Advanced SystemCare 18.0.1.158

★ Winner of Best System Cleaner in 2017 and 2014.

Overview

When it comes to keeping your system clean, there’s no shortage of tools on the market. Each claims that their technology is the best in repairing and keeping your system efficient. Advanced System Care is one of these tools and in this quick article, we’ll find out just how good and effective it is. A wealth of tools is provided by this software product, all nicely embedded into one convenient package. Let’s find out more about Advanced System Care which comes in a limited Free edition, upgradable to the full Pro suite for $20 USD - 3PCs/1 year.

Installation

With a setup kit measuring around 45MB in size, the smooth installation will not pose you any problems. In terms of specs, all the versions of Windows from Windows 2000 onwards, including the newly release Windows 10, are supported by Advanced System Care. This tool doesn’t come with adware or other bundled programs - see the antivirus scan here. 

During install you are offered IObit Malware Fighter as a complementary software, but its install box is not checked by default so it's up to you to select this offer or not. At the end of the setup process, you can subscribe to IObit's Newsletter to receive extra perks such as a free eBook with Windows tutorials, tips, and future giveaway offers. Click "Give up my privilegies" if you don't need these offers and just want to start ASC.

Interface

You should be happy to find out that Advanced System Care has a clean interface that is easy to use and navigate. The buttons are well placed and the controls are at your immediate grasp. What is more, novice users will not have any problems in the registry fix for example, and improving their system’s performance.

Right after the install finishes, you get 2 interface options to choose from: Classic or Readable. After you make your selection, you can switch to other skins later on, from the top right "Skin" button.

At the very top right you find buttons for "Quick Settings", "Skin", and "More Settings", besides a "Like" button that goes to IObit's Facebook page.

Right below you get a 5-tabs selection: Care which is selected by default, Protect, Toolbox, Turbo Boost, and Action Center.

The Care tab lets you select which services ASC will use when you hit the big Scan button in the middle. The available services are: Spyware Removal, Registry Fix, Privacy Sweep, Junk Files Clean, Internet Boost, Shortcuts Fix, Registry Defrag, System Optimization, Security Defense, Disk Scan, Vulnerability Fix, and Disk Optimization.

The Protect tab features options to protect your browsers' homepage, protect against online threats during your online surfing, protect your browsers against malicious plugins/toolbars, and more, with a couple features active only in the Pro edition of ASC: Broser Anti-Tracking and Real-time Protector.

The Toolbox tab offers you the option to add additional IObit programs and Pro functions for Advanced System Care.

The Turbo Boost tab lets you configure a Turbo mode for your PC. This works by disabling some Windows services (advanced users can even edit a services.ini file to choose which services are disabled and which are not), non-Windows services, and background apps. For convenience, Turbo Boost comes with 3 modes to choose from: Work, Game, and Economy mode, each tailored for their specific purpose. Each mode can be then configured to your liking by disabling more or less of the services mentioned above.

The Action Center tab features 2 sections: "Security & Performance" which, again, recommends that you install additional programs from IObit, and "Software Updater". This second section checks if your important programs are up to date. If not, you get an option to update them.

Pros

Optimization and performance are the keywords that Advanced System Care plans to bring upon your system. It is jam-packed with a lot of features that certainly makes the maintenance of your system a breeze! The ability to clean your registry is provided by the Quick Care option while aspects like rudimentary malware scan, fix and remove broken shortcuts, delete junk files and erasing browsing tracks are also possible with relative ease. If you want the user-input to be minimal, you can set up these scans to be done automatically at each system startup.

Another useful feature is called Deep Care and it is a lot more thorough. The registry clean is deeper and you also get disk defragmenting, a "Windows vulnerability fix" and a system optimization option. Fortunately, Advanced System Care creates logs before each scan and process so you can quickly revert back to the original state, in case something goes wrong. The rescue point creation tool will undo any changes. The scanning engine is powerful and there’s even a feature implemented for more experienced users. Turbo Boost works by disabling core system services. Thus, the performance of your PC is improved.

While ASC keeps running in tray, you also see a very small Performance Monitor window floating on your desktop, which monitors the amount of RAM and CPU you use and, with a single click, it can free up some memory. This Performance Monitor window can be expanded to also show disk and network usage, CPU/GPU/Mainboard temps, and fan speed. Right here you get 4 conveniently placed buttons to open the ASC Scan tab, clean RAM, take a screenshot, and access the power options (Shutdown, Restart, Log off, Hibernate). If you like the convenience this Performance Monitor window brings to your system, you can also pin it on top of all programs by right-clicking it and selecting Settings > Pin it up front. Don't forget that you can minimize/maximize its size and also choose transparency (which applies globally to the entire ASC interface).

Cons

The majority of users don’t need the Turbo Boost and as a result, if you’re not careful, you may disable essential services with such a feature. In spite of this minor problem, Advanced System Care is an excellent tool.

Alternatives

There are a lot of alternatives to Advanced System Care. There’s a very rich plate of offerings in this domain. Here are some more optimization tools: CCleaner, Glary Utilities, SysinternalsSuite, TuneUp Utilities, BleachBit, Comodo System Cleaner and more.

Conclusion

All in all, multiple utilities are combined into one great package – Advanced System Care. It is an excellent tool that will surely help your system perform better!