Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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75 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Jack of all trades, master of none, November 15, 2005
I have used System Mechanic 4 for many years and like it. It cleans my registry, finds old shortcuts. Most importantly, it tells me what it is going to do before it does it.
System Mechanic 6 will do tons of stuff to your computer, but won't tell you ahead of time what it's going to do. It fixed 99 "security vulnerabilities" on my pc, without telling me what it was doing, or letting me choose which of them to actually fix. I have a firewall and virus protection that are updated, so I seriously doubt there were 99 things to fix. The program just bulldogs it's way through whatever it thinks needs to be done. After various programs stopped working, I had to undo all the System Mechanic 6 changes, reinstall some software, and finally get rid of System Mechanic 6. I think System Mechanic 6 is trying to make itself easier to use by sheltering the user from the intricacies of the program, but the result is a bloated program that tries to do too much, interacts with the user too little, doesn't do anything well, and will most likely break your pc.
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48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Here is the secret to getting the best system utility, May 4, 2006
Read the reviews of the 4 or 5 major system utilities (Systemworks, System Mechanic, Systemsuite, etc). Guess what? Depending on which review you read, they are all outstanding products, or they are all trash. Not a single product gets glowing reviews from everyone, and each product has lots of people who had major problems. What to do? Do what I did. Just try one until it works.
I have used Systemworks and System Mechanic on various computers over the years with pretty decent results. For the last couple of years I've used System Mechanic with absolutely no problem. I just bought a new computer, and one of the first things I did was slap a copy of System Mechanic 6 Pro on it. The results? Completely trashed my brand new computer. Not really a big deal since the computer is new and I didn't have much (any) time invested in new software installation. All my documents are on my old computer, so I lost nothing. I just did a complete disaster recovery and got back to normal.
The next thing I did was install the Systemworks 2006/Personal Firewall bundle. Guess what? Flawless installation. Have run all the diagnostics and checks. Absolutely no problems.
So what does this mean? If you try one of the system utilities and it trashes your system, just uninstall it, try to get your money back, then move on to another one. I am absolutely convinced that it is a total crapshoot as to which utility will work on your system. If you think about it, they all have about the same features, so the issue is not what they can do, but whether they are stable and will work on your system. System Mechanic didn't work for me. Systemworks does. Just the way of the world. If you tried to read too much into all of the reviews, you would never buy any software for your computer, because there are always horror stories from people who had their systems crashed.
Off topic, but as an aside, it's the same thing with other programs. I am into video editing, and trying to decide between Pinnacle and Roxio Easy Media Creator. Absolute horror stories from users of both products about how unstable these products are. So....I tried the Roxio product, it works, and its stable. Good enough for me!
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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Buggy upgrade., November 19, 2005
l've used versions 4 and 5 for years. I was extremely disappointed with version 6. It is buggy and caused blg problems.
The startup function disables startup files inaccurately and automatically. Tech support was unable to help me reverse the damage because the reverse function doesn't work, according to tech support.
The security function prevented me from accessing my computer because it closed ports. Tech support could not tell me how to reopen the ports. Another reason the lack of a reverse function is a serious problem.
Tech support was unable to help me. Theyare obviously overwhelmed bc the program is so bad.
After getting nowhere with tech support, I solved most of my problems by uninstalling version 6. My private tech guy will solve the rest, I hope, next week.
This is a below a beta version program. Version 5 is great. Version 6 IS NOT READY for public consumption.
This program should come with a warning and a letter of apology. Do not use it if they give it to you for free.
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