The software displays a welcome screen on first run where the user can enable or disable scheduled automatic system maintenances and automatic updates.

Argente Utilities contains a one-click maintenance mode which basically runs several of the tools included in the application without user interaction. A summary of all discovered errors and problems is available for analysis, impatient users can click on the Repair all problems button right away to resolve all issues directly (not recommended).

The application creates backups of the Registry automatically. It furthermore creates backups whenever a module is run or a setting changed so that it is always possible to restore the system.

The following modules are included in the application:

• Registry Cleaner – Scans the Windows Registry for errors, excess entries and other problems and offers to correct them.
• Disk Cleaner – Scans the hard drive for temporary files and invalid shortcuts.
• Privacy Cleaner, Scans for privacy related data and information, for instance recent documents, browser history, caches and application specific information.

• Uninstall Manager – Like Revo Uninstaller. Runs the built-in application uninstaller first and offers to scan the system for leftovers in the second step. A right-click on an entry can be used to search for the application online.
• Startup Manager – Lists all programs that are started during system startup. Entries can be removed with a click. Additional options available to edit the listing, add new programs, open the containing folder or run an application.
• Process Manager – Displays the running processes, options to kill processes and to open the containing folder.
• System Optimizer – Can change several system settings at once. It will disable services that are not needed for instance and apply other tweaks to the system. The user has to configure the options on first run to avoid that services get disabled that are needed.

• Spyware Cleaner – scans the system for spyware in cookies, files, folders and Registry.
• Spyware Immunize – Immunizes the system from many potential spyware threats.
• System Manager – Was not available at the time of testing.
• System Repair – Repair several common Windows errors

Argente Utilities offers several interesting features and modules to maintain, repair, secure and optimize the Windows operating system. The software is provided as a portable and setup version. It is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit versions and editions of the operating system from Windows 2000 to Windows 7.

It is therefor important to optimize the PC every now and then to avoid this from happening in first place. This process will make the PC faster, free up disk space and improve Windows loading times. Experienced users know what they have to do to optimize their PC, everyone else is better of using a maintenance tool like System Mechanic for the job. Heck, even experienced users might like such a tool, because frankly they speed up the time needed to maintain the computer quite a bit.

System Mechanic 10 Review

When you first start up System Mechanic 10 you see a splash screen that guides users through some of the features of the program. This can be helpful, especially for users who want to know what’s different in version 10 of the program. The program performs an update check on start and displays update notifications to the user. It is recommended to update the program if an update is available.

First thing users should do is to run a system analysis which is offered in the main interface of the program upon startup. Available are a quick and deep analysis of the system which differ in the types of problems detected and the time taking to complete (I suggest to run a deep analysis on first run).

The checkup takes a few minutes and an assessment of the computer system’s health is displayed in the end.

Options are displayed directly to repair all issues or to view the problems first. A click on view problems lists the issues that System Mechanic has found on the system.

For the test system they were:

• Fragmented and misaligned files
• Security Vulnerabilities
• Registry problems
• System clutter (temp files)
• Startup items
• Internet connection not optimized for speed
• No Registry backup
• Registry fragmented

It is possible to repair selected items right away, repair all or hide issues in the interface. System Mechanic suggested defragmentation on a Solid State Drive, which is not necessary and should never be done as it can lead to a performance drop. The developers should add a feature to ignore fragmentation on SSDs automatically to avoid running the optimization script on them. It is possible to hide hard drive optimization prompts completely.

System Mechanic offers to repair the issues found automatically, or run a wizard that displays them to the computer user for inspection. The vulnerabilities wizard looks like the following for instance.

Vulnerabilities found are grouped together. Two groups were displayed on the test system: Internet Explorer and file associations. System Mechanic displays a threat level and additional information about the threats found. It also explains what the repair will do.

It is possible to repair each group individually or all at once. It is still important to take a closer look. The program suggests to assign .reg Registry scripts with Notepad which could lead to problems on systems where those scripts are run regularly.

All but a few ssues that have been found on the system use a similar design. They all group items to give the user an option to remove individual items, or all at once. It is recommended to inspect all suggested actions before taking them to avoid problems resulting from those repairs on the system.

Some modules offer interesting information about the computer system, like the Registry defragmentation module below.

The module lists the fragmentation percentage of the Registry as well as the sizes and fragmentation of individual Registry strains.

The overall system status changes when all problems have either been hidden or resolved. Select repairs, like the Registry defragmentation, require a restart of the system.

But System Mechanic offers more than just that. The toolbox displays tools in two subgroups. All-in-one Tools leads to some of the tools that have been used in the system assessment on the start page of System Mechanic. Here they can be run individually or completely again.

More interesting than this is the Individual Tools group which leads to dozens of system maintenance related tools, some of which have also been used in the first assessment. But there are others that have not been. Among them options to monitor the hard drive status, measure the Internet download speed, track system changes in realtime, repair broken shortcuts, run a drive medic to fix hard drive problems and a program called CRUDD Remover.

The latter requires explanation. CRUDD Remover analyses software on the system that could be redundant offering to remove them from the system. System Mechanic detected for instance CCleaner on the system, or the web browsers Opera 11 and Google Chrome. While I made the decision to keep all of the programs other users may not.

Another interesting tool is the startup manager which is very extensive. It sorts startup programs in groups and displays individual items with extensive information including “lookup” information which explain the program associations. For QTTask.exe for instance it explains that “this file is part of the Apple Quick Time media player. The process places a quick launch program icon in the system tray”.

Options are provided to disable individual startup items.

Optimizations can be undone in the history in case something went wrong.

Users can configure automated tasks that will be run on schedule to keep the system in optimized state. System Mechanic calls this ActiveCare and offers a dozen different maintenance related programs, from backing up the Registry to repairing broken Internet connections to cleaning up temporary files and repairing hard drive errors. All modules can be enabled individually.

Interested users can download a trial version of System Mechanic directly from the developer website. Just click on download free trial on the page that opens.

System Mechanic 10 Verdict

System Mechanic is an excellent PC repair, optimization and troubleshooting tool. The one-click optimization needs an update in regards to SSDs but is otherwise an easy option to optimize a system effortlessly. The real strength of System Mechanic 10 are the individual tools offered as they offer help for many maintenance related tasks.

System Mechanic 10 Giveaway

We have ten licenses to give away. For a chance to win one, let us know in the comments what you are currently doing to maintain your PC.

Buy System Mechanic

The giveaway is over. You can purchase the latest version of System Mechanic at Amazon

The feature set ranges from speeding up the PC to removing temporary data, correcting and resolving system errors, and diagnosing the system.

Advanced SystemCare PRO Review

The main interface displays various information like the program version, database data and whether automated features are activated are not.

The left menu leads to the four main program modules.

• Maintain Windows – Offers Spyware Removal, Registry Fix, Privacy Sweep and Junk Files Clean
• Diagnose System – Offers System Optimization, Security Defense, Disk Defragment and Security Analyzer
• Utilities – Leads to Tuneup, Security and Admin Tools. This is the most extensive module of the program.
• Care! – runs a one click check of the system with auto correction of issues that are found during the scan.

Maintain Windows

• Spyware Removal – Scan and remove spyware, adware.
• Registry Fix – Cleanup registry to improve PC performance.
• Privacy Sweep – Erase your activity history and surfing traces.
• Junk Files Clean – Clean up junk files and recovery disk space.

It is up to the user to select one or all of the modules before clicking on the Scan button. Before they do they should click on Settings to configure options relevant to the maintain windows module.

It is for instance possible to enable a deep Registry scan, add or remove privacy related data (browser cookies and the Internet caches are for instance not selected by default), or include the Windows Recycle Bin in the scan.

Advanced SystemCare Pro will display the number of problems found. A click on those leads to a detailed listing of all problems of the selected module with options to remove selected ones from the repair process. A click on Repair after that assessment removes the issues and problems from the system.

Diagnose System

• System Optimization – Optimize and repair system configuration.
• Security Defense – prevent spyware from being installed on your PC.
• Disk Defragment – defrag hard disk to improve PC performance.
• Security Analyzer – Scans Windows system to find hijacked settings.

It pays again to visit the settings before running the system diagnostic module. Pro users can enable smart defragment here which optimizes the data on the hard drive to improve performance and data contiguity. Computer users with solid state drives (SSD) should disable the defragmenting module as it is not needed.

The scan and repair works very similar. Advanced SystemCare Pro scans the system and displays the problems discovered in the main interface. System Optimization will analyze Windows Services and the system configuration. The module suggests changes which include changing a service’s startup parameter or changing a system setting for optimal values. The recommendations are not explained which will probably only bother experienced users who would like to know why a certain change is suggested to them by the program. Bing or Google usually reveal what the change does but that is not ideal. Tooltips with background information would be nice here.

Utilities

This is the largest module, mainly because it leads to dozens of tools sorted into Tuneup, Security and Admin Tools.

Tuneup alone offers eleven different tools from boosting the Internet to a file shredder, registry defrag or network monitor.

Most tools are directly available, while some, like IOBit Security 360 lead to websites where they need to be downloaded. Here are screenshots of some of the available modules in Tuneup.

Remove invalid shortcuts from the start menu and other system locations.

analyze a hard disk for errors

delete files permanently

The Security group offers four different tools to improve a system’s security. It includes tools to backup hardware drivers and data on the system, perform a system file check or launch an Internet Explorer Security Assistant which can be used to uninstall extensions (like toolbars) and plugins from Internet Explorer. It furthermore offers to change Internet Explorer settings.

Admin Tools is the last tool group offered by Advanced SystemCare Pro. This group offers a startup manager, program uninstaller, context menu manager and duplicate file finder among other options.

It takes a while to assess all available options that Advanced SystemCare Pro offers. The majority of users will not make use of all tools that are offered, but it is likely that users will find at least a few that they will use regularly to configure or optimize their Windows PC.

The program tries to install a toolbar during installation. Users who do not want that toolbar can disable it during the installation of the program.

Advanced SystemCare PRO Giveaway

We have a key that is good for 300 activates of Advanced SystemCare Pro. All you need to do is to download the trial version of the software from IOBit and use the following license information to register it.

• Account name: ascuwfrzw
• License code: 44BC-44BC-F0FF-370B

This turns the program into a 1-year valid Pro version.

IOBit toolbar

It will first remove desktop shortcuts that have not been used for at least three months. System Maintenance will also remove broken shortcuts on the desktop if there are more than four of them. The problem with the latter is that Windows 7 will recognize shortcuts to disconnected network locations as broken and also shortcuts that link to shell folders.

Microsoft offers two solutions to the problem. The first advice is to keep the number of broken shortcuts below four. This is not always possible due to the problems with broken shortcuts mentioned above.

The second suggestion by Microsoft is to turn off Computer Maintenance:

• Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
• Under System and Security, click Find and fix problems.
• On the left navigation pane, click Change settings.
• Set Computer Maintenance to Off.

This does however turn off all other computer maintenance related tasks like checking the system time, disk volume errors or the disk space error reports.

All the maintenance tasks are powered by scripts that are located in c:\windows\Diagnostics\Scheduled\Maintenance\. Options are to edit the scripts directly in that directory. The permissions prohibit that the files are edited by the current user.

Fixing Windows 7 Desktop Shortcuts Disappearing

Please note: This is a hack which might have consequences on other parts of the operating system. Everything worked fine afterwards on the test system but make sure to backup the files properly before editing them

First we need to take control of the files so that we can edit them. To do that you need to take ownership first and then modify the access rights of the current user so that the files can be modified.

The first part can be automated. Just download the script at this forum and execute it. This should add a Take Ownership entry to the right-click menu in Windows Explorer.

Go to C:\Windows\diagnostics\scheduled\Maintenance in Windows Explorer after installing the script and right-click the file TS_BrokenShortcuts.ps1. Select the Take Ownership option which should transfer ownership to the logged in user.

The user still does not have permissions to save the file which means that we have to complete the next step as well before we can edit the broken shortcuts Powerscript file so that it will not delete broken shortcuts automatically.

Open an elevated command line prompt. You do that by clicking on the Start orb, All Programs, then Accessories. Right-click the Command Prompt link and select to Run As Administrator.

Now issue the following command to grant the active user full rights of the file. Make sure you replace USERNAME with the name of the active user.

icacls c:\windows\diagnostics\scheduled\maintenance\TS_BrokenShortcuts.ps1 /grant USERNAME:F

Now you can edit the file normally in a text editor like Notepad. Open it and locate the line (line 11)

[string]$list = ""

Delete everything below that is below that line up to (line 22)

return $list

The lines that are deleted are:

Get-ChildItem -Path $path -filter *.lnk | Foreach-Object {
$fullPath = ConvertTo-WQLPath $_.FullName
$wmiLinkFile = Get-WmiObject -query "SELECT Name,Target,AccessMask FROM Win32_ShortcutFile WHERE Name = '$fullPath'"

if(-not(Test-ValidLink $wmiLinkFile) -and (Test-Delete $wmiLinkFile))
{
$list = AttachTo-List $list $wmiLinkFile.Name
}
}

This basically returns a blank list to the script so that no shortcuts get deleted. I have tested it with five broken shortcuts and they have not been deleted after running system maintenance.

That fixed the broken shortcuts but we still have the issue that shortcuts that have not been used for some time are deleted by Windows 7 as well.

We have to (almost) perform the same operation here. Locate the file TS_UnusedDesktopIcons.ps1 in the same directory. Take ownership of it and grant the active user access rights.

Edit the file afterwards and locate the line (24)

[string]$list = ""

Delete everything up to line (35)

return $list

so that the following lines get deleted

Get-ChildItem -Path $path -filter *.lnk | Foreach-Object {
$fullPath = ConvertTo-WQLPath $_.FullName
$wmiLinkFile = Get-WmiObject -query "SELECT Name,Target,AccessMask FROM Win32_ShortcutFile WHERE Name = '$fullPath'"
$lastAccessTime = Get-LastAccessTime $_.FullName

if((Test-ValidLink $wmiLinkFile) -and (Test-Delete $wmiLinkFile) -and (Test-FileShortcut $wmiLinkFile) -and (Test-Unused $lastAccessTime $threshold))
{
$list = AttachTo-List $list $wmiLinkFile.Name
}
}

Please note that I did not test the second script but it should work just as fine.

This should resolve all issues that users have with removed shortcuts on the Windows 7 desktop.

Make sure you backup the files properly before you edit them. Please let me know if this worked for you or if you have a better idea on how to fix the deleted shortcut problem in Windows 7.

Besides that quick maintenance mode it also comes with lots of additional modules that are divided up into the five categories Clean Up & Repair, Optimize & Improve, Privacy & Security, Files & Folders and System Tools. All of them with three to four modules that start various tools to maintain the operating system.

The Privacy & Security category for example contains a Tracks Eraser, File Shredder, File Undelete and File Encryption / Decryption tool. Having said that it should be obvious that the software combines the features of various popular utilities in one application. While it can replace many applications it does not come close to some of the top applications in their fields. Taking Eraser for example. Eraser lets users deleted unused hard drive space so that the data cannot be recovered anymore. Glary Utilities on the other hand can only delete files so that they cannot be restored anymore.

Glary Utilities provides many tools that can be used for system maintenance. It provides access to the tools in a clean interface and could be worthwhile to test for users who love all in one tools instead of specialized tools.