Can I speed up my PC using a cleanup utility I saw on TV?

Posted on Jul 9, 2011 | 0 comments

I get asked this question often by customers who have an older PC that has become frustratingly slow.  I have never had success with these types of utilities, despite the fact that TV commercials like those for doublemypc.com would lead you to believe otherwise.  I thought I just may not have been using the right ones, and that if I could just do some experimentation, I would find one that makes a PC run like new.  Well, finally this month, PC World has done just that, and published the results for readers to share.  While their article is definitely worth having a look at, their final summary really tells you all you need to know:

“Our Advice:

Cleanup utilities are a compelling sell to Windows users. We all want to believe that our PC is still the same snappy spring chicken it was when we bought it, and that it just needs the light touch of a cleanup tool to start sprinting again.

The reality is a bit different: You might feel better after running a utility–but judging from our testing, your PC’s overall performance is unlikely to change much. Instead of investing in a cleanup utility, uninstall old programs for a short-term speed boost, and save your cash for a hardware upgrade.”

The bottom line here is simple – don’t waste your money with utilities that promise to make your old PC act like new.  That is a dead-end road, and you’ll just end up throwing your money away.  I would even say that if your computer is more than 4 or 5 years old, a “reimage” or factory reset is also a waste of time and money.  PC’s and laptops are so much more inexpensive today that if you purchase wisely, you’ll get much more bang for your buck from just buying a new one.  Like the article states, there is no “magic pill” to make your PC run better, and unless you have a virus, malware or spyware, there is no reason to purchase these types of utilities or use online cleaning services.

Here is a link to the full PC World article:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/230447/cleanup_utilities_can_they_speed_up_your_pc.html