Unleash Some Magic

Optimization is the process of improving a system to reduce runtime, bandwidth, memory requirements, or other property, but this is only the standard definition. After all, if you get a black monitor, keyboard and mouse, you can say that you've optimized the looks of your computer, isn't it so? Anyway, today we're going to talk about the optimization of your operating system, as we do from time to time, and the tool that you're going to meet now is called Magic Utilities 2006.

This program's last version is 4.34, and what I have here is a 15 days trial without any functional limitations. Its setup package has 1.6MB in size and installing the application is something that even your kids can do without much hassle. If you like this program and consider using it on a regular basis after the trial period ends, you'll have to take 29.95$ out of the pocket, but let's first take a look at what we have here, shall we?

I got used to seeing beautiful interfaces at most system utilities that I encounter, and this time, things are normal, because Magic Utilities 2006 has an excellent design, with clean and glassy graphics. The features of the program are well organized, so using it is a real pleasure, and the best part about its interface is that you can change it as you wish, because it's skinnable and Magic Utilities 2006 comes with three nice skins. There are three main tools that need our attention, and this is what we're going to explore next...

First of all, the Uninstaller Plus is the utility that can be used to check the installed programs list, get information about the items present here, delete invalid ones and, of course, uninstall the applications you don't need anymore.

The StartUp Organizer can list all the programs that are automatically started at system startup or when a user logs on, giving you the chance to edit existing entries, delete them or add new ones.

The Process Killer should list all the programs currently running in your system and give you information about them, as well as the ability to kill unwanted ones.

I would like to tell you about the Registry Cleaner, Firewall, File Shredder or Disk Checker utilities, but they are not present here. Too bad, because this program looks great and is very easy to use, but... would you pay for it? Let's check the conclusions and the final decision, shall we?

The Good

Magic Utilities 2006 is an application that's very easy of use, looks great and can prove pretty useful for a couple of tasks.

The Bad

Asking so much money for a program with only three basic tools that you can get for free easily (just think about Process Explorer and Ccleaner!) is nothing less than shameless.

The Truth

Magic Utilities 2006 would be an "almost good" free application...but it's not free, and this drags it a long way down the top, unfortunately. I am sorry to say it, but this program is not worthy of any attention yet. If you have the time to play with it, you can give it a try, but if you think about buying it...you'd better think again, there are thousands of better ways to spend your money!

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: