Roland Waddilove blows away the cobwebs on his system with this handy tool
AVG PC TuneUp is a collection of over 30 functions that can be used to tune up, clean up, repair and optimise your computer, whether you're still running Windows XP or the latest version of Windows 10. It is an impressive and comprehensive toolkit.
Instead of bringing out new products once a year, AVG has switched to continual updates. New features and tweaks are regularly added, and the latest version is pushed out as soon as it's ready. This is like the way Microsoft has made Windows 10 the last, and instead of new versions, it will continually update the current one. The version of AVG PC TuneUp on test is 16.22.1.58906, but by the time you read this, it could be different.
The home screen provides five tiles, which are used to access Maintenance, Speed Up, Free Up Space, Fix Problems and All Functions. That last item displays a list of the 30-odd functions that PC TuneUp provides. The home screen tiles are used to run combinations of these. Maintenance, for example, checks for registry problems, broken shortcuts, system caches and logs, browser data, start-up and shutdown issues, and disk fragmentation. A single Fix & Clean button enables you to clean up and tune up, but expert users can view the details and individually select or deselect items to be fixed or cleaned.
This one-click maintenance can be run on a schedule, such as every three days, every week and so on, or whenever the PC is idle. There's also a Live Optimisation feature that monitors the system and optimises start-up and increases the response of applications. A Program Deactivator automatically closes programs running in the background when you quit them, and this will release extra memory.
Four different computer modes can be selected on the home screen: Economy, Standard, Turbo and Flight. Economy mode makes changes to the system to maximise battery life when used with a laptop. There are maximum and moderate energy saving settings, and manual configuration that lets you select what to turn off or leave on. Turbo mode is useful for playing games or using applications that require a lot of processing power. There are over a dozen configurable options that turn off non-essential features and put off maintenance tasks.
Among the functions is AVG Styler, which enables Windows 7 users to customise the login screen, and alternative designs can be downloaded from the AVG website. System icons can be changed, icon spacing on the desktop can be adjusted, and shortcut arrows removed. An Uninstall Manager can be used to remove software you no longer need, and it displays usefulness ratings for each program and when they were last used, which are helpful when deciding what to keep or remove. There are tools to find large files and duplicate files, which you can then delete to free up disk space. Caches and logs can be cleaned, and there's a secure file eraser.
AVG PC TuneUp looks great and has lots of tools for tuning, cleaning, optimising and tweaking windows. The downside is the £24.99 annual fee, although this does include constant updates. Roland Waddilove
Great, but a one-off fee would be better.