I greatly value the opinion of you guys, so I would like your comment on the following:
I currently have Iolo System Mechanic 6 and thinking of upgrading to System Mechanic 8, but I am not 100% impressed with these products. I also find, from my experience, that Iolo customer service/support really sucks.
I was wondering if there is anything on the market that does similar tasks to System Mechanic 8 which you would highly recommend.
Thank you for your time!
I greatly value the opinion of you guys, so I would like your comment on the following:
I currently have Iolo System Mechanic 6 and thinking of upgrading to System Mechanic 8, but I am not 100% impressed with these products. I also find, from my experience, that Iolo customer service/support really sucks.
I was wondering if there is anything on the market that does similar tasks to System Mechanic 8 which you would highly recommend.
Thank you for your time!
Hi razz,
Believe me, it is good to hear that you trust the opinions of our members.
Honest to God, 1 year ago I didn't even know what the Start menu was or for, other than to "Turn Off Computer". There was no welcome screen and for 3 1/2 years I had the pleasure of seeing the same Dell wallpaper. Since finding CCleaner and then the forums, I have learned a tremendous amount.
I hope the same is in store for you, your friends, and all our new members.
In regards to PC maintenance packages, utility suites or whatever that you might call them, in general they all seem to be a conglomeration of "features" that have been put together to attract "unknowing" new users.
They have their purpose for a short while. I guess that you can tell that I am not very impressed by any of them.
I would recommend that you build your own "tool kit".
Specific programs that are well designed and perform better than any "packaged system tool".
These are very respected programs that are fast, safe and simple to use and require little maintenance.
I am going to start a list that other members can add to as they see fit. These are all "Freeware".
They are also popular enough to assure readily available advice and support.
User Profile Hive Cleanup service - Supported by Microsoft-------------*** UPHClean
Windows 2000; Windows Server 2003; Windows XP
*** (did not come with OS) Necessary to avoid slow shutdown
A safe user controlled "Temporary" and "junk" files "cleaner"----------------CCleaner
A safe Registry cleaner if necessary. "Never" for MOST users------------------CCleaner
Software Uninstall assist tool ----------------------------------------------------CCleaner
Startup entry tool -----------------------------------------------------------------CCleaner
Registry backup and Emergency recovery tools ------------------------------ System Restore
" " " " " " " " ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ERUNT
Registry compacter ------------------------------------------------- -------------NTREGOPT
Disk Defragmenter ------------------------------------------------- -------------- Windows Disk Defragmenter
" " " " " " " " " "------------------------------------------------------ ---------------Defraggler
Windows System Files Defragmenter------------------------------ -------------PageDefrag
File Defragmenter --------------------------------------------------- --------------Defraggler
" " " " " " " "----------------------------------------------------------- --------------Contig
Data Recovery tool -------------------------------------------------- --------------Recuva
Application tracking and Specialized Uninstaller --------------------------------
Java maintenance and cleanup tool------------------------------- ----------------JavaRa
File Back Up ------------------------------------------------------------- -----------Replicator
Hard Drive testing------------------------------------------------------- -----------HD Tune
Memory tester ----------------------------------------------------------------------Memtest86+
Boot recovery CD
Boot recovery DVD
Boot recovery Floppy
Well that is a start anyway. As you can tell I am still learning and enjoy the company and advice of the other members.
Take all that money and time that you save and contribute it to support the forums and software developers. These are the ones who deserve it.
Information about these programs can be found by "searching " the forums. Only get software directly from the authors site or official "mirror" sites as listed by the author.
Best wishes,
davey
P.S. This original list only contains names of products that I use or have used myself besides being highly recommended by other members. This list is limited to maintenance type programs and does not reflect any security related software or other software products.
Don't forget about Windows Defender and WinPatrol. Woof woof.
Anti virus -- Avast! or Avira
Registry cleaner -- RegSeeker
Plus learn to use Google.
And dinna forget RevoUninstaller, Autoruns, and MBAM.
Thank you all for your input. Special thanks to davey for taking the time to makeup a great list of freeware tools.
Actually I am almost finished building my own "tool kit". Before acquiring knowledge (atleast some :-) knowledge) about various free tools that were available, I always used System Mechanic 6. But not being very impressed led me to the decision to makeup my own tool kit.
I will start a new topic (see topic "tool kit" list continued) and make my comments on the list supplied by davey and also make some additions that I highly recommend.
I greatly value the opinion of you guys, so I would like your comment on the following:
I currently have Iolo System Mechanic 6 and thinking of upgrading to System Mechanic 8, but I am not 100% impressed with these products. I also find, from my experience, that Iolo customer service/support really sucks.
I was wondering if there is anything on the market that does similar tasks to System Mechanic 8 which you would highly recommend.
Iolo were/are doing a 60% off promo over the weekend, so a good time to look at SM 8. The coupon code was 'iolo10' through checkout. No idea if it still works though.
I also use Tune-Up Utilities 2008, which is pretty darn good. Both very similar apps though.
Chris/vnunet.com