Is your PC running at a fraction of the speed it used to? Do you feel that Microsoft don’t provide enough tools to keep your Windows clean, speedy and in tip-top shape? Enter Auslogics BoostSpeed, a tried and tested method of breathing new life into an ageing Windows partition.
Scanning & Fixing Problems
After a quick 9 MB download and an install process that uses just short of 50 MB hard drive space, the first thing BoostSpeed will want to do is scan your system. The program is divided into a couple of sections via tabs: System Scan, System Advisor, Resource Usage and Advanced Tools.
On the first tab there is a big, inviting Scan Now button with a drop-down menu that allows you to instruct the program to automatically fix programs and sleep or shutdown your PC once it’s finished. There’s also a handy Quick Tasks area to the right which offers some useful one-click operations for clearing Internet and Windows history as well as temporary file deletion and memory optimization.
By default the program will scan for all detectable problems, but if you’d like to customize what BoostSpeed looks for then click Show Scan Options and make your choice. Once you’ve initiated a scan, you’ll probably see problems start to appear almost immediately, along with an analysis of how this is affecting the speed of your computer.
The scan itself took barely two minutes on my machine, and found close to 600 problems. For a closer look at what exactly BoostSpeed found, check the Show details box at the bottom of the screen and take a look. A click of Repair set the program to work and the problems were gone in barely half the time it took to scan my PC in the first place!
The next tab, titled System Advisor, checks for settings within Windows that may negatively affect your PC’s performance such as enabling autorun for removable devices (virus/malware risk) or disabling services you don’t use to free up memory. To act upon BoostSpeed’s advice you can check each entry and then click Fix selected in the right-hand menu. If you do use a service or wish to dismiss a message then hit Hide advice.
Advanced Tools & Resource Monitoring
The third tab in the row of four is the Resource Usage area which provides quick access to CPU load, RAM usage, hard disk usage and network traffic. It’s not that much different to what Windows Task Manager offers, but a click of View Details reveals even more information regarding specific processes, a search field and a handy Kill Process button which puts an end to whatever you’ve currently selected.
The final Advanced Tools tab features nine more handy tools which you can see in the screenshot below. This menu allows you quick access to free up space, change startup options, erase history and tweak other aspects of your system. BoostSpeed takes the pain out of optimizing your system by collating an incredible amount of options together in one place.
One particular area of interest here is the Rescue Center which allows you roll back changes made to your PC by BoostSpeed as well as access Windows System Restore points made in the past.
Finally, a visit to the program’s preferences (Settings then Program Settings) allows you to organise regular scans via the Scheduler tab, which not only checks for problems but fixes them too!
Auslogics have packed a ton of features into BoostSpeed, so why not check out the trial version.