Introduction

Hidden away in the depths of every desktop PC in the world, there resides a variety of estranged files and miscellaneous junk that could well be the (indirect) cause of a large number of heart attacks and nervous breakdowns each year. Building up every day and slowly bringing you and your PC to a productive halt, these files are what Uniblues latest smooth looking optimization app promises to keep in check.

Based in Malta, Uniblue have been on the scene now for a few years, churning out 'power toy' type programs (WinTasks), backup apps (WinBackup) and also the ones behind the ever-helpful ProcessLibrary.com.

Here's what they have to say about their latest version of SpeedUpMyPC:

Do you often notice that your PC just doesn’t run as smoothly as it used to? This could be caused by anyone of several problems or a combination of all of them. The problem is, monitoring today’s PCs is increasingly difficult and time consuming. Even experienced users find effective control of all the settings and resources of their PCs hard to achieve.

With SpeedUpMyPC 3, it’s as though you have a full time technician working flat out just for you, helping you to make the best use of all that processing power that you have already bought. SpeedUpMyPC 3 lets you monitor and control all your PC resources with easy, one click instructions. System settings, internet usage, disk clutter, RAM and CPU are all automatically scanned, cleaned and optimized for peak performance.

Sounds good, anything else?

- Dramatically optimize your use of CPU processing power and boost critical applications for extra speed.

- Remove unnecessary background and auto-start applications for noticeably faster start up times.

- Improve your data security with new File Shredder and Privacy Protection tools to completely remove unwanted files and folders, permanently.

- Use File Clean Up to automatically free up even more disk space, quickly.

- Optimize your Internet connection settings for improved bandwidth, faster browsing and quicker downloads.

So, not satisfied with just offering to clean out the dusty corners of your 'temp' folders, SpeedUpMyPC 3 also boasts a number of other features aimed at keeping your machine running at peak performance, whilst protecting your security and allowing you to monitor your hardware. Of course there are plenty of programs available for download that offer to perform similar miracles, quite a few of which are Freeware. However, Uniblue proudly proclaim that SpeedUpMyPC 3 is, and I quote:

Truly, the best and most complete solution at a great price. An all-in-one system tool that gives you more speed and processing power from your PC in one easy-to-use software.

We shall see. I will be testing and evaluating SpeedUpMyPC 3 on a machine that desperately needs some kind of help, my parents old and dying Athlon XP 2200+ with 512Mb DDR333. My reasoning being of course that this is just the kind of piece of cra... sorry, machine, this program is aimed at. My initial suggestion involving an open window and a three storey drop didn't meet much approval, so here goes plan B. SpeedUpMyPC 3, you have your orders.

Onto the testing.