Useful Acer Aspire One Software & Links

This post was written 2 years 10 months 17 days days old, so is a bit old now. Feel free to read and comment on this post, just remember some things change with time and any facts in this post may not be accurate anymore.

As time has moved on I’ve become more and more impressed by my Aspire One. Yes, there are more powerful and bigger versions on the market, but they come at a price premium. For the money, I think the Aspire One was the best choice¹.

However, I’m using it less at home as my main PC has been moved to the dining room but, conversely, more at work and as my employers clamp down more and more on non-work usage of the internet, etc.

Anyway, I’ve compiled some useful software and sites specifically for the AA1, which I think might be of interest…

a1ctl
“a1ctl is a program able to control the fan speed of the Acer Aspire One netbooks, and do some useful other things.” Those other things include controlling processor speed and reducing hard drive noise. An excellent piece of software that I use myself.

For this or the next application to work you may need to install the MSCOMCTL file.

AA1 Fan Control
This installs a desktop “widget” from which the AA1 fan is controlled based on current temperatures. I tried this and although it worked well, a1ctl does the same function with others as well.

Aspire One Backup
“AA1BACKUP is a backup solution for the Acer Aspire One based on free and open source software. It makes an exact copy of the drive, bit for bit, and therefore works with any file system, partition table or operating system. And to emphasize its operating system independence it can be installed from either Linux or Windows.”

Forum wise, I’d recommend bookmarking AspireOneUser.com. Also, macles* is a useful blog dedicated to AA1 users. From here, for example, you can find a set of manuals to download, including a service manual.

Obviously, don’t forget Acers download page, where you can pickup the latest BIOS and drivers.

1. stick that Dell! [↩]