iolo technologies System Mechanic 6

• Reviewed by: betacopy

  Strengths: lots of utilities to clean up, protect, and speed up your computer; good price.

  Weaknesses: frequently warns you of problems, even after you just fixed it. the tools are slow, especially running harddrive defrag. built in help instructions are useless.

  Overall: everytime i used it, it would erase all my cookies. There are some cookies you do want to save. the built in help instructions were useless, since i had to go to their website to see how to manage cookies. It kept on giving me the same warnings everytime. No options to ignore certain warnings. For example, it kept on telling me to delete certain start-up items, and change internet optimization items, but it would warn me everytime. I wish there was an option to ignore it. And I needed to remember to uncheck it, or it would make those changes for me. And finally, everytime i start up the program now, it would show an option to upgrade to version 7. Stop showing me the upgrade page, since I ain't gonna be upgrading this slow bloated program. I am sure there is something better and faster. Program is a good price, but it will give you headaches later.

• Reviewed by: abrimble

  Strengths: Individual tools are OK

  Weaknesses: Optimisation trashes your PC

  Overall: DON'T BUY THIS UNLESS YOU WANT TO WASTE SEVERAL HOURS AND END UP REBUILDING YOUR PC (I HAD TO RE_FORMAT MY HARD DISK AND RE_INSTALL WINDOWS).AFTER RUNNING THEIR "OPTIMISATION" EXPLORER TOOK 60 SECONDS TO RESPOND TO ANYTHING - OPENING A FOLDER, RIGHT CLICKING ON A FILE, ANYTHING.I UPGRADED AND THEY WON'T GIVE A REFUND BECAUSE THEY OFFER FREE TRIALS.WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY - DON'T BUY IT !!!

• Reviewed by: gnubie

  Strengths: Hard to know

  Weaknesses: Unstable, generally poor documentation, poor support.

  Overall: FUNCTION & PERFORMANCE:Very slow. I had many problems. Unfinished scans, PC problems after use. It accesses the Internet a lot! I was concerned that it was spyware. I contacted support. Their response below in SUPPORT section.USE:I found it frustrating to use. It was hard to know what it actually did. Ex: There is an Internet Cleanup and Privacy Tool. Sounds good, right, but I could not learn what it actually did. Did it for example, delete, edit, or neither, the Windows index.dat file?Help descriptions were too vague. It created the impression that it would do a good job, but I could not confirm it. And I am not a 'trust me' kind of person. For example, there is a Quick Clean and a Deep Clean. Quick Clean scans and removes Internet cache files, while Deep Clean removes Internet cache files and privacy violations (whatever that is).SUPPORT:I sent this to Iolo Support:?Please read carefully and respond accurately.I've recently purchased and installed SM6 and have noticed that several times per hour, SM6 attempts to access the Internet. This troubles me and I'd like to learn what is occurring and why. Is SM6 spyware? Is it quasi-spyware (takes advantage of legitimate access to send private information home)? Please communicate Iolo's official technical details, content, and need of SM6's frequent Internet access.I'm keeping careful documentation.?Iolo responded:?2 processes within system mechanic should be attempting to access the internet. One is checking for updates regularly and the other is for our speed analysis portion of the product.?To me that was a brush off, so I asked for more specific details. Below is a combination of my questions and Iolo's response:?I asked if System Mechanic 6 was spyware and/or quasi-spyware. You did not answer this question. Please answer this question.*NoYou say that one process is checking for updates.a. How frequently does it check for updates?*As neededb. What is the exact content and information of the outbound dataduring update checking?*We do not have this information available to releasec. Can I configure the frequency for SM6 to check for updates?*No, but you can disable/modify this functionality if you click "Options" and then "General Preferences" and click the "Updates" tab. You can any changes you would like to the update functionality from hered. What are the destination IP addresses of the outbound content?*We do not have this information available to releaseYou mention that another process accesses the Internet for speedanalysis.a. How often does it access the Internet for speed analysis?*Whenever an analysis is performedb. Can I configure the frequency for SM6 to perform speed analysis?*No, but you can disable/modify this functionality if you click "Options" and then "General Preferences" and click the "System Analysis" tab. You can any changes you would like to the analysis functionality from here.c. What is the exact content and information of the outbound dataduring speed analysis?*We do not have this information available to release.d. What are the destination IP addresses of the outbound content?*We do not have this information available to release.I do have a write up on System Mechanic and its habit of connecting to the Internet, the text for that write up is pasted below - System Mechanic will attempt to connect to the Internet to check for product updates, component updates, and spyware definition updates. System Mechanics health monitor will also connect to the Internet in order to perform various tests on your Internet connection and your connection speed, in order to compile your system analysis report. This is perfectly normal behavior and is in no way connected to any malicious activity or a threat to your systems health.If you are using System Mechanic Professional, you may experience a greater amount of Internet connection requests due to the larger number of applications bundled into the Professional version of System Mechanic. System Mechanic Professional comes with Search and Recover, DriveScrubber, as well as System Shield. As you probably know, the greater the number of components, the greater the number of components to monitor for updates.It is advised to allow System Mechanic to connect to the Internet, as requested, or the application may not function up to its full capabilities.You can see that the answers inspired NO confidence. I do not want to do any more business with Iolo.RECOMMENDATIONI would definitely NOT recommend System Mechanic 6

• Reviewed by: skylinerlab

  Strengths: all

  Weaknesses: duplicate files

  Overall: It is a very good tool for anyone looking to clean and optimize their sytem safely. I would reccommend it to everyone. It is easy to use. It does a wonderful job of speeding up the system.