Turbocharge Your System With TuneUp Utilities 2011: Review and Licenses Giveaway
Scroll down to win one of the two licenses of TuneUp Utilities 2011 (worth $49.95 each) that I am giving away
If you are an old reader of this blog, then you are probably aware that I pretty much swear by TuneUp Utilities. Unlike most of the other system utilities, TuneUp mostly delivers on its promises and has saved my back on more than one occasion in the past.
The 2011 edition of TuneUp Utilities was released a couple of days back. As always, TuneUp Software is promising dramatic improvements with the latest release. I took it for a spin to find out what’s new and what’s changed. Here’s a quick summary:
Revamped Interface: Once again, TuneUp Utilities has re-skinned itself. The new interface is a mash up of the old interface and the interface introduced in TuneUp Utilities 2010. Tabs are back. However, the overall look and feel resembles the 2010 edition.
I praised the previous edition for getting rid of tabs, as it facilitated one-click access to pretty much all the TuneUp tools. However, it also made the interface appear more daunting to new users. With the new interface, it’s often easier to find exactly what you were looking for, but it might require a few additional clicks.
TuneUp 2011 also features a new Tuning Status indicator that gives you a quick overview of the optimisations that have been performed, and the amount of optimisation that is still possible.
Program Deactivator: This is quite possibly the biggest improvement introduced in TuneUp Utilities 2011. One of the biggest causes of system slowdown is installed applications. They often add new startup entries, background processes and services that consume resources even when not required. TuneUp Utilities always allowed you to remove unnecessary applications from system startup. With Program Deactivator they are taking this concept a step further.
When a program is disabled (deactivated), the services that it continuously runs in the background are turned off. However, if you ever need to use this program, TuneUp Programs-on-Demand Technology will automatically reactivate it.
TuneUp Utilities 2011 automatically identifies programs that can be disabled safely and those that can’t. Not only that, it also displays the impact that each of these programs is having on system start, operation and shutdown. Additionally, you can also view ratings from other users of TuneUp 2011. This ratings system is a new feature of TuneUp Utilities 2011 and is present throughout the application.
Improved Turbo Mode: TuneUp 2010 introduced a Turbo mode, which basically extracted every ounce of performance from your system by disabling aero and a gazillion of other non-essential services, and putting your system in the performance mode power plan. This is quite similar to what Game Booster does. However, I have found that TuneUp always manages to deliver a more marked improvement than the aforementioned freeware.
The already impressive, Turbo Mode has been improved further in 2011. TuneUp isn’t revealing what has changed behind the scenes, but there are a few improvements on the frontend too. There are a lot more options to configure, and now you can even put your system permanently in Turbo mode.
When it comes to improvements, that’s about it for TuneUp Utilities 2011. The list is actually quite short, when you compare it with the previous editions. I guess, TuneUp Utilities is already quite mature and there aren’t loads of new features that can be added. It already features a memory optimiser, registry cleaner, registry defragmenter, disk cleaner, disk defragmenter, disk space explorer, system tweaker, secure file shredder, deleted file recoverer (undelete), process explorer and more.
Earlier this week, PC Mag reviewed TuneUp Utilities 2011, and they noticed significant improvements in both system performance and startup after using TuneUp Utilities. Hopefully, the PC Mark Geekbench test will convince the sceptics that not all system suites are junk. However, to my surprise, Iolo’s System Mechanic 10 snagged the Editor’s choice award by the virtue of better performance and a more liberal license. Typically, one aspect of TuneUp Utilities that has always been unsatisfactory is the Drive Defragmenter. I suspect that this might be the case here too. The inadequacy of TuneUp’s defragmentation software is even more apparent to me as I use Raxco’s Perfect Disk, which is the best tool in its class.
If you haven’t used TuneUp Utilities before or have a really old version, I would whole heartedly recommend TuneUp Utilities 2011 to you. However, if you have already paid for TuneUp Utilities 2010, it might not make sense to upgrade to the latest edition. Program Deactivator is an interesting feature, but that alone cannot justify shelling out 30 bucks.
Download TuneUp Utilities (19.56 MB)
Platforms Supported: Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7(x86 and x64)
License: Shareware (30 days trial)
Cost: $49.95 (Upgrade license: $29.95)
Version Reviewed: 10.0.2011.65
TuneUp Utilities 2011 License Giveaway
TuneUp Software has graciously agreed to sponsor 2 licenses. Here’s how you can win a TuneUp Utilities 2011 serial key worth $49.95.
Comment on this post. Make sure you use a valid e-mail address. (compulsory)
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The contest is open to everyone and will close on November 10, 2010 at 12:00 Noon IST.
* In case of dispute my decision shall be final and binding.
The contest is over, and the winners have been announced.
Great review, this program looks fantastic. I absolutely hate having to reinstall windows to get it running at peak performance again so this looks like what I need.
- Robert
Yes, reinstalling windows is very bad.
Excellent Review. I love this Program. Thanks for Adding TuneUp Utilities As Well.
It will get rid of any junk files in your registry that you may have left over on your coptumer. Whenever you uninstall a program it may leave some junk files on your coptumer that are useless except you have the full program on your coptumer. So these files are left in limbo by themselves just taking up space. One of the facial appearance on this program is that it will help clean up and get rid of those type of files.
Great review
This would be awesome to win. Good luck to all the contestants.
Excellent Review.
I agree, this review made me what to check it out. Thank you.
- Robert
Excellent Review. I love this Program.
Absolutely useless on Windows 7 as it already includes special services to take care of that. Any MVP will tell us that Tune UP is useless
Windows is a closed source system. Developers of tuneup utilities and registry cleaners do not have the core code of Win 7 and are not working on definitive information, but rather they are going on past knowledge and experience, most of which is not applicable to Win 7. Automatic cleaners will usually have to do some guesswork.
There is almost no tweaking that can be done to Win 7 to speed it up. The system is designed to diagnose itself and take care of itself which it does remarkably well. Win 7 maintains itself and that includes the registry.
Registry cleaners are pure snake oil. At best they do nothing except use resources. At worst, they can mess your system up, slowing it down, and even crash it. There is no utility out there anywhere that can speed Win 7 up and improve its performance, at least not at this time.
Modifying registry keys incorrectly can cause Windows instability, or make Windows unbootable. No registry cleaner is completely safe and the potential is ever present to cause more problems than they claim to fix.
Registry cleaners cannot distinguish between good and bad. If you run a registry cleaner, it will delete all those keys which are obsolete and sitting idle; but in reality, those keys may well be needed by some programs or windows at a later time.
Windows 7 is much more efficient at managing the registry than previous Windows versions. Even if you use the CCleaner registry to delete keys left over when uninstalling programs, these few keys will not make 1 millisecond’s difference in performance. If you run CCleaner or any other registry cleaner and do not know precisely what you are doing, you will have problems down the road. There are no gains to be had from using a registry cleaner and the risk is great.
Forget all the “wisdom” you learned about XP. Windows 7 is not XP and does not manage the registry the same as XP.
This isn’t to say that the system does not need to be maintained. Uninstall programs that you don’t use, delete unneeded and unnecessary files. Defrag your hard drive. But don’t screw with the registry unless you are an in depth expert in the Win 7 registry.
Most of the time, the cure is a clean install. Using a program such as Ccleaner is fine to get rid of old and unnecessary files. A tuneup utility is not only unneeded, it can actually harm your system. Don’t use them.
Yowan;Thanks for a grain of truth amidst a desert of ignorance
Excellent Review. I love this Program. Thanks for Adding TuneUp Utilities As Well
I hope you do another contest like this. What a great piece of software.
Tune up utilities will make easy the maintenance of the system that will help to enhance the speed of the system. It is one of the best maintenance program/software for the PC.