In the sea of PC optimization software, it can be hard to find the right set of tools to keep your computer
in tip-top shape. Luckily, TuneUp Utilities is here. A 16-year veteran in the field of Computer Cleanup,
TuneUp offers the latest revision of their famous TuneUp Utilities 2013, with some new tools and major
fixes that promise to improve the performance of any PC. The best part is that TU gives you full
functionality.
TuneUp Utilities installation is relatively painless while taking up no more than 80MB of disk space. The
program does require you to consent to sharing information about your machine in order to install. This is
so TU can send system information to their server and check if there are any recent updates to the
software or OS of your computer. Upon installation, 1-Click Maintenance will ask to run. This is the core
of the utility. 1-Click will check everything including the registry, registry fragmentation, application
shortcuts, Windows and program files, and hard disk fragmentation to find things that could use tidying
up.These are some pretty standard protocols. Regular users will be satisfied with the 1-Click
Maintenance tool as it is the main tool of TuneUp. After a successful scan, 1-Click will list all of the
issues and subsequently list solutions. For my main machine, it was mostly registry errors and shortcuts
from software testing. Clicking on the issue count will bring up a report of what TU found. From there
you'll have an option to choose what to ignore or fix. Looking at 500 registry errors and 345 browser
items, I got the feeling that TuneUp is not very discriminating about what it labels as a problem.
"Anything that can be removed in exchange for performance must go" is the philosophy here. With a
click of a button TuneUp will solve all of your problems. Additionally, the utility makes backups just in
case something goes horribly wrong -- good practice for whenever you stick your hands in the
registry jar.
Aside from 1-Click Maintenance, TuneUp Utilities 2013 also boasts a variety of tools to speed up overall
performance. TU can help with optimizing your display/animation settings, removing software, and
disabling startup programs. TU also includes a new tool called "Live Optimization." Live Optimization
claims to prioritize programs that run in the background and will only dedicate processing power to those
applications when they are being used. I saw it running on Adobe Acrobat and IrfanView when those
programs were minimized. However, the differences may not be noticeable at first. The majority of the
optimizing tools require some effort on your part to customize the settings to your personal usage.
Luckily,TuneUp gives you 2 extra modes: "Economy" and "Turbo" to set your optimization to your
specific need."Economy" is nice for laptop users looking to maximize their battery life with options similar
to the power-saving mode built into Windows. "Turbo" allows you to schedule optimization and cleanup
frequency as to not interrupt important moments when you need to squeeze the most power out of your
machine. These modes can be switched on the fly. Uninstallation was simple and tidy. TU left few
traces on both my Windows 7 and Windows 8 machines after removal, although it did require me to go
through Windows' Control Panel to uninstall.
Overall, I felt that the utility did what it claims to do and did it well. The test PCs booted up faster with
the recommended optimization, which also improved overall responsiveness when launching applications
and running programs. It might not make your computer feel brand new but it should improve performance
enough to hold the format monster at bay. There are some powerful optimizing tools in TuneUp Utilities
that I barely scratched in this review. Intermediate users will enjoy its full functionality but novice users
should still be able to get most benefits that TU offers. Take advantage of the 15-day trial and discover
how TuneUp Utilities 2013 is a serious contender in the optimizing market.
Features:
With a robust set of new features, TuneUp Utilities 2013 now has powerful weapons on the market to
fight data clutter. The brand new TuneUp Disk Cleaner is one of the most comprehensive and safest PC
cleaners available. It quickly and thoroughly deletes program residue and data clutter to give your PC air
to breathe, run faster and more reliably. The improved TuneUp Registry cleans registry entries better than
ever, while the enhanced TuneUp Shortcut Cleaner remains unmatched in removing orphaned shortcuts.
Plus, the new TuneUp Process Manager helps you identify all those resource-hungry applications that
hinder PC speed and performance.
The TuneUp Browser Cleaner quickly and easily protects your privacy by deleting traces left by Internet
Explorer, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, Firefox, and other browsers, while also optimizing browser
databases. The improved TuneUp Live Optimization provides performance boosts when you need them by
recalling which programs and processes slow down your PC and allowing you switch these to "Standby"
mode, with the help of TuneUp Program Deactivator. In addition, TuneUp Process Manager helps you
detect resource-hungry applications even faster. The easy-to-understand information on all background
processes shows you exactly what's running on your PC. And last, but not least, the new cleaning
features raise 1-Click-Maintenance and Automatic Maintenance to a completely new level in PC
optimization.
