PC Tune-Up places several functions from many free applications in to one commercial bundle. Often, when it comes to system health, it is worth your while to spend a little money on “tweaking” software. Recently, Large Software announced that on June 3 officially, PC Tune-Up 2.0 would meet all the requirements needed to work on Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3, something most free applications have yet to do.
Good things come in 3MB packages. (IMG:J.Anderson)
As mentioned, PC tuning software is available commercially and free, so why would you pay for it? The old adage you get what you pay for applies to most free software, there are a few gems online, but you have to look. Sometimes it is worth a few bucks to show some love and care to your system. By love and care, I am talking about more than security; I’m talking about system health.
The longer you use a PC, the more junk that builds up. Registry files become scattered because of removed applications or temporary keys. The hard drive will start to slow, and while Windows has a defrag program on its own, the built-in defragmentation is mediocre at best. A PC will face other issues as well, invalid install paths, broken shortcuts from old files, COM or DLL files that just take up space, and various problems.
A computer can last a long time, if maintained properly. Again, as Security Editor for The Tech Herald, I constantly harp about security. However, if your system crawls then you have other worries to deal with aside from system security. I recently got an email talking about the upgrade to PC Tune-Up. I have heard of the software before and even used it at one IT shop where I worked. So I was not surprised when I saw the announcement that there was support for the new service packs on Windows.
What impresses me most about the software is honestly not the features. Sure, they are useful, but they are also found in various other software packages; just not in this type of setup. No, what caught my eye the first time I saw PC Tune-Up was the size, less than 3MB. The small little application was placed on a thumb drive and used across the office during monthly cleaning cycles.
It offers various tools; system and registry backup, it can create restore points, it has a solid registry defrag tool – that is one of the only ones I have ever used – and a simple “Smart Scan” that checks everything and tells you what you need to do to fix any problems, and optimizers for memory and startup. Reading more into the documentation there is ActiveX protection; the documents explain that it protects the system from harmful ActiveX by inserting “specific word values within the registry called Compatibility Flags.”
I will be reviewing the new version on XP SP3, as it will be the more common OS for the software, and post the results next week. In the meantime if you want to know more check out the website: www.largesoftware.com. PC Tune-Up retails for $29.95.
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