If third-party Windows utilities had a best-of-breed award, Tuneup Utilities would be a clear favourite to win it. The 2007 version has just been released and supplies some 16 tools.
Tuneup Utilities 2007’s tools are still organised under the Customize/Analyze, Clean up/Repair, Optimize/Improve, Administer/Control and File recovery/Destruction sections.
The old favourites remain; System Control lets you customise Windows aspects that you’d normally have to hack into the Registry to get at, while Styler 2 lets you change system icons and the Windows visual style.
Other tools are more utilitarian. The Disk Cleaner app replaces Windows' native Disk Cleanup utility with greater functionality, Mem Optimizer frees up system memory dynamically and System Optimizer provides a number of tools to speed up system performance and automate cleaning operations.
Several modules have also been improved. Registry Cleaner has always stripped out junk left in the Registry by program installations; now, however, it will even detect firewall errors. And, to tempt current Tuneup users to upgrade, some new tools have been added.
Disc Doctor detects and prevents file and disk errors on Windows 2000/XP systems while Disk Space Explorer, whose Windows Explorer-like display organises folders/files by size, allows you to drag-and-drop into standard CD-burning software or securely delete them with the native Shredder application.
All editing actions are reversible via the inbuilt Rescue Center, so if something goes horribly wrong, you'll have something to fall back on.
Broadly speaking, we found the tools highly effective. System Optimizer provided tips that definitely speeded up internet performance, although some of the advice will appear far too obvious to all but complete novices. Disk Doctor is more thorough than Microsoft's Chkdsk, with an option to scan the system at boot-up.
On the other hand, several iterations of Registry Cleaner removed hundreds of invalid entries without (at least, in human terms) a demonstrable performance boost.
Apart from the caveat that advanced users may find Tuneup Utilities 2007 isn’t customisable enough, this suite is highly recommended.
Also consider:
Smart PC Professional
A simple to use Windows utility, but low on features
XP Tuning Suite 3
Give XP a spring clean with this comprehensive utility suite
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