System Mechanic

Type of Program: System Utility
Supported Platforms: Win 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP
Company Name: Iolo
Version: 3.7e
Price: $59.95
Installed Size: 5 Mb

Download/Homepage

Okay lets get real. The first nice thing about this program is the size of the download. At 1.5 Mb you don't even feel pain at a pay by the minute dial-up connection. The next nice thing is that the Iolo people really give you a full featured program to try out for 30 days. Something lots of other companies have gotten away from. Good Job Iolo!

The first thing I did was to go to the System part and get rid of some of that Start-up stuff that was loading, but was hidden. Already I was on a roll here..

Then I tried out the Internet connection optimizer. I'm always suspicious of these by the way. They never seem to have any effect at all on my dial up connection. This time though I seemed to get about a 10% performance increase.

Next I did the registry clean up. It found 226 bad registry entries. Throwing all caution to the wind I deleted them all. The good news is that System Mechanic creates by default 10 levels of undo for this option. Then I re-booted and yes my machine did boot faster. (XP)

There are three basic options that you are presented with upon opening System Mechanic. They are Files, System and Internet. Pushing one of these three buttons brings you to the selections under it that System Mechanic can optimize.

Under System they are Clean system registry, Windows Startup manager, Customize Windows Settings, Remove invalid uninstaller information, and Safe Installer. Plus there at the bottom under everything a Scheduled Maintenance option so that you can clean up by schedule.

Under Files they are Find and Remove junk and obsolete files, Find and fix broken Shortcuts, Find and Remove duplicate files, and Securely delete files and folders.

I tried out the Find and Remove junk and obsolete files. Would you believe it found 712Mb of useless stuff? It by default places all of them in the that you choose to remove in the Recycle bin.

I then tried the Find and fix broken Shortcuts. It found 227 bad shortcuts.

The Securely delete files and folders option is a secondary Recycle bin they call the Incinerator. What it does is really delete the files. It even surpasses military and government requirements.

There are two Internet Tools. One is the connection optimizer mentioned above. The other eliminates the "tracks" that you leave behind.

About the only negative comment I can make about this tool is the nag screen that comes up every time you start it until you register it. But then for a tool of this quality that gives you a full 30 days of all of it's features that is to be expected.

In conclusion. Try It Buy It! It really is a wonder tool.

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Reviewed by Joe Tex

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