System Mechanic tool trio aids PC maintenance and reduces frustration

by Erik "Eckel Network+, MCP+I, MCSE" | Jun 14, 2006 3:29:00 PM

Tags: PRODUCTIVITY, Advertising & Promotion, tool, Erik Eckel Network+, MCP+I, MCSE, System Mechanic, Junk File Removal Tool

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Takeaway: Iolo Technology's System Mechanic 6 Mobile Toolkit edition collects numerous utilities on a single CD to help simplify PC maintenance. This article examines the features found in the modules: Junk File Removal Tool, Disk Defragmentation Wizard, and Process Manager.

Routine system maintenance tasks often consume the seeming few gaps between crises. While it's often tempting just to steal a quick breather between outages, performing regular maintenance can help eliminate future failures. Do yourself a favor. Leverage maintenance opportunities to prevent future trouble.

Of course, a wide variety of tools are available to help. From native Windows applications such as Disk Defragmenter and Check Disk to an unending list of third party programs, support professionals have many resources at their disposal. Iolo Technology’s System Mechanic 6 is one example. The software’s Mobile Toolkit edition collects numerous utilities on a single CD to help simplify PC maintenance.

As covered in an earlier article (System Mechanic 6 Mobile Toolkit simplifies field support), the Mobile Toolkit license enables using the software on multiple systems and locations without requiring software purchases at each site. Check out TechRepublic’s System Mechanic 6 Photo Gallery for more information on the software’s maintenance capabilities.

In addition to System Mechanic’s Drive Medic hard disk scanning and repair utility and Spythonantispyware program (covered in greater detail in Tap System Mechanic 6 to recover failing systems), three Mobile Toolkit applications also prove helpful when performing system maintenance:

Disk Defragmentation Wizard
Process Manager

Junk File Removal

Access the Junk File Removal Tool by clicking the Clean button from System Mechanic’s Home menu. When you click the Junk File Removal Tool, the Remove Junk Files menu appears, as shown in Figure A.

Figure A

Using the Junk File Removal Tool, you can opt for a Quick Clean, a Deep Clean or specify custom settings.

Three cleanup modes are available. If you opt for the Quick Clean, the Junk File Removal Tool will scan Windows’ temporary folders and automatically remove extraneous files no longer required. Selecting the Deep Clean mode triggers a scan of all a system’s fixed hard disks and automatically removes all junk files found.

Both the quick and deep clean options include respective Analyze links. Click either one and System Mechanic will perform a quick review of the PC and estimate the amount of disk space that can be freed using that cleanup mode. In the tests I performed, the Deep Clean mode typically removed five to six times the number of junk files the Quick Clean mode did.

Regardless of whether you choose the quick or deep clean, clicking the Options button opens the Automatic Cleanup Options dialog box, as shown in Figure B.

Figure B

Use the Automatic Cleanup Options dialog box to specify how System Mechanic should handle junk file disposal.

The provided radio buttons instruct System Mechanic how to remove junk files. A checkbox is also provided to automatically estimate space that will be freed using the cleanup tool.

As with other System Mechanic tools, a custom option enables specifying your own settings, too.

Once you’ve entered your preferences, click the Next button and System Mechanic will scan junk files and remove them as instructed. The application reports on its progress, as shown in Figure C, until the operation completes, upon which the tool will display a summary report of the actions completed.

Figure C

System Mechanic displays its progress while it works.

Disk Defragmentation Wizard

Windows includes its own disk defragmentation utility, but it can’t keep pace with System Mechanic’s. To access the Disk Defragmentation Wizard, click Optimize from the Home menu, select Speed Up Hard Drives and click Disk Defragmentation Wizard. The wizard, shown in Figure D, will appear.

Figure D

The Disk Defragmentation Wizard’s menu works much like the Junk File Removal Tool.

Once again, three options exist. You can select a quick, deep or custom action. In the case of the Disk Defragmentation Wizard, the Quick Defragmentation defragments a system’s main drive more quickly (although a few hours may still be required for sizable drives), leaving most files in their original locations on the system’s hard drive. The Deep Defragmentation option, however, defragments all attached disk drives and rewrites all defragmented files to new locations. You can also choose the Custom option to pick and choose your own defragmentation settings.

Clicking the Options button displays the Automatic Defragmentation Options dialog box, as shown in Figure E.

Figure E

Specify whether System Mechanic should perform a quick PC cleanup before defragmenting, and other settings, by clicking the Options button.

The dialog box enables configuring several options, including running a quick PC cleanup before defragmenting, automatically defragmenting locked files the next time the system reboots and ignoring prefetch cache files (typically used by Windows to enhance system performance).

Once you specify your preferences, click Next. System Mechanic will perform the actions. As with the Junk File Removal Tool, System Mechanic will report on its progress (as shown in Figure F) and present a summary upon completion.

Figure F

System Mechanic’s disk defragmentation utility provides an alternative to Windows Disk Defragmenter.

Process Manager

The Windows Task Manager provides basic information on applications actively running on a PC at any given time. The Task Manager’s Processes tab lists the name, user and CPU and memory usage for each active service.

System Mechanic’s Process Manager displays additional information. Best of all, it links each active service with its respective Properties dialog box, which makes sleuthing and determining a task’s associated program and function much easier to diagnose.

In addition to listing the process name, user and CPU and memory usage as Task Manager does, the Process Manager lists the process’ publisher. Descriptions are also provided for each process, and the startup mode (manual versus automatic) is listed for each.

Clicking the plus sign that appears alongside each entry, as shown in Figure G, expands an active process’ entry to reveal a host of additional information about that process. The program’s physical file location, as well as its priority, category, version number, dependencies and other data are all displayed.

Figure G

System Mechanic’s Process Manager provides much more information about running processes than does Windows’ Task Manager.

How does this information help with routine maintenance? As users download and install various programs, a wide variety of unwanted and even unknown applications begin consuming limited system resources.

Programs set to automatically execute each time Windows boots don’t consistently reveal themselves in the System Tray or Windows’ Startup folder, so identifying them and ensuring they can be safely removed is greatly simplified when the additional information the Process Manager provides is available. When you find an application an end user no longer needs loading on startup, knowing the publisher and file’s locations and dependencies makes manual removal, when necessary, much easier.

Summary

The Junk File Removal Tool, Disk Defragmentation Wizard and Process Manager provide valuable time-saving accompaniments to standard anti-spyware and hard disk maintenance routines. Adding these tools to standard maintenance tasks, and ensuring these applications are run regularly on end users’ PCs, helps ensure systems continue running well.

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