EnhanceMySe7en Free

Windows 7 has quite a few built-in enhancements and tweaks, and it enables still more. Most of these tools are scattered throughout Windows or just aren't convenient to use. We've tried many programs that bundle a variety of Windows 7 tools, tweaks, and cleaners into a "one-stop" solution. SeriousBit's EnhanceMySe7en Free offers most of the features of a premium Pro tool, including Registry and security cleaners, and customizations. It omits the Most Used Tweaks features, context menu integration, and hard-drive monitor. But we were surprised to see that the freeware also omits access to many built-in Windows tools that are already free and installed.

EnhanceMySe7en's attractive user interface has an Office-style ribbon toolbar and Start button. Clicking the Start button let us save and undo changes, reboot, and perform other basic functions. The program opened on the Information tab, which displayed our hardware and disk data. As we clicked through each heading, the program displayed a variety of tools and options in the toolbar. Features unavailable in the freeware are marked Pro. According to the program's online documentation, the Disk Cleaner is enabled in both the free and Pro tools, yet it's actually disabled in EnhanceMySe7en Free. None of the three tools on the Most Used Tweaks tab works in the freeware. The System tab let us make a variety of changes to the Windows Firewall, Windows Update, autocomplete, and Windows Mail, among others; run the Recent Item Cleaner; and customize the Control Panel. But the freeware disables access to System Tools; File, Network, and Security Tools; and the Move or Copy System Files feature. Under Optimizations, we could makes changes to our system's Memory and Cache, Startup and Shutdown, and Visual Effects, but the Hard Drives and Services tweaks are limited to the Pro tool. Under Customizations, we could make a variety of changes such as hiding the taskbar clock and removing the volume control icon.

Like similar tools, EnhanceMySe7en Free is best used as a central point to access a variety of system tools, processes, and settings. We wonder why the free version disables the tools it does, especially since many of them are already free.