SpeedUpMyPC 3 – Full Review

Uniblue is now at version 3.0 of their SpeedUpMyPC product. The product is one of the many PC tools they have. SpeedUpMyPC is a software product to improve the performance of your PC by optimizing disk, memory and CPU usage. We reviewed SpeedUpMyPC 3.0 to see what the tool has to offer.

Installation

The download file is a little over 4 MB, which is not too much considering today’s internet bandwidth speeds. Downloading the installation file is fast (relative to the connection speed of course).

The installation process makes use of a nice looking wizard, simple and clean.

The wizard allows you to select the installation location, where it will require about 18 MB to install the software. Nice touch: the installer by default suggests to not install a desktop icon and program group. Considering all the software we install in our PC’s on a regular basis, keeping the desktop and program group clean and accessible is a mission in itself.

Configuration

Once you start the program, you are presented with a pleasant tabbed program interface. The first thing I always like to check out is the configuration, so we skip to the Settings tab.

Here we see two further options, General and Clean Up. The General settings has the basic application options:

• startup of application when Windows starts
• show the application in the system tray (again nice, since system trays also often overflow!)
• start the scan when the application starts

All good standard features to maximize the user friendliness of the application.

Moving on to the Clean Up settings, we see the control over the recycle bin. The default Windows setting is to use the trashcan, but we can also select the safe file delete. The dropdown list allows you to select each individual drive to apply the settings to.

Program Features

Coming to the core of the tool, we look at the program features. Since there are so many aspects that affect the performance of a PC, it is important that as many of these aspects are addressed as possible.

Moving backwards through the tabs we see the Clean Up tab. The Clean Up module controls the cleanup of files on the computer. In the first section we can control file removal:

• temporary files
• dump files
• lost clusters
• backup files
• other junk files

By default all are selected, but you can individually select each of the options. A very nice feature is that you are not restricted to these main categories, clicking the magnifying glass next to each option shows a detailed view of all items in the category.

The file removal is based on file extension and the detailed views allow you to add your own extension, extending the power of the tool. Although it will require the user knows a little of file extensions, we like the idea that you can maximize the file clean up feature.

Coming to the Privacy cleanup, we can see quite a few options for erasing privacy sensitive data.

Again the user can select and deselect each cleanup option. The list is extensive and will erase most common locations for privacy data and history data.

The File Shredder is a secure delete module. It clears the actual file locations of deleted files. Windows only deletes the file reference and file header in a file delete action, not the actual file data. So with the proper tools people can restore the file or at least part of the file. The file shredder makes this restore operation impossible by erasing the file data. Usage is pretty straightforward, simply click the Add Files or Add Folders button and select the files or folders to shred.

The Uninstall option brings us to an uninstall manager. Similar to the Windows program uninstall feature in the control panel, but convenient to have it integrated in this tool.

Moving back another tab, we find the Optimization tab. This module offers optimization of memory, CPU, disk, Internet and startup. That looks like an extensive list, so let’s see what each entails.

Starting with the memory optimization module, we see a dynamic graph of the memory usage.

This can be used if you want to analyze a program’s memory usage, but it does the same as the Performance Tab in the Windows Task Manager. Not available in the task manager are the Free Up RAM and Deep RAM Recovery options. The Graph below shows the result of the Free Up RAM button. It takes a bit of processing, but there is definitely a result.

The Deep RAM Recovery brings down the used memory even further…

The basic concept of the memory free up is to defragment the memory in the same way a disk can be defragmented. In addition shareable program units (DLL’s) can be forced to unload from memory. Windows can leave these modules in memory so it does not need to be loaded again if the functionality is required later. If you are running your PC over longer periods of time and don’t restart every day, the memory recovery functions are practical options.

The CPU optimization again shows a graph, this time with the CPU usage. The optimization part consists of an application booster. If we click the button, we see a list of all running processes and applications.

Using the plus and minus buttons next to the bar graphs, we can assign a higher priority to each individual process. Since this is manual, it will probably not be the most used program feature. If you have an application of which you know it takes a lot of resources, this module offers a simple way to assign the extra resources. Think of video editing applications or calculation intensive image processing applications. We must note that the Windows Task Manager also offers the possibility to assign a higher priority to a process in the Process tab.

The Disk Optimization is actually only a monitoring tool. The graphical representation of the disk I/O is nice, but I would have expected to see a defragmentation module or at least control of the many disk performance tweaks that are available for Windows. Maybe this is something that can be considered for a future version.

The Internet Optimization feature allows the user to optimize the internet connection. The user interface allows you to select the network connection interface and the connection type (or connection speed). Based on these settings the program optimizes the various IP timing settings, which speed up the internet connection.

Startup Optimization controls the startup programs. A list of all startup items enable the user to deselect the applications and processes that are not needed and optimize the computer startup. We find that removing startup applications can really help reduce the Windows startup time. There are too many applications that install components that start at computer startup.

The last tab on the interface is the Overview tab. Here we see which of the individual modules have been executed and when. The Start Scan button is a simple way to invoke all program modules at once, cleaning up and optimizing the computer in one go.

PC Scan & Actions

Clicking the Start Scan button starts off the optimization process.

Unlike some of the other PC optimization tools, you can not specify what the scan actually executes. Instead, SpeedUpMyPC scans all areas and when it displays the result, you can choose which aspects to improve. Although it might be nice to control what to scan for, so the processing time can be reduced, this approach does ensure that you are made aware of performance problems, since everything is checked.

Optimization Results

We find that the cleanup and optimizations process is thorough and effective. There are no big secrets anymore to Windows optimization, so it is really a matter of how they are implemented in the tool. SpeedUpMyPC 3.0 is easy to use and yet powerful.

When the program is running it takes a little over 8 MB of memory and can take between 0% and 5% of CPU time. Compared to many other running tools and processes this is not a lot of memory and the 5% is a peak value, average is more like 1%.

Application Support

Uniblue, the company behind the SpeedUpMyPC product offers both e-mail and telephonic support. The e-mail system is a straightforward online ticket system. Their website however has an extensive support knowledge base, so chances are high of finding answers to common problems and questions online. Their telephonic support is limited to office hours. The reason I mention this is because they operate in Europe, so CET applies.

Product Price

At the time of this review, the price for the Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC software product is $29.95. This is comparable to many related products.
If you are interested in trying the software, you can download an evaluation version that allows you to scan your PC.