lucille at February 18, 2007 10:23 PM

OK if you see aol coach in the add/remove programs- than the Coach program is damaged

If you don't see it in the add/remove programs- then it's repaired don't worry about it.

Posted by: Joe at March 6, 2007 11:30 AM

OK if you see aol coach in the add/remove programs- than the Coach program is damaged

If you don't see it in the add/remove programs- then it's repaired don't worry about it.

Posted by: Joe at March 6, 2007 11:32 AM

Dave I deleted my aol coach ,can you tell me how I can reinstall it? thank you!

Posted by: Charlie at April 14, 2007 1:56 PM

I deleted AOL 9.0se many months ago..Do I still need AOL coach version 1.0 and 2.0...Is it safe to delete these as well or is it best to leave them alone . I won't have AOL again . I await your reply ...I'm doing computer cleaning!

Posted by: todd at May 12, 2007 1:01 AM

Please email me. do I need aol coach? And how do I download it. I only have aol coach 2.o build2041o26.5en

Posted by: ethel hagin at December 30, 2007 7:47 PM

Dave:

After I sign on my main screens words are all large and the screen has moved to the right and I can't get any of it fixed. I don't know what happened to cause this, because it was this way one day after getting on my computer. It wasn't this way before.

Posted by: Glenda at June 4, 2008 8:30 AM

I am using AOL 9.0 VR with Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional. A few months ago, during an AOL tech session, I was told to remove Coach Version 2.0 from my programs. Since then, I cannot run the One-click Fixes or Fix It For Me on the AOL sign-on screen. What can I do?

Posted by: Bill Wright at September 18, 2008 2:27 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!