Free System Tools And Utilities...
With more and more system demands being made on our PCs these days, it’s no wonder that from time to time we have to do a bit of housekeeping jut to keep them running at all, let alone at their best. And you’d be amazed just how much debris you accumulate in your system just performing average computer task like Net surfing, emailing, and adding and deleting programs. Now, there are many commercial products out there touting for your system maintenance business, but with most people under the gun in the current economic climate, the budget doesn’t always run to anything bar the essentials.
With that in mind, I took a trawl around the Net to see what free software is available to do the job. I found heaps of standalone utilities to adequately carry out individual processes, but Glary Utilities really caught my eye, because it could accomplish all these tasks and more in one integrated product. And the good news is that, apart from being free, it is only a 6.32M download for the whole suite. However, you will need a modest 20M of free disk space for its operation.
Another plus with this set of tools is that they are very speedy, both when scanning and repairing, so you won’t have your PC out of commission for more than a few minutes.
Where Do You Get It?
To download Glary Utilities, go to www.glaryutilities.com/index.html and click on the Download bar under Glary Utilities 100% freeware - the other product, Glary Utilities Pro, will cost you money, although a free 30-day trial is offered. You will then be taken to another page on the Glarysoft site where you’ll need to click on the ‘Download free Glary Utilities Now’. This will take you to a download page. Click on ‘Download Now’ and the download will begin. If it doesn’t begin in the next few seconds, click on ‘click here’ to start it. You will be asked where to download the gusetupmew.exe file to. When you’re asked if you want to run the file, click on OK. The next screen is where you set a language for the program - English is the default, so unless you have another preferred language, click on OK.
Installing The Program
At the next screen, before installation, it is recommended that you close all other programs to minimise any errors occurring, so do this and then click on Next. The following screen asks you to accept the License Agreement - select ‘I agree’ and click on Next. You’ll then be asked if you want to install the Ask toolbar and/or set Ask as the default search engine - I recommend you uncheck the first box and the second option will automatically grey out, then click on Next.
The next step is to choose the location where you want the program files installed. The default is in C:\Program Files\Glary Utilities - unless you particularly want it in another location (click Browse if you do and locate your preferred destination), click on Next. The following screen creates a folder in the Start Menu; the default is named Glary Utilities, so click on Next unless you want to store it in a different Start Folder. The next screen allows you to create a Desktop and/or Quick Launch icon. This is a matter of personal preference, so make your choice, then click on Next. Click on Finish on the next screen to complete the installation - you can launch the program from this screen by leaving the ‘Launch Glary Utilities’ checked, or uncheck it and launch it via your preffered method using either the Start Menu or any of the icons you created for the program during the installation process.
1-Click Maintenance
When you launch the program, the 1-Click Maintenance tab is selected. For most users, running this routine regularly will keep your computer ship-shape. In just one click, it scans the registry and fixes incorrect and invalid entries; cleans up invalid shortcuts; cleans up dangerous start-up entries; cleans up temporary files and recovers disk space; and removes spyware and adware. You’ll also see that it has a Tracks Eraser, which erases your activity history and Internet traces, but it isn’t checked by default. This is because many Internet users do like to have access to this information, for instance, to find a site that you have visited but can’t remember the Web address of, or perhaps to keep track of what sites the kids are visiting in your absence. You can leave this box unchecked or check it as desired.
To scan your system, click on ‘Scan for Issues’ and let the program work its way through the various processes. A progress bar will appear to tell you which part of the program is currently scanning your system and where it’s up to in the task. Where there are problems detected, you can view more information by clicking on ‘View Details’. For the Registry Cleaner tool, if you view the details, you’ll find that the problems detected relate to ‘orphaned’ registry keys - where they point to a file that no longer exists, or they contain no data. This comes about in the normal course of adding and removing programs, where even though you have followed all the correct procedures, not all traces are removed. These keys are just clogging up your system and making it run slower, likewise with temporary files. So, you can quite safely click on ‘Repair Problems’ to remove both and free up an often significant amount of system resources.
If this is the first time you’ve used a program like this, or you haven’t used one for some time, you’ll probably be shocked by the number of problems detected in the registry and the amount of disk space that is being taken up by temporary files. For example when we ran the 1-Click Maintenance tools through one of our office machines, we salvaged over 1G of space on its hard drive.
Advanced Options
While the 1-Click Maintenance will satisfy the needs of most users, there are other tools available in the suite for more specific tasks. To explore these, launch the program and click on the Modules tab. You’ll find all the tools in the 1-Click Maintenance check in amongst the different categories in this tab, but there is also a range of other useful tools that might just do the trick if you are having a particular problem with your system that needs fixing.
There are five different categories of tools in the Modules section. Here is a rundown of the tools you’ll find in each and what they do:
Clean Up And Repair
Optimise & Improve
Privacy & Security
Files & Folders
System Tools
Status Bar
