SYSTEM TOOLS
There are a lot of tools that come with Windows, but sometimes you need something more powerful, or a feature Microsoft hasn’t supplied.
The venerable Norton Utilities ( http://norton.com) has moved to a subscription model, wanting $40 a year. That allows you to use it across 10 PCs, so it may make sense if you’ve got a lot of computers and it’s critical they’re all working at their best. In the world of backups, Acronis
True Image 2019 can be bought for $50, but also has a subscription model for its Advanced and Premium tiers that will set you back $50 and $100 a year respectively. There are other choices, including
AVG TuneUp, a performance optimizer that needs to be subscribed to for $50 a year, but can be installed on unlimited systems. It removes unwanted programs and temporary Internet files, and will even attempt to clean up your registry, if you dare.
CCleaner ( www.ccleaner.com) speeds up your PC by cleaning away all the unused files and settings that accumulate after you’ve been using a PC for more than a few minutes. It also optimizes your PC for faster startups and, in its paid-for version, offers real-time protection and online privacy enhancement, too. It’s a subscription, but only $35 a year. The same company also offers
Recuva, a $20 file recovery app that can copy files from damaged disks, music players, and memory cards, plus create disk images for archiving.
You can’t talk about budget apps without mentioning Ashampoo ( www.ashampoo.com). This German company offers backup software (called Backup), for when OneDrive and File History aren’t enough, at $30. There’s more: Ashampoo’s
WinOptimizer does a similar job to CCleaner for $40, and there’s a file compression suite, Zip Pro 2, for $30. Elsewhere, EaseUS ( www.easeus.
com) offers partition management software for $40, with the ability to migrate an OS to a new drive, manage dynamic volumes, and create boot disks for the Windows Preinstallation Environment, for when you need to troubleshoot an OS while it’s offline. EaseUS also offers backup software for $30, supporting system cloning, the transfer of a system to a new PC, and offsite copying.