Ease of Use:  

PC Tools’ Desktop Maestro is very easy to use. With a fairly intuitive interface and helpful icons, PC users should have little or no problem using the software. The program provides quick access to some of the most used Windows tools as well as the Desktop Maestro tune-up and optimization tools.

Ease of Setup:  

The download of Desktop Maestro is straightforward, and we had no problems installing the software on our computer. Updates are not automatic, but can be easily downloaded for free directly from the program via PC Tools Smart Update.

Maintenance/Diagnostics:  

Desktop Maestro includes several tools for helping you diagnose your PC and maintain optimal performance. After a registry scan you can clean out useless files that bloat your system. Desktop Maestro also helps you uninstall and remove unused programs completely, and lets you manage how programs run during startup.

Desktop Maestro also allows you to easily view various system information, including graphical depictions of memory, specific disk diagnostics, and even an at-a-glance status of your PC health.

Repair/Recovery:  

Registry repair and recovery is what Desktop Maestro does best. After a registry scan (full or customized), Desktop Maestro helps you safely clean or repair invalid entries from your registry that would otherwise collect and can even lead to complete system crashes. Desktop Maestro is set up to automatically generate a backup of all registry changes, so you can always restore to the original setup.

Desktop Maestro also includes a registry compacting feature to effectively evaluate and compact (or defrag) your registry. Between repairs, you can set Desktop Maestro to monitor your registry. After a number of changes have been made, you will be prompted to run a scan.

Optimization:  

Desktop Maestro from PC Tools does offer some good optimization features, but is lacking in additional personalization functions. Optimizing your PC for the best performance is simple, and only requires a single step; simply click the “optimize your system button”. This performs a variety of optimization tweaks to improve PC system processing, memory and disk use, and overall performance.

Feature Set:  

Desktop Maestro has a load of features and functions to help you clean and optimize your PC. It also includes some advanced privacy features. The Privacy Guardian section can remove any trace of online activity, including several third-party web applications as well as potentially private information in the recycle bin.

You can also “bleach” the free space on your computer. Files that are deleted from your computer, even removed from the recycle bin can often be recovered (see Data Recovery Software), but with Desktop Maestro you can permanently remove the files.

Help/Support:  

The in-program help for Desktop Maestro is decent, and there are additional helps online in the form of FAQs. PC Tools also provides free email support. Our query was responded to very quickly, though the response didn’t directly address all of our questions.

Desktop Maestro from PC Tools is a competent utilities software that can be used to effectively diagnose, repair, and monitor your registry. You can also optimize performance with a variety of tweaks. The software is quite easy to use and even includes some privacy protection tools, but just isn’t as complete as some of the more powerful PC system utilities suites. We suggest comparing it to Advanced System Optimizer, System Mechanic, or TuneUp Utilities.