Fix-it Utilities 9

Fix-it Utilities 9 is a collection of programs designed to speed up and clean up computers, as well as detecting and removing spyware and viruses.

This new version brings a number of additions and revisions, including an internet speed booster, Windows and memory optimisers, and improvements have been made to the anti-virus tools, diagnostics and management tools.

Fix-It Utilities 9 offers over 100 tests to help protect and optimise the computer but these are all presented in easily manageable categories on the main interface. The Home page offers one-click tools for protecting or optimising. Each shows the current status level and offers more information on why the computer system isn't running at its optimum level, and what areas need to be addressed to fix this.

Clicking the main 'one-click' button fires up a wizard that gathers the individual tools required to correct identified problems and allows the user to progress through them one by one. There's plenty of information on what's going on and why, and while it may take some time for a process to finish on a cluttered system, this will drop considerably as the software monitors the computer from there on in after the first time it's run.

As well as the one-click tools the range of tools available are accessible individually, separated into categories such as Diagnose, Fix & Maintain, Optimise, Cleanup and Recovery. These include tools to recover disk space that the computer may have 'forgotten', repair hard disks, optimise the computer's startup sequence by removing unnecessary programs, clean the registry and undelete files. There's also a secure eraser that can make sure files you delete can't be later recovered, a tool to create a Windows rescue CD to be used should the whole thing crash, and recovery tools so that a system can be restored to a previous state.

Most of these tools take a wizard-based approach that makes the software very approachable for beginners and can actually be a very handy way to learn more about how computers work and what can potentially go wrong. Users can configure which tools are included in the one-click fixes, how often clean-up reminders appear and how often health reports are generated.

Fix-It Utilities also has anti-virus and anti-spyware features, which scan for existing threats as well as preventing attempts to access your machine, with hourly updates for the latest protection.

We were pleased by the wide range of tools on offer from Fix-It Utilities 9 and the way in which they are both integrated into wizards and manageable in their own right. This is a great product for beginners and with built-in protection against the latest virus and spyware threats is great value too.