Windows 7: Software Review

Speed Up My PC is a Windows optimizer designed by Uniblue to help you speed up your computer and help it run more efficiently.

As long as there have been PCs, there have been solutions that attempt to squeeze a bit more performance out of your existing system.

One way to overcome this problem is through newer pieces of hardware. A faster CPU, more RAM and a beefier video card can work wonders.

An alternative is to install software that attempts to speed up or stabilize Windows, memory or hard drive usage.

Here is the basic problem:

Windows and its predecessor, DOS, have been plagued with less than optimal abilities to handle memory and multitasking applications. These problems result in slow operation and system crashes.

Software solutions aim to optimize the use of memory and hardware to address some of Windows’ inherent flaws. Although computer hardware upgrades are more viable, they can still be costly.

Speed Up My PC, aims to make the most of your current PC hardware and software and keep the “blue screen of death” at bay.

The tool monitors several aspects of your PC and, via a wizard, offers suggestions on how to improve your current situation. The areas it addresses are CPU (processing speed), RAM (computer memory), Internet, Startup Applications and Windows crashing.

When you install and start Speed Up My PC it offers several suggestions on how to improve your PC’s performance.

The instructions are straightforward and the suggestions appear to be sound. One of the first items to look into are the startup applications. Speed Up My PC provides an optimizing wizard and will let you pick what programs to disable as Windows loads.

The program then records the last several startup times so you can see if your changes have the desired effect.

The next item to examine is the CPU monitor. Its primary advantage is that it allows you to prioritize programs. Using a drop down menu you can specify a program that should be set to run in the background or have priority in the foreground.

Coupled with this is a system resource monitor that enables the feature to only be activated when a certain CPU usage level is reached.

The memory monitor is probably the most active portion of the program. When using your PC, RAM is often not made available in the most optimal fashion.

This problem can lead to slower program operation and heavier use of the page file (which uses space on your hard drive to temporarily store data when you run out of RAM).

In addition to being able to use the RAM recovery application on demand, you can also set it up to automatically activate whenever a certain threshold is reached.

The Internet monitor aims to optimize your Internet connection. Speed Up My PC notes that the Windows system optimizes your settings for a local area network (LAN) connection.

Using some of the same principles as some of the other connection speed up programs, Speed Up My PC looks at your PC’s speed and then adjusts the registry settings to optimize your network or modem throughput based on your current Internet connection.

Crash recovery, in principle, works to prevent any crashes and allows you to continue if one does. Of course the best thing about this is that it then enables you to hopefully save what you were working on before the whole system crashes.

For those of you with a computer that already runs reasonably fast I would say you are best off continuing to let Windows do the monitoring.

Windows, while certainly not a star in this area, has gotten better recently and if you have Windows 7 on a newer PC, you will not need this program.

If you are running an older machine, plagued by system crashes, memory problems, or if you use some memory intensive programs, you ought to take a look at Speed Up My PC.

Although improved hardware will invariably give you a greater performance boost, Speed Up My PC may just be the low cost alternative you're looking for.