Best Free PC Tune-up Utility

PC tune-up utilities are a great way to get a performance bump for your PC without upgrading hardware.  They can repair issues that cause instability or BSOD (blue screen of death). Lastly, these utilities can also help make your PC more secure by removing traces of personal information. PC tune-up utilities should be part of your overall PC maintenance strategy, which should also include a firewall, anti-spyware, anti-virus and a defragmenter. Tune-up utilities are just as necessary as getting a car serviced, washed and vacuumed. As each of these automotive services relate to a different part of an auto's maintenance, so do tune-up utilities.

For the most part, they are suites, a collection of modules which address most common problem areas and or potential trouble spots found on PCs. Stand-alone utilities focus on one or two specific areas.  There are a variety of tasks tune-up programs can do, such as cleaning temp files, removing incorrect registry entries, ensuring privacy by deleting traces of information left by Internet sessions and more including: memory, Internet and other more advanced tweaks.

General purpose tune-up suites clean and remove identifiable issues; some with greater detection effectiveness and granularity than others. They generally do not add anything other than their program files required to run. A good general purpose suite will attempt to keep your PC running smooth and fast, while at the same time protecting you from yourself (self inflicted user errors while attempting to use the utility improperly or beyond your ability).

Additionally, most suites are tested to ensure compatibility between modules. Hopefully you will be happy with the automatic mode in the software and won't venture too far 'into the woods' without knowing exactly where you are going. The downside of a suite is that while each suite has its strengths, not all modules are as strong as their strongest modules. Often stand-alone products from different sources can provide better performance in any given category. Venturing on your own with a collection of independent modules is however more time consuming and dangerous!  While performance may be better, you run the risk that utilities from different sources may be incompatible, causing conflicts, errors or undoing what another utility has already done well. If you are unfamiliar with these different tools or modules, or don't understand the documentation or language used, you may inadvertently venture beyond your knowledge level.

In summary, suites may be easier to use and do a better job protecting you from yourself, but are not always at the top of the class in every area. Single purpose stand-alone products can be superior in performance but generally require a higher level of expertise and increase the risk of user error or conflicting application errors.

If you have never tuned up your PC, then you should see a real improvement in speed and responsiveness the first time you run these programs. However, on subsequent runs the improvement may be less noticeable, if at all, but it is still a good idea to run them regularly.

The previous editor included a reference for TweakNow Powerpack for power users, I will review this and report on it later because it is said to have many features that if abused or misused can ruin your system.

Please note: No matter how sophisticated a program, or how experienced you are, whenever changes are made to the system or registry on a PC, you run the risk of causing harm to your computer. Before you start with any tune-up programs there are a couple of common sense things you should always do to avoid most problems and provide a way to recover if anything should happen. Prevention can be your most valuable tool.

1. Make sure you have a recent restore point with Windows. Having a restore point can take the OS back to how it was before changes were made. Remember, restore points do not restore your old programs or remove new program files, only the effects they had on your OS settings.
2. Have a recent back up of your critical data.
3. Read about the utility, reveiw the documentation, become familiar with the automatic vs. manual modes before running.
4. Check the options menu for your selected software. For example, I am currently looking through Comodo's System Cleaner and they have an option to create a restore point before you clean the registry which is not selected by default. A good piece of software does a lot of the thinking for us if we allow it to.
5. Load a rescue disk onto a USB flash drive or CD/DVD.
6. If you are unsure how to accomplish any of the above, information on those topics can be found on this site as well.

Note: Comodo is more of an expert tool. T55 WinMate and Ashampoo are not recommended to anyone.

CCleaner is an example of a serious mini-suite. Its user interface is ultra simple and its performance and speed are also good. While it is solid and much appreciated, it lacks an automatic mode to perform all of its actions; each menu module must be run manually and separately. A small price to pay for such a solid product.

CCleaner is the default main module, a file, Internet junk and application cache cleaner that does a very good job out of the gate with no changes required. After running Analyze, you can see what will be deleted by category and you have a choice to deselect categories from tabs/check boxes on the left if you would like to deselect a particular category from being included in the cleaning (deleting). To the best of my knowledge, it does not offer a restore for deleted items, but so far this has not been a problem for me. After you become familiar with the utility, you can skip the Analyze and go straight to Run Cleaner.

CCleaner also has a reasonable Registry Integrity (cleaner) as its second menu item. Although not the most robust or granular of registry cleaners out there, its reasonable enough to keep the registry neat and clean and is far from the scare-ware that is out there. Registry can create a file of its changes in case an undo is necessary. There is a manual setting located under the options/advanced to "prompt to back up registry issues" and it is recommended that you check this option as it only takes a few seconds. 

Third on the menu is the Tools button which includes stand-alone tools for a Startup Manager, a Program Uninstaller and Restore Point manager (advanced), 

Startup Manager  improves your boot up time by allowing you to disable or delete the many pesky and non-essential items set up to auto run at startup. Because it does not help you determine which items are safe to disable or delete, I would consider this an advanced user option to use after researching the importance of items before disabling.  Choosing to disable the wrong items could severely effect your system startup. 

Next is Uninstaller. Uninstaller mimics the functions of Windows control panel/remove programs utility, but additionally allows you to rename and delete an entry.  There are times when you simply can't get a program uninstalled (Windows control panel or otherwise) and you just want to use brute force to delete the entry from the list and then delete the program folders directly in explorer. I'm not sure why I would ever want to rename an installed program, but its there if you need to.

Lastly, the Options button is there for advanced users. With the exception of the registry setting recommended above, I don't see the average user delving into this area because as with all user initiated actions, you do so at your own risk.  

The developer, Piriform, also offers a free stand-alone defragmenter called Defraggler, but it is not integrated with CCleaner and not reviewed here. 

CCenhancer is mentioned as an advanced, at your own risk addon to CCleaner; adding 500+ applications not in the default CCleaner package. CCleaner does not endorse or support this addon and it has not been reviewed here.

WinUtilities Free  is a PC tune-up suite with a wealth of features, including 1-click maintenance. It runs fast and automatically creates a log file to undo your changes if needed.  Most functions appear to be straight forward so it should be a safe bet for novice users in 1-click mode and enough information and warnings on individual modules to make it novice proof.  

I was pleasantly surprised the registry cleaner found many items not found by others, so far I have not seen problems with the deeper cleaning. It shares the same GUI with its paid Pro version therefore, you will find some features disabled (not many) but most glaring is the home page tab for schedule. 

WinUtilities Free is not without quirks, most notably individual modules show scan results before acting on them, while 1-click does not and takes care of everything without letting you know details of what will be done. And while it does provide a way to undo its deeds and restore to a previous point, the term used in the program's cleaning options step is " Create Restore Point". Note that this is a proprietary rescue log and should not to be confused with a Microsoft restore point. By default, it keeps its undo file only 7 days unless you change it. The update link took me to a main download page, not clear why, but after manually checking the version history, I found I had the current version. Auto update is only for the paid version. As I get more experience with the tools, I will update this review.

Notes: Many defaults are pre-set, starting at installation. If you download at the developer's site, the ASK toolbar and ASK Search and home page are defaults. You can decline the ASK toolbar (three checks to clear), but its counter intuitive that with all boxes cleared, including "Accept terms..." that clicking next would even begin the installation; nonetheless, it clears the toolbar install and you are done. 

If you download at Cnet, you get to experience CBS Interactive's default install shell with Microsoft search AND then the ASK toolbar from within the installer. Wouldn't it be nice if one of the utility vendors built a module to remove ALL toolbars from our lives?

There are many search results on Gizmo's Freeware discussing this product's predecessor and downloads of the Pro version free. Having followed up on these links, they are expired or older versions of the software. As with PC clutter, it does nothing good so I will edit the references as I find them.

Glary Utilities is a good option with its 1-click maintenance tab for six standard cleaning tasks (registry errors, junk data, shortcuts, history and spyware (see notes below.) A number of more advanced tools require user interaction via the modules tab and menus. Although functional, I did not find it exceptional in any one category. As detailed below, spyware removal and encryption are a couple of categories that I would not depend upon given the lack of detail offered in the product, e.g.; it's a basic scanner. I have heard from several sources that there have been scans run against machines that did have spyware, but the scanner was not able to detect them. I am going to run the scanner against a known set of malware signatures and I will report those findings as soon as possible.

Installation behavior: When you first attempt to install Glary's, the ASK Toolbar will attempt to install. You can opt out of this installation but you must follow the procedures which I have listed in the paragraph below. The software uninstalls itself very clean, but the nag screens do continue to occur.

The Modules Tab offers twenty stand alone utilities grouped into five menu categories. Most are functional but basic tools, many offering common GUI access to standalone Microsoft utilities you would have to search for to run. Does not include disk defragmentation. It has a basic disk cleaner, a reasonable privacy cleaner and various tools which can remove broken shortcuts, duplicate files and empty folders. The disk-space analysis feature is outstanding, offering very detailed information. Glary also contains a file and free space eraser and recovery of deleted files.

The registry cleaner works very well and it also contains a registry defragmenter. Their startup manager is the only product to contain a startup delayer; however, the security ratings from both the startup and process manager do not seem to be very current or accurate and many of the more insistent applications will nag you about being delayed. An interesting tool for experienced users, but I'm not sure of its value without more thorough ratings. Would be nice if their IE Assistant also helped with Firefox.

The file encryption utility that Glary Utilities uses is the Blowfish algorithm. It is one of the best forms of encryption available today. The Process Manager monitors Spyware and Trojans, although it is a very basic scanner. I will be testing this feature a bit more in depth, and will post the results here in the upcoming weeks. Since these types of threats are a never ending part of our daily computer lives,  I do not want anyone relying on something which may not do the job correctly. Therefore; please use the Glary's Utilities Spyware scanner with discretion. Better yet, I suggest using a good stand-alone tool. Gizmo's has several good version's located here. Admrich is the Gizmo's editor for the "Best Free Adware-Spyware-Scumware remover" applications section. You will find some good information at that link, as well as several scanners to choose from. I will update the Glary's Utilities spyware section as soon as I determine what level of protection the new version has to offer, please stay tuned.

Notes: If you want to avoid the "ASK Toolbar" installation attempt completely; you can install the slim version instead (thanks Jaikrishna.) However; if you are comfortable with the full version installation and the extra install attempts that are made by ASK, then proceed as follows. During the initial installation the installer will attempt to install the ASK toolbar by default. To avoid installing this, the user is required to manually opt out at two locations during the installation. When deselecting, remember to deselect option two first, then deselect option one. (If only option one is deselected but option two isn't, changes will still be made to the search function by the ASK Toolbar.) 

Comodo PC TuneUp is very strong indeed. By the maker of the popular Comodo free firewall, PC TuneUp is the only product to have scheduling options for some of its features. However, it does not offer 1-click cleaning. Also, PC TuneUp does not have a disk defragmenter. It also has a nasty habit of interrupting full screen apps to tell you it is doing scheduled cleaning. Comodo PC TuneUp is best suited for experienced users because of its potentially dangerous features.

The disk and privacy cleaner is very thorough, but could be dangerous in the hands of a beginner. PC TuneUp has a wide variety of file utilities, with encryption/decryption, a rename tool and calculation of checksums, to name a few. The registry cleaning is very aggressive, maybe too aggressive in my opinion. Other features include a  minimal disk-space analysis feature, a detailed process manager, a startup manager, a rather basic tweaking utility and system information and benchmarking. Not intended for beginners.

Please help us by rating this review

• Best Free File Cleaner
• Best Free Browser Scrubber
• Best Free Duplicate File Finder
• Best Free Disk Space Analyzer
• Best Free Disk De-fragmenter
• Best Free Hard Drive Health Monitoring and Diagnostic Programs
• Best Free Registry Cleaner
• Best Free Registry Editor
• Best Free Startup Manager
• Best Free Process Viewer
• Best Free Program Un-installer
• Best Free System Information Utility
• Best Free Memory Optimizer
• Cleanup Kit

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Tune-up utilities, PC tuning tools, tune-up software, tune-up program, freeware