Ace Utilities v1.65
Until arriving by accident on this great little software gem, I had no idea that my computer was so slow because of unwanted links, cookies, files left over from programs long gone and the like. Since cleaning my computer up with Ace Utilities v1.65, I have not enjoyed so much pristine life out of my computer since buying it new.
Over a period of about an hour or so, I found 2,651 unwanted files, 4,537 shortcut links that no longer work, fifteen programs that annoy me greatly every time I start my computer up, and I found 357 files taking up nearly 1 gig that were totally duplicated files. Ace also has this great uninstaller that works much better than the Windows uninstaller. Here I reclaimed another half gig.
Particularly if you are a Personal Brain 2.1 user, such as I am, you will need to use something like Ace Utilities to get rid of the unwanted shortcut links. When you build Brains and do not move files into your Brain, I often move a file and do not realize that there is a link in one or more of my Brains that point to this file. This is where Ace is great -- it will repair those links making your Brain even more useful for another day.
Let me give you a summary of all the things Ace Utilities v1.65 does for you:
REMOVE UNNEEDED FILES
Over the period of eight months I have had this particular computer, I have installed and tested maybe some 250 or so programs. Over that period of time, each of these have been uninstalled. So uninstallers are more efficient than others, and so there is always a residue of some programs each time you uninstall. Additionally, there are those data-type files that are created as working notepads for some software, those need to be erased as well. Every computer system has some unneeded files and could do with a clean-up here.
CLEAN SYSTEM REGISTRY
This is perhaps the most serious one. Through Ace Utilities, there were 2,920 unwanted registry entries that Ace deleted without a single problem caused afterwards. This alone has given my computer a new lease of life. Any computer that has been operated for more than a few months should be cleaned using Ace. It adds to the speed of operation.
AUTO START PROGRAMS
This is one of the cool utilities. I know you can edited these using Windows. However, this utility located two programs of the same name that always drives me crazy with two of the same programmes starting each time I boot my computer. Windows never ever showed me I actually had two shortcuts that would start two instances of the same program. Ace showed me and presto, this double start has ceased.
FIX INVALID SHORTCUTS
Now this was a surprise to me. I did not believe I had so many of these invalid shortcuts. Still, I can see how they have been generated -- using PersonalBrain is one of the main reasons for these invalid shortcuts. The only problem here in working with Ace Utilities is that this process is very time consuming. The program asks for each shortcut whether I wish to delete it or if it can be fixed asks if I wish to fox it. I looked all over the program to see if I could set a global setting that it should fix those that it can and delete those it cannot fix. This is perhaps the biggest drawback to Ace. Be ready for a time consuming job of answering 4,500 times to the same questions -- two answers per shortcut usually.
ERASE YOUR HISTORY
Now this I did not do, as I rely on m history so much for everything I do. However, I can see that many people could very well do this and make so much room on the hard disc.
FIND DUPLICATE FILES
What a good utility. I have seen this utility elsewhere, but this one works so well. It even distinguishes a file that is 1% similar and tells you so. This created lots of space for me.
UNINSTALLER PLUS
This is great. Ace actually found things for me to install that Windows did not show me. However, what Ace is not big on is explanation of how to use these tools. I learnt the hard way that I needed to run uninstaller first and then go back and do the rest. More unwanted files can be found after uninstalls, and more shortcuts can be found as well. So the trick is to get in there and uninstall anything you need to unintall and then go and do the other things.
You can download Ace Utilities v1.65 from Download.com. However, download takes you to Simtel. Ace Utilities v1.65 costs $29 to register. It is well worth the money as it is simple to operate and is efficient to use.
6:23:11 PM 
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