Product Spotlight: UniBlue SpeedUpMyPC 2012

Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC 2012: Installer Options

If you chose to click on Installer Options, you get this screen which gives you the ability to choose the installation folder, where to create icons, and whether or not to automatically scan when the program is launched.

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Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC 2012: Installation Progress

The installation is very fast.  Before I knew it the bar was this far across the screen and I had to move quickly to get a screenshot.

Image of SpeedUpMyPC installer by Wally Bahny for TechRepublic

Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC 2012: Overview

When the installer finishes, the default choice is to launch the application, which comes up and starts its scan automatically.  This is the Overview screen which is displaying some results of the initial scan on the left, an area to choose how often to schedule scans in the top center, the current version and its status on the top right, and UniBlue PowerSuite component status all across the bottom.

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Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC 2012: Scanning

The scan runs quickly through the Speed Tools, System Tweaks, and Unused Processes sections but stays a while (2-3 minutes on my system) in the Invalid Registry Entries to Clean section.  This is obviously related to how large the registry is and how fast the system is.

Image of SpeedUpMyPC by Wally Bahny for TechRepublic

Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC 2012: Results - Speed Tools

Here are the four Speed Tools that SpeedUpMyPC wants to install.  The concepts for all of them seem good, but on a fast system I don't really notice much of an improvement as a result of these tools.

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Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC 2012: Results - System Tweaks

The next section, System Tweaks, makes changes to Internet Explorer, networking, and the core operating system.  They also make changes to the Aero interface, including smooth scrolling, dragging of windows contents, and the translucent selection rectangle which I was unhappy with and restored back to the Windows default.

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Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC 2012: Results - Unused Processes

The Unused Processes section scans through your Windows services to find items that are not needed in the normal use of Windows, such as the web server, and disables them.  It also disables the update services for Java, Google, QuickTime, and other add-on applications.

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Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC 2012: Results Invalid Registry Entries

Of all four sections, the Invalid Registry Entries section was by far the largest.  The scan found 486 problems, or potential problems, in my registry on my production system that has been in use since Windows 7 came out.  While there are obviously too many issues to list here, I did scroll through them and capture the type of issues:

• Missing TypeLib
• Missing file
• Missing or invalid path
• Invalid shortcut
• Invalid driver path
• Incorrect file association
• Incorrect file extension
• Empty key
• Invalid shared folder

Image of SpeedUpMyPC by Wally Bahny for TechRepublic

Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC 2012: Fixing Issues

Clicking the Fix Issues button starts making the changes that you have allowed SpeedUpMyPC to make for you.  First, it does a Backup.  This is to ensure that you can undo anything it does.  Second, it actually makes the changes.

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Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC 2012: Manage

Once the changes are made, you can click on the Manage tab to scroll through the changes to review or undo them.  All changes are grouped in the same way as on the System Scan tab so that they can be found easily.

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Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC 2012: Registry Defrag

Buried here in the Manage tab is a Registry Defrag option which I was suprised was not part of SpeedUpMyPC's core scan and fix process, especially because they state on the tab "To improve system performance, you should defragment the registry regularly."  I would think the biweekly scan would be a good time to do it.

Image of SpeedUpMyPC by Wally Bahny for TechRepublic

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