Iolo System Mechanic 6 Professional

Certainly, Iolo has come up with one of the best-looking applications here, but it adds weight to the argument that beauty is only skin deep. Start digging under the surface and, while there are undoubtedly some powerful tools on offer, there are also some surprising omissions from such a suite. The VCOM SystemSuite is the only other product that covers the same system utility ground in this group test (although note that Norton SystemWorks 2006 will plug into the same management console as its Security Suite sibling) and it manages to include anti-spam and does a better job of component integration.

What Iolo System Mechanic does do better than most, thanks in no small part to its choice of anti-virus and firewall provider, is not put your system resources under attack. It's just a shame the overall security reach is so limited.