System Maintenance

UpdateStar scans your computer for installed software products and produces a list of your inventory and available updates, along with download link and additional information. The program not only works with widely used commercial products, but also with many freeware and shareware programs available from the web. UpdateStar runs in the system tray and can automatically check for updates on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. You can customize the list of products and choose to ignore updates from certain products. The update database is maintained by the developer and accepts input from users to help improve the accuracy. The current version recognized about half of the 50 products we had installed, so there is definitely room for improvement. Overall, however, this is a very promising product.

Advanced SystemCare Free is designed to provide one-click care for your PC. It includes a quick spyware scan, adware blocking, privacy cleanup and several system scans that can find and fix invalid registry entries and clean up temporary files. The program also analyzes your system configuration and suggests changes to optimize performance. Advanced users can review all changes that are about to be made and make adjustments as needed - a restore option is provided in conjunction XP System Restore. Advanced SystemCare Free provides a convenient way for non-technical users to perform routine maintenance and apply system optimization tweaks without the need to become a computer geek. The program can also be scheduled to run automatically. A Pro Edition can also be purchased that offers additional optimization features. The free version offers to install a Yahoo toolbar.

RadarSync 2008 enables you to find driver and software updates for your system. It scans your computer and based on a online database of over 80,000 files, it aggregates a list of available updates for software and drivers on your PC. The resulting report includes details for all available updates, as well as convenient links to the file downloads. RadarSync can automatically creates a Windows restore point, allowing you to roll-back any changes you make as result of the selected updates. The program will not update your system automatically, but allows you to choose which updates to download and install.

DriverMax enables you to backup and reinstall all your Windows drivers. If you need to reinstall Windows, you can easily install all your drivers from the backup without having to insert or search for your original driver CDs. You can choose to backup/install all your drivers or only selected drivers based on several filters or manual selection. DriverMax can export the drivers to a folder of your choice, and optionally compress them into a single zip file. Free registration required after 30 days.

iSysCleaner Pro is a simple tool that searches for junk files on your computer and allows you to delete them. It currently cleans Windows Temporary Files, browser cache, cookies, lost cluster files, recycle bin contents, user defined junk files (folders) and a few more. An easy-to-use tool for a basic PC clean-up.

Cleanup Assistant offers a set of tools that help you keep a clean hard drive. It can find and remove junk and temporary files, locate large folders, delete Internet traces, find duplicate files and more. The program also includes a file shredder that can permanently delete files by overwriting them multiple times.

PC Health Optimizer Free Edition offers a dozen maintenance tools that can help you improve overall system performance and security. It can find and fix a range of problems related to hard disks, memory, registry and more. The program also includes a file shredder for secure file deletion, a privacy cleaner and a spyware cleaner with real-time protection. Other features include email backup and a file splitter. A paid version is also available that includes even more utilities.

Sweepi allows you to clean common computer junk files and Internet tracks that can build-up over time. The program comes with an interface that allows you to select the areas to be cleaned, as well as a wizard that can guide you through the cleaning process, and also offers a quick-clean feature. In addition to the cleaning features, Sweepi also includes a startup manager (called BootManager) that enables you to view and optionally remove or disable programs that start automatically whenever you boot your computer and a RAM Optimizer. Furthermore, the program includes secure file deletion, and a tool to find broken shortcuts.

Ultimate Boot CD allows you to run floppy-based diagnostic tools from CDROM drives. It consolidates a wide array of popular diagnostic tools in to a bootable CD interface. The applications (from other companies) included are: MemTest86 Ver 3.0, Data Lifeguard Ver 10.0 for Western Digital HDD, PowerMax Ver 3.04 for Maxtor/Quantum HDD, Drive Fitness Test Ver 3.40 for IBM/Hitachi HDD, SeaTools Desktop Edition for Seagate HDD, Offline NT Password & Registry Editor, Ranish Partition Manager, AIDA16 - Worldwide Sysinfo Tool, F-Prot Antivirus for DOS (Note: for personal use only), Autoclave - Hard Drive Sterilization, SavePart - Partition Saving. Ultimate Boot CD provides a text-based menu after you boot your PC with the CD inserted, that lets you select the tools that you want to run. The download comes as an ISO image. You should be comfortable with commandline utilities to use the software.

BartPE (Bart`s Preinstalled Environment) enables you to boot from a CD-Rom and have full read/write access to NTFS volumes - you can move or delete files, execute programs and perform other tasks, even if your Windows 2000/XP/2003 operating system will not boot properly. It offers a graphical interface and comes bundled with several free utilities and you can add your own tools when you create the CD. BartPE will initially run on your PC and gather the files it needs to create a bootable Windows CD/DVD and then create the disc for you or save it as an ISO image.

Easy Cleaner is a multi-featured system maintenance tool, that includes a registry cleaner, a startup manager, a duplicate file finder and a graphical chart to inspect disk space usage. The program also includes several options to remove junk files, unnecessary files and (IE) Internet tracks, as well as broken shortcuts from your desktop and Start menu. The cleaning behavior can be customized based on file types and folder location, and the program can track your action with an Undo list for all registry related clean-ups that allows you to restore your settings if needed.

SmartClose is a handy tool that allows you to close all currently running programs - a task often required during software installations to minimize conflicts (or during defrag operations). This can be a tedious task when performed manually, and usually requires a restart to get all your programs back up and running. With SmartClose however, the entire process is simplified and automatic, as it stores the running program information is a system snapshot and not only closes all applications for you, but also restarts/restores them later. The program can be customized in various aspects, and a quick wizard also allows you to exclude programs from being closed or restored. It will automatically skip applications that are required for the Windows system to run. In addition, it supports services, as well as Explorer and Internet Explorer windows and saves their current location, so they can be restored properly.

WinSock XP Fix offers a last resort if your Internet connectivity has been corrupted due to invalid or removed registry entries. It can often cure the problem of lost connections after the removal of Adware components or improper uninstall of firewall applications or other tools that modify the XP network and Winsock settings. If you encounter connection problems after removing network related software, Adware or after registry clean-up; and all other ways fail, then give WinSock XP Fix a try. It can create a registry backup of your current settings, so it is fairly safe to use. We actually tested it on a test machine that was having a Winsock problem due to some Adware removal, and after running the utility and rebooting, the connectivity was restored.