Showing posts with label nightmare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nightmare. Show all posts

System Suite 9 Professional Review

System Suite 9 Professional
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
I am a fan of SystemSuite, have used Version 7 and Version 8, and have found them both to be better than either McAffee's or Symantech's comparable products. But my recent attempt to upgrade to Version 9 was an unmitigated disaster. My system (running Windows 2000) froze up and would not shut down after installing the upgrade. When I removed Version 9 everything ran fine again. I contacted customer support who had me download Version 9 again, claiming the file was probably corrupted. This time my computer did not hang up at shutdown, but instead ran glacially slow. When I tried to remove Version 9 again I could not. Avanquest had me use the Window Uninstaller utility, but it did not work either. I had to manually delete all the files, except 5 .dll files that I could not remove. I tried downloading Version 9 again and ran into the same problems. I eventually reinstalled Version 8 (which I thankfully still had hanging around with the serial number) and used it to clean up all the junk created by Version 9. Avanquest has not come up with any explanation for me yet, but I'm guessing there is a problem running it with Windows 2000. My recommendation would be that if you have Version 8 and are satisfied with it, renew your antivirus subscription, but do not upgrade to Version 9.
Update: Although not originally remarked upon by the Avanquest support staff, I recently learned from them that SystemSuite 9 is not compatible with Windows 2000. The Amazon listing indicating that it is for Windows 2000/XP/Vista is in error.

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System Suite runs over 100 tests to uncover the problems that slow down your computer and then fixes the problems so your computer runs like new again. Some programs fix just a handful of PC problems but don't find the problems that are plaguing your PC. System Suite is the most comprehensive product of its kind. With System Suite anyone can maintain, repair and protect their PC themselves.

Tired of your PC's slow performance? Sick of programs freezing and not working?
Identify and remove viruses and spyware
Stop hackers and intruders
Diagnose and fix Windows problems
Recover lost data
Protect against spam and email viruses
And much, much more!

System Suite's comprehensive feature set and one-click tune-up wizards enable you to repair any existing problem and defend against real-time security threats.
Eliminate PC Slowdowns, Crashes & Freezes
One-Step Tune-Up WizardsOne-Click PC performance, clean up and security wizard solutions maintain, fix and repair your PC automatically.
Diagnose & Fix Windows Problems System Suite runs over 100 tests to uncover problems that slow down your computer and fixes all of them so that your computer runs like new again.
Registry Repair & MaintenanceSpeed your PC performance by defragmenting, cleaning, fixing and optimizing your Windows registry.
Internet Speed Optimizer--NEW The new Internet Speed tool accelerates browser, download and surfing speeds up to 80% for Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox browsers.
Windows Optimizer Tool--NEWThis new tool improves security settings for Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer, addresses registry vulnerabilities, and cleans the printer queue. Microsoft Office and Internet browsers have security flaws through which hackers can send viruses and spyware. System Suite fixes those security flaws, protecting you against attacks.Also, files that you want to print can get stuck in the printer queue.When this happens often the only way to get the file out is to restart your computer. System Suite removes the file(s) that are causing the printing problem, without having to restart your computer.
Memory Optimizer Tool--NEWSystem Suite optimizes the way Windows uses memory to improve system performance.
System OptimizerSystem Suite optimizes your PC for gaming, security, multimedia and office tasks. One-click control optimizes the PC for your specific needs.
Windows Startup ManagerLets you monitor and remove startup programs that slow down and potentially harm your system! Startup Commander lets you view and control which programs start within Windows.
Real-Time System MonitoringAutomatically monitors the health, performance and security of your PC, ensuring you are always protected.
Award-Winning, Real-Time Security ProtectionSystem Suite removes existing viruses, malware and spyware from your PC and prevents future infections by monitoring your computer for any malicious behavior. Get real-time protection from viruses and spyware in email messages, attachments and Internet downloads.
Virus, spyware & malware detection & removal
NEW! Prevents rootkits and keyloggers from stealing personal data
NEW! Real-time protection against any malicious behavior
NEW! Hourly updates to protect you against the latest threats

Credit Card Transaction Security--New System Suite stores and encrypts your sensitive personal and financial information, password and numbers. System Suite enables users to securely paste the data directly into Internet Explorer & Firefox web browsers, preventing spyware from stealing your personal information. With System Suite you can log on to bank websites and email accounts or make a purchase online without having to keystroke your personal information.
Securely encrypt and store:
Credit card information
User names
Passwords
Social security numbers
And more!

Two-way Personal Firewall Defend your PC from hackers and malicious intruders.System Suite two-way advanced firewall proactively monitors and defends your PC with multi-layered security protection.
Anti-Spam ControlStop spam, viruses and phishing emails so they never get to your inbox. Works with all major email programs including Outlook, Notes, Eudora, AOL, Hotmail/MSN and more.
Fraud & Phishing Scam PreventionSystem Suite's Web Defense technology integrates with major search engines to identify and block malicious web sites before you click, protecting you from hacked pages, phishing and fraud scams.
Expands your threat protection
Prevents attacks as you search and browse
Checks search results and gives advance warning of dangerous sites before you visit them

Internet CleanupSystem Suite helps prevent identity theft by wiping away your Internet tracks to improve performance and protect your privacy.
Active Intelligence--IMPROVEDSystem Suite "Active Intelligence" engine now monitors hard drive status, available disk space, hard drive fragmentation, registry errors, excess temp files and startup applications. System Suite enables users to reduce start up times by 25%, improve read-write performance by 20% and prevents data loss by identifying hard drive problems before they happen.
Windows Rescue ToolsIs Windows not booting up?System Suite's built-in Windows rescue tool restores your non-booting system back to normal.System Suite includes the ability to save and restore Windows XP and Vista checkpoints.Advanced features include the ability to see a selected checkpoint differences with the current system, and select specific items to restore. Restore checkpoints from within Windows or from our bootable rescue Disk.
PC Diagnostics - IMPROVEDSystem Suite PC diagnostics have been improved to full support testing of hardware of Vista computers.
Temp File Cleaners--IMPROVEDThe temp file cleaners now feature an option to permanently shred the selected temp files. This improves the security of your PC by protecting you against any potentially malicious temp files.

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iolo System Mechanic 7 Professional - 3 PCs Review

iolo System Mechanic 7 Professional - 3 PCs
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
It's good at finding bugs in the registry, spyware, and other nasties.
The trouble is, cleaning seems to rip out other applications' settings (such as PhotoImpact 11) and requiring a reinstall (or repair install) of those applications.
I also did a disk scan and it claimed there were problems requiring a chkdsk (I use WinXP w/SP2). A full disk scan revealed NO problems at all. Reassuring as I've been getting freaked out, but annoying because I can't find any other causes. AND this is on a newly formatted PC as well.
As v7 is a new release, wait for a product update or bug fix. Once the wrinkles are ironed out, I think this will be a good product. Right now it's overzealous and also has a tendency to find menace behind every shadow.
02/09/07 update: They have released a patch since my original review. Having installed it, it's been working MUCH better; and no applications (esp. PhotoImpact 11!) have had to be repaired or re-installed on a daily basis. And it fully recognized Trend Micro PC-Cillin firewall/antivirus. If anything, running the detection wizard keeps finding ONE security vulnerability, which it claims it fixes, but an immediate re-scan still shows the vulnerability. It doesn't say any detail information, so I can't manually repair it. However, all the other programs are gone and it does a competent job at cleaning up garbage and compressing the registry, and I've put my system through the paces (reluctantly, reformatting is a nightmare...)

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Five award-winning products in one authoritative solution including System Mechanic 7, iolo AntiVirus, iolo Personal Firewall, Search and Recover 4, and DriveScrubber 3.everything you need to keep your PC safe, fast, and error-free.Fix problems, boost performance, eliminate crashes, defend against spyware, viruses, and hacker threats, and much more.Use one centralized system dashboard to automatically perform all vital PC maintenance.Protects and repairs up to 3 PCs for one year!

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System Mechanic - Up to 3 PCs Review

System Mechanic - Up to 3 PCs
Average Reviews:

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I used to love this product and always recommended it to other. But Iolo has become a very deceptive company and product has seriously degraded.
The most upsetting recent addition is Iolos silent change in product licensing. YOU CAN NO LONGER USE THE PRODUCT AFTER 1 YEAR. Really, once you buy the software, you'll notice a box in SM that tells you how many more days before you have to repurchase a license. Really Iolo, you're doing this to your customer. That's too bad.
Now on to my experience (keep in mind, I'm and IT support guy):
- I've spent over 8 hours trying to fix what SM did to my system. I'm not saying it caused serious damage, but it's definitely not very friendly to Windows 7.
- I've spent a couple hours on the phone with Iolo's support and they have me editing my Registry and other really nasty stuff the average person should not be doing.
- After all this, I've learned there is stuff that Iolo is doing in the background that is crashing my computer and the only way around this is to completely remove System Mechanic.
C'mon Iolo, I just wanna run this thing once in awhile to clean up my system. You've totally over complicated it and turned a great product into a nasty one.
Finally, its really hard to find, but by default, Iolo is sending information about your computer to themselves. Its on by default and really hard to find out how to turn it off.
So, my recommendation is look elsewhere. This used to be a great company and great product but they've really turned pretty evil and the product has degraded.

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System Mechanic Professional - Up to 3 PCs Review

System Mechanic Professional - Up to 3 PCs
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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