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WinUtilities Pro 9.98 Giveaway
$49.99
EXPIRED

Giveaway of the day — WinUtilities Pro 9.98

WinUtilities is an award winning collection of tools to optimize and speedup your system performance.
$49.99 EXPIRED
User rating: 821 122 comments

WinUtilities Pro 9.98 was available as a giveaway on March 31, 2011!

Today Giveaway of the Day
$36.00
free today
Download music from 1000+ sites anytime and anywhere!

WinUtilities is an award winning collection of tools to optimize and speedup your system performance. This suite contains utilities to clean registry, temporary files on your disks, erase your application and internet browser history, cache and cookies.

You can control startup programs that load automatically with windows, find duplicate files, fix broken shortcuts and uninstall unneeded software. Other features include secure file deletion, recycle bin shredding, cleaning tasks scheduling and undelete deleted files.

System Requirements:

Windows XP/ Vista/ 7

Publisher:

YL Computing

Homepage:

http://www.ylcomputing.com/content/view/9/27/

File Size:

9.43 MB

Price:

$49.99

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Comments on WinUtilities Pro 9.98

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#122

Please void #123 as it should be replaced by #124.

I do expect my #124 response to be published because, you posted arthur #109's post which clearly attacks and berates. My guess is the reason you posted arthur's retort is that is actually David of YL Computing and not anyone named arthur.

Regardless, thanks for posting #124 and not #123.

Reply   |   Comment by martin  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#121

@109

Wow... both direct and indirect attacks.

You said, "Do you really expect anyone to believe that you discussed automatic updates to Win Utilities with over 250 people and that they all have the same paranoia as you."

Perhaps you should re-read my post and you will discover that the 250+ people were friends and family members. In addition, I have an I'm a consulting engineer with an intranet blog to which those 250+ individuals all have access.

Regarding paranoia, all I can say is comprehension is the key to all reading.

In general, other than your retort, I'd say the remainder of the GOTD members found my post had merit and value. Sorry your feelings are so diametrically opposed, arthur.

Martin

Reply   |   Comment by martin  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#120

ATTENTION ALL WinUtilities 9.98 GOTD users...

TODAY'S THE DAY - 2011 APRIL 08 - WHERE WinUtilities 9.98 WILL ADVISE YOU THAT AN UPDATE IS AVAILABLE... WinUtilities 10.0

DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT UPDATE UNLESS YOU PLAN ON PAYING FOR THIS SOFTWARE. BECAUSE, IF YOU CHOOSE TO UPDATE TO VERSION 10.0, YOUR WinUtilities 10.0 PROGRAMS WILL ONLY WORK FOR THE NEXT 30 DAYS (unless you pay for the software) MAXIMUM.

THIS IS THE LITTLE "TRICK" I WAS REFERRING TO WHEN I POSTED MY COMMENTS BACK ON 2011 MARCH 31 AT http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/winutilities-pro-9-98/#more-20048

HOPE YOU ALL AVOID THE SAME MISTAKES THAT I MADE SEVERAL MONTHS AGO WHEN David, WinUtilities author, SLIPPED ONE PAST ME AND 250+ OF MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS.

FOR MORE INFO, SEE COMMENTS #63 AND #68 AT http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/winutilities-pro-9-98/#more-20048

CHEERS,

MARTIN

Reply   |   Comment by martin  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#119

I installed this giveaway on 31 March and at the time, I disabled the automatic check for updates. Today, WinUtilities Pro 10.0 was released. I ran the program and contrary to the lengthy and aggressive accusations from certain people above, there was no nag or reminder to update. The disable worked fine. So hopefully, next time this useful program is given away, there'll be a little bit less ranting.

Incidentally I've used the WinUtilities registry search tool several times and it's been very handy.

Reply   |   Comment by Julia  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#118

i like it but i like tuneup utilities more.............

Reply   |   Comment by JOEL JOSE  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#117

http://mp3.about.com/od/audiotools/fr/Audials-One-Review-A-Toolbox-For-Downloading-And-Organizing-Audio-And-Video.htm

Reply   |   Comment by Dave  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#116

Great Utilities Pack very reminisant of the old Norton Utilities Works great on Windows 7

Reply   |   Comment by Tim K  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#115

I really appreciated this download. The program installed and activated effortlessly on a Win 7 and a Vista laptop. The GUI looks very professional, and the program performs flawlessly. I've always wanted a registry cleaner but didn't want to spend the money so this is a keeper. The program found hundreds of registry errors on the older laptop. Of course, it does much more than act as a registry cleaner. It seems to have dozens of functions when you go through the options, including getting rid of shortcuts that are no longer connected to anything and uninstalling unwanted programs.

For me, WinUtilities Pro is the best give away this year.

Reply   |   Comment by Wendy  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#114

After installing and running WinUtilities Pro 9.98 on my old XP PC, I was really stoked about it! The old girl performed so much quicker that I was amazed - best results ever! After having read all the positive comments here, I even felt secure enough to allow it to persuade me to disable my antivirus, so that it could analyse my registry to see if it needed defragging.

Then I decided to try it on my Vista PC, and although the results weren't quite as astounding, it did marginally improve performance - so all in all I was well pleased with the software and intended writing a glowing feedback comment.

Alas, upon booting up my Vista this morning, my antivirus found the malware TrojanDownloader:Java/OpenConnection.IU. A quick Google returned several related links reporting this as a serious and malicious trojan. I followed this link http://www.bitdefender.com/VIRUS-1000645-en--Java.Trojan.Downloader.OpenConnection.AI.html, which is a similar variant. So now I'm in the process of doing a full scan on both machines, hoping that I've caught it before any damage has been done.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Reply   |   Comment by Sunnaze  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#113

After reading all the great feedback on this software I decided to install and give this one a try. One question. I have Process Lasso installed and have been using it. Should I disable or remove Process Lasso if I am using WinUtility? I am a total techno idiot but it seems like since installing WinUtility Process Lasso shows increased ram usage. I believe WinUtility can do what Process Lasso does but not totally sure. Any help to an old computer idiot will be greatly appreciated. LOL, Thanks.

Reply   |   Comment by aswegohomestead  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#112

#20 Johnathans Bar & Grill - You're shortcut didn't work for me. Clobblered my old install and the new one - both are now 31 day trials!! Best to stick with the GOTD install method.

Reply   |   Comment by John C  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#111

I just wish people would read ALL the comments BEFORE trying to jump on someone; Comment #84 (for example) is nothing but a slam on comment #2, which has been slammed repeatedly already. Get over it people - review the software or don't say anything if what you were going to say has already been said.

Reply   |   Comment by Johnny B.  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#110

Meant to comment on this earlier, just to say i really like this app. Thanks GOTD!

Reply   |   Comment by TC  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#109

I already have WU Pro 9.95. Is there anything different or special about version 9.98?

Reply   |   Comment by Jack  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#108

Fails to launch and run. I get a small dialog box "WinUtilities, Missing Microsoft XML parser."
Win XP, SP3, all updates current

Reply   |   Comment by Dan P  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#107

Martin #60

I don't know whether to laugh or just shake my head. It sounds more like you are warning the earth of an impending invasion.

How about DON'T USE THIS SOFTWARE , if it is that scary to you. It's only software after all. And you lost all credibility when saying your 250+ friends and family all have the same issue.

Do you really expect anyone to believe that you discussed automatic updates to Win Utilities with over 250 people and that they all have the same paranoia as you.

Unbelievable.

I could go on but why bother.

This is probably a good program if you are into these types of things. It is hardly the 3 headed monster you are making it out to be.
I am sure there are thousands of people that have downloaded this in the past here and have no problems.

I have some extra aluminum foil if you want to make a hat.

It's Good to see varied offerings from GOTD. Thank you.

Reply   |   Comment by arthur  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#106

I used this once before when it was offered. I say Once because it rendered my machine unusable. I had a back up so all was not lost.
And the fact when it is updated makes it useless is another negative.

Still waiting for Glary Utilites Pro to be offered again for my new machine.
The GOTD could be updated without reverting to trial status.
Please!!!!!!?????

Reply   |   Comment by Gary  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#105

This is the latest update on my front; I downloaded, installed & executed this program side by side with two other programs I have been using for a long time. They are CC Cleaner and Glary Utilities. The bottom-line, is that both of these programs; especially Glary Utilities is extremely much faster; much more thorough and to be honest; much better. I have never had amy problems with these two programs working in conjunction with one another. They definitely get the job done. I will not change now. There is nothing to change to. Both programs are well equipped. They are both excellent maintenance & optimization packages. And, of course; updates are always free.

Reply   |   Comment by William R Cosgrove  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#104

#36 aswegohomestead:

Only glitch is tht Process Lasso keeps popping up wanting me to download new version. Which I don’t as I understand I will loose my free GAOTD version and get a trial of the new version.

Go ahead and update Process Lasso when it asks. I remember the author saying that updates would be valid till the next major version (4.1). The current full version is 4.00.34 - I have updated all my copies on multiple machines and they stay registered just fine. Process Lasso is a great program!!

Reply   |   Comment by dakotaman  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#103

@85

To add to my comment above. If you find it will not open after manually typing the command chances are very good your computer is infected with malware. Malwarebytes is the scanner of choice.

Reply   |   Comment by Joe  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#102

GOTD... I was glad to see this, my pc crashed and I lost the other version you posted some time back. I think this is a great tool.
And in reading most of the above post, Have common sense in any app when dealing with registry, as far as upgrades being "forced" on you, well now you all know not to upgrade, as with most giveaways here.
# 75 & 81 Good Logical Advice.

Reply   |   Comment by MrMr  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#101

To #54 the previous poster was correct in saying "Unneeded registry entries will rarely slow your computer down to any degree that a human being can notice,"

I've deleted several thousand registry errors from a computer, and then run a registry defrag and the end result was that computer did non seem to be even the slightest bit faster.

On the the other hand, I have seen cases where cleaning the registry boosts performance - but this not usually the case. In general removing temporary files, and unneeded startup items will do a lot more to boost a computers speed than cleaning the registry.

Also it's worth noting that the registry cleaner in WinUtilities is unsafe. It wanted to remove some needed registry entries on my computer - this is never a good idea. Also, it wanted to remove some empty keys in the software section of the registry. While many registry cleaners want to do the same, it is unsafe to do so, as occasionally software actually needs these empty keys to function - therefore deleting them can cause problems.

In terms of other features, WinUtliities fares reasonably well - but nothing really stands out, and in my opinion there is nothing which would make me ever want to pay for this software.

Reply   |   Comment by Roger  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#100

@85
Installed ok on Vista SP2 64 bit
However, just poking around for the first minute … when I click on Windows Standard Tools / System Configuration / Launch it fails and I get a popup saying

“Windows cannot find msconfig. Make sure you typed the name correctly, then try again”

I am running Windows Vista SP 2 64bit


Click start > in the search box type msconfig > press enter. If system configuration opens you will know it is a problem with WinUtilities. If it does not open then it is a problem with your system files.

Reply   |   Comment by Joe  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#99

It's so simple, make a thinapp for use on usb. After an unwanted update delete the program folder and start again, got mine working only 25 mb space on the stick

Reply   |   Comment by ojoj  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#98

#85. Press Start - Press Run, type msconfig in the box and see if it works. It may not be their software.

Reply   |   Comment by Gina  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#97

It's a nice utility suite, but as with most software, WinUtilities Pro will automatically search for updates to it's program. If there is an available update, a simple popup will appear asking if you want to update WinUtilities Pro. If a user chooses yes, the program will update and botta-bing-botta-boom you now have a trial version of the program which will expire in 30 days. It's always good to upgrade to the latest version of any program so users can enjoy enhancements and bug-fixes. In this case, the very few features WinUtilities Pro offers over their free version (or other free utility suites) doesn't justify giving up program updates. The free version will give most users the utilities they are looking for.

Reply   |   Comment by Big-Oaf  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#96

Works great on my Win Vista 64, make sure to enable restore point in program just in case you delete something you shouldn't. It found almost 600 registry errors and a few junk files that CCleaner didn't pick up. 5 stars : )

Reply   |   Comment by Dave  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#95

Why should it...be (and, this has happened, formerly) that downloads of day--for me--will only download alike 92KB? (Sometimes--facing THE SAME, I believe, initial amount--successive downloads will "add" some KB's. But, NOT the entire program, however.)

Windows XP professional.

Thanks always...

David...

Reply   |   Comment by David Ulrich  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#94

Nice. The Duplicate Files Finder exports to html so you can view it later. Thanks for listening YL Computing.

Reply   |   Comment by Gina  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#93

FWIW, I copied the program to portable disk and tried to run the WU on two different PCs, one with WU installed, one without. It runs on the WU installed PC, but "Fail to initialize DLL object. Please reinstall" on the other PC. Therefore, it is not portable.

Reply   |   Comment by neal  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#92

Downloaded, unchecked the Ask Toolbar during installation, then closed browser. I ran CCleaner first to remove all that it could for junk and checked the Registry also. Ran this program and it actually found a couple of items to fix. I am impressed...I'll still keep CCleaner because it is free and you can update it but I will hold onto WinUtilities as well. I am running Win 7-64 Ultimate and it integrated seemlessly. I will now try it on Win Vista 64 and see if it works just as well. Anyone who has had problems installing might want to check their own steps. This app deserves 5 stars.

Reply   |   Comment by Dave  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#91

@78, Area Control

Even with "Automatically check for updates" unchecked, WinUtilities PRO still checks for updates automatically.

See my post @60 for details relating to my experience and that of over 250 others.

Martin

Reply   |   Comment by Martin  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#90

Re post #63...I heartily agree with your assessment of Revo Uninstaller. Best in the biz, IMHO, and it's freeware. There's also a paid pro version, but I'm perfectly happy with the free version, it does a LOT!

Reply   |   Comment by Pete Maurer  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#89

Wow. What a great package. I think I could be tempted into buying upgrades for this one. It installed perfectly on Win XP (SP3) and Windows 7 Ultimate (32-bit).

Thank you, GAotD -- this is exactly why I keep recommending this site to friends and family!

Reply   |   Comment by M.L. Browne  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#88

Thanks GOTD and YL Computing for today's offer. And thanks to ALL commentators for your input, what can I say but, invaluable. Seems as if this offer has some nice features. The toolbar issue is not unique to this download. Any program that we download has potential extras offered. Think and read before allowing install is ALWAYS the best choice. Have a good day evaluating this utility program, hopefully without toolbar.

Reply   |   Comment by Cheryl  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#87

I have great results with WinUt 9.7 Pro , from GAOD. Works great, and does not ask for updates. Why should I change that and choose this version?. Nope.....

Reply   |   Comment by Mircea  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#86

Installed ok on Vista SP2 64 bit
However, just poking around for the first minute ... when I click on Windows Standard Tools / System Configuration / Launch it fails and I get a popup saying

"Windows cannot find msconfig. Make sure you typed the name correctly, then try again"

I am running Windows Vista SP 2 64bit

Reply   |   Comment by Graham  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#85

Ask Toolbar Does not just install, it only installs if You leave all 3 ticks checked at start of program installation, so for You brainiacks that seem to think it magically or secretly gets installed it's Your lack of attention to those 3 ticks. Untick all of them and ASK Toolbar does not get installed. I am sure we all have enough toolbars to do us anyway and I am not a fan of ASK either I created my own multimedia toolbar with conduit engine and it does everything I need without adware or malware or any threats whatsoever, so those that spouted off, can rest assured it was only Your negligence that got You the Ask toolbar on your system PEACE OUT!

Reply   |   Comment by zZzAMBeezZziE  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-5)
#84

Good utilities!

It will install the Ask toolbar, but it DOES give you the option to not install the toolbar. There was a prior comment that it doesn't provide that option, but it definitely does, although the wording on that option may be confusing to some.

Reply   |   Comment by Dec  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#83

Just tried this and it is a nice program, I like advanced system care free better.

Reply   |   Comment by Nick Grimm  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#82

#42: "...the advice I received from one computer professional I know is that registry ‘cleaners’ and the like are not necessary. Unneeded registry entries will rarely slow your computer down to any degree that a human being can notice, while deleting registry items could accidentally get you in trouble..."

IMHO decent advice, though it should be noted that some users add much more software to their PC/laptops than others, so the relative health of the registry can vary widely. Also some apps have such a huge impact that should install go wrong, the registry can suffer maybe the equivalent of years of abuse then & there. FWIW a fair reality check is to do an ERUNT backup before & after cleaning & check/compare those backup's size. Note ERUNT just copies the files to a new folder. Generally the smaller any file, including those containing the registry, the faster they're read etc. so most people I think will be disappointed when they find how little it's shrunk after cleaning. More than once I've run a reg cleaner, done that comparison, & found the savings so small I didn't bother checking to make sure everything worked, but just restored the original from backup.

"... Similarly, cleaning up the hard drive by removing unneeded files can also inadvertantly create some real problems."

Technically true but in the real world I'd think most GOTD loyalists know to stick with files extensions like .tmp etc., not go into Windows\System32 & start deleting .dll files. BTW WinUtilities gives you control over what file extensions it looks for & lists.

* * *

#45: "I copied the WinUtilities folder fro, Program Files to a USB stick and it works wonderfully. It’s now part of my computer repair toolbox."

#56: "My question is “Will another computer run the program from the USB stick ?"

No, WinUtilities uses files added to Windows' system folder, so it has to be installed. You might get something working using the portableapps.com format/methods [after all they got Open Ofc working including the Java runtimes], but IMHO you're talking a bit of work, plus it might violate the license terms.

* * *

#58: "I get a message that states a failure to connect with GAOTD try again later. Any suggestions."

Whenever this happens, try again later as the message suggests -- the GOTD site is probably having problems, maybe getting hammered with loads of traffic or just down like the other day. You can if you want make sure you can go on-line, that it isn't your end of things that are broke, & you can double-check any firewall software, making sure it isn't set to block that day's Setup.exe or Activate.exe, but 99% of the time at least it just requires a short wait.

* * *

#62: "... I’m forced to roll back occasionally, leaving me feeling burned by a dysfunctional (for me) driver release, and feeling like the success of driver updating is a bit of a crap shoot."

Before adding/updating drivers it's always a good idea to backup. One reason why is that many drivers & the apps that come with them use .NET. Adding those drivers & apps can cause changes to .NET records & settings. Rolling a driver back does not undo anything that's changed re: .NET -- for that you may have to uninstall/re-install .NET or even Windows, which can be a PITA that takes a Loooong time.

As far as drivers go, the companies that write them will seldom if ever give Microsoft complete rights to their code -- Windows/Microsoft update &/or Windows install normally has minimal copies that can make hardware mis-behave, make updates to official drivers harder, & often results in missing hardware features/functions. Also, the companies that sold the hardware you own often abandon it to some degree as newer products are developed/sold. If you want/need later drivers this means go to the manufacturer as or when possible, eg. network, graphics, & audio chipsets. And yes there's the air of a crapshoot whenever you update drivers -- there's simply too many hardware & software combos to test everything the way we'd wish, *IF* the companies could/would spend the $ in the 1st place -- alas many don't.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+11)
#81

Martin #60

I agree with you that they try to bait you into upgrading whenever a new version comes out. The last time I had this software I upgraded and the program went into trial mode. I really like WinUtilities but I wouldn't install any future upgrades.

Reply   |   Comment by steel  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#80

Oh Yeah one more thing after you install it be sure to un-check the
[ Automatically check for updates ] in the settings panel or you might update your way out of the free version. To find it there is a little drop down (Arrow) button, kind of top right in the blue area on the main program, when you click that you will see [ Settings ] the first link, when you click that you will see the [ Automatically check for updates ] has a check in it, just un-check it then click [ OK ] Then just remember to never check for updates. I have accidentally updated my way out of Free Giveaway's of the Day before :(

Reply   |   Comment by Area Control  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#79

This software seems to be nothing more than a duplicate of Glary Utilities with the following exceptions (I do not know and therefore do not comment on which was first).

First, it has a disk defrag option which Glary doesn't. That's not a big deal to me since, after years of proven reliability, I choose Ultimate Defrag from Disktrix.

Second, and perhaps most important, it does not provide the option to show the results of the 1 click maintenance nor add exclusions. No registry cleaning software is perfect. This means from time to time a needed entry will be deleted unless an exclusion is added. Without the option to exclude and entry you are literally at the mercy of the software.

As to the comments above regarding the software not creating a restore point, such a feature would be useless. System restore only monitors system files which this software does not tamper with. True, the registry is part of the file system, however, the software does provide a back-up and restore option for the registry. This option is sufficient for the type of cleaning process the software performs.

Reply   |   Comment by Joe  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+5)
#78

I have used this in the past and liked it , except it was shutting down my task sceduler.Thear for I choose not to use it .

Reply   |   Comment by Keith Barnett  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-7)
#77

WinUtilities like the many other apps in its class tries to make managing/maintaining your Windows install easier. WinUtilities looks a bit nicer than some competing apps, having a more developed GUI, but IMHO it has a harder time keeping up with alternatives like Ashampoo's WinOptimizer [especially if you're paying for it considering Ashampoo's frequent sales & special offers]. A lot of more tech-oriented users dismiss these Windows maintenance utilities as unneeded -- a fancy interface to get you to spend money for features that are either already in Windows or unnecessary -- meaning regardless any Pro/Con debate it's a bit difficult to find good detailed info &/or advice... many related articles &/or reviews are either low tech or trying to sell you something. The way I look at it is that as long as you can put things back the way they were, the main thing you're risking is your time to install, try out, & double check results after using something like WinUtilities... if you can't put things back, or are unwilling to spend the time to put things back if/as needed, IMHO you're better off taking the stance: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", i.e. save it for trying to avoid a re-install if/when Windows is broken & you have zero risk [you'll have to re-install either way, if it doesn't save the day, or if you don't try].

Many of these all-in-one Windows utility packs are portable, though not always officially -- WinUtilities & many others are a collection of individual apps, & in many cases [though not with WinUtilities] you'll find that either these separate apps run just fine without any install, or the launcher will work along with most, but not all features. Portable can be handy when you're working on a PC/laptop for someone else. WinUtilities setup program includes 17 files that it can install to Windows system folder -- I question adding gdiplus.dll this way, particularly such an old version, but apps including WinUtilities continued to use the correct copies of this file already installed under Windows\WinSxS [per SysInternals' Process Explorer]. WinUtilities' installer also added ~900 new registry entries, plus the program's folder that holds 495 files, 20 folders, & takes up ~79 MB... the price for that nicer GUI. Running it through its paces I didn't see any issues -- it did what it said it was going to -- though at times it worked much slower than I had expected. WinUtilities registry backup gives you one large .reg file that's not nearly as compact as the original file copies ERUNT gives you, & not nearly as easy or as flexible to restore or work with, nor is it as good as 7's System Restore. The registry cleaner looks for entries where something's missing & flags several recent use &/or history type records. Before you scan you can specify what to check for, where, & afterward listed entries have a checkbox so you can keep them or not. Unlike many registry cleaners there Are no safety indicators -- while arguably deleting most entries has the same risk, deleting history for example is most always fool proof.

The bottom line is that no one absolutely needs, has to have one of these Windows utility packs or apps, but they can make life easier -- how much so depends on you & the system you're working with... Some people are comfortable working with several, often more powerful system utilities, some not. Some users spend more time *housekeeping* so there's little clutter to find & delete. And sometimes things are so bad it's worth a crapshoot to just let one of these suites have at it on *autopilot* -- I've seen one or two PCs where if it wouldn't run at all that'd be an improvement, an excuse to wipe the disk & start fresh. ;-)

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+10)
#76

#29 & #34: What do you mean by "the updates are enforced"?

Reply   |   Comment by dan  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#75

when version 10 will be released?

Reply   |   Comment by Mate  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-5)
#74

I didn't have a problem with Ask. When I was asked about Ask during the installation sequence, I unclicked all three boxes, in essence asking Ask not to install. Then it was up and away. Who could ask for more?

Reply   |   Comment by clive james  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-4)
#73

To Bill Ailes and Lassiter.

I suggest that you follow the message, wait and try again later.
It worked for me.

Reply   |   Comment by consuella  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
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