System Boost Elite

Just as our houses require regular cleaning to get rid of the messes of daily living, so, too, do computers require cleaning to get rid of the messes of downloading, installing, uninstalling, and Internet surfing. System Boost Elite is a full-featured program that can tidy up your Registry, junk files, and more. Unfortunately, the free version can only fix three problems at a time, which could be a drawback if you haven't been staying on top of your housekeeping.

The program's interface is attractive and easy to navigate, with check boxes that let users select Registry Clean, Privacy Sweep, Junk Files Removal, and System Optimization. You can select exactly which kinds of issues you want the program to scan for within each of these four categories. We decided to do the full scan, and once we clicked the Scan button the program quickly found hundreds of problems. It then gave us the option to cure them, and when we agreed it corrected three of the broken Registry items. You can run the program again and again, correcting three problems at a time, but this obviously isn't an efficient way to clean up your computer if you have a lot of things that need to be fixed. The program's online Help page provides some basic information about what the Windows Registry is and how the program works, but as with any program that changes your computer's Registry, you'll want to proceed with caution. Overall, we found System Boost Elite to be a useful program, but the limitations on the free version could be a problem for some.

System Boost Elite installs and uninstalls without issues.