Performing system maintenance and getting the best possible performance out of your machine is one of the more difficult and time consuming aspects of using a Microsoft Windows based computer. There are all manner of settings that can slow down your machine and applications that don’t behave very well which can degrade PC stability and performance.
TuneUp Utilities 2013 is a massive collection of programs designed to help you keep on top of of what’s going on with your PC and improve its performance in a number of interesting ways. It brings all of its features together with some very powerful automated tools that can keep things running smoothly without much, if any, interaction on your part. We’ll be taking a look at how the software can improve your PC using experience without forcing you to micromanage it yourself.
Keeping Up Appearances
The more you use a computer the more you rely on applications to help you in your day to day activities. Unfortunately, for all of us, that means we’re left to the whims of programs that might not play nicely with all of the other software on our machines. This is where TuneUp Utilities 2013 attempts to step in and keep things from getting out of control. The software builds on the success of their 2012 version, which was an already solid system maintenance utility, and brings along support for the new Microsoft Windows 8 operating system. If you happen to be running an older Windows version don’t worry the company also has extensive support for Windows 7, Vista, and XP packed in as well.
TuneUp Utilities 2013 has some tricks up its sleeve in the form of new applications such as a Disk Cleaner, Browser Cleaner, and Shortcut Cleaner which gets rid of the nasty buildup of long orphaned files and keeps your browser’s storage footprint in check. A major update sees its Live Optimization feature bumped up to version 2.0 which we’ll be taking a look at later on.
It’s difficult to approach a piece of software like this since it has a wide range of functions that touch on almost every part of your OS. So I’ll stick to a few of my favorites but, rest assured, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of ways for this software to handle common PC annoyances from cleaning up temporary files that applications toss on your machine to tweaking and managing Windows settings effectively.
Since the program offers so many methods to keep your system from being over run by rogue temporary files and registry entries the 1-Click Maintenance feature is likely to get some heavy use. With it you can cover the bulk of system maintenance issues that crop up in one fell swoop which can save you a bit of storage space and make things run smoothly. If you’re not the kind of person to click buttons you can set up Automatic Maintenance to perform the same clean up and defragmenting tasks at times you won’t be using your PC, which comes in quite handy.
A friendlier tweaking experience
It should be noted that the TuneUp Utilities 2013 goes to extreme lengths in being customizable so that it stays out of the portions of your system you don’t want it in. The vast majority of options they present you are safe to tweak and clean up but if you aren’t comfortable with defragmenting the registry or any other feature it offers you the option of disabling or ignoring areas of your OS.
Of course all of this system maintenance talk is nice and all but improving system performance and battery life is also a large part of the TuneUp Utilities 2013 draw. To that end they provide tools like the Program Deactivator which allows you to disable programs without having to uninstall them, freeing up resources for your OS and other programs to use. There’s also the Economy Mode option which guides you through switching off unnecessary Windows services that can lead to quite a bit more battery life on your laptop.
If one was forced to pin down one of the best features in the software’s bag of tricks it’s likely to be the Live Optimization option which has been upgraded to version 2.0. This particular utility monitors the system resource usage of applications you’re running then tailors your system’s response to it by lowering its priority automatically so your system doesn’t get bogged down by the program or elevates its resource usage temporarily to speed up those apps that can use a bit of a boost.
TuneUp Utilities 2013 is one of the best system maintenance and performance improvement programs available. Their extensive support for tweaking Windows settings, in every OS version going back to XP, and the lengths it goes to get the most out of your system means you won’t have much, if any, use for the glut of single use “tweaking” programs that are out there.
It’s hard to find any fault with the program. Its ease of use, well thought out help system, and tight integration enable you to know what the application is up to on your system which gives a higher level of confidence while using it not to mention the tweaking and performance improvements you’re likely to find, especially on machines that have a large number of applications and services running, makes TuneUp Utilities 2013 a great program and deserving of our Editor’s Choice Award.
Software provided by TuneUp Corporation
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