14 DAY TRIAL // Computer boosting softwares are at every "corner" of the Internet. They all promise enhanced performance, a faster machine, no system crashes, practically everything a neophyte needs to hear in order to buy the application. And yet at some point or the other most of them are failing in delivering all that included in those mesmerizing promises.
I have to admit that there are some pretty useful applications out there that indeed improve the performance of the computer and those are the optimizers that cost a small fortune in some cases. There are however other free products almost as good but only by combining a couple of them will you be able to reach the desired result.
PCHeal also promises a lot and its price is not equivalent to the high end products on the market as only $11.99 are on the price tag. The application is extremely light and installing it is piece of cake. The interface is like all interfaces of the SwiftDog products, so if you used other softwares from this publisher (PC Thrust is a very good application booster) you know what to expect.
The limited number of options make it accessible even for the least skilled computer user on Earth. There is nothing complicated to configure except providing the details about your computer (operating system you are running and CPU manufacturer). For those that are not too good in using the computers you should know that both the operating system and Central Processing Unit manufacturer can be found in the General tab of My Computer Properties. Now that I provided this detail, I think even my 89 years old grandma could use the application.
PCHeal is designed to repair and boost your computer settings, fix hardware trouble and software problems that may hinder its proper functioning. The program works at registry level and will modify multiple Windows registry entries and system files with the aim of increasing the computer performance. PCHeal scans your computer for locating all installed hardware and software and then will run some predefined routines in order to detect the problems. Based on your system's configuration the application will determine the appropriate values that need to be modified.
A list of modifications can be found in the Help file accompanying the program. These include maximum and minimum file cache changes, memory swap, Windows animation settings, legacy Windows support, file allocation size and buffers, Windows system resources, boot optimization, application priority level, device drivers or software incompatibilities.
As mentioned before, in the application window the user has to specify the operating system and the type of the processor. PCHeals works exclusively with Windows and the OSs that support it are everything from Vista to Windows 95, including the server editions.
For processor type there are three options: Intel Processor, AMD Processor and Unknown/Other Processor. Now it is quite difficult for me to believe that the modifications on the system files are going to lead to anything good when the user chooses unknown option.
The tests revealed that there isn't any relevance (and if there is we could not tell) in selecting the operating system and processor type. The configuration of the testing computer included Windows XP Home Edition and an AMD manufactured processor. Setting the OS to Windows 2000 and the CPU field to Intel and rebooting the machine resulted in absolutely no effect whatsoever. Everything worked fine just like before.
Heal and Boost option in Repair Setting is restricted in the trial version and I assume that some visible effect should have been noticed if this option would have been unlocked. After all the enhancements have taken place the software will ask for a restart of the machine so that the settings take effect.
I thought that the restart after every use of PCHeal would be an issue, but according to the FAQ in the help menu, once you register the application you no longer need to start it except when adding a new hardware component. If your firewall catches PCHeal in an attempt to connect to the Internet, do not worry as this is just a security measure from the developer in order to prevent piracy. The data transmitted includes only the name and registration number. These have to be compared to the developer's data base to check if they are genuine.
The Good
Very easy to handle interface. Any newbie can use it as there is nothing complicated in the menu.
The support team answered pretty fast.
The Bad
During our testing there was no visible improvement. Some changes were recorded in the registry in what concerns the indexes for memory recovery.
The softwares does not perform a clean uninstall and you will need to manually delete the following registry entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARESWIFTDOG.
The Truth
I could see absolutely no effect on my computer. I ran PCHeal by entering an erroneous OS and CPU and nothing happened. I was expecting a crash or at least a warning from the software as proof that it knows what it is doing and recognizes my system configuration.
Anyway, you have 28 days to do your own testing. The only restriction is Heal and Boost function, which is also the star of the application.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
