System Mechanic 10 Review

Although Windows 7 seems to maintain its system integrity and function better than its predecessors it still succumbs to PC slowdowns over its lifespan. System Mechanic 10 from iolo software is one way to prevent these issues from manifesting. This suite of system maintenance packages will help speed up even the most bogged down systems.

The latest System Mechanic version features some new and enhanced technologies including Program Accelerator, CRUDD Remover, Internet Connection Repair, Drive Accelerator, Active Care and Power Tools. It can be used by novice and power users alike. For the non-tech inclined there are one click repairs, automated maintenance and all in one solution. For the advanced user there are 200+ tests and 50+ features that can be customized.

Iolo has also changed their licensing paradigm as before only three copies were allowed per license, now they use a Whole Home Licensing program.

Info:

Product Name:System Mechanic 10

Author: Tom Ratas

Provider: iolo

Price: $49

Program Accelerator NEW

Speeds up overall program responsiveness by re-aligning all of a program’s dependent files on the hard drive.

The problem: program misalignment is a major system slowdown caused by Windows and software updates. It leads to progressively slower program launch and responsiveness as dependent files become scatteredall over the hard drive.

Disk defragmenters make it worse, blindly compacting and separating related files even more!

Program Accelerator’s first-of-its-kind patent-pending technology adds sophistication to enhance defrag tools, such as DriveAccelerator, and move related files back together

Bottom line: Program Accelerator jump-starts your sluggish programsby fully re-aligning your whole PC file system.

 

CRUDD Remover NEW

Commonly Redundant or Unnecessary Decelerators and Destabilizers (CRUDD) Remover helps identify and eliminate duplicate programs that clog your system.

“More programs, more problems…”

In addition to all the programs you install yourself, there’s the software that came with your PC that you’ve probably never used, as well as any number of programs that may have installed themselveson your computer without your knowledge!

Removing unneeded programs speeds up a PC significantly. The CRUDD Remover’s expert intelligence takes the hassle and guesswork out of finding, classifying, and presenting them all, so you can choose to remove unnecessary software that’s bloating your system.

 

Whole Home Licensing

Now, keep all your household PCs running at maximum performance with just a single license of System Mechanic!

Gone is the costly and arbitrary restriction of only 1 to 3 PCs per license. As more and more of us are reusing older PCs and adding new PCs for other family members, iolo decided it was time to reward customers with the Whole Home License, empowering families with many PCsin their household to keep them all running at full speed and reliability

Get more performance and more valuewith the first-ever software license that is good for every PC in your single family household.

 

Internet Connection Repair

Gets you back on the web!

We’ve all experienced the frustration of being abruptly disconnected from the internet — usually right in the middle of something important — even with broadband!

System Mechanic’s new Internet Connection Repair technology detects bad connections and uses a battery of proprietary technology to not only repair and reconnect your computer, but also ensure the connection is as clean, fast, and reliable as possible.

 

Tune-up Definitions ENHANCED

It’s the first technology of its kind and a critical part of System Mechanic’s automatic weekly intelligence updates.

Tune-up Definitions allow System Mechanic to individually tailor its diagnosis, repair, and optimization tools for each unique PC configuration, and provide personalized solutions to emerging performance threats using patent-pending ActiveCaretechnology.

This makes System Mechanic significantly more effective (and safer) than other PC tune-up products.

 

DriveAccelerator ENHANCED

The fast and powerful disk defrag tool is re-engineered to work hand in hand with the patent-pending technology of the new Program Acceleratorto completely optimize your hard drives and critical data for speed and reliability.

• Fully refreshed for even faster overall performance
• Redesigned to work in full concert with the new Program Accelerator
• Uses ultra-safe double-data security techniques to fully safe-guard your important files
• Fully incorporates all the new Windows 7 SuperFetch updates resulting in even faster Windows startup

 

EnergyBooster ENHANCED

Boost speed by turning off unused background programs.

Perfect for gamers, video and sound engineers, artists, web designers… or any serious computer user who requires raw, fast performance — instantly. Frees up system memory and CPU resources to give Windows additional horsepower. Uses iolo Labs’ Tune-up Definitions and user-defined profiles to identify background programs and services that can be temporarily shut down.

 

Total Registry Revitalizer ENHANCED

Repair, compact, defragment, and backup your Windows registry in one step.

Integrates all of System Mechanic’s powerful registry tools to provide complete and seamless all-in-onecare for the Windows registry, performing the entire battery of critical repair, maintenance, and optimization procedures in one step. This tool also leverages System Mechanic’s dramatically improved technology with up to 5 times higher problem-detection rate, improved overall speed and efficiency of scans, and enhanced reporting that provides more detailed scope of errors.

 

Incinerator for Recycle Bin NEW

Permanently wipes files in the Windows Recycle Bin, so they can never be recovered.

Incinerator technology is now integrated into the Windows Recycle Bin, providing you with the choice of standard file deletion or the Department of Defense 5220-22M compliant technique for maximum security when emptying the Recycle Bin.

 

System Mechanic Jump List ENHANCED

System Mechanic is certified fully compatible with Windows 7 and supports new Windows 7 functionality, such as Jump Lists.

The System Mechanic Jump List gives you instant access to frequently needed information and features, such as system status, Memory Mechanic, Energy Booster, and more. The latest version allows you to launch a full scan and repair straight from your desktop.

 

PC Health Status Gadget ENHANCED

The PC Health Status Gadget offers an at-a-glance overview of your PC’s health status – right on your desktop.

Provides real-time reports on system health, security, and overall status. Includes a running list of recently performed repairs and optimizations, and offers quick access to commonly used tools, such as Memory Mechanic and the new EnergyBooster.

 

Startup Optimizer ENHANCED

Start Windows significantly faster by eliminating unneeded or malicious start up programs.

The vastly expanded knowledgebase of Tune-up Definitions that includes thousands of new programs and servicesresearched by iolo Labs makes the Startup Optimizer tool reduce Windows boot times like never before.

 

Memory Mechanic ENHANCED

Instantly defragments RAM and liberates resources held captive by memory leaks.

System Mechanic’s Memory Defragmentation tool is designed not only to reassemble your RAM into neat, contiguous order for significant performance gains, but also to hunt down and release all of the resources held captive by memory leaks within sloppy programs. It’s been reengineered to work up to 85% faster and to find and eliminate up to 25% morememory leaks, providing more performance than ever.

 

Privacy Cleaner ENHANCED

Securely wipes away all traces of your personal and confidential computer activity.

Better than “clearing the cache,” it uses military-grade Incinerator data shredding technology to safely and permanently whisk away the trail of activity left in over 45 locations by Windows, web browsers, media players, and more.

Now with dozens of additional cleanup targetsincluding all major web browsers and chat clients:

Registry Tuner ENHANCED

Based on extensive research from iolo Labs, System Mechanic’s registry cleanup and repair technology has been dramatically improved:

• Up to 5 times higher problem-detection rate compared to previous versions
• Improved overall speed and efficiency of scans
• Improved problem reporting provides more detailed scope of errors

All-in-one PC Cleanup PowerTool ENHANCED

All-in-One PC Cleanup has been greatly enhanced with additional junk file patterns, new ways of detecting and removing insidious system clutter, and improved scan speeds.

• Removes new file patterns exclusive to Windows 7, Vista, and the latest XP service pack
• Removes clutter from all major web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera
• Removes clutter from all major online chat programs, such as AIM, Skype, Yahoo, MSN, and more
• Removes clutter from all major web toolbars, such as Google, Yahoo, and more

The Review::

System Mechanic 10 can be purchased in stores or as a download from the iolo website. For those who like to “try before you buy” iolo offers a free trial period to test out the suite.

System Mechanic installs via the guided Setup Wizard. If you downloaded the file from the website as a trial you can either install System Mechanic as a time-limited trial or go to the iolo website to purchase a license. For those who already purchased the physical copy or have an activation key, you will enter it through this wizard as well. Here we see the rest of the installation process via the wizard. One nice feature is the option to install a PC Health Status Gadget which sits on the user’s desktop to remind them if things are amiss with the system.

        

The first screen once System Mechanic is installed is a help screen with access to tutorials, website links and special offers from iolo. Checking the “Don’t show this again” box will prevent this screen from opening with each restart of System Mechanic.

System Mechanic functions from a central interface which is composed of several sections and subsections.

The Dashboard is the starting point for the program and appears whenever starting System Mechanic.

 

ActiveCare automates system maintenance and repair.

Internet Security monitors your systems anti-malware and firewall capability.

 

The Toolbox is designed for the novice with All-in-One tools or the superuser via Individual Tools.

 

Finally the Reports section which provides system details and history.

 

To start using System Mechanic perform a Deep Analysis of the system from the Overview screen. This will scan you system and provide a report of all issues found.

  

From this Problems window you can chose to repair selected or repair all. Next to each action is a drop down menu which lets you have System Mechanic repair the problem without user interaction or the ability to inspect and repair the problem by the user. If the “problem” is not something needing to be fixed then you can choose to Hide it.

  

If by chance you want to undo a repair, iolo includes the SafetyNet feature found on the top right on the main panel.

Next to the SafetyNet is the Options section where various settings for System Mechanic can be adjusted. These options include SafetyNet, ActiveCare, Dashboard, Boot-Time and General program tweeks.

    

If you have used System Mechanic in the past then using the program will feel very familiar. The new user should not be overwhelmed as System Mechanic is very intuitive to use.

New features to System Mechanic 10 include – Program Accelerator, Incinerator for Recycle Bin, Internet Connection Repair, CRUDD Remover and Whole Home Licensing. Program Accelerator re-aligns program’s dependent files on the hard drive.

 

Incinerator uses the Department of Defense 5220-22M compliant technique for truly eliminating any traces of files.

Internet connection repair does exactly what its name implies repairing bad connections.

 

CRUDD (Commonly Redundant or Unnecessary Decelerators and Destabilizers) Remover gets rid of duplicate programs on one’s system such as multiple media players or disk burners.

 

For testing the following was used:

Motherboard: Asus P8P67 PRO

CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K

Memory: Kingston KHX2133C9D3T1K2/4GX

Video Card: Galaxy 460GTX

Hard Drives: Intel Intel X25-M 80GB

Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM, Samsung 1 TB 7200 RPM

Cooler: NH-U12P SE2

DVD Burner: ASUS DRW-22B1LT

Blu-Ray Drive: Liteon iHOS104

OS: Windows 7 Enterprise

After the initial scan seven problems were detected on this system. Although Windows 7 runs much smoother than its predecessors it still has issues that can slow down performance over its lifetime. System Mechanic helps get Windows 7 back to its initial install state.

In terms of resource consumption, System Mechanic seems to use 56K of system resources when running idly in the background.

The Windows Gadget found on the desktop helps informs the user of the status of the system. Clicking on the gadget indicates the Overall Health Status, show any potential problems, warnings, recent actions and shortcuts. The Gadget also has options for Analysis and Repairing All Problems.

Overall System Mechanic works as advertised. Its numerous features make it an incredibly powerful suite for the Windows user. Other than the need for a subscription it is hard to find any fault with System Mechanic.

Conclusion:

System Mechanic 10 is the latest version of iolo’s powerful PC maintenance suite. For the price you are getting numerous tools bundled for a reasonable price. It is a subscription based program so the user must keep that in mind but Whole Home Licensing allows all the PCs within one’s home to use System Mechanic.

If you want to keep your Windows machine in peak performance then System Mechanic is excellent addition to ones system.

 

Get System Mechanic 10.8 Pro for $39.95. Save $30! [Coupon code: UPG].

 

 

PROS	CONS
+Designed for novices and advanced users +Includes Windows Gadget +Numerous new features from prior versions +Takes up minimal resources	-Still requires subscription

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Scores::	9 out of 10
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Disclosure:This product was given to Review the Tech for review by the company for review purposes only, and is not considered by us as payment for the review, we do not, and never will, accept payment from companies to review their products. This product may have also been bought by us for review purposes and does not influence the review.