system mechanic pro 6 (ethel)

[deggers316]

is this worth buying or should i stick with the excellent freebies,ie a2 / spywareblaster /spybot /comodo /adaware avg.
was thinking of installing it on a friends comp as he's not very comp literate and this seems a one click job

[ryepie]

Well the pro version does include Kaspersky anitvirus, which is easily one of the best available. These boys are totally on the ball when it comes to antivirus updates, usually releasing several a day.

[Ethel]

I have never heard of it - a link would be useful as there as so many programs with this or similar name.

As you know I am very keen on the free utilities and firmly believe a selection of free software will give much better protection than a single paid for package.

[deggers316]

http://www.iolo.com/sm/ads/landing/index.cfm?p id
=445F2C56-41B2-449B-8E15-F880DD92137D
its now 7 not 6
surprised you haven't heard of it Ethel its been around in various version numbers for years
any advice welcome

[rojash]

We used to have System Mechanic Pro on all our machines, but with each "upgrade" it got more and more bloated and less and less controllable. Eventually we stopped upgrading, and finally stopped using it altogether. I really wouldn't recommend it at all.

[Ethel]

I have looked at it, read the reviews - not tempted at all.

[ACtheTROLL]

System mechanic is one of the accepted "legit" packages - but as with many all-in-one packages ... there are strengths and weaknesses.

I almost agree with ethel about individual packages for protection ... (virus/firewall excepted) -
However not about freebies ... It depends on your useage habits.

If all you do is write an odd letter and surf the radio4 pages ... a freebie virus checker is good enough.

The protection they offer is good ... but (as far as I'm aware - in all cases) they only offer scheduled scan protection. This means you could go days without a check.

The strength of the bought packages is they offer real time protection - important if you have kids ... as changed are caught immediately - hopefully - BEFORE they do damage.

With optimisers ... it's not quite so certain.
TweakUi is indispensable - some of the others ... I'm not so sure - I personally delete my temp files with a simple batch prog

The problem with optimizers is they all work on a "best guess" basis ... it works most of the time ....
So good for you tends to be the package that does the least damage.

In my experience (and the trades tend to support this)
not many packages make huge differences to system speed.

Delete temp files ... you recover disk space
optimise the registry ..... ?????
I've never ever seen a detectable improvement.

freebies are generally free because
A. They are hooks for paid packages (avg, zone alarm, avira)
B. They are selling something else - (memtest86)
C. The programmer has principles. - the problem here is ... that with the best will in the world ...the package will only be updated when the guy sobers up, Isn't doing homework ... or falls out with his girlfriend.
.... and feedback will come from his loyal base of 20 users.
D. They just aren't worth

[deggers316]

thankyou all for answers
very helpful