Review: Tuneup Utilities 2006

Tuneup Software started up in 1997 and clocked up sales of 300,000 for its first product, Tuneup 97.

Now the latest version, Tuneup Utilities 2006, has been released.

Enhancements include a completely new – and extremely clear – interface, the ability to correct far more errors and greater customisation of the Windows interface.

Third-party utilities are necessary because Microsoft has a tendancy to be a little stingy about including maintenance tools in its operating systems.

For example, the Registry quickly fills up with spurious entries that slow down system performance, but Windows does not provide a user friendly way to prune them.

What you get with TuneUp Utilities 2006 is a veritable treasure-chest of utilities. The tools are organised under five broad headings: Customize/Analyze, Clean up/Repair, Optimize/Improve, Administer/Control and File Recovery/Destruction.

Each category has a number of associated tools. Some of these are purely cosmetic – for instance, Systemcontrol and Styler 2 together allow you to customise the Windows interface in just about every conceivable way.

Others work in a far more in-depth manner. For example, Diskcleaner removes redundant files from your hard disk, Memoptimizer improves performance by freeing up more system memory and System Optimizer lets you automate cleaning operations.

The Registrycleaner utility strips out a host of unnecessary Registry entries left behind by installing and uninstalling software, or just by day-to-day operation.

Meanwhile, Registrydefrag corrects structural errors in the Registry - it will even rebuild it from scratch if necessary. You can also edit the Registry directly via the user-friendly TuneUp Registry Editor.

TuneUp Utilities 2006 is extremely easy to use. Any changes it makes to your system can be undone with a few mouse clicks but we experienced no problems.

During testing, the various utilities perceptibly improved system bootup and performance.

System Requirements

133MHz Pentium
64MB Ram
30MB hard disk
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP (not 64-bit version)

See also:

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PC Tools File Recover 5

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Active Data Recovery Active@ Undelete

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AVG Free for Linux

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SystemOK Home Security

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Orlogix Replace MyPC Suite

Transfer data from one PC to another, while securely erasing files from your old hard drive  20 Jan 2006

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