System Mechanic Professional Review

System Mechanic Professional is an advanced version of System Mechanic, a PC maintenance and tune-up program for the Windows operating system.

It adds additional tools such as antivirus and antispyware to System Mechanic which makes it an interesting option for customers who require these tools as well.

Many computer users have the impression that their systems become just a little bit slower with every day of use. Software installations, updates and even user actions on the PC can turn a powerful PC into a painfully slow system that is no pleasure to work with.

System tools like System Mechanic Professional have been designed to find issues that may affect the performance of the computer and fix them.

System Mechanic Professional Review

Installation

The installation of the program is uneventful for the most part. You can customize some features, like whether you want the antivirus component to be installed with System Mechanic Professional, or if you want a desktop icon to be placed on the desktop of the system for fast access.

Please note that you may need to restart the computer after installation before you can run the software program.

First Start and use

When you first start System Mechanic Pro you are asked to run an analysis of the system. The program checks common problems and issues and displays its finding on the screen. The scan itself takes less than 30 seconds to complete and rates the PC's health, security and overall status.

While you could hit "repair all" on the screen to have the program fix all the issues that it found automatically for you, it is recommended not to do that as it may make changes to the system that you don't want to be made.

The program lists the issues that it found as well as how many recommendations it has for you. You find the different sections that the program analyzed, for instance system clutter or Registry cleaner, and the status of these sections.

Problems can be both security or health related, for instance that Windows Firewall is not running, that the computer has known security vulnerabilities or that the Internet connection is not optimized for maximum speed. Chance is, all are highlighted on first scan of the PC.

You can address each issue individually using the action buttons next to each issue found. You find several options there usually, one to let System Mechanic Professional deal with the issue automatically, and another to start a tool instead that displays the issues found to you so that you can select what you want removed and keep.

If you select to review the system clutter findings for instance, you are taken to a new page in the software that displays recommended and optional actions to you.

For this particular tool, it would be to remove the cache of popular browsers as well as Windows and unused downloaded Internet program files.

A click on the plus icon next to an entry displays how much space the temporary files occupy on the system, and how much files there are in total.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to go any deeper than that by having the program list all the files it discovered.

Once you start fixing issues your overall system status may improve from its previous rating. System Mechanic Professional suggests to run a deep scan once the initial issues have been resolved or ignored by the user. A deep scan analysis takes longer to complete but finds additional problems that the quick scan may not have found.

Deep Scan among other things checks if the Registry is fragmented or if Solid State Drives have been optimized.

System Mechanic Professional Toolbox

The toolbox lists all-in-one tools and individual tools. All-in-one tools are system tools that can accelerate, repair, cleanup or secure the PC with one click.

The following all-in-one-tools are available:

• PC TotalCare - Runs all the tools listed below.
• PC Accelerator - Checks for performance enhancing actions. This may include defragmenting the Registry, optimizing the operating system drive or recovering and defragmenting system memory.
• PC Repair - Repairs crashes, system failures and other PC related errors.
• PC Cleanup - Can be used to delete temporary files on the system to free up disk space.
• PC Security - Repair and resolve security issues, and perform actions that improve system security.
• Total Registry Revitalizer - This program backs up the Windows Registry, runs repair operations on it that remove invalid and obsolete data from it, and defragments and compacts the Registry in the end.

Individual Tools

The individual tools group lists specialized tools, from optimizing the Windows startup to repairing shortcuts, recovering deleted files or monitoring the hard drive status.

Some of the tools are used by System Mechanic's scans, while others are specialized tools that can only be started directly from the toolbox.

Clean

• PC Cleanup - Scan for and remove temporary files on the system to free up disk space.
• Junk File Finder - Find and delete obsolete and unneeded files.
• Privacy Cleaner - Erases private data like cookies, chat transcripts or the search history.
• Registry Tuner - Repair Registry problems like obsolete data references
• CRUDD Remover - Detects and offers to remove redundant applications (e.g. CCleaner when System Mechanic is installed).
• Shortcut Repair - Repair broken shortcuts.
• Advanced Uninstaller - Remove installed programs..

Speed Up

• NetBooster - Optimize Internet settings to improve the Internet connections stability and performance
• Program Accelerator - Speed up programs by re-aligning the data on the hard drive
• Memory Mechanic - Defragments the system memory.
• Startup Optimizer - Suggests start up items that may slow down system start.
• Startup Manager - Manage and configure Windows startup items.
• Registry Compactor - Defragment and compact the Registry to speed up the start of the PC
• Process Manager - A Task Manager that you can use to manage running programs.

Protect

• System Shield - Scan for malware, manage the quarantine, settings and history.
• Security Optimizer - Scan for and fix Windows security vulnerabilities.
• Privacy Shield - Disable privacy-invasive features of the Windows operating system such as Wi-Fi Sharing.
• System Change Tracker - Tracks changes that have been made to the system.
• DriveScrubber - Wipe data securely stored on hard drives or removable drives connected to the PC.
• Incinerator - Like DriveScrubber, but for individual files.
• Registry Backup - Create a backup of the Windows Registry
• System Guard - A program that blocks malicious programs and processes from loading and interacting with the system

Recover

• Search and Recover - Recover individual files, pictures, movies, songs, emails, or entire drives or disks.
• System Troubleshooter - Disaster recovery when a drive becomes unstable
• Drive Medic - Find and fix hard drive problems. Option to create a Drive Medic Emergency CD to boot from it when the operating system cannot be started

Manage

• Designated Drivers - Scan for outdated drivers and suggest updates
• Advanced System Information - Display system information like the installed hardware or software
• Super Control Panel - Customize advanced Windows settings.
• DriveSense - Monitor the hard drive status
• NetSpeed Analyzer - Benchmark the Internet connection

Several tasks can be automated to run regularly. This includes repairing Registry and hard drive errors, removing temporary files or backing up the Registry regularly.

ActiveCare

ActiveCare is System Mechanic Professional's automatic mode. It is disabled by default but can be enabled to let the program optimize the following things:

1. Optimize the PC's startup configuration.
2. Optimize the PC's Internet configuration.
3. Defragment and compact the windows Registry.
4. Repair WMI conflicts.
5. Repair Registry problems.
6. Repair broken shortcuts.
7. Repair broken Internet connections.
8. Repair security vulnerabilities.
9. Back up the Windows Registry bi-weekly.
10. Scan for viruses and spyware on a regular schedule.
11. Clean up system clutter.
12. Download and install updated tune-up definitions.

Bascially, it allows you to automate most of the program's features that you can run manually as well at any time.

LiveBoost

LiveBoost has been designed to optimize the performance of the PC by handing over control of some features to System Mechanic Professional.

You can enable that for the cpu cores, computer memory, hard drives, and power management.

You find configuration options on an extra page that highlight what each of the tools does when enabled.

OptiCore for instance tries to balance cpu demand for maximum resources, while RamJet to maximize the available RAM. A click on details reveals additional information on how that is done.

Internet Security

If you have installed the anti-malware component during installation, you get the option to configure and use the program's system shield functionality.

Use it to run manual scans for malware, update the virus definition database, or enable or disable real-time or email protection. There you also find options to manage Windows Firewall.

System Mechanic Professional Reports

Reports is an interesting page as it lists a summary of System Mechanic Professional's findings on a single page plus extra information that you may find useful.

It lists the free space of individual disks connected to the PC as well as the total free space available, and the same for system memory.

Then it lists startup programs and running programs, and categorizes them into system, necessary, optional, unknown and dangerous.

Last but not least, it highlights the Internet speed and enables you to measure it right from within the interface.

Difference between System Mechanic Editions

System Mechanic Professional includes all features of System Mechanic. The software furthermore includes three iolo products that can be purchased separately. The products are System Shield Antivirus & AntiSpyware, DriveScrubber, and Search and Recover.

If you don't require those, you may purchase System Mechanic instead which offers all other tools described in the review.

System Mechanic Alternatives

You may want to try the following programs as alternatives:

• Advanced System Care Free
• Baidu PC Faster is a free system maintenance tool for Windows
• YAC Yet Another Windows Maintenance Tool

Verdict

System Mechanic Professional ships with a lot of tools, of which most can be quite useful. Some tools could be improved though. The software uninstaller for instance is not checking the system for leftovers after the installation. It also feels strange that a Good system status after resolving all quick scan issues is often changed to a lower level after running a deep scan.

Especially the one-click repair options are handy for users who experience issues on their PC that they want to resolve without diving deeper into the issue.

Most functionality is however also available in form of free programs albeit not as a single tool but multiple tools.

Users who want to try the software find a trial version at the official download site.

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