As a fairly new Windows 95 user I was happy to try my hand at the new Oil Change product. My computer was "locking up" on shut down and sometimes in the middle of an often used program. The best advice I could garner was that it was due to some unknown program conflicts. It frightened me since my knowledge of the innerworkings of my computer is much less than the minimal knowledge I have of my new computer regulated automobile.

Oil Change seemed to be the next and easiest step. The installation was simple and the instructions were plain enough to be understood by the computer neophyte that I am.

I connected to the Internet server via modem and followed the instructions on the monitor from there. The Oil Change program initially queried my HD to find which programs I had installed. It then opened my browser and went to the CyberMedia site where it listed all of the updates and fixes that were currently being offered by manufacturers of my installed software.

When I clicked on the title line of the listed software program, the screen then split, and gave me a thumbnail description of what the software fix does. It told how large it was, the length of download time and how to install it when the download was complete (auto-install or manual install). Here's where I think the program can be improved.

With most of the programs that I needed updated, the manual install function must be done by the user. I have no problem with that, but I was unable to copy or save the instructions that were on the screen when it came time to install the program fix. Sometimes the download took over an hour, and if the manual installation instructions were not written down in longhand then it was easy to forget what they specifically were. As we all know, these machines are not very good at approximations for locations or installation.

If these instructions could just "change color" as the Internet sites that you have already visited do, then you could go back to them for reference. It makes it real tough when they just disappear into cyberspace with no way for you to recall them. If that's possible, I couldn't find out how.

One solution that I found was to download all of the "changes" into a special folder that I labeled Oil Change Download. This made for easier installation and I could keep track of them. I must have had an amazing fifty or so changes to my programs which astonished me!

The really good news is that my computer runs now like the WELL OILED machine that it truly is. There are no more lock-ups on either shutdown or program use. Yeaaaa!!!

Estimated street price should be about $40. That's about the same as FIRST AID 95, the other product from CyberMedia I'm familiar with.