Every PC owner knows the importance of keeping their system up to snuff to avoid any number of bad juju that can occur without regular maintenance. In our latest review, we take a look at System Mechanic. See if it can keep the demons of destruction away from your PC.

I love my PC. I’m not going to lie about it. I love building it, tweaking it, and adding to it as time goes on. But there’s one thing that I wish I could automate, and that’s the optimization. Luckily, I recently got my hands on Iolo’s System Mechanic software, and I’m pleased to spend a little time this Saturday to regale you with its many features. If you’re a novice, or even an IT pro, there’s every reason you should give this handy little program a try. It does so much for so little (around $40 at most outlets), that I’d recommend it to anyone who has a well-used computer in need of a little reviving.

Read more of Bill Murphy's System Mechanic – A Must Have App for PC Geeks.

I think it has been around 10 years since I last time used it... Was nice(for total noob) then, but not sure about how it's currently at some point it went downhill...

Paid Review?

If you are going to advertise a product, do it as an advertisement. 

Originally posted by stragen001

Paid Review?

If you are going to advertise a product, do it as an advertisement. 

Why? It is just too late. I know how to treat reviews. I just hope the link to this "review"  of a product unrelated to mmo remains active for a long time - for future reference.

Or you use Ccleaner, which is free.

As someone who has been in the IT business for his entire professional career (going on 12 years) I would not recommend running this software, or anything like it, on any computer, ever.

To start, the performance improvement you would get by using something like this is marginal at best.

Second, the registry cleaner in this particular product (and most other "registry cleaners") can damage the Windows registry so that your computer will not boot.  That $40 you spent just turned into $200 to get your OS repaired if you don't have a "friend" that knows what they are doing.

Third, the driver updater should not be used.  There's an old saying, if it's not broke, don't fix it.  This saying has never been more true than when dealing with computers (and specifically drivers).  The only drivers you should regularly update for you computer is the graphics card drivers (and only for discrete graphics cards).  Other drivers should only be updated under certain circumstances to correct issues with hardware functionality that can be corrected with a specific driver update for that one piece of hardware.

Updating any driver any time there is an update is just asking for trouble.  Just like using registry cleaners.

This is my professional opinion, so take it or leave it.  I felt morally obligated to post a counter argument to this despicable advertisement disguised as a news article.

I think I'm done with MMORPG.com for a while.

Or, it could be, in our growing trend of hardware and software reviews, we thought we'd try something new!

I did pick this up, liked it, and thought I'd share it since our Roku Mouse review is taking longer than expected.  

Yeesh, folks. Lighten up. 

People should not use software that can completely ruin their OS...Smart people know enough not to have to use it.

Take 20 minutes out of your day a few days a week for a month and read on how to maintain your system yourself and stop keeping companies like this in business. Their software is subpar and often times are far more harmful than helpful. It does not take much effort to learn enough to keep your system running smoothly...and safely.

Originally posted by 43%burnt

Or you use Ccleaner, which is free.

+1

ccleaner + advanced system care + avast AV + auslogics defrag= smooooooth runnings.....

and all free

Originally posted by miagisan

Originally posted by 43%burnt

Or you use Ccleaner, which is free.

+1

 

ccleaner + advanced system care + avast AV + auslogics defrag= smooooooth runnings.....

 

and all free

I love ccleaner. I also recommend Superantispyware and AVG.

PC Geeks know how to not turn their PC to crap due to installing every other silly program. Suggest you change the title to PC Noobs instead.

Originally posted by Connmacart

PC Geeks know how to not turn their PC to crap due to installing every other silly program. Suggest you change the title to PC Noobs instead.

 

That's why you do your homework on what to install. I have never had an issue with the programs that I install because of said homework.

Originally posted by BillMurphy

Or, it could be, in our growing trend of hardware and software reviews, we thought we'd try something new!

I did pick this up, liked it, and thought I'd share it since our Roku Mouse review is taking longer than expected.  

Yeesh, folks. Lighten up. 

I think most would prefer the "Hardware and Sofrware reviews" be gaming centric, otherwise it will come off like a paid advertisement and we have to deal with enough of those as is. It's bad enough that MMORPG.com now includes games like Diablo 3.

Essentially.... it's off topic :P

15 years in the support industry - I own and operate a managed service provider now.

Don't use this people - as stated above, use ccleaner from Piriform.

I would NOT recommend using products like this for your computer.  Software like this can do more harm than good.  I work in tech support.  I have to support around ~1000 clients/contractors and manage some proprietary software remotely for their computers.  I would say maybe 25%of my of my calls are because people install software like this, they ran it (or most likely it has set itself to perform automatic scans without the users knowledge) and it's deleted some completely harmless registry keys or an activeX control for our program.  Then I need to reinstall something.

Not to mention many of these 'pc cleaner - tune ups' have processes that constantly run uncessarily, sucking up memory and gnerally making your computer less responsive.  This iolo software is one of the worst too.  I actually recommend our clients uninstall this software, as it usually causes more propblems then it should. 

Surf the web responsibly.  Don't download shit software or toolbars or stuff you don't know what its is from random websites.  Manage your pc intelligently.  Use a free antivirus (I recommend Microsfot Security Essentials).  You don't need this bloatware, especially not for $40.  Hell, just be smart about your computer, go spend the $40 bucks on something you need like D3, or GW2, or TSW :).  Sorry for my rant, howver stuff like this makes my job harder!

Originally posted by Dameonk

As someone who has been in the IT business for his entire professional career (going on 12 years) I would not recommend running this software, or anything like it, on any computer, ever.

To start, the performance improvement you would get by using something like this is marginal at best.

Second, the registry cleaner in this particular product (and most other "registry cleaners") can damage the Windows registry so that your computer will not boot.  That $40 you spent just turned into $200 to get your OS repaired if you don't have a "friend" that knows what they are doing.

Third, the driver updater should not be used.  There's an old saying, if it's not broke, don't fix it.  This saying has never been more true than when dealing with computers (and specifically drivers).  The only drivers you should regularly update for you computer is the graphics card drivers (and only for discrete graphics cards).  Other drivers should only be updated under certain circumstances to correct issues with hardware functionality that can be corrected with a specific driver update for that one piece of hardware.

Updating any driver any time there is an update is just asking for trouble.  Just like using registry cleaners.

This is my professional opinion, so take it or leave it.  I felt morally obligated to post a counter argument to this despicable advertisement disguised as a news article.

I think I'm done with MMORPG.com for a while.

As a fellow IT specialist I can only quote this.... this is a new low for advertising...

I'm trying to decide which advertsing review was more obvious: This one or SWTOR. I'll go with SWTOR.

Originally posted by BillMurphy

Or, it could be, in our growing trend of hardware and software reviews, we thought we'd try something new!

I did pick this up, liked it, and thought I'd share it since our Roku Mouse review is taking longer than expected.  

Yeesh, folks. Lighten up. 

... and you did a review without a comparison to other similar products. Nearly all reviews of a pc software product have a comparison table or something. System Mechanic is not the only one in his category nor it is the best ( freeware aswell).

This is... absolutely disgusting. I know you guys need the site to make money, but paid reviews like this are just fucking abhorrent, especially given that products like this are cheap gimmicks at BEST. Why not just go all out and advertise shit like speedupmypc.com while you're at it?

Harsh? Yes, but if it prevents one PC newbie from installing this or other horrible products like it, then I'm happy. And to the MMORPG.com staff, if you have any sort of integrity left, don't review, advertise, or recommend any product like this again, EVER. There are PC newbs out there who trust your recommendations, who are going to completely fuck up their PCs with junk like this because, "(MMORPG.COM employee) said it was good!"

Your first responsibility is to your readers, not your advertisers. At least it should be.

If I've learned anything about PC nerds.... its that they absolutely HATE it when someone posts about a program that "fixes" their PC.

PC nerds want to fix their own PCs and can't stand the notion that something exits that could potentially do a better job.