If you use America Online, you may notice that many images seem blurred. Why is that? Can I change that?
America Online, by default, compresses images so that a webpage will load faster. This makes the image display at a low quality. This feature is an option, meaning you can either compress images or have them displayed in their regular form. This will make some webpages load slower, since webpages would display the image at a higher quality, which therefore takes more time.
Should I change my settings? It won\'t hurt to change the settings. It will make webpages take longer to load and take up more space in your Temporary Internet Files, but you will see images at their true display quality. You can always change back to your original setting.
How do I change my settings? To change your settings, follow the steps below. If you use a different version of AOL you can still make the changes. The steps will just be different from those below. We suggest upgrading, that way you get the additional features that AOL 6.0 has over its previous versions. However, upgrading to a different version is not necessary for the purpose of seeing images more clearly. Depending on your operating system, you may have to consult the help section of your browser to make these changes. The following directions were written for Windows based operating systems.
Changing Image Compression for America Online 6.0
Open your AOL browser. You do not need to be connected to the internet.
On the menu at the top, click settings. In the menu that lowers, select Preferences.
In the Preferences window that comes up, select Internet Properties (WWW), which is in the column labeled Organization.
The AOL Internet Properties dialog box will appear. At the top of the box, you will see several tabs. Click on the Web Graphics tab.
You will then see the following:
If you want to always display images at their true quality, select never compress graphics.
The reason why the images above look clear are because they are being displayed using Flash, an animation plugin that almost all internet users have. It displays these images at a high quality no matter what setting you have. If you don\'t want to change your settings, we suggest using another browser for Wdwic Pictures. After you sign on to the internet with AOL, open Internet Explorer ocr Netscape to see the images at our site more clearly.
If you have already viewed some of the pictures in AOL and they look blurred, opening Internet Explorer will still make them appear blurred. If you have viewed some of the pictures in Internet Explorer already, then the same pictures will look clear in AOL. Why? If you open the picture first in AOL, and it is set to compress images, it will store the compressed image in your Temporary Internet Files. If you open Internet Explorer, it opens the compressed picture that was saved in your Temporary Internet Files. The opposite is also true. If you open a picture in Internet Explorer, it will save it to your Temporary Internet Files. If you then go to the same picture in AOL, it will appear clear, since it is displaying the image that was downloaded to your Temporary Internet Files originally. An image is only updated in you Temporary Internet Files when it has been changed by us. For example, if we have a picture on our site that we then replace, and you have viewed the original image, no matter what browser you are in, the new image will be displayed unless other settings are different. We won\'t get into that though. If you change the settings in AOL or if you have decided to view a picture that you have previously viewed, you will need to clear delete the picture from your Temporary Internet Files. How do I do that? Should I do that?
Why should or shouldn\'t I delete my Temporary Internet Files? Your Temporary Internet Files store every page, image, and file that you view on the internet. Your cache, which is what holds the saved internet files, can take up a lot of space on your computer, so most people delete their Temporary Internet Files to free up space on their hard drive. The only downside is that some of the pages you visit will take longer to load the next time you visit them, as it did the first time you visited them. When you visit a webpage, any saved information on your computer is mixed with the new information on that site so that you don\'t have to download all of the content on the webpage each time you visit a site. This way you download only anything new. Clearing your files will only help your computer, not hurt it. The other downside is that you might also delete cookies. A cookie is a piece of information that a website stores on your hard drive. Most sites do this. It does not steal anything off of your computer. It might, for example, store your password so that you won\'t have to enter it when you come back to the site. If you delete the cookie, next time you will have to enter your password on the site rather than have it done automatically. It would then store your password, if you chose, until you clear these files again. Some cookies may store information that you might not want to delete. One site I was at kept track of your points that you earn in cookies. What that means is that if you delete the cookie, you would lose the points. But there\'s good news! When you delete your Temporary Internet Files you do not have to delete your cookies. Most browsers will ask if you want to delete the cookies. Just say no. Also look to see if you need to check or uncheck any box so that it will not delete cookies. If you want, check to see if there is a way in your browser to not delete cookies automatically when you clear your Temporary Internet Files.
How do you clear out your Temporary Internet Files? Since you\'re using the AOL browser, let\'s go over how to clear out your Temporary Internet Files in AOL. You\'ll want to get to the AOL Internet Properties box like you did above. We\'ll pick up from there. Deleting the Temporary Internet Files in AOL will clear the cache for Internet Explorer too. To clear your cache in Netscape, follow the directions following the ones for Internet Explorer and AOL. To clear the cache through Internet Explorer, which is not needed if you do it through AOL, select Tools on the top navigation and then Internet Options on the menu. Then follow the steps below for Internet Explorer. (The dialog box will look nearly the same, except it won\'t say AOL)
Deleting Temporary Internet Files for AOL and Internet Explorer through AOL
You should have the AOL Internet Properties dialog box open. Click on the Delete Files button under Temporary Internet Files.
The Delete Files dialog box will then appear. Click OK. What this does is delete all the files except for any cookies that you have. Then your done!
Deleting Temporary Internet Files in Netscape for Netscape Communicator 4.3
After you open the Netscape browser, click Edit on the top navigation, and then click Preferences.
The Preferences window will then be displayed. In the left column double clickAdvanced. Then select Cache.
The window will look like the one below. Click on Clear Disk Cache and then click Clear Memory Cache.
Your all done! Enjoy looking at the true quality of images in AOL.
