Optimize, tweak and tune Windows XP using Tune-Up Utilities 2008

Posted on February 20, 2008 at 7:22 am

Make sure to read other posts from the Tweak Windows XP & Vista series!

4 free ways to tweak your mouse and increase productivity
Tweak Windows Vista for free with MZ Vista Force
Tweak Windows XP settings with TweakUI
Tweak Windows Vista - Performance, registry, and Internet tweaks
Optimize, tweak and tune Windows XP using Tune-Up Utilities 2008
Tweak, disable or turn off UAC (User Account Control) in Windows Vista

Tune-up Utilities is an application which is essentially a suite of smaller applications that will, well, tune up your system. It retails at 49.95$, but is worth every penny.

Features

TU offers a very wide range of features that cover nearly every aspect of your system. First up, is the Drive Defrag, which is a utility that is a more powerful version of the Windows Defragmenter that you probably normally use. Performing a Defrag regularly with this nifty little utility will definitely help improve your overall system performance. Sadly, it is a bit slow, but is still perfectly tolerable.

There is also a Registry Defrag, which compacts your registry, enabling it to be load up faster and take up less memory. Bundled along with the Registry Defrag is a Registry scanner that deletes all the junk and invalid data from your registry, which is really useful as it can drastically reduce the size of your registry. This is something I recommend you perform regularly.

However, what really takes the cake is the Tune Up System Optimizer. It is worth the fifty bucks by itself. It not only tweaks your system and Internet connection for maximum performance, it also shows you what you can do to improve your system’s performance. There is also the Startup Manager and the Memory Optimizer, but these are hardly noteworthy as there is freeware that does this as well, if not better, but you won’t find me complaining about the integration.

The System Optimizer

That was just the performance part, the TU Styler and System Control will allow you to tweak just about any aspect of your windows interface, ranging from the start menu, to the boot screen.

There are also a ton of other cool little modules like the Process Manager, which is a more full-featured version of the Task Manager, the Registry Editor, which can come in very handy if a virus has locked out your registry, the Shredder, which is used to delete files permanently using military standard deletion techniques, the Undelete, which helps recover all files that were deleted [even those deleted from the recycle bin], except for those deleted using the Shredder, and System Information, which is exponentially more useful than the useless system information tool that comes with Windows.

All these things might sound a bit dangerous, but there is no need to fear! The Rescue Center can help you undo any changes that have affected your system negatively.

Another feature I really liked was the 1-click Maintenance, which frees up space, corrects registry issues and optimizes disk usage in one, easy click. This is really awesome, and something I do extremely often.

Want hassle-free Maintenance? You got it.

Interface

TU’s interface is awesome. Within the first five minutes of using the program, you will be flying around. All the features are well categorized by the means of a side bar, and the menu is a combination of a text and icon driven interface. It even looks great while it’s at it.

The well-designed Home Screen.

Every time you click on a menu element, it launches the mini-application concerned with what you have clicked, and the mini applications retain the same stellar interface. There is also a pop-up window that tells you what that particular application does, which is really useful for new users, and can be turned off.

Tips such as this can be really useful.

Verdict

TU offers fantastic VFM, and I would have said the same thing even if it had cost twice as much. With the wide range of features, great performance and intuitive interface, I really cannot think of a single thing to complain about. You will be hard-pressed to find software that does so much for 49.95, and does it all so well. Highly Recommended.

This is a guest post written by Om J. Bathija, a tech enthusiast and blogger.

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