Ease of Use:  

We found System Mechanic extremely easy to navigate; the program has seven intuitive categories (Home, Clean, Fix, Maintain, Optimize, Protect and Options); helpful icons with brief descriptions label each tool. The interface is clean, and the processes are straightforward and easy to perform. It only makes sense that a program specifically designed to help your system run faster and more efficiently is similarly quick and easy.

Ease of Setup:  

We experienced no complications while installing System Mechanic.

Maintenance/Diagnostics:  

System Mechanic offers a strong set of maintenance and diagnostic tools, including a Startup Manager and a Startup Guard, which helps you manage programs that start with Windows.

Other tools include One-Click Maintenance, an uninstaller program (which gives you power to delete all the remnants of uninstalled programs) and a device manager (which maintains all installed devices, hidden or connected).

System Mechanic also offers a Manage Running Processes tool, which is important for system maintenance and handy when dealing with spyware.

System Mechanic does a great job of keeping your computer maintained with ActiveCare, which automatically repairs registry problems and optimizes PC configuration. Furthermore, the maintenance only happens on your computer down-time, and  runs in the backgroud.

Advanced users can even check out the real-time status of their hard drives, including running temperature, error rate, and various other attributes. All these indicators can be seen with quick status graphic displays.

Repair/Recovery:  

System Mechanic comes with a customizable toolbar, a proficient Registry Cleaner (also customizable), a secure Delete Program tool, rollback capabilities and a Quick Status tool (which provides system statistics and an overview of files cleaned, repaired and so on).

A Search and Recovery tool allows you to recover data that has been deleted or accidentally erased from external digital devices, such as digital photos, digital video and sound files.

The PC cleanup wizard removes over 50 specific types of junk files as well as internet activity, and even erases search history in Microsoft Office.

System Mechanic incorporates full undo capability with backups and logs. And in the event of an emergency, System Mechanic even includes a CD to automatically restore and repair completely crashed systems.

Optimization:  

System Mechanic offers hundreds of tweaks for your operating system, including: optimizing your Internet speed, viewing and setting limits on memory use and individual defrag of files, folders, the registry or the hard drive.

We read that some critics had concerns with System Mechanic's defrag capabilities, so we tested it ourselves. On older computers (3 years or more) we experienced some errors, system lockups, and long or incomplete scans. On newer computers there were almost no complications.

The system customizer includes access to a variety of Windows settings. Advanced users can change administration options, set up to log in automatically, and change the Start menu.

Feature Set:  

System Mechanic offers a spyware detector, a cookie manager, antivirus capabilities, and a good firewall that blocked 9 Elkern attacks (special UDP packets designed to execute malicious code) during our test period.

You also get an Internet Tracks Eraser, which keeps your Internet activities hidden from online thieves. You can also utilize the incinerator utility to completely remove files, so they can't be recovered in computer forensics.

One of the most impressive features of System Mechanic is the one-click system. A single mouse click performs a complete system tune-up, and includes the PC repair, accelerator, cleanup, and security wizards.

Help/Support:  

Iolo Technologies provides plenty of help and support for System Mechanic. The software offers a built-in manual, Quick Help topics and a Tips and Hints section. Online, they provide a FAQs page, tutorials, a searchable knowledge base and email support. Iolo Technologies does not offer a toll-free support number.

Because of its massive feature set and exceptional support, System Mechanic by Iolo Technologies is one of the strongest and most comprehensive PC utilities software programs around. System Mechanic is a complete and competent suite of PC utilities tools, and definitely one of the best utilities software suites available.