Product Reviews

PC tune-up utilities are sometimes a waste of money because they replicate tools that are already included with Windows, such asDisk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup Wizard. Tools like System Mechanic, however, can repair the Windows Registry, the condition of which may impinge dramatically on your PC's performance.

This program's other performance aids include a system memory defragmenter, Internet connection optimiser, spyware cleaner and junk file remover. All are easily accessible from a neat control panel, and can be started on demand or automated to run at intervals. The program can also create a bootable CD that you can use later to repair hard drive problems if Windows fails to boot.

The first time you

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run it, System Mechanic scans your PC for issues that could affect performance. This took just three minutes on our test PC - one of the fastest times we've seen from this type of software - and we liked the level of detail given. Eleven vulnerabilities were discovered, despite the fact that we had an up-to-date Internet security package. These consisted of ten file type associations that could be exploited by viruses and a vulnerability posed by a network setting.

Two Registry problems were reported, and 3.63GB of clutter was removed. Problems categorised as lower priority included 'non-optimised' Internet connection settings and a low level of available system memory, which could be defragmented. The program also advised us to compact and backup our Registry, which is sensible. Performing the recommended actions is a simple case of selecting the problems to repair or clicking on Repair All. Within four minutes all the issues were fixed, and following a restart our PC was noticeably more responsive.

System Mechanic provides an all-round solution for mitigating the periodic slowing down of your PC. At the introductory price, we like it a lot; the regular $50 isn't such a great deal. To read our verdicts on rival utilities, click Labs at www.computer buyer.co.uk and pick 'System utilities'.