Customer Reviews

Fix-It Utilities 10 Professional [Old Version]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I've been using Fix-It for many years, upgrading every year or so. Version 10 installed normally on my Dell XPS600 running Windows XP with Service Pack 3. The online update installed without problems. The utilities all functioned as expected, though every year they add a few more features, making it more complicated to use. When I tried to download the latest anti-virus tables I got a "Your serial number is no longer valid" error message.
The product was brand new disk version from Amazon, installed the day it was received. I embarked on the all-too-familiar time wasting tech support journey. After four rounds of emails and responses that failed to remedy the problem over the course of a week, I phoned tech support. After 45 minutes of "help" on the phone, they handed me off to Tier 3. They said to uninstall Version 10, remove all related hard disk entries manually, and reinstall it. That didn't work either.
Good for you if yours is working, but mine is going back to Amazon.

I have used Fix-It for several years on my desktop XP machine, and have dutifully upgraded with each new release. This time I wish I had not.
I originally installed this software to clean-up the registry mess left behind by some products with very poor install/removal (can you say Norton?), and it performed admirably in that regard. That's why I bought it in the first place, and that's really all I've ever wanted it to do for me. Give me a product that does one thing, really well, and I'll stick with it; Fix-It did just that for me ... I emphasize "did."
Over the past few releases Avanquest has added more and more "features" to the software, which do not perform to the same high level, and which I do not want. Hey, what do I know though, right? Apparently in the eyes of Avanquest, I WILL get their security features, and I will like them!
Have been increasingly annoyed by this trend, but also able to work around it ... until now.
Let me start by pointing out their installation software LIES about not mucking with your current antivirus installation when you uncheck their box ... clearly they never intend/believe anyone would actually be so bold as to not use their POS security s/w, so they ignore the setting! Installing this s/w, with the boxes unchecked, still resulted in it trying to take control of my system's security ... it also broke my install of VIPRE (an excellent AV product I had already ... why would I want to use the lame Fix-It AV when I have VIPRE? I wouldn't!), and I had to uninstall VIPRE, then reinstall/license to restore its functionality.
Good job Avanquest! Great business strategy there, break the competition's install when your product is put on the system ... nice. Guess what A-holes, you just lost me as a future customer, for that alone!
Then even after tinkering to have it play nice with my AV, it still hogs resources to "monitor" my system security ... where the heck is the "disable" option? No, the least intrusive setting is "monitor," and it just gets worse from there. Finally, every time I log off my system now, I get a cryptic error from mxtask2.exe, which is a Fix-It background process ... probably the BS that's doing the "monitoring" of my system I don't even want.
It's a real shame, because the core utilities in this package ... the stuff I really want, and why I bought it in the first place ... are still excellent, but they just HAD to jump on the "do everything" bandwagon and lump their worthless security s/w in with the package.
This is not a quality AV package ... why does Avanquest force this down my throat? I do not want it, and already have much a better solution to those issues. All I want is the freakin' "utilities" not all the superfluous Mickey Mouse they will not let me bypass.
Oh well, I have had enough ... this was my very last Fix-It upgrade.
If you already have an older version installed, do NOT bother with this upgrade! You will regret it ...

I purchased this product because it said that it worked in a Windows 7 64 bit system. The product identified items on the computer to be fixed, but could not fix them. After running the fix, my computer slowed down to the point that some programs would take fifteen or twenty minutes to load. The program prevented me from restoring to a point prior to the install and did not show up in the list of programs to delete. It disabled the Task Manager, so I could not end the program's processes. Only by re-installing the program, was I able to get rid of it. After the program was removed from my computer, my computer began operating correctly again. The program was easy to install, but not so easy to uninstall.

I have to give the company credit for providing a fairly fast refund. Although you are warned that a refund might take 3 to 4 weeks, my Palpal account had the money within days.

I used Fix-It Utilities on two computers; fortunately only one of them crashed. One computer was running 32-bit Vista and the other 64-bit Windows 7; both computer had items identified to be fixed, but the software could not fix them. The problem was removing junk files, a simple routine. If you purchase the product, keep your receipts and remember that there is a limited time to request a refund.

The reviewers seem to be at opposite spectrum of this program. The program will either work very well for you or not. When it doesn't work well, it becomes a very large problem for you. I spent two days trying to disable the program. It could be done in safe mode, and when running in regular windows the computer came to a grinding halt. I would start up a program and then return to the computer hours later to see if the window had opened. I have to say, Fix-It gave me "special time" with my computer... I said a lot of harsh words to her. My poor baby!

I have used Fix-It Utilities through many iterations. In both versions 8 and 9 the defrag software would not work and the antivirus tables would not update from the very beginning. Avantquest makes it very difficult to get any customer support for the product. I would advise against anyone buying this software until Avantquest decides to fix the problems with the software so it will work generically with any computer system. I also would not even consider this software anymore until the decide to open direct phone or IM communications with the company for customer support. Without these fixes this software is just so much junk and virtually worthless.

I rarely write reviews, but if I could help someone else avoid the trouble I have been through, it will be worth it. I am not new to computers so this is not something I did. I did not pay for the program. It came with a Kaspersky Suite I bought. From the moment I installed this thing, my computer slowed down to a crawl. At first I thought it was Kaspersky, but when I finally got this program uninstalled and my computer now works again, I have confirmed Fix It was the culprit. The program actually seems like a really nice program, but I just installed a competitor and it is working much better. Once you have fix-it utilities installed, it is hard to remove or uninstall, too. I had to use another shredding program to finally get rid of the program out of every nook and cranny in my computer.

This stuff works. It sped my computer up. But it killed my browser accelerators and got rid of my office dictionary .dll's. There is no way to pick what you want it to repair in your registry...it's like a runaway train. It just "repairs" everything without asking. Never again.

Fix-IT has a fairly self explanatory interface, which is all well and good, however, some tools do not work, and the only solution that tech-support offers, is to uninstall and reinstall, or preform a series of silly tasks to disable other programs. Both failed to make these "tools" work.

It also tries to interfere with other security programs you may have, like, Lavasoft Ad-Ware, or even Windows Security Updates.

Another major frustration is that it loves to run certain files like mxtask2.exe in the background. They will hog your CPU while you are doing other things. Disabling FIX-IT will not stop these files from running.
When I attempted to tame these files by lowering their CPU usage, it crashed my computer.

Fix-it is just one of many programs that claim to fix your registry, or remove malware and viruses. Actually, it's a false sense of security. It does nothing special, and Avanquests tech support gives up quickly, and they are suspiciously amateurish.

I bought this in connection with an internet offer and received three other programs with it:

1. Internet Privacy Pro;

2. Disk Copy and Clean; and

3. Driver Genius.

Stated simply, none of these programs did what it was supposed to do. And to date it has been impossible to register Fix-It Utilities 10.

By the time software is in its tenth version, problems of this type should not occur.

Additionally, one of them (I'm not sure which) caused Microsoft Office to crash. It simply removed MS-Outlook, MS-Word and Ms-Excel from my machine.

Avanquest talks a good game, but they don't perform.

How do you sell a product with the wrong id number but not have customer support staff 24/7 to help you with the problem. or working e-mail to get help it makes you remove other spy-ware to run the program then tells you your id number no good so you have to reload everything you deleted all over again wasting your time

I tried this on two systems, both of which had errors, and didn't get any help from support. Just forget this version.