Customer Reviews

iolo System Mechanic 7 Professional - 3 PCs

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(67)

 

 

It's good at finding bugs in the registry, spyware, and other nasties.

The trouble is, cleaning seems to rip out other applications' settings (such as PhotoImpact 11) and requiring a reinstall (or repair install) of those applications.

I also did a disk scan and it claimed there were problems requiring a chkdsk (I use WinXP w/SP2). A full disk scan revealed NO problems at all. Reassuring as I've been getting freaked out, but annoying because I can't find any other causes. AND this is on a newly formatted PC as well.

As v7 is a new release, wait for a product update or bug fix. Once the wrinkles are ironed out, I think this will be a good product. Right now it's overzealous and also has a tendency to find menace behind every shadow.

02/09/07 update: They have released a patch since my original review. Having installed it, it's been working MUCH better; and no applications (esp. PhotoImpact 11!) have had to be repaired or re-installed on a daily basis. And it fully recognized Trend Micro PC-Cillin firewall/antivirus. If anything, running the detection wizard keeps finding ONE security vulnerability, which it claims it fixes, but an immediate re-scan still shows the vulnerability. It doesn't say any detail information, so I can't manually repair it. However, all the other programs are gone and it does a competent job at cleaning up garbage and compressing the registry, and I've put my system through the paces (reluctantly, reformatting is a nightmare...)

You are lucky. You will read all these customer reviews and AVOID the kind of disaster I experienced today. After activating several of the modules in this software and rebooting MY COMPUTER WOULD NOT GO INTO WINDOWS...IT WENT INTO AN ENDLESS CYCLE OF REBOOTING...BLUE SCREEN...REBOOTING. Going into safe mode allowed me to get into Windows but even after several registry rollbacks the same thing kept happening. Fortunately I had a day old Acronis image backed up on an external drive so I was able to get my computer running again (but with a full day's e-mail and work gone forever). Be warned--this is the worst software ever! Avoid at all costs!

I've been a fan of Iolo products for a long time. But make no mistake. Version 7 of System Mechanic Professional is a disaster. I don't know how a company that has produced such good products in the past good make such a mistake. First of all, the internet firewall blocks your favorite programs with no way to unblock them. Like other reviewers on this page, it blocked one of my email accounts, and I couldn't find a way around it. Clicking on the "allow" button on the pop-up menu had no effect. Also, there is no way to manually unload the firewall through the windows system manager once your computer is booted up. You have to disable the firewall before it starts up.

Second, version 7 of the program now runs in the background. Though this may seem convenient, it noticeably slowed down my desktop and used up most of my memory producing a frequent "low memory" warning and inability to open some programs. My desktop has 512k of memory, which though it's less than new computers, should be able to handle a program like this. So if you have an older machine you will need to uncheck many of the software's automatic features. The anti-virus doesn't seem as noxious as the firewall, though it seems to have misidentified some of my valid software as a viruses. Personally, I think the Kaspersky firewall and anti-virus included in version 6 Professional were better programs as they are much lighter on system resources and faster to respond.

I've written to Iolo several times by email but like other users, have not received a response in several weeks. Technical support is a nothing more than phone menu of prerecorded messages.

In my case, I ended up uninstalling version 7 and reinstalling version 6 on my desktop, which while it doesn't look as good it is much more stable and reliable. While you can uninstall the main program, the anti-virus software, made by Authentium.com, is way too difficult to remove. Even after calling Authentium's technical support, and being referred to article 2275 in the support section (Ask a Question) of their website, I still could not completely remove it from computer. Deleting all references to the anti-virus software in the Windows' registry didn't work either (Iolo's info posted on their website is hardly adequate). I am keeping version 7 on a laptop, with another company's firewall, to see if Iolo fixes any of the above problems in future updates. Until Iolo fixes the above problems, I don't recommend this product.

(Dr. Simeon Hein is the author of OPENING MINDS and PLANETARY INTELLIGENCE.)

This completely crashed my system and I had to erase my hard drive and start over. I have Vista and bought this product because I have used it before (XP) and the box said Vista ready. I installed and it said to download 7.1 which I did. It then said to reboot. When I did, only an old Dos looking screen came up saying I had a corrupt Win file. I couldn't even boot up in safe mode. I couldn't go back to the old system, I was stuck. I wrote to them (iolo) requesting help but didn't get a response. I am extremely disappointed in the product and support but maybe you can benefit from my mistake. If you have VISTA do not buy!

I loved System Mechanic 6 Pro -- the "tools" were great, the task-scheduling capability was awesome, and the Kaspersky anti-virus worked well. I installed it on my computers, and planned to gift a copy to my wife for Christmas.

Version 6 appeared to be unavailable on Dec.22, so I chose to give my wife the brand-new, more-better System Mechanic 7-Professional for her laptop. Concurrently, I also "upgraded" one of my own computers to v.7-Pro.

Installing System Mechanic 7 Professional disabled e-mail receiving on two systems, and it has prevented us from accessing our Quick Books business program on one system. (Imagine my delight at having to re-input hours of financial data into a jury-rigged Excel spreadsheet, just so we can do this week's payroll!)

Insult piled upon injury: despite following iolo's SM7Pro uninstall instructions, I cannot go back to my beloved version 6. Iolo's v.6 installation wizard tells me that "Athenium antivirus" is running in the background -- but I have discoverd no way to uninstall that program.

We've been waiting for a helpful response from iolo's "Customer Care" since Dec.27th, the day we lost Quick Books. I can only presume that the e-mail problem might be addressed by iolo sometime after the week-old Quick Books problem is fixed -- someday, in the future. Or not, based on current evidence.

And so, on two of our computers SM7Pro has effectively disabled our incoming e-mail, and has locked us out of our business's financial data. It appears that SM7Pro has thus accomplished what a world of "security threats" was never able to accomplish: cripple our computers, and cripple our business operations.

I'm beginning to wonder if we have reached a state of a virtual parallel of the Homeland Security quagmire:
Should I have pre-installed yet another program to protect me from my Protectors?
Will soon I have to discard my shampoo, and take off my shoes and belt to enter my computer room?
Either way, I have increased my "protection" to the point of severely crippling my functionality. That, most definitely, is NOT what I paid to accomplish.

I upgraded from System Mechanic 6. What a mistake. With version 7 installed, my system ran SIGNIFICANTLY slower - a condition that could not be fixed. The firewall could not be configured to allow my web server to work. The system eventually crashed and could not be recovered. A total waste of several days was had with this piece of crap software. iolo should offer to refund every customer who wasted their money on it.

This company has no tech support. The keep sending emails directing you to a web page. Even when you follow their site recommendations, and still have problems with this software. Tech support keeps sending you to the same web pages. They take your money and direct you to a page that shows no refunds whatsoever. I had this software before, and upgraded to the new version. Little did I know this company no longer backs its products with customer support. This software is dangerous to load into your system now. DO NOT PURCHASE.

Caused many problems. Don't buy it. Iolo not responsive to emails about problems. Even difficult to uninstall. Their uninstaller just froxe my PC.

I am very disappointed with Iolo. I have used there products for years and until recently was very happy. I have System Mechanic Professional 6 which has worked until about 4 months ago. If you read some of the other reviews you see a trend with the same problem.

I think Islo has planted a bug or worm that makes System Mechanic 6 not work correctly. They want you to upgrade and from what I hear the new version 7 stinks! I wrote the company asking them to fix the problem with version 6 but there excuse is that they are not supporting older versions.

A criminal investigation needs to be done againist Islo for fraud and racketeering on an international level. It is a shame that they choose greed over quality. By forcing you to upgrade is againist the law.

Islo is going to get theirs!

Avoid any products from this company.

It is hard to know where to begin describe the problems with this software. Suffice it to say that it took hours for me to get rid of it completely, and involved editing the registry by hand. If I had not done so, my computer would have acted up forever. Do not buy this software. Do not even take it for free.