Description: Thoosje Quick XP Optimizer is a free program that provides 1-click performance enhancement for Windows XP, including faster startup, faster HD access, faster apps, faster intente, and faster overall system performance. It also offers the option to completely undo whatever intervention that it performed on a system.

I occasionally receive emails that say “help, my computer is slow and sluggish, how can I make it faster, do I have a virus?”. To these my standard response is: try to remove unnecessary entries from loading up on startup with a program like Starter, clean up your hard drive with something like CCleaner, install JKdefrag GUI and defrag the HD, and install a good freeware antivirus and antispyware programs and perform a scan (I do not generally recommend a registry cleaner so as not to be responsible if something goes wrong).

However, I also know that it is possible to optimize registry settings to boost performance, and “Thoosje Quick XP Optimizer” is a nice program that offers 1-click registry optimization. Here are more notes on this program:

• How it works: it optimizes Windows XP registry settings (removing limits and “useless checks”) and by removing unnecessary files/clutter from your harddrive. More info here.
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Rating: 5

Version tested: 0.8.7.7

Description: Xdn Tweaker is a free Windows tweaking program that can perform a number of useful and interesting Windows customizations. It features some interesting tweaks and a well designed interface.

I do not like most so-called Windows tweakers, and while I know that the more options a tweaker has the more it actually is able to do I find many of these programs to be (a) too much to handle because of all the possible configurations and tweaks, and (b) interchangeable; ultimately they all do the exact same thing, don’t they? The exception is Microsoft’s own TweakUI, which is a favorite of mine.

I recently tried Xdn Tweaker and liked it very much. The reason this one is different is that it seems to be a compilation of interesting tweaks that are presented in a very user friendly way. Each category in the left hand side panel contains 2 to 4 tweaks that are very well presented. Here are some of my favorites:

• Removing Windows Media player entries from the right-click context menu. (Yesss!)
• Adding a context menu entry when selecting a folder to open a command prompt within that folder.
• Ability to switch on/off the option to view zip & cab files as folders in explorer.
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Rating: 5

Version tested:  4.0.3.40

Description: Auslogics Registry Defrag can improve your system’s performance by compacting and improving your system’s ability to access the Windows registry.

In theory, and as programs are installed and/or removed from a system, the registry will not only grow in size but will also lose its linear structure, making it less responsive and causing increased access times. A registry defragmentation can reverse this, eliminating useless space that was previously allocated to now uninstalled applications as well as restore a linear structure to the registry that optimizes access times.

 I have come across many many registry defragmenting programs and the question that always comes to mind is: how effective can defragmenting a system’s registry in increasing a system’s speed? So, for example, if a program defragments the registry and tells me that my system can now access the registry, say, 8% faster than previously, will that translate in a noticeable difference in performance? Alas I have searched the Internet for information on this but was unable to find any research in this regard. What I can say, however, is that it simply feels good to have the registry defragmented, and I am even willing to accept in theory that there is a performance boost even when I have no objective way to measure it.

What I like about this program:

• Transparency/reporting: it produces reports and visual representations that show exactly what it did, giving it a sense of credibility. It tells you exactly how much space was saved by the optimization process and the percent increase in registry access speed that you can expect. It even lists the registry hives that were affected (see second screenshot). In contrast to this I’ve tried other freeware registry defragmenters that did their thing without much input as to what took place.

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Rating: 5 pick

Version tested: 2.0.3

Description: TCP Optimizer is a free program that provides 1-click acceleration of your internet connection through optimizing your internet registry settings.

The first question on many people’s minds whenever they hear of a program that purports to do something like this is invariably whether or not it is for real. The short answer to this question is yes; for the long answer, you can see the results below of my tests that I conducted with various TCP Optimizer settings.

There are 2 ways to use this program: if you are well versed with the different registry settings you can certainly perform your own custom tweaks across dozens of settings (go here for an explanation of all of these). For most of us, however, TCP Optimizer will automatically find out optimal settings based on one (or two) user inputs, as follows:
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Rating: 5

Version tested: 3.0.1

Description: TweakNow RegCleaner Standard is a free registry cleaner that will scour your system’s registry for useless/unneeded registry entries and optionally remove these for you. These entries are often left behind after the removal of software, cluttering the registry and possibly hindering your system’s overall performance.

First off, let me start by saying that as far as reviewing registry cleaners goes, I only have anecdotal evidence and/or impressions that I gleamed after using the software on my machine. In other words I do not have under my disposal any thorough testing of alternative registry cleaning software or a machine that is pre-loaded with carefully selected junk registry entries that I can then use to measure the performance of the software. I did compare the registry cleaning results from this program to the results I obtained by using RegSupreme (one of the best shareware registry cleaners out there in my opinion). More on that below.

Having said that, I will say that as far as anecdotal evidence goes, TweakNow RegCleaner does very well indeed. It is very quick in scanning your registry, maintains a backup of each registry cleaning session that you can use to ’undo’ any intervention that it makes, and has a very professional looking (and confidence inspiring) interface. It also offers 2 modes of registry scanning (quick scan and deep scan) and will allow you to do a custom search where you specify and/or exclude sections of the registry that you want to include in the scan. You can, moreover, set up an exclusion list for any found entries that you might want the program to overlook in future registry scans. Read more »

Rating: 5

Version tested: 1.2

Description: WinsockXP is a little program that can restore internet and network connectivity in the event that it is lost due to the corruption of registry keys. It does this by restoring the TCP, Winsock, and Hosts file to their default, working settings/values.

Yesterday, it happened. I was installing new software that I was testing out for Freewaregenius, when this one program (which shall remain unnamed) errored out and refused to be launched upon installation. I was using Altiris SVS to install it, as I do for most of the programs I try these days, and I thought that maybe that had something to do with it (I’ve noticed that a handful of programs do not install well with SVS, and will work only if installed normally). This particular program looked respectable and well designed (at least in terms of the screenshots that I saw of it)…. so I decided to take a chance and install it normally. Again, it didn’t work. The same strange error. I quickly uninstalled it with Zsoft Uninstaller, my favorite uninstall program, and decided to moved on.

But then I noticed that it had become impossible for me to get on the internet, or get any access to the network at work for that matter. My network admin person at work took a look and confirmed that the reason I couldn’t connect  was because something was changed on my machine. Naturally, the first thing that came to my mind was …. yaaaaaay!! I finally can test WinsockXP, a program that I had looked at and read about many months ago and that I was not able to test first hand. Until now, that is.
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Rating: 5

Version tested: 1.72

Description: PC Wizard 2007 is an advanced hardware detection, system analysis and benchmarking utility. It provides information on both your computer’s hardware and software.

I don’t build computers, nor am I a modder. I stumbled into PC Wizard because I recently got my hands a computer that badly needed a clean Windows install. Once I did this I was subsequently able to use PC Wizard to identify the computer’s hardware components (a job that it performed very well), in order to be able to go to the manufacturers’s websites and download all the drivers that I needed for the various hardware components to function properly.

All of what this program does is give you information: information on what hardware you have and the details of your software setup, such as what technologies you have installed, the details of your internet connection, your file associations, your startup programs, your installed version of DirectX, etc. But where it adds the most value is the benchmarking information functionality. You can look at your computer’s overall performance or otherwise you can benchmark individual components or processes, such as your CPU, memory, hard drives, or video performance.
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Rating: 5

Version tested: 1.0

Description: CrashDoctor is a program that is designed to recover crashing programs, preventing them from causing damage. It can also optionally provide a debugging functionality for the crashing program.

It is likely that, as you read this, you are thinking “but do these things ever work?”. Despite the five star rating I am giving this program, I really don’t know the answer to this question. However if you are wondering whether you should bother with something like this or if it could be at all useful, consider the following:

• Crashes, as the author of this software points out, are the result of bad programming, and there’s little that this program (or anything like it) can do about that.
• There is a single objective of recovering a crashing program: to get to an “unfrozen” state as to be able to save or copy your work that you may have spent a long time on. Read more »

Rting: 5

Version tested: 1.0 Beta

Description: Registry Distiller is a free registry cleaner that will optimize your system by removing obsolete and incorrect information from the registry, resulting in a faster computer that is less prone to errors.

The Windows registry is a database that stores settings, options and preferences pertaining to the operating system, software and hardware on a PC. Depending on what you do with your computer, the registry can grow cosiderably; in my experience, the registry tends to grow much like an untended garden. With time, especially if you install and/or uninstall a lot of software (like I do) it will invariably contain obsolete or incorrect information. These can slow your system’s performance and cause errors and/or crashed. If your system is sluggish or slow it very well may be due to registry problems. (Note that you should consider other reasons first, including: spyware/malware, a fragmented hard drive, faulty memory, too many programs running at once competing for your system resources, problems with your drivers). Read more »

Rating: 5

Version tested: 1.6

Description: PC Decrapifier is a program that will automatically remove a specific list of unwanted software that comes preinstalled on new computers. It was designed for programs that come preinstalled on DELL computers but will remove these from any PC. A list of the software that the version tested removes is provided here.

Most computers today come pre-loaded with all sorts of programs and services that the manufacturer installed for you. These include anything from AOL to the ubiquitous “Get high speed internet” icons to MS Photo Story and trial versions of Quickbooks. In my experience, many of these are (a) bloated programs that (b) take a lot of space, and (c) will most likely never be used. Many are lite or trial versions designed for a captive audience of users that are not computer savvy, with the hope that they will get used to the software foisted on them and end up paying for it. Read more »