In the same vein as the comparison between Piriform’s CCleaner and CSC, I’d like to bring out a comparison between another product which has a great deal more functionality (some of them you’d have to pay for unfortunately, but would seem well worth the price).
Personally I love both products and use them on the same computer. In the functions that CSC does perform, it does in a very advanced manner with much more fine tuned control, although slightly slower in some respects.
I’d love to see COMODO come out with other utilities that would compliment this suite and add optimization profiles (they come in the PRO version) that would suit a basic home user or power users or gamers that the paid version of Iobit’s software would allow. They also have TCP/IP optimization within their utilities section.
In addition, SystemCare allows for semi-seamless integration with SmartDefrag which is also another wonderful utility.
The Registry Defrag utility seems to be defunct as it never finds a fragmented registry…at least not with my combo of CCleaner and SystemCare. It probably would be even less useful now that I’m using CSC.
The Disk Cleaner actually finds all the log files on the computer and eliminates them as other files, but I suggest caution with it.
The general scanning though is intuitive, quick, and easy without much risk for damaging system functionality (I’ve had trouble with CSC nuking my Realplayer, but I’ll address that in another topic).
Unfortunately, I only have the free version, but I suspect the PRO version to be much more full featured.
I used to be a fan of Advanced System Care, but I am a bit uncomfortable with version 3.
I pushed the Maintain Windows button (I believe that was the one) expecting to be given a list of maintenance options similar to the older versions, and instead the program proceeded to ‘maintain’ windows for me. I’m still a bit unsure as to what was actually done, but no harm was done to my system that I could see.
I used to be a regular user of the prior versions, but I was so put off that it just decided what I wanted done for me, I haven’t used it since then. Granted, I probably should have read up a bit more on what would happen, but I thought that was seriously bad design.
You probably pressed the big blue Care button.
Or you were experiencing the initial scan of the install which you can’t control or stop.
Scans don’t actually do anything. You have to actually choose to repair the problems of course. You used the old versions I’m sure so this is more for anyone who may be trying it for the first time.
What you should do is pick out the options outside of the center circle. Maintain Windows is your basic set and then you pick scan.
Here are some general thoughts, not really related to the comparison (I guess I should split my post from this topic? :-[):
One important aspect for me when it comes to system/registry cleaning is hard facts - how much performance is actually gained by taking certain actions? It is obvious what you can gain from deleting privacy, but what can you gain from deleting temp files etc. and removing 350 registry entries, and then finally compact/defrag the registry?
I’ve done these things for long but not because I’ve noticed performace difference*, but rather because it’s doable and it gives me peace of mind. Why having obsolete registry entries when I can have them removed? But I’ve seen little (if any) facts of what you can REALLY gain. People talk about system stability, but what is system stability? No crashes?
* The most important performance difference I’ve noticed comes from disabling autostarting applications and Windows Services.
You’d have get those kinds of statistics from a poorly managed (with maybe the basic utilities packaged with the OS by an average user) computer with the same OS as one that is managed in the obsessive compulsive manner that many of us on this forum do. You can then actually time and feel how much slower certain programs loading and doing certain tasks.
Of course, measuring a performance boost for each particular registry entry or junk file removed is not a viable task. Sure, you may skip some extraneous processes or travel less disk, but maybe that only applies to certain instances.
Either way though, management overall prevents a computer from experiencing the gradual slowdown that renders an otherwise capable system feeling obsolete too soon.
It could have been the Care button. I don’t remember exactly what I pressed, but I was surprised to find that just went and did things without asking me about them. And no, it wasn’t a scan.
Like I said, I was a fan up until that point. I wasn’t even given a “you are about to remove (or whatever) from your system, proceed?” or anything…
Granted, there is likely some onus of responsibility on my part for pressing buttons that I wasn’t aware of what they would do, but the last thing I expected was for it to simply start doing it without even specifying what I wanted done.
The Care button is basically for people who can’t be bothered any of the details or who don’t need any control.
Try it again, I honestly think that it deserves a second look and joint custody of your computer while Comodo works hard to ninja clone all of its features.
Yes the Care button is automatic, but how many users can know what to deselect if given the option? I certainly do not have the knowledge to do that, apart from cookies I want to keep.
I think it is careful not to do things which could damage your system and I have learnt to trust it.
However CSC will certainly find other things to delete.
not to get off topic but, I tried iobit smart defrag and it gave me the bsod every time i tried. it looks good. but I love and trust auslogics disk defrag
Thank you all for contributing to this discussion. What I would be more interested is the Cleaning part and Usability part of any comparison between CSC and any other product. Defrag and other tunings will be part of our Tune-up program(similar to CSC but only tune-up utilities in there).
I guess pretty soon we should have a separate forum on Tweaking and starting discussing there about what do you wish a product like this to contain. Something like this will take the COMODO-users interaction even further that it is now.
Hmm…well I admit SmartDefrag isn’t perfect, but if you know what you’re doing you should just stick to JKDefrag anyway.
You put SmartDefrag on a comp for someone who isn’t that computer savvy but can listen to enough instructions to maintain their computer on a schedule.
I use IOBIT system care (formally known as windows care) for some years now and its a killer app. You install and run it and you don’t have to worry interacting with it. It shows clear what it’s doing and you can check every step it makes if you want to (i do not).
After running it solves a lot of problems/errors on slow or bugy computers. I have used the cleaner from Comodo and I have problems. The system slowed down and had problems rebooting. On first reboot the windows logo showed and before the desktop could be shown the whole computer went down. After second boot I got the black screen if I wanted to go in safe mode or wanted to start Windows normal.
I really got scared and deleted the program.
Smart Defrag I use for all my clients and works fine
I am pretty sute JKdefrag costs money, auslogics is free. Right now I use CSC and auslogics boostspeec. boostspeed is better because it has so many functions. CSC had them all reemovied. Please put them back and use boost speed as an example of what to add.
IF CSC had all the functions as boost speec, it would be better. I like it better but it just doesnt do as much.
Smart defrag is okay if you don’t use the optimize feature. On this machine,the “optimization” scattered my files everywhere across my drive and left a lot of empty spaces between them. The XP defrag utility actually organizes the files better when it does the file compacting. JkDefrag is only an overlay to the Windows defrag utility which adds other options. It is slow and I didn’t like how it kept moving my gaming files to the end of the drive and calling them “space hoggers”. I also tried Perfect disk and it fragmented my drive more than it was before I ran it. I now use Auslogics as my main defrag tool and the XP defragger once in a while to compact things. Based on my experience with SmartDefrag, I passed on Advanced System Care. I already have a cleanup utility called Free window sweeper that works very well and I run both RegCure and Registry Mechanic on a regular basis.
Ive run into problems with regcure. I use only CSC and auslogics boostspeed. Both are amazing. but comodo is free! Any way I like auslogics regcleaner and diskdefrag (free but included with boostspeed) alot. Best defragger.
If CSC has the option of keeping some cookies I might try it. The reason I use Free Window Sweeper is that I can retain my login cookies for frequently visited sites.
But I’ve seen little (if any) facts of what you can REALLY gain. People talk about system stability, but 