Rating: 
Summary: Buyer Beware
Review: As a long time user of System Mechanic 3 (SM3), I am quite disappointed in the quality and integrity of IOLO's System Mechanic 4 (SM4). I upgraded to SM4 based on the good will and trust I developed using SM3. SM4 is a flawed product from a company that prides itself on support. In my opinion, the promoting of excellent support should begin with putting out a product that does what its advertising says it should do, before you have to wait for a fix. After numerous complaints from other users (including myself), IOLO still hasn't got its Disk Degfragging tool that is packaged with SM4 to work efficiently and safely for the all users. When I have asked directly for a refund on this product from the company, I was told all sales are final and I should wait until they fix the product.Very Disappointed
WTL
Rating:
Summary: Buyer Beware
Review: As a long time user of System Mechanic 3 (SM3), I am quite disappointed in the quality and integrity of IOLO's System Mechanic 4 (SM4). I upgraded to SM4 based on the good will and trust I developed using SM3. SM4 is a flawed product from a company that prides itself on support. In my opinion, the promoting of excellent support should begin with putting out a product that does what its advertising says it should do, before you have to wait for a fix. After numerous complaints from other users (including myself), IOLO still hasn't got its Disk Degfragging tool that is packaged with SM4 to work efficiently and safely for the all users. When I have asked directly for a refund on this product from the company, I was told all sales are final and I should wait until they fix the product. Very Disappointed
WTL
Rating: 
Summary: Probably not worth the upgrade
Review: Before you spend your hard earned cash on the upgrade or outright purchase, read this and the other reviews. I have been a loyal user of Iolo products for quite some time (SM3 and MacroMagic). So, when my web update told me about a new release, I had no problem shelling out the $30 upgrade price. Now I'm kind of wishing I had come here first to check out other reviews, because guess what, Defrag problems. Just like another reviewer here, SM4 told me my drive was 37% fragmented, when the XP tool said don't worry about it. My HD is a 40Gig and was about 50% full. I started the process at 3:00 p.m and by morning the process was still running, after 36 HOURS it was still running. Finally, I stopped it out of sheer fear that a HD constantly working for 36 would kill my computer for sure. So I waited a couple of days and tried the Quick defragment (instead of the Optimized). Same result. Took forever, however, this time the program popped up an error box indicating to run Scandisk because their program can't defrag my HD! Well, I ran scandisk and NO ERRORS found (physical or logical). And their Spyware removal tool is a joke. Stick with Ad-Aware and Spybot for that. I did like the RAM recovery and defrag feature in this version though. The interface/GUI is much nicer than the previous versions, but I'm kind of feeling that I paid for a prettier looking program, other than a more functional one.
Rating:
Summary: Probably not worth the upgrade
Review: Before you spend your hard earned cash on the upgrade or outright purchase, read this and the other reviews. I have been a loyal user of Iolo products for quite some time (SM3 and MacroMagic). So, when my web update told me about a new release, I had no problem shelling out the $30 upgrade price. Now I'm kind of wishing I had come here first to check out other reviews, because guess what, Defrag problems. Just like another reviewer here, SM4 told me my drive was 37% fragmented, when the XP tool said don't worry about it. My HD is a 40Gig and was about 50% full. I started the process at 3:00 p.m and by morning the process was still running, after 36 HOURS it was still running. Finally, I stopped it out of sheer fear that a HD constantly working for 36 would kill my computer for sure. So I waited a couple of days and tried the Quick defragment (instead of the Optimized). Same result. Took forever, however, this time the program popped up an error box indicating to run Scandisk because their program can't defrag my HD! Well, I ran scandisk and NO ERRORS found (physical or logical). And their Spyware removal tool is a joke. Stick with Ad-Aware and Spybot for that. I did like the RAM recovery and defrag feature in this version though. The interface/GUI is much nicer than the previous versions, but I'm kind of feeling that I paid for a prettier looking program, other than a more functional one.
Rating: 
Summary: Stay Away from this Stinker
Review: I bought this hot steaming pile of poo at Walmart, installed it, ran some of the utilities, and voila! I had to reinstall Windows XP!! I believe it deleted some critical registry items (I should have known better, so shame on me). I couldn't wait to uninstall this crappy program. Don't walk - RUN away from this one.
Rating:
Summary: Disk Defrag element is a waste of space
Review: I bought this product as a whim, hoping to get a complete registry fixer/defragmentation program. The registry 'fixer' portion works pretty good, but the disk defrag program is horrendous compared to even the basic defrag program that comes with XP. I ran diskeeper, windows xp defragmentation, and system mechanic 4's defrag program. XP and diskeeper stated that my drive wasn't even defragmented, while SM4's stated it was about 10% defragmented. The choice between quick and optimized defragmentation is a waste, as well. The optimized defragmentation program states it 'packs' all your data to the front of the drive, thus lessening future defragmentation. Well, I started it at 10 PM, woke up at 7 AM, and the defragmentation was STILL not complete. The rest of the programs are at most partially helpful, as most of their functions can be found in better shareware/freeware programs.
Rating:
Summary: Disk Defrag element is a waste of space
Review: I bought this product as a whim, hoping to get a complete registry fixer/defragmentation program. The registry 'fixer' portion works pretty good, but the disk defrag program is horrendous compared to even the basic defrag program that comes with XP. I ran diskeeper, windows xp defragmentation, and system mechanic 4's defrag program. XP and diskeeper stated that my drive wasn't even defragmented, while SM4's stated it was about 10% defragmented. The choice between quick and optimized defragmentation is a waste, as well. The optimized defragmentation program states it 'packs' all your data to the front of the drive, thus lessening future defragmentation. Well, I started it at 10 PM, woke up at 7 AM, and the defragmentation was STILL not complete. The rest of the programs are at most partially helpful, as most of their functions can be found in better shareware/freeware programs.
Rating:
Summary: BE AWARE, BE VERY AWARE!!
Review: I have used SystemSuite from both Ontrack and V-Com for many years and have enjoyed both, for their basic use and excellent tools. I decided to try System Mechanic 4, with a coupon, and WHAT a mistake I made. The suite does clear out misc files out of the computer, but be aware, be VERY aware of what is being eliminated. The Suite will eliminate needed OS files if you are not aware and before you know it, your system is down and out. I tried to be as careful as I could be, but I had to use my GOBACK from Roxio to restore to a prior working condition. The big thing about System Mechanic is that it does not redflag any needed files prior to deletion. It just throws all the deleted files together and it is up to you to decide which one's will go. After approx 2 weeks of use, I uninstalled and round filed this useless software, since I spent more time looking at everything that was going to be cleaned from my computer than just allowing this software to do its job. DO not trust this software, unless you have System Restore software installed.
Rating:
Summary: kind of misleading
Review: I used this product exactly 1 time then junked it. Its good if you want to find duplicate files, the optimizer just irritated me with a much longer start-up since it compacted the registry, and the de-frag was so lame i had to regedit to disable all active programs except for taskmon.exe and explorer shell or it would read an active drive and restart took an overnite defrag and still nothing. what a waste of time. Don't look to this program if you want to FIND problems and fix them, it only does decent if your computer is problem free to begin with.
Rating:
Summary: $30 price, spent $30 too much
Review: This program is by far one of the worst utility programs I've used. I have had it for six months, and already have had to download several revisions. The Disk Defrag program is terrible, reporting 25-30% defragmentation when Windows XP Defrag and Diskeeper 7.0 finds minimal defragmentation. SM4 Defrag has also 'found' corrupt space on the HD, while Scandisk says all is good. This is only the beginning...... I ran the Registry Cleaner program and it removed critical registry portions that are needed to start windows. Probably my mistake, but when you have over 500 lines of registry to review you'd think you could trust it just a little bit. I ended up saving my computer with a tech friend's help, but now I avoid that button like the plague. I can really find nothing good about this program that isn't already on Windows XP, or that you can't get for free somewhere else on the Net. At least I only lost 30 bucks, buyer beware!
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