system

How to Control the Temperature of Your Laptop

How to Control the Temperature of Your Laptop

Tips/Troubleshooting , 0 Comments

Laptops need an ideal temperature to perform optimally. We discuss some ways to monitor the laptop temperature including CPU, motherboard and hard drive and how to lower the temperature when it’s getting hot.

A laptop is supposed to be used and placed at our lap but it becomes really difficult at times to use it because of the overheating. If you are facing the same situation or if your system shuts down frequently (with no apparent reason), the most apparent reason is the laptop heating issue. Laptops are notorious for excessive heating. There are various reasons

Why Does my Laptop Get Hot?

Allow us to talk a little about the various factors which can heat up your system and quick solutions to combat the excessive heat.

Blocked Air Vents

Heat generation is a consequence of the way we design CPU chips for laptops. However, to avoid over heating air vents have been provided so that the air can flow through them and help the laptop to release the heat. These air vents may get blocked due to dust particles and affect the cooling system of your laptop.

Solution: Use canned air to blow air and unblock the air vents. Clean your laptop regularly.

High Performance Power Plan

High performance requires components to run at higher speeds which results in increased heat generation. Maybe you need your system to perform exceptionally for some time and you set it to High Performance, which is increasing the laptop temperature.

Solution: By default, the computers are set to Balanced Mode so it is recommended to switch back after you have completed your task. This will activate the System Cooling Policy and your laptop will stay safe from being overheated.

Frequent Use of Intense Processes

Running the intense processes or applications also affects the temperature of your computer. When you run heavy computer games and video encoding programs, they require a lot of juice from your CPU. Similarly, flash videos are also heavy on CPU.

Solution: Keep CPU intensive processes to minimum or run one at a time. You may prefer sitting in a cold environment, when extracting the maximum from your CPU.

How do I Monitor The Temperature of Laptop?

All these facts leads us to the need of monitoring the temperature of our laptop. CoreTemp and SpeedFan are the freeware that can serve this job.

SpeedFan

SpeedFan is a lightweight application that tracks the temperature of your laptop with explicit information about each core. The good point about Speed Fan is that, it displays the temperature in the system tray as well. So, you don’t need to switch or run the entire application again and again. Speed Fan is able to change the Fan Speeds with the changing temperature of your laptop.

Analysis by Speed Fan

CoreTemp

CoreTemp is another software to monitor the laptop temperature with detailed information. You can customize the settings and change the temperature polling intervals. You can also add the parameters to be monitored like CPU workload.

Core Temp temperature analyzer

How do I keep my laptop cool

Besides this, there are some other safety measures which should be adapted by laptop users to avoid any kind of problem because of the increased temperature.

Use Lap Desk

Use lap desk or any other fan stand, while using your laptop, which can keep it a little up from the surface and ease the air flow.

Sit in a Cold Environment

Try to sit in an environment with suitable temperature so that your laptop stays cool.

Use Temperature Control Software

Some laptops come with built-in temperature control software. These software safely shutdown the system, whenever the system passes a threshold temperature which could damage the system. Some free software are also available to control the laptop temperature and fans ( as discussed above).

Activate the Laptop Fan

Another safety measure is to make sure that the system cooling policy, provided by the manufacturers, is activated when you are using laptop. To adjust the settings:

  • Go to Control Panel –> All Control Panel Items –> Power Options –> Edit Plan Settings.
  • Select a power plan e.g., Power Saver.
  • Scroll down and expand ‘Processor Power Management’.
  • Select ‘System Cooling Policy’ as Active on Plugged in.

Control Laptop Fan

 

We hope these tweaks will enable you to monitor your laptop heating and temperatures and prevent any overheating problems. Your comments are always welcome!

Configure Windows Update Settings In Windows 8

Configure Windows Update Settings In Windows 8

Microsoft, Windows 7 , , , 0 Comments

Windows Update is a built in tool that comes with your Microsoft Windows. This tool is responsible to keep your system updated with the latest patches and service packs offered by the Microsoft Corporation. Some of them are marked as important, some are critical while others are optional. By default, Windows Update automatically runs on your system after a certain time interval. However, we can always configure the Windows Update settings easily. Similarly, whenever you plug any hardware device into your machine, it searches for device driver automatically. We can disable the Windows to install the automatic updates and device drivers using the Control Panel. The following tutorial will help you manage your updates well.

Control Panel - Windows Update

Go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> Windows Update. You will find the following options under the Windows Update option.

  • Turn automatic updating on or off
  • Check for Updates
  • Install Optional Updates
  • View Update History

Disable automatic update installation

We will explain every option of Windows Update sequentially. Let’s start with the most important and the first option that lets you choose how you want updates to be installed on your system.

  • Go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> Windows Update.
  • Select the Turn Automatic Updating on or off.

Configure Windows Update Settings

You have the following options to choose from:

1- Download and install updates

This will install every important update without asking for your permission. You schedule automatic maintenance of your system by selecting a day and time of the week.

  • Select Install Updates Automatically from the drop down list.
  • Click on ‘Updates will be automatically installed during the maintenance window’.
  • Set the time for automatic maintenance.

Now, your system will automatically check, download and install update on that particular time.

Schedule Automatic Maintenance in Windows Update

2-Download updates , do not install

This will check and download the available updates before you shutdown your system. You can not specify any day and time with this option.

Select ‘Download Updates but let me choose whether to install them’ from the drop-down.

3-Do not download, do not install

Now, the options are becoming more selective for the advanced users. You can allow your system to Check for the new updates but it can not download or install them without your permission.

Select ‘Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them’ from the drop-down.

4- Never check for updates

This is highly undesirable option. You are forcing your system to not check for any updates. However, you can still check for the updates manually.

Check for updates

Select ‘Check for Updates’ whenever you wish to see if there is an update available or not. Make sure that your system is connected to the Internet. Windows Update also informs you about the last time your system was checked for updates and how many updates were installed.

Check for Windows Update

Install Optional updates

You will see Install Optional Updates window, once it has checked for the updates. It tells you about the available updates and the memory space needed for them. Click on ‘Install Updates’ to install the available updates.

Install Optional Updates in Wndows 8

Disable automatic device driver installation

As a continuation to the installation of updates, we feel strongly to give a quick tip on how to disable automatic driver installation for hardware devices. This is not configured using the Windows Update feature, however, you need to go to:

  • Go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> System
  • Select Advanced System Settings from the Panel.
  • System Properties dialog box will be opened.
  • Select Hardware -> Device Installation Settings.

View System Properties

Device Installation Settings dialog box lets you set your preferred way of installing updated device drivers. Usually, we may go for automatic installation and there’s no harm in it. However, some people are more conscious about the software being installed on their system, so they can select: “No, let me choose what to do” -> Never install driver software from Windows Update. Save Changes.

Device Derivr Installation Settings

How to uninstall an update

To uninstall installed updates in Windows 8, follow the steps below:

Control Panel ->System And Security -> Windows Update -> View Update History.

This will open a list of updates that have been installed on your machine with their publisher’s name and installation date. You can uninstall any update by:

  • Select update name.
  • Right click and select uninstall .

View Windows Update History

We have tried to cover every aspect related to management and configuration of update installation in your Windows 8 . If you still have any queries, you can ping us through the comments form.

Extract List Of Installed Programs In Windows Without Using Any Third Party Software

Extract List Of Installed Programs In Windows Without Using Any Third Party Software

Microsoft, Windows, Windows 7 , , , , 0 Comments

Windows keeps a log of all the installed programs and software. This log is usually stored in Windows Registry. The visual way to view and manage the list of installed programs in Windows is by going to Control Panel –> Program and Features (Add/Remove Programs if you are using Windows XP).

If you want to print or save the list of all installed programs in Windows, there is no direct way of doing this. This can required if you are reinstalling Windows and want the names of all the installed programs so that you can install them again.

Programs and Features

The most popular third party app for extracting the list of installed programs in Windows is Belarc Advisor. Belarc Advisor is a wonderful program and is a must have for everyone who wants to manage his system himself. But there are times when you want to get a list of installed programs quickly without installing any software.

In this article, we will be using Windows Management Instrumentation Control (WMIC) to extract the list of installed programs in Windows without installing or using any third party software. You can learn more about wmic in this technet article.

Extract list of programs from local computer

To extract and save the list of programs from the local computer, follow the instructions below:

  1. Open command prompt in administrative mode (Windows Key + X + A if you are using Windows 8)
  2. Run the following command:
    wmic
  3. The prompt will change to wmic:root\cli>. Run the following command:
    /output:E:\listOfInstalledPrograms.txt product get name,version,vendor

wmic extracting list of programs

Where E:\listOfInstalledPrograms.txt is the path to a text file. Just make sure that the file exists on the specified location otherwise wmic will throw an error. Running the above command will take a few moments after which you can open the text file which will contain the list of all installed programs including Microsoft’s own software.

Extract list of programs from remote computer

If you are a network administrator and want to extract the list of installed programs from a remote computer, wmic has another command which will do it for you.

  1. Open command prompt in administrative mode (Windows Key + X + A if you are
    using Windows 8)
  2. Run the following command:
    wmic
  3. The prompt will change to wmic:root\cli>. Run the following command:
    /node:”computerName” product get name,version,vendor

Replace computerName with the remote computer name or IP address. To save the list to a text file, run the following command instead of the above one:

/node:”computerName” product get name,version,vendor /output:E:\listOfInstalledPrograms.txt

I hope this will help the users in their backup and recovery tasks. If there is any other method to get the list of installed programs in Windows, please share it with us in comments.

Webroot System Analyzer Scans Your PC For Problems

Webroot System Analyzer Scans Your PC For Problems

Software , , 0 Comments

Webroot System Analyzer is a great software for analyzing and detecting problems in your Windows PC. You can also get rid of these problems easily.

Detecting your PC problems is not easy. You can only understand this if you fix your PC or other people’s PCs problems. A single problem can have many reasons. And finding out the original one isn’t like a piece of cake. For instance, slow running PC can be the victim of malware, Hardware issues or maybe it requires some resources to work properly.

Webroot System Analyzer is a nifty program and detects your PC problems quickly. The program is portable so you can carry it and execute it directly from anywhere including your USB Flash drive. In short, the program analyzes your PC problems for one to two minutes and highlights all the issues that your system is going through. The program highlights all those issues which need quick attention and your first priority. The program mostly scans those areas that are infected very often.

The Webroot System Analyzer is available for both 32-but and 64-bit versions of Windows including Windows 8.

After you run the program, you will see the screen which shows some features of the program. Just click on “Agree and Begin Analysis Button” and the program will start scanning your PC for problems.

Webroot System Analyzer

After completion, the software rates your PC problems by giving a score at the end. It divides the results in three categories.

Hardware

In this part, the Webroot System Analyzer mentions all the frequent crashes, checks if your hardware is running properly.

Software

Webroot System Analyzer searches for software-related internal problems, temporary files that are creating problems, etc.

Threats

The program also searches for virus or malware-related problems and mentions the number of infections that should be removed.

Webroot System Analyzer rating

The downside of the Webroot System Analyzer is that it detects the problems but does not show how to solve them. You can see the list of problems and can save it but finding the solution option isn’t available. It does not even direct you to other programs that could resolve your problems. However, overall, the program is very easy and rates your PC problems in the quickest time.

Though, the software does not provide any solution to the problems but you can do it yourself by acting on the following guidelines:

For Malware

For malware problem, nothing is better than installing an antivirus software. Windows 8 comes with a built-in software but you can download and install third party software as well. Some notable ones are McAfree Antivirus and AVG antivirus. You can choose any antivirus of your choice for threats that Webroot System Analyzer mentions.

For Temporary Files

Temporary files are those files that, if deleted, won’t make much difference. They are the files that consume your PC’s space without any reason and must be deleted. The files include cookies, and history. Just follow these steps and remove temporary files:

  1. Go to Control Panel.
  2. Choose Internet Options.
  3. Click on delete browsing history and cookies. Internet properties will open.
  4. Now you can delete all the temporary files.

Editor’s note: A better way of deleting temporary files is to use the disk cleanup tool or CCleaner for better results.

Hardware-Related Problems

Hardware related problems can be found out by using Belarc Advisor. Not only for hardware, but software, network, and security tasks can be easily fulfilled by the Belarc Advisor. You can download it here.

Make your PC problem-free by analyzing it with the Webroot system analyzer. Solve your PC problems with the above mentioned techniques and your PC score will increase. You may also want to see some ways to increase PC speed without installing any software.

Get Windows 8 Ribbon Bar In Windows 7 With Better Explorer

Get Windows 8 Ribbon Bar In Windows 7 With Better Explorer

Microsoft, Software, Windows, Windows 7 , , , , , 0 Comments

Windows 8 comes with the Ribbon UI in Windows Explorer. The Ribbon UI was first introduced in Microsoft Office 2007 and now it is the default menu structure of all Microsoft applications except Internet Explorer. Windows 8 Explorer makes it easier for us to perform our tasks and is compatible with the tablets. It is designed to run on tablets which means more ease of use and visual appeal.

Windows Explorer has remained almost the same throughout the history of Windows development. But in Windows 8, it has taken a positive visual appeal by adding a Ribbon bar instead of the traditional menus.

Microsoft Office Ribbon UI

Windows 8 Explorer builds on the foundations of Ribbon UI which was introduced in Microsoft Office 2007. If you are using Office 2007 or Office 2007 and like the new interface, you will definitely love the same user interface in Windows Explorer.

While Windows 7 does not include the Ribbon UI in Windows Explorer by default, BExplorer (Better Explorer) attempts to integrate the same Ribbon UI in the Explorer interface.

BExplorer is a file manager and needs to operate separately than Windows Explorer. You will need to get used to opening BExplorer for managing files and folders.

When you start BExplorer, it will look very similar to Windows Explorer except for the top part which is the Ribbon UI.

BExplorer

There are two tabs in the BExplorer ribbon. The Home tab contains tools for all the basic operations for the managing files and folders like copying, deleting, renaming and moving files, copying file path and opening file and folder properties.

The View tab lets you customize the appearance of BExplorer window like sorting of files, viewing files as icons or lists and grouping by date, size, name and type.

BExplorer view tab

As the ribbon UI takes a lot of screen space, you can easily minimize it using the up arrow button at the top right of BExplorer window.

BExplorer minimize ribbon

The File menu (green button on the top left of BExplorer window) is still blank and needs to be worked on. Hopefull it will be in a working condition in the next releases of BExplorer.

Another feature that I found out is not functioning is the search feature. The search dialog box will return nothing if you want to search for anything. These errors should be corrected as soon as possible to make BExplorer a better alternative to Windows Explorer. But right now BExplorer is still in its initial stages and needs a lot of work. Overall it’s a nice utility to have for occasional usage.

Better Explorer

 

Update: Better Explorer has been updated and now it has its own domain instead of hosting at Codeplex. We have updated the links appropriately.

How to Download Windows Updates for Offline Install [Windows 8]

How to Download Windows Updates for Offline Install [Windows 8]

Software, Windows , , , 1 Comment

If you don’t have access to the Internet in any case but want to run Windows Update on your computer, Microsoft makes it almost impossible to do so. They have provided WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) which can run only if you have a network with Windows Server as the hub. There are third party tools available for updating Windows offline without connecting to the Internet. Let’s first go through the popular tools used for this purpose:

Autopatcher was the best and the most popular tool for updating Windows offline. The main tool was taken down by Microsoft because Autopatcher team was storing Windows updates on their own servers rather than from Microsoft update site. The new version of Autopatcher downloads Windows updates directly from Windows update servers. Autopatcher will automatically download and install the updates for you.

Windows Updates Downloader is different from Autopatcher in that it downloads all the updates for a particular Windows version. The Windows Updates are then stored in local computer directory. The user has the responsibility of installing all the updates rather than the program running the update process itself. It is useful if you want to download all the Windows updates at once.

WSUS Offline Update is another Windows updates offline downloader. It works similar to WSUS from Microsoft. You will be given a list of all Windows versions including their languages. You can check any number of items for their updates to be downloaded locally.

There is a new Windows Updates downloading tool which is a little different from all of the listed above. Portable Update is a portable tool which can be used to download Windows Updates and install them on computer which do not have access to the Internet. The author describes several circumstances in which this tool can be used. I am reproducing the same points here:

Portable Update

  • When the computer reside on a secure LAN isolated from internet;
  • When the computer to update doesn’t have access or can’t use a proxy server;
  • When is necessary to completely update a fresh-formatted computer with the last update before connect it to the network;
  • When the computer doesn’t have an hardware network connection at all;
  • When the network connection speed is too low or it is necessary to update the computer very speedily;
  • In all the other cases when is mandatory to have the complete control on the whole updating process without connecting the computer to the network.

The main benefit of Portable Update is that it is portable and can be taken anywhere on a USB Flash drive along with the downloaded updates. You can run the program and update any number of Operating Systems using your portable Flash drive. And most convincingly, it works on Windows 8 too!

When you start Portable Update for the first time, it will ask you to download some tools from the Internet. They are necessary for its working. You can select all the tools and click the Start button to start the download process.

Portable Update Tools

After downloading the required components, the main program will start. Portable Update comes with quite a simple interface. The main window contains a few tabs with different information and functionality.

History Portable Update

The first tab is the history tab. It will show the history of updates installed on the computer. To start the process, go to the Search tab and click on the Start button. The search process should be performed on the computer which needs to be updated.

Search Portable Update

Now go to the Download tab, select all the listed updates and press the Start button to start the download process. Double clicking on any of the item will bring its details in a new pop-up.

Download Portable Update

Now you can take the Portable Update folder anywhere you want, share it on a network location or take it in a USB Flash Drive. On the target machine, you can go to the Install tab and install the listed updates. These are the updates which have not been installed on the computer.

The limitation of Portable Update is that it will only download the required updates for a particular computer. But once the updates are downloaded, they can be installed on any computer without any problems.

You can go through the documentation process of Portable Update to learn about all the details of its working. On a system requirement level, it works on all major versions of Windows including Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Which method do you prefer to updates Windows?

ConEmu – A Colorful Windows Command Console Alternative

ConEmu – A Colorful Windows Command Console Alternative

Software , 0 Comments

Windows 8 is Microsoft’s latest and the most powerful Operating System. When I used Windows 8, everything looked stunning and refreshing except the command line mode. The command line console has essentially remained the same since the very beginning. If you are a command line junkie, you will prefer to use Linux instead of Windows just because Windows does not offer a powerful toolset of command prompt.

ConEmu is a powerful emulator of command prompt in all versions of Windows including Windows 8. It supports 32-bit and 64-bit installations of Windows. When I first installed it in my Windows 8 PC, Windows gave me a SmartScreen warning that the program had been blocked. Since I knew what I was installing, I safely clicked on the Run Anyway button.

Windows 8 SmartScreen Filter

When installing, ConEmu will give you an option whether you want to install a 32-bit version of ConEmu or a 64-bit version. This prompt should appear only on a 64-bit machine.

ConEmu installer

After installation, you’ll get a quick configuration prompt which you can leave as default and change the settings later according to your needs.

ConEmu startup settings

After that, you will be able to get your hands on the shiny new command prompt.

ConEmu console

You can run multiple command line sessions in the same window because ConEmu supports multiple tabs in the same window. You can click on the blue + button on the top right corner or use WinKey + W hotkey to open another command line session.

Another great feature of ConEmu is that it can intelligently detect the status of the command in progress and will change the title of the windows accordingly. It can also show the status of the command in progress. It will also show the progress bar on the taskbar icon.

If you are using Jump Lists, you can easily pin your favorite and most used commands and even batch files on a Jump List so that the commands are just one click away from being executed.

I have just started using ConEmu and exploring and loving every bit of it. Please share your experience with me in the comments below.

Download ConEmu

(Sources: hanselman, softwarecrew)

Download TuneUp Utilities 2013 for Windows 8 With 40% Discount

Download TuneUp Utilities 2013 for Windows 8 With 40% Discount

Software, Windows , , , , 0 Comments

TuneUp Utilities 2013 main

TuneUp Utilities 2013 has been released. TuneUp Utilities is the complete system care utility which enhances the performance of the computer using different techniques. Although it is not a free product but I would like to write about how to get TuneUp Utilities 2013 with 40% discount. A few months back, I had written about TuneUp Utilities 2011 which could be downloaded with free license. That promotion has expired. The most current promotion of TuneUp Utilities 2013 is a discounted price.

TuneUp Utilities 2013

TuneUp Utilities 2013 comes with quite a lot of new features. The greatest feature of TuneUp Utilities 2013 is that it has been optimized for the brand new and shiny Windows 8 Operating System. Let’s have an overview of some of the features of TuneUp Utilities 2013.

TuneUp Disk Cleaner 2013

TuneUp Disk Cleaner 2013

The all-new Disk Cleaner 2013 gets rid of system clutter and temporary files left over by Windows and 3rd party software. The types of junk data cleaned up by TuneUp Disk Cleaner 2013 includes Crash reports, Windows error reports, lost clusters, installer files, cache, log files, temporary system files, old backups, thumbnails, recent files list etc.

TuneUp Browser Cleaner 2013

TuneUp Browser Cleaner 2013 will protect your privacy by completely cleaning 60 areas in Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox and other browsers. It will also optimize the browser’s database resulting in enhanced performance of the browser.

TuneUp Live Optimization 2.0

With TuneUp Live Optimization 2.0, you’ll be able to quickly identify resource hungry applications and optimize them to enhance overall system performance.

TuneUp Shortcut Cleaner and Registry Cleaner

These are pretty standard tools but TuneUp Registry Cleaner is a more powerful product which scans deep into the registry for invalid and useless registry entries and will clean and optimize the registry resulting in enhanced pc performance.

You can download a 15 day trial of TuneUp Utilities 2013 but if you follow the steps below, you’ll be able to buy TuneUp Utilities 2013 with 40% discount. So you will be getting it in $29.95 instead of $49.95. Just follow the steps below.

  1. Instead of the main Tune-up.com site, go to discount.tune-up.com.
  2. You will be given a $20 discount straight away.
  3. Download TuneUp Utilities 2013
  4. Activate and enjoy!

Do share your thoughts and experiences with us!

Download System Mechanic 11 Free With Windows 8 Support

Download System Mechanic 11 Free With Windows 8 Support

Software , 0 Comments

I have previously written a full review about IOLO System Mechanic which is a powerful performance optimization software for Windows. System Mechanic 11 has been released with Windows 8 support. There are several modules which make System Mechanic the complete optimization solution for Windows. To summarize the features, we list down some of the main features of System Mechanic 11:

System Mechanic 11

AcceleWrite
Revolutionary real-time, always-on technology included in System Mechanic 11 optimizes data storage as it happens. This makes sure that the system is always on top performance and the hardware wear out including the hard drive gets prolonged.

Startup Optimization

System Mechanic 11 delivers more simpler yet powerful startup optimization features which accelerate the overall performance of the system including quick startup times and re-injection of resources to the foreground processes.

Windows 8 support

System Mechanic now support Windows Operating Systems from Windows XP to Windows 8. Windows 8 Release Preview has been launched while the final version of Windows 8 will be out soon. We can expect some great optimizations in Windows 8 using System Mechanic 11.

Tune-up Definitions

Tune-up definitions is the most interesting part of System Mechanic. System Mechanic keeps on adding new Tune-up definitions to make sure that each and everything in the computer is optimized according to the latest standards. These Tune-up definitions are added automatically like an antivirus definitions update.

Additional Dashboard Control and Streamlined Setup
System Mechanic 11’s primary command center has been expanded to include easy access to more commonly used tools, at-a-glance status on key functionality, and one-click control of automatic maintenance features. System Mechanic 11 also provides single-step options for the most recommended configurations under a wide variety of environments. This simpler and more efficient installation and upgrade process takes the guesswork out of software setup.

Download System Mechanic Free

(Just click on "Download Free Version" in order to download the free version of System Mechanic 11. The free version has limited functionality but it is absolutely fine for basic use in Windows 8).

System Mechanic: Powerful Performance Optimization Software For Windows

System Mechanic: Powerful Performance Optimization Software For Windows

Software , , 2 Comments

Windows is a great Operating System but its performance deteriorates with the usage and passage of time. To understand why Windows starts performing slowly, we will need to understand the working of Windows. Windows makes use of files and registry in order to operate. The registry is the database where all information regarding Windows and software is stored. Let’s take a look at how Windows loses performance by the passage of time.

Windows makes excessive use of temporary files. Frequent file operations result in file fragmentation and clutter. With file fragmentation, more time is needed to access and read a file. As the temporary files storage becomes larger and larger, the system drive gets a performance hit.

PC fixing

The second most commonly faced problem is of Registry corruption and fragmentation. As Registry is the main driving force behind Windows, corruption in Registry will result in hugely degraded system with frequent crashes.

Windows starts some services and processes when it boots. These services can be from Microsoft by default and also can be added by third party software. These services and processes can also slow down the PC if a lot of unnecessary items are added to Windows startup.

Unfortunately Microsoft does not offer any kind of services to boost the performance of Windows again. There are a lot of third party tools which have been created for this purpose. There are a lot of free and paid tools but they should be used with care as some of them can destroy your Windows installation. My favorite tool for optimizing Windows has been Toolwiz Care. You can also use TuneUp Utilities 2011 for free and Advanced SystemCare for the purpose of PC optimization.

All of the above mentioned tools are really very good but they are not the best. They offer a lot of optimization and cleanup services but no one is the perfect one. If you are thinking of the perfect system optimization and automated care solution, System Mechanic from iolo is the only solution that comes in mind.

System Mechanic has been in business since the early days of Windows XP and seems to come up with the most powerful performance optimization solution for Windows. In my opinion, it has got all the nuts and bolts for keeping the system in good shape.

System Mechanic dashboard

When you start System Mechanic, the dashboard overview will show you the current system analysis report in a graphical format which makes it a lot easier for us to see if the overall performance of Windows is up to the mark or not. There are three meters, one for health, one for security and one for overall performance. System Mechanic also provides a gadget in Windows 7 which shows the same performance meters on the Desktop.

The graphical user interface of System Mechanic is quite soothing to the eye and employs a Windows Explorer like approach. It lists down important tasks in the left hand pane while the right hand pane the selected task and corresponding options and suggestions.

System Mechanic automated tasks

Automated Tasks is where iolo System Mechanic takes the lead from all other optimization software. Selecting ‘Automated Tasks’ from the left pane will show all the automated tasks supported by System Mechanic. You have to option to enable as many tasks as per your convenience.

System Mechanic can also monitor the anti-malware and firewall software currently installed in the PC and makes sure that both of them are enabled and up to date.

System Mechanic All in One Tools

If you don’t have much time and want a one click solution to all your PC problems, System Mechanic provides one for you. You will need to select All in one tools under Toolbox which will list down all the one click solutions available in categories. The best all in one tool is Total Registry Revitalizer. It is the most safe way of cleaning, optimizing and fragmenting Windows Registry. You can also use individual tools if you want a specific solution.

I just love the IntelliStatus reports part of System Mechanic. IntelliStatus reports list down the current status report of all the components which are essential to PC performance for example, hard drive space, system memory, startup items, running programs and Internet speed. You can optimize each one of these just by clicking the Optimize button.

System Mechanice IntelliStatus reports

One of the most important features that most of the other optimization software lack is to roll-back the changes made by the software if anything goes wrong. Most of the software make use of Windows Restore functionality which can be a problem because it will restore all the Windows settings in addition to the changes made by the software.

System Mechanic takes a better approach in this regard and includes SafetyNet to review or roll-back changes to the system made by System Mechanic. You can revert or roll-back each change without affecting the whole system.

Overall, System Mechanic is a gem to have in the PC. If you want a truly performance optimized PC, do consider System Mechanic as the only optimization software for all your needs.

Download System Mechanic

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