Iolo originally sent me a copy of System Mechanic ($34.95) to review last year. My original results were mixed. It reported a number of errors, but after running the suggested corrections, things didn't run any better.
Perhaps it was a case of "if it ain't broken, don't fix it". I quietly uninstalled the program and didn't think much about it until today when my system started acting very wonky.
I tried to install XP SP3. The first couple of installations failed, but the third finished. Unfortunately, the updated system was nightmarishly slow. Web pages started stuttering, applications were barely functioning.
I scanned for viruses, trojans, and malware. I defragged. I considered switching to a Mac.
I was about to bring up Norton Ghost to refresh my PC when I remembered that old copy of System Mechanic.
I installed the package and let it run its analysis. The program gives you an opportunity to review its proposed changes to your system, or you can just put it on "auto". I wanted to see what it was doing so I looked under the hood. Most of the changes made sense, though I truly doubted that anything was going o make my system functional again.
After running through a registry checker, parsing my start-up programs and optimizing my internet connection I restarted the computer.
Lo and behold, the system worked again.
So, let me give credit to System Mechanic. In real world testing, when I was just about ready to give up on this installation of Windows, System Mechanic fixed everything in about twenty minutes. I couldn't have asked for more than that.
Face it, we've all seen installations of Windows that were beyond repair - that's why we backup, right? I'm not going to promise you that System Mechanic will do the same wonders on your system that it did on mine, but this is one utility that delivered on its promise. My PC, the very same one that I was about to reformat, is working excellently thanks to a visit from the System Mechanic.
