1) server is always up unless there is a takdown notice
2) new frontier is full of players, other servers are not recommended to play on if you want players around you
3) game even runs quite well on a wooden 10 year old laptop... you wont likely find a more frugal game like this >.< (if you still have trouble, try removing bloatware from your computer!)
4) there is no real cheating in this game possible as everything that matters is serversided...
launcher: there is a proper launcher, see its location:
\Allods Online\bin\Launcher.exe
im not a fan of the modern one either