A COMPLETE REVIEW: System Mechanic®7 Professional

[Kiran.dks]

Review of System Mechanic® 7 Professional
A System Analysis, Diagnosis and Security Solution

Manufacturer: iolo technologies®
My Rating: 4 out of 5

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INTRODUCTION

System Mechanic is a suite for troubleshooting and maintenance of PC.
It comes in two versions:

1. System Mechanic® 7 Professional
2. System Mechanic® 7 Standard




System Mechanic® Pro includes maintenance features and security based features like Antivirus protection, and Firewall Protection. It also comes with File Recovery and Drive Scrubber features.

System Mechanic® Standard is a trimmed version of Pro. It has only maintenance features.

PRICE (as on 14th Jan’ 2007)

System Mechanic® 7 Professional : $69.95 (US)

System Mechanic® 7 Standard : $49.95 (US)

INSTALLATION

Installation is pretty simple. I found no problems downloading the trial version. The trial version is fully functional for 30 Days.

INTERFACE

The interface is brand new and sleek. It is clean and simple for navigating through features. Many a times, I confused between the maximized software window and its manufacturers website window! Both look similar. The previous version interface was not at all doing justice to the potential of the software. It was very buggy and confusing.

FEATURES

1. QUICK AND DEEP ANALYSIS

As soon as you start System Mechanic® Pro, the first thing to do is System analysis. It comes in two modes viz. Quick analysis and Deep analysis.
It displays the approximate time to complete the analysis.



After analysis, the “System Health” and “System Security” are displayed. Problems are listed in the “Problem Task” list. You need to just select the check box and click “Repair Selected Problems”.



One much needed change is made in the analysis result. Previous version security status was totally dependent on the status of its inbuilt Iolo Antivirus and its Antispyware. If it was deactivated, the “Security Status” report says “Poor” even if you had best other brand Antivirus software. So the report was more or like dubious.
So at last they managed to rectify this. System Mechanic® 7 scans for installed Antivirus and Firewall softwares and it takes this into account while rating for “Security Status” report.

System Mechanic® 7 interface is redesigned completely. The navigation for optimization and diagnosis operations are lot simpler. Below is a pic of System Mechanic® 7’s tool kit.



Each Category is divided into two sections viz. “Total Solution” and “Tools for a Specific Problem”. So if you are sure what you want to do, gothrough second section else just click “Total Solution”. All the optimizations will be taken care by System Mechanic®.

IntelliStaus section shows the real-time stats of the system including Free RAM memory, Free HDD Space, Enabled Start-up Programs and Running Programs.



2. INCREASE PERFORMANCE

This category includes the following optimizations:
-Defragment Hard Drive
-Optimize Windows Start-up
-Optimize Internet Settings
-Defragment Memory
-Compact Registry
-Configure Boot-Time Defragmentation and
-Configure Right-Click Defragmentation




Defragmentation of HDD was pretty fast compared to its previous version. It consumed less system resources during the scan - much needed change in the program. Unlike Diskeeper 2007, System Mechanic® doesn’t have real-time HDD defragmenter. I would love to see this feature in its further editions.




You can designate frequenty used files that you want to be automatically defragmented at start-up using “Configure Boot-time Defragmentation” wizard.

Configure Right-Click Defragmentation wizard helps you to setup defragmentation in the right-click menu of any folder. You can right-click n any folder or file through Windows and then Defragment from the drop-down menu to defragment on-demand without starting System Mechanic® - very handy feature.

3. ENHANCE PROTECTION

This category includes the following optimizations:
-Fix Security Vulnerabilities
-Block Internet Popups
-Back Up or Restore Registry
-Configure Automatic System Defense
-Configure Virus Protection and
-Configure Internet Firewall

System Guard offers tools that protect key settings from being changed without your knowledge. Enabling this puts your system in real-time protection against changes in your system. An icon on the taskbar warns you about the changes in your system settings and allows you to take necessary decision.

iolo AntiVirus™



System Mechanic® Professional edition has in-built Antivirus scanner. It includes real-time scanner, email protection, and online virus definition updates.
To test the real-time capabilities, I disabled my avast! Antivirus and activated iolo AntiVirus™ real-time scanner and email scanner. Then updated the virus definitions. It is available in automatic mode as well as manual mode. The updates were fast. I had no problems in updating.



I opened the EICAR Standard Antivirus Test File in my browser. The real-time scanner instantly deleted the virus and threw out a warning message.


iolo Personal Firewall™




System Mechanic® Professional edition has in-built personal Firewall. It comprises of standard firewall shield, Network activity shield, and IntelliDefense shield.

iolo Personal Firewall™ is a recently developed program by iolo technologies. I felt the installation & maintaining the firewall very cumbersome. I activated the iolo Personal Firewall™ , activated all its shields and disabled my systems Zone alarm firewall. It prompted for a restart. After reboot, I was never allowed to do any thing in the system. Warning messages kept me busy for at least 30 min! It seems to be not understanding which process is authentic and which to block. It just blocked everything it came across. Even the ports connecting to C Drive were blocked. I kept on pressing allow, allow, allow…numerous number of times. It just refused to stop. Messages keep flooding.



The same message with different port number! Frustrated with it, at last I have to check in “Don’t show the messages anymore”! It blocked internet access too! It took me a while to understand what it is doing. Very cumbersome and confusing-certainly only for expert level. Since it is new into the market, it will take considerable time to make an effective and intelligent firewall. I immediately disabled it and enabled Zone Alarm.

4. FREE UP DRIVE SPACE

This is an effective tool to get rid of all junk from the PC. It removes Junk files, Internet Debris and also removes installed Programs effectively.

[Kiran.dks]

5. REPAIR PROBLEMS

This wizard helps in removing Spyware, Repair Registry Problems, Repair Broken Shortcuts, Repair Hard Drive Problems, Repair an Unbootable PC and also a tool to recover from disaster when a drive or entire system becomes unstable.

Repair and Unbootable PC: This wizard will help you in creating a Recovery Diskette in crisis. Just insert a floppy and click “Create Disk”. An bootable floppy disk will be ready!



System Mechanic Disaster Recovery:
This tool will let you recover from Disaster like HD failure, System Failure or Constant crashes.
The solution it offers to such disasters is:
-Fix damaged hard drives or partitions
-Rescue access to files and Data
-Restore unbootable systems
-Repair a highly unstable OS



6. ENSURE PERSONAL PRIVACY

This tool will clear all the data relevant to your privacy.
This includes:
-Clearing Internet Browsing history
-Securely Delete files
-Permanently remove deleted files
-Permanently wipe all data from a drive
-Desktop file Incinerator lets you configure permanently delete files and folders in Windows.

Iolo DriveScrubber®3

A wonderful tool which wipes all the deleted data in HDD. An analysis will show you how much data is insecure that can be retrieved by using recovery tools.



It will also let you wipe entire drive by overwriting data on the sectors repeatedly- thus making it secure to sell or dispose off!

Incinerator

A nice tool that permanently and securely deletes files or folders. It functions similarly to the Recycle Bin and offers right-click menu access for fast and secure deletions.

7. MANAGE SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

This wizard will help you in:
-Configuring Windows Start-up
-Manage Running Programs
-Customize Advanced Windows and Internet Settings
-Relocate Installed Programs
-Find Duplicate Files


Move Programs:
This handy tool will let you seamlessly move applications from one place to another, including one drive to another.




8. RECOVER DELETED DATA

As the name indicates, it is a recovery tool. It includes:
-Recovering all Data on a Drive or Disk
-Recover Deleted files
-Recover Deleted Pictures and Movies
-Recover Deleted Songs and sounds
-Recover Deleted E-mails

9. PERFORM DIAGNOSTICS

This tool will let you undergo Diagnosis of your PC.
It gives detailed System Information Report. Most of the categories are included, but they missed out temperature of HDD and CPU, which I think must be a part of any Diagnosis tool. SIW (My previous review ) is better than System Mechanic® Diagnosis tool.




Track and Report System Changes

You can save the current system state for future comparison. This tool is handy to verify any serious changes made in your system during your absence. Assume you are going for a vacation, leaving your PC open for other family members or friends. Before leaving for vacation, save the current system state using the above tool. Once returned back, click “Compare” and there you are! A list of all the changes made in your system at your finger tips. It is left to you whom shall you blame for messing around with your system!





Final Words:
iolo AntiVirus™, iolo Personal Firewall™ being new to this segment, should take considerable time in establishing position in the market flooded with many big players in this segment. iolo Personal Firewall™ is something in which they should really work on. Make it more intelligent rather than blocking everything in its path.

In all this is a comprehensive all-in-one system tool solution for maintainance for your PC. I recommend it for its simplicity and good features.


Comments and feedback is something which really motivates me. I always welcome those.

[ajayashish]

Great review... thanks

[Tech Geek]

nice review
do you own the software?
you wrote such a good review

[anandk]

^ the image shows he is using a trial version.

nice exhaustive review.

foe those who may not know, systemmechanic uses the kaspersky av defns/engine.

[Kiran.dks]

First of all, I appreciate your feedback guys!

To tech_geek: As anand said, I used evaluation version for review.

To anand: Yep! It was really a exhaustive review. It took me around 10 hrs for successful completion of the review!

[Tech Geek]

10hrs

[n2casey]

Great review Kiran. Thx.

[Third Eye]

nice review man.

[Ron]

Nice review........

[koolbluez]

nice one... my fav pc mechanic btw. The defragmenter is kool.

[Ron]

Nice Review Man.....

[Kiran.dks]

Welcome everybody!

Originally Posted by Tech_Geek
10hrs

Yes 10Hrs!

To karnivore: Posting Crack is not allowed here. Edit your post before you land up in trouble. Moderator may ban you.

[karnivore]

Originally Posted by Kiran_tech_mania

Welcome everybody!



Yes 10Hrs!

To karnivore: Posting Crack is not allowed here. Edit your post before you land up in trouble. Moderator may ban you.

Thanks for the warning.........................

[Ankur Gupta]

thanx a lot for the review...will surely try this one!

[Vishal Gupta]

Nice work there
Keep it up buddy

[varunprabhakar]

nice review man.

[hemant_mathur]

Thanx for the review.

[Kiran.dks]

I appreciate everybody for their valuable feedback.

[Tapomay]

Really a great review. Thanks...

[blackleopard92]

it's a great review
i got a question. does system mechanic put up some start up programs? and runs background programs?

[navjotjsingh]

Excellent Review Buddy!

[NIGHTMARE]

good one

[Kiran.dks]

Nice to see valuable feedback! Thanks.

Originally Posted by blackleopard92

it's a great review
i got a question. does system mechanic put up some start up programs? and runs background programs?

Yes. It adds start-up entries and some processes depending uopn which services you activate. Activating AntiVirus, Firewall and Standard Shield will add up more processes.
__________
Onemore thing to highlight guys....I appreciate all the feedback, but most of them forget the 'rep' icon!

[Mahesh_Bendale]

Very nice review ... I will try this software.
I have one question :-
Which is better one Standard version or Pro version ?

[anandk]

pro has av loaded in it. if u already have a av, use std. version.

[Kiran.dks]

Mahesh,
Pro version comes with in-built security features .i.e. Antivirus and Firewall. If you need these too, then go for Pro, else stick to std version.
Note that the effectiveness of these in-built antivirus & firewall is hard to tell right now.

[monkey]

Nice review. Just for info: I own Sys Mech Prof 6 and it too has AV and firewall inbuilt. So it is not new feature for Sys Mech 7.

[Faun]

Well crafted review. Thanx.

Somehow its a bloatware. Version 5 is still the best offering from Iolo.

[Kiran.dks]

I appreciate all your feedbacks....
T159, I don't agree that System Mechanic®7 is a bloatware. There are lot of improvements in the engines. I also used System Mechanic® earlier versions. The latest version comsumes far less resource than its older versions. The best change which one could easily notice is the new interface. It is much stable and well organised. HDD defragmenter works faster and consumes less resource in version 7.