PRODUCT REVIEW
System Mechanic 8.0: Smooth Layout, Rough Start

Putting Iolo Technologies' System Mechanic 8.0 through its paces was a long-overdue reunion with an old friend of sorts. I had used a much earlier version when it was a different label years ago. I had forgotten how adept the program's design was even back then at rooting out the hundreds of glitches and clutter that fall into the deep recesses of the Windows operating system.

This latest version has numerous automated features and more extensive diagnostic routines that extend the program's self-help functionality. For instance, the power tool and individual tool panels give users options to run any of the diagnostic and system tweaking utilities on demand. Or users can set schedules for regular maintenance, perform some or all tests and take full charge of the operating performance of their computers.

The ActiveCare component of the program, which can be turned off, keeps a real-time eye on system performance. It is based on a new technology that does not impact system resources. It activates only when the computer's processor is otherwise idle.

Windows Fixer

Running the Windows architecture for a while is somewhat akin to driving a car. After owning it for a couple of months, you begin to forget that snappy acceleration that you could feel when the car was new. Even the intoxicating smell of a new car's interior fades from memory when you sit behind the steering wheel day after day.

The Windows OS is much like that. The Windows registry gets bogged down with digital clutter. The hard drive gets sluggish with fragmented clusters from moved and removed data bits and bytes with constant use. After a while, the bundled Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) maintenance tools -- Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter -- are less effective and are far too limited in what they can do. So I was pleased to get back that new PC peppiness on my workhorse Windows desktop and my go-everywhere-else Windows widescreen laptop.

What makes this latest version of System Mechanic such a good PC tune-up tool is the greater focus it places on optimizing the registry and memory allocation. The Windows registry is the guts of the OS. It stores critical settings needed by software, hardware and the operating system itself.

Broken Windows

Therein lies Windows' Achilles heel. Routine use causes the registry to fill up with errors and bloat from unused space. Once it gets corrupted or overly large, the computer's performance slows down, eventually crashing more often or even locking up with certain programs.

Numerous tune-up solutions I've used -- both boxed and online services -- often fell short of actually fixing problems to such a degree that my computers could run like new again. Don't get me wrong. Remote tune-up services and technicians-in-a-box software can be very helpful in maintaining computers for users and small businesses with no IT staff. The alternative is spending hours every few weeks manually running stand-alone programs to clean the registry, unclutter the hard drive, and pick the nits out of obsolete computer settings. Doing this on an office full of computers would constitute a full-time job.

Multi-Purpose Solution

System Mechanic 8.0 offers more options with less guesswork. It is simple enough to use so novices can click Fix All and do other things while the program matches problems to solutions without user responses. More involved users can select from a menu-driven set of responses to ignore or fine tune what actions are taken.

With other products, I'm usually I am filled with apprehension as I watch a "please wait" message appear on the screen while the hard drive whirs. Not so as I tested System Mechanic. Being able to select the correct measures for each identified problem raised my comfort level considerably.

My experience with testing System Mechanic gave me a level of confidence that self-help PC repair and tune-up products rarely provide. The result is that I continue to use the product every few days to keep Windows from getting out of whack.

First Impression

I installed System Mechanic 8.0 but didn't run it for several days. When I did run it, a status report screen reported that a system check done four hours earlier found 9 problems and 1 warning that were slowing down system performance on my HP (NYSE: HPQ) Pavilion laptop. The program's DriveSense feature provides real-time data about status of hard drives, including temperature.

The dashboard has a simple, clean look. It shows a round gauge with three ratings of system overall status, health and security in red, amber and green ranges. Two buttons are displayed: Repair All or View Problems. Below this display is a list of each problem with a detailed explanation and an option to repair all, repair selected or repair each individual problem.

Included in my laptop's diagnostic list were reports of hard disk clutter and a warning that the registry was never backed up. System Mechanic also reported three spyware infections and an unoptimized Internet connection. Also reported was a need to defrag the system memory and five unnecessary startup entries. Each problem had a drop-down menu with specifically targeted choices: ignore, fix, hide or start some other related diagnostic process.

All totaled, the status report found 338 registry problems and 18 repairable security problems. It also warned that my Internet Security Suite may not have e-mail worm protection enabled. Yet the McAfee Internet Security suite installed on this computer showed that all protection levels were engaged when I checked. Clicking the more info button brought me to Iolo Technologies' Web site where a sales pitch was displayed for the upgraded pro version of System Mechanic that included an Internet Security Suite component. No surprise there!

Initial Faltering

My strong first impressions soon yielded to some unsettling performance concerns. I had selected the Fix All option. After 15 minutes of the hard drive spinning with no progress showing on the progress bar, I clicked the cancel option. The program was not responding. I had to force it to stop and exit.

When I reloaded the program, it reported that the last system scan was done five hours earlier, not the four hours first reported. The program was only running for 15 minutes. Since System Mechanic has a rollback feature and I had set a Windows System Restore point before beginning the test session, I didn't worry too much about the program doing any damage. I forged on with the test.

Phase Two

Next, I selected one by one the first three problems displayed and individually selected the repair option. All seemed to work well. Each repair activity showed a swiftly moving progress bar that took literally seconds to complete.

When I tried removing the remaining problems with the Fix All option, again the program hung. This time I suspected that the cause of the hangup was the memory defraging process System Mechanic was trying to run. I use a virtual desktop utility that lets me run different programs in their own desktop space rather than resizing windows and minimizing displays that get in my way. So I suspected that the running memory application caused the failed repair. It took six attempts to kill the System Mechanic's running status this time.

I exited all virtual desktops and shut down that application when I re-ran System Mechanic and tried to complete the repairs. The same hang-up occurred. This time I was able to kill the program in one try.

Subsequent reloads of the application continued to reference the previous system check done five hours earlier. It was only 30 minutes into the testing process at this point.

Next Step

Even though System Mechanic did not require a system reboot, I did one. Then I ran System Mechanic again, updated the repair listing, and tried again.

With only two of the original repair jobs remaining, the System Mechanic window disappeared from the desktop display. It showed up as a running application on the Windows XP task bar, but I could not access the application's window on the desktop screen.

Fortunately, 20 minutes later the system sluggishly woke up, and the screen appeared normally. Meanwhile, I ran the exact same procedures on a desktop PC. There, the diagnosis and repair procedures worked flawlessly. The desktop also had the same virtual desktop configuration. All of the repairs completed the first time without incident with the virtual desktop application running.

System Mechanic loaded on the desktop PC and referenced a system check occurring seven hours earlier. I had not yet run the program since installing it several days prior. The diagnostic scan found similar combinations of problems found on the laptop minus the e-mail worm security warning. Oddly, both computers had near identical configurations and ran the same Internet security suite.

Different Results

After the required reboot on the desktop PC, the three status dials were buried in green. But not so on the laptop. There, one problem remained and was lowering the security status. It still showed the Internet Security Suite warning and complained that the registry had never been backed up. Yet that process was supposedly done prior to the system reboot.

When I reloaded System Mechanic on the desktop computer and again attempted to run the registry backup task, the program hung up at 11 percent completed. It eventually canceled after I clicked the cancel button a few times.

The registry backup issue was no longer listed but was replaced with a 49 percent low memory alert. That problem was corrected without further incident. A rescan showed registry errors which were fixed on a subsequent repair.

Final Results

I have been running System Mechanic on both computers every few days without further incidents. Both computers appear to be performing more vigorously.

Each diagnostic sweep I run every few days produces fewer problem reports. The repair functions have worked fine.

System Mechanic costs US$49.95. Consumers can install the program on three computers.

It requires Microsoft Windows Vista, XP or 2000.