Ease of Use:  

You do not even have to know what a registry is to use this software. It walks you through the four steps of backing up, scanning, repairing and defragging easily and quickly; there is very little room for error. We don’t think you could make this program simpler or easier to use. However, it may be too streamlined for more advanced users that may desire a more hands on approach and more options. Nevertheless, when you first set up the program it does offer some customization options for advanced users, otherwise most operations only require a few clicks and offer few choices.

Feature Set:  

PC Tune-Up does a great job at backing up, program cleaning, registry cleaning and defragging, it even has one button that will run the whole process for you. The first section of this program quickly backs up your registry to anywhere you desire, and we liked that it gives you drop down menu choices; we have seen some registry repair programs that require you to type in the file and extensions manually.

The second step quickly scans your system for common errors in sections such as paths, fonts, COM/ActiveX, help files, file extensions, uninstalls, most recently used files, shared DLLs, shared folders, start up menu, virtual device drivers, sound & appevents and program shortcuts. The scan is fast and shows a status bar and each section is marked “done” as it completes. In the third section you can easily pick which errors you want fixed from an organized list, each item has a severity rating and it clearly shows you where the error is at, you can fix line by line, by section or fix the whole list at once.

The fourth section is the defrag portion of the software. Here the program can be instructed to defrag your hard drive, After this is done it shows an easy to understand report that shows user data, cleared block and fragmented block as well as the percentage of improvement.

Besides the four steps, PC Tune-Up also offers you the option to optimize or protect. The optimize section can be set to free up extra memory used to run processes so your computer will run faster. This may especially be useful to those that are RAM deficient. The protect section can be used to protect your computer from ActiveX programs used to communicate between programs. You may or may not want to use this option, some ActiveX components may be used to run programs that you want, such as toolbar additions or ads that you actually want to see.

Overall, this software performed most of the operations that we were looking for and it is amazingly simple for a program that handles such an intimidating subject. We feel that simplicity is important, especially for registry novices, because if it is too difficult it will not be done.

Ease of Installation:  

This software installed quickly from the Large Software website and entering the license keys and registering the product was also quite easy to do and fast.

Help/Support:  

We were a bit underwhelmed with this product when it came to support. This registry repair software does not come with embedded support, when you click support from the program is goes to the Large Software website and only displays a few FAQs. Otherwise you can email them a question. They do not post a phone number or a user manual.

Safety:  

This program quickly finds errors and lists them in a report that shows exactly where the error is at and what type of error it is. It also organizes the errors into the types of errors, for example path sections, file extensions or DLL sections. Furthermore, each error has a severity rating. We liked that you can fix errors by category, by selection, or it will just fix them all at once if you would like.

Backups also have an undo option, which is a nice alternative should you need it. We easily and quickly backed up our registry to a portable hard drive in a matter of minutes, you can also save several versions, so you can easily restore to a certain date.

We enjoyed the simplicity of this program and the magic button option for those that just want this necessary process done automatically. Generally we were pleased with the performance of this software, the only area we would really like to see improved is customer support. Even though this program is easy to use we would like to see more documentation and perhaps telephone or chat support. Overall, PC Tune-Up is a good option for a simple solution that requires little additional user effort.