One-click maintainance for everyone! (TuneUp Utilities 2008)

Member Name: Hydromancer

Product:	TuneUp Utilities 2008
Date:	27/05/08 (583 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: clean design, lots of great and helpful features, very easy to use

Disadvantages: jack of all trades but master of none

TuneUp Utilities is a set of excellent, easy to use software that will help you maintain your computer, solve any problems that may occur and monitor the performance of your computer. I downloaded the trial version of TuneUp Utilities 2008 but unlocked the full version by purchasing a key from ebay for a small sum of £2.50.

There are nine main sections that Tuneup Utilities is split into. There are increase performance, free up disk space, maintain windows, solve problems, customise windows, additional tools, rescue centre, update wizard and the help menu.

The increase performance sections lets you defragment hard drive. Fragmentation of a hard disk is when data is not organised inside your hard drive and it is broken into 'fragments' which are spread all over your hard disk. Defragmentation basically reorganises these fragments and puts them together. Hard disk fragmentation is perhaps the biggest slower down of PCs and the hard disk is by far the slowest part of your computer. While Windows has a built in hard disk defragmentator, it is not a good one and is in fact quite horrible and can sometimes cause freezes. Windows Vista has a background defragmentator which basically defragments your hard disk continuously but this uses memory and slows down your computer and so is better left turned off. The TuneUp Utilities 2008 defragmentator is not the best but still quite good and a lot better than the Windows 'built-in' application. You can either have it scan your hard disk and it will automatically defragment it if there is a lot of fragmentation or set it to defragment a chosen hard disk. Mine took around 20 minutes to defragment a six-month old system with a 120GB hard disk which is quite fast.

You can also control which applications launch at start up as these slow the computer down significantly, optimise your web browser to suit your internet connection and do a registry defrag in the increasing performance menu. Registry is a set of important data that contains all your settings and is essential for the execution of Windows operating systems. The registry defrag reduces the space taken up by the registry and this releases memory for other operations which means a faster system. The TuneUp registry defrag is quite effective but does not harm any of your important registry files and paralyse windows.

In free-up disk space menu, you can view a list of unnecessary files and enhancements for Windows which you can get rid of to increase the amount of disk space available. While any changes made here won't stop your system working but they may change system settings or delete system restore information.

In solve problems menu, you can run the 'disk doctor' to see if the hard disk is working well and reduce any chances of data loss. The repair wizard allows you to solve any problems that may occur. There is also TuneUp Undelete which lets you recover deleted data. I have used it on numerous occasions and can certify it works very often and works well. This, of course, depends how long ago the information was deleted and whether special software was used to delete it.

Customise windows menu allows you to change the appearance and actions of your windows operating system and make the windows experience suit your needs. While there are a range of options available from adjusting internet settings to changing the log on screen.

Additional tools allows you to uninstall programs, monitor the things your PC is doing and its performance using process manager, browse and edit the registry (which you should NEVER do), view system information and use the secure TuneUp shredder. The uninstall programs option is very similar to the one in the Windows Control Panel, the process manager works is a more elegant and informative form of Windows Task manager while the Registry editor should never be touched. The TuneUp shredder allows you to get rid of important information securely There are three basic ways in which deletes the information, each more secure than the last. This application is extremely helpful, fast and is worth paying £20 for (or £2.50 from ebay).

The maintain windows menus runs the disk deframentator, registry defrag, disk doctor and other applications upon one click and also lets you use the registry cleaner. The registry cleaner is not too aggressive which makes it very safe to use but does mean that some junk will be not be cleaned. This is ok since once slip in the registry can render your whole computer useless.

The Update Wizard is quite fast and searches for any updates that may be available. The Restore Centre allows you to return to the state your system was in before you used a particular TuneUp Utilities function. This allows you to undo any damage that could have been done by TuneUp Utilities.

Everything is very well laid out and easy to understand while the one-click maintenance feature will really help those with little knowledge of computers. Visually, the program is simple yet stylish but feels very functional.

In conclusion, TuneUp Utilities is the perfect solution for maintaining your PC or laptop and ensuring that it performs well in the future. Even if it cost twice its regular retail price, it would be worth it as it allows those with little knowledge of computing to maintain their computers. However, while TuneUp utilities does do most things and does them well, it isn't as good as the top dedicated applications for those things. For example, Disk Keeper is a much better disk defrag software but it costs more to buy has less functions. Those with a comprehensive computing knowledge should look for dedicated applications but for everyone else, TuneUp Utilities should suffice

Summary: Does most things and does them well

Variety of features:
Reliability:
User friendly:
Installation:
Update possibilites: