System Mechanic Professional - Up to 3 PCs Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I purchased version 7 Pro in early May '08, because of the special pricing and because it had a three PC license. I installed it on my primary machine - a Dell desktop running Windows Vista. It installed fine but I noticed the virus database was marked as outdated. I tried to do an update, and went through the motions - the program indicating that it had updated, but afterward still indicated that the database was over 400 days old (how do you get that outdated on a fresh install)!
I contacted Iolo and they told me to uninstall and re-install, which I attempted. This created another problem. I had a prior version of the included Search and Recover 4.0 already installed on my system, so I did not install this component. I was unable to re-install the SM Pro as long as this program was there. The problem was that I couldn't uninstall S&R using the uninstall on my machine.
I have been in constant contact with tech support but they have only sent links to FAQ's that I have already read. I even got a link for a free upgrade to version 8 but it wouldn't install either. I finally found a means to do a "clean uninstall" via registry editing. This also did not remove the iolo services from my machine. I found a tool from Microsoft to disable these two services. I now had a "clean" machine. I installed SM 8 Pro with no problems - until I tried to run it. None of the applications would work - they needed the ioloSystemService running. I click on the "start service" link under the advanced button of the service tab of task manager, but neither service will start (the other is called "ioloFileInfoList").
I have been continually contacting Iolo tech support with my findings and was upgraded on June 25th to their "senior tech staff". Since then I have not heard from tech support, even though I have continued sending information, requested support, opened new cases, etc. - no word from them.
As part of my experimentation, I installed version 7 on my laptop (running XP) and don't seem to be experiencing any issues. However, my laptop is a backup machine that I rarely use, so it is not a good indicator of how well the program runs.
All in all, I cannot recommend this program. It has definite issues under Vista, it is almost impossible to remove all vestiges of the program once installed, and their tech support is abysmal. I gave Iolo notice that if I don't get any more than an automated response to my last support request, I will be demanding a full refund. The program had great reviews, but if it doesn't work, then it's worthless.

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