System Mechanic 8 is the latest incarnation of iolo technologies PC tune up software. Formed in 1998, iolo is recognized worldwide as the market-leading provider of PC tune-up software and is best known for its award-winning System Mechanic family of products.

As your PC is utilized more and more, its performance seems to slowly degrade and become more sluggish. With System Mechanic 8 on board, these issues are addressed pro actively, keeping your operating system running at its peak performance. System Mechanic 8 cleans unwanted services from startup, optimizes the registry, fine tunes the internet settings, defragments system memory and hard drives, repair hard drive error and much, much more.

When I had a chance to talk to one of the representatives from iolo at the Pepcom show, they stressed how System Mechanic 8 was ideal for both the neophyte PC user and the power user.

For the beginner, System Mechanic 8 offers “fix and forget” capability. One click repairs and power tools allow automated repair and maintenance of your PC. The ActiveCare technology allows System Mechanic 8 to do all the work and fix issues as they arise.

The power use has over forty tools to choose from and allows tweaking of system performance tools. The Intellistatus technology allows the user to visualize key statistics and track performance.

Iolo also allows System Mechanic 8 to be installed on up to three computers per license. This helps protect your laptop, desktop and one additional family computer.

So let's take a closer look at the latest version of System Mechanic.

System Mechanic 8 Review

Reviewed by: Tomas Ratas

Sponsor: iolo

Tech Specs, Features and the Basic Info:

System Mechanic 8

ActiveCare 2.0 keeps your PC running like new — Now smarter, leaner and fully configurable

New ActiveCare 2.0 just got leaner, smarter, and even better at keeping your PC humming along at full speed. And it does this silently in the background, only working when your PC is on but not in use.

ActiveCare 2.0 has new options to give you full control over how and when it runs, and ActiveCare's idle-time processing has been refined to detect battery power, CPU activity, and more, so that it truly does operate without ever interfering.

Defragment and Compact Registry tool — Registry optimization with graphical feedback

Our next–generation Defragment and Compact Registry tool now performs a comprehensive analysis of your registry, detects performance–draining bloat, and displays wasted space with instructive, color–coded graphics.

It then removes the bloat and defragments your registry at the next system startup.

DriveSense — Real-time hard drive status

For expert users, the new DriveSense provides real–time data about the status of hard drives, including drive temperature and other indicators of drive reliability.

More new features and enhancements

New navigational links within the tools simplify moving throughout System Mechanic.

iolo's library of programs and program components has been expanded to target resource-robbing programs unnecessarily clogging your PC's startup process and to detect potentially dangerous software.

System Mechanic now inherits your Windows Vista Aero theme for an integrated look and feel.

Access to Windows Firewall is now integrated into System Mechanic for seamless updates and configurations. And if no firewall protection is detected, System Mechanic will alert and help you to turn on the Windows Firewall.

One click does it all with PC TotalCare

With one click System Mechanic lets you repair and speed up your PC. Then it “silently” monitors your system, running needed repairs automatically to keep you at peak performance.

PC TotalCare performs a complete system tune-up by running all Power Tool functions in one pass:

PC Repair Wizard

Fix hundreds of stubborn problems including hard drive crashes, system conflicts, program errors and more.

Repairs Registry problems

Repairs hard drive problems

Emergency CD revives downed systems

Fixes or removes broken shortcuts

Proactively and automatically maintains PC

PC Accelerator Wizard

Increase PC speeds up to 300% by eliminating performance bottlenecks and data fragmentation.

High-speed, single-file, and low-level drive defrag

Automatically accelerates PC startup 19 ways

Boosts internet speeds up to 300%

Defragments and recovers memory in real time

Compacts and defragments Registry

PC Cleanup Wizard

Safely sweep away gigabytes of system clutter that wastes space and produces errors.

Cleans up over 40 different types of junk files

Removes invalid uninstallers and programs

Wipes internet history, clutter and cache

PC Security Wizard

Terminate sneaky malware and automatically repair security flaws that leave you open to attack from hackers, viruses and identity thieves.

Advanced spyware protection

Repairs security vulnerabilities

Military-standard secure file wiping

Automatically blocks dangerous or unwanted programs and configuration changes

Erases browser, MS Office and search history

Patent-pending ActiveCare

Only System Mechanic has ActiveCare technology that repairs problems and speeds up your PC automatically during idle time -- effortlessly keeping your system running like new.

Key ActiveCare Features:

Works silently in the background to keep your system always running at maximum speed and stability

Only runs when your PC is idle, never impacting performance or interrupting work

Immediately releases control if you start using the PC when it is

No annoying prompts or slowdowns normally caused by "calendar-based" schedulers

Only performs the necessary tune-up actions required based on real-time system analysis

Additional tools

Complete Registry Repair and Optimization

The Windows Registry is the single most important component of your operating system, and it’s also where 90% of computer problems originate. System Mechanic’s powerful Registry Repair tools clean, optimize, fix, defragment, back up, and compact your registry while always maintaining an absolute focus on Registry safety and security.

Netbooster

Accelerate your internet speed up to 300%. With one click, NetBooster improves your downloading, online gaming, and web surfing speeds beyond what you thought possible by automatically configuring powerful hidden settings that allow faster data transfer over your existing connection.

Advanced Disk Defrag

System Mechanic gives you four powerful disk defrag tools:

High-speed Disk Defrag to defragment hard drives up to 30 times faster than other defragmentation tools

Boot-time Defrag to optimize key “locked” system files that can’t be defragged while Windows is running

Low-level Ultra-deep Defragmentation to intelligently organize drive data for maximum program performance and long-lasting data contiguity

Right-click Defragmentation for instant access to System Mechanic’s powerful file defragmentation technology from anywhere within Windows.

DriveMedic

This emergency rescue CD restores and automatically repairs downed systems and drives, partitions, boot records, and more. Simply insert your recovery disk (or let System Mechanic create one for you), restart your PC, and DriveMedic will have you up and running in no time.

System Customizer

Gives you immediate access to over one hundred powerful undocumented Windows settings, so you can optimize the Windows Start Menu, speed up networking performance, log in automatically, edit registration data, change multimedia behavior, improve pagefile security, edit advanced administration options and much more.

Incinerator

Simply deleting a file, picture or document does not erase the data. This information actually stays on your drive, where snoops and criminals can easily find and view your private data. System Mechanic’s Incinerator provides instant desktop access to military-strength data-wiping technology, allowing you to erase files so they cannot be recovered even by the most advanced forensic techniques.

SafetyNet

With SafetyNet, you can undo any action performed by System Mechanic and revert your PC back its prior state. This powerful feature ensures that all repairs and optimizations made to your PC by System Mechanic are safe and worry-free.

IntelliStatus

Easy access to the heartbeat of your PC. IntelliStatus provides important system information visually and in real-time. It displays comprehensive system statistics that allow you to track your computer’s performance and analyze potential threats to PC health, locate performance bottlenecks, know if any unknown or unauthorized programs are running, and much more.

Price: $49.95 for 1 year