Wise Care 365 PRO Review GIVEAWAY

very good
key review info
application features
  • System cleaner: registry, common files, advanced scan, system slimming, big files manager
  • (5 more, see all...)

Wise Care 365 PRO is an all-round system maintenance application comprising many components made for keeping the computer in shape and boosting its performance.

They focus on cleaning and tuning the system, protecting privacy and monitoring the PC's health status over time. The extensive range of features may seem intimidating to less experienced users. However, the tool features both preconfigured settings as well as customization preferences, in order to satisfy everyone's needs.

NOTE: Wise Care 365 PRO was tested on Intel Core i5-3470 with CPU @3.20GHz and 12GB RAM, running Windows 8.1 Pro.

Showing the interface in WiseCare 365 Pro
Showing the PC checksup area in WiseCare 365 Pro
Run a PC checkup to establish the health status

System Cleaner

The application looks into the Windows registry for any invalid entries when it comes to the ActiveX and COM areas, software and application paths, file types, firewall settings, fonts, shared DLLs, user MRU lists, Start menu, startup programs, Windows services, and others.

Showing the registry cleaner in WiseCare 365 Pro
Showing the common cleaner in WiseCare 365 Pro
Remove invalid registry keys, useless files and traces It also scans common sections with unnecessary data and traces, such as the Internet browsing history (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera), memory dump, Recycle Bin, multimedia components (e.g. Adobe Flash Player), Run history, Windows tools (e.g. Paint, WordPad) and other apps (e.g. WinRAR, Daemon Tools).

An advanced cleaner looks into any drives picked by the user, and displays detailed information regarding each file prone for deletion, namely name, type, size, full path and last date of access. The difference between this cleaner and the common one previously described is that Wise Care lets users choose the exact file types to look for, whether they can be selected from a predefined list or added as new. Other than that, it can locate invalid shortcuts (whose targets no longer exist) and zero-sized files that, although not occupying any space, they simply clutter up the hard disk.

Showing the advanced cleaner in WiseCare 365 Pro
Showing the advanced settings in WiseCare 365 Pro
Remove any file types you want Users may handpick the exact areas to clean, while those less experienced may easily reset the selection configuration to default by taking into account Wise Care's recommendations, for example to make safe choices when cleaning the registry in order to prevent any stability issues.

It is possible to ignore files or registry entries in the results list from the current and future scans, jump to a key's location in Registry Editor to manually edit properties and open a file's location in Windows Explorer, as well as generate reports and save them to text files.

Another system cleaning component is dedicated to freeing up space by removing items like downloaded installation files, installer baseline cache, help files, sample pictures and music, as well as wallpapers, all belonging to Windows. Users may examine the size occupied by each item and Wise Care's recommendation, make their own selection, as well as open an item's location in Explorer.

Showing the system slimming tool in WiseCare 365 Pro
Showing the big files manager in WiseCare 365 Pro
Slim down the HDD and delete large-sized files The last Windows cleaner module regularly deletes large files that are not used by anyone. It scans one or more drives and takes into account the last access date when displaying results, showing the name, size, format and full path for each entry. The good news is that large files which belong to the system and whose removal would inevitably cause Windows to work improperly or do not work at all are automatically excluded from the scan.

Any items can be ignored from the scan and recorded in a report file. Unfortunately, the program does not provide professional users with the option to set the date of last access to take into account when scanning the disk.

System Tuneup

An optimization component attempts to improve the speed of the network and system by tinkering with the prefetch parameters (to boost startup speed), reducing application idleness at shutdown, making Windows Explorer components run in separate processes to avoid system conflicts, terminating frozen processes to avoid crashes, and optimizing network settings to improve the transfer performance.

Showing the system optimizer in WiseCare 365 Pro
Showing the system optimized in WiseCare 365 Pro
Optimize the network and system settings It is also possible to increase the system icon cache to speed up the desktop display, optimize the disk I/O while the CPU is in idle state, disable the autoplay feature on drives to avoid virus infections, deactivate the debugger to speed up error processing, and so on. Once again, Wise Care makes room for customization when it comes to selecting the exact areas to resolve, while offering the possibility to restore settings to default. Some options require a system reboot.

A disk defragging utility analyzes any user-selected drive to assess the fragment situation and attempt to reduce them in order to keep the HDD performance within normal working parameters. It has three modules for analyzing data, running a simple defrag, and fully optimizing the disk, respectively. The PC can be scheduled to automatically power off when the task is completed.

Showing the disk defrag in WiseCare 365 Pro
Showing the registry defrag in WiseCare 365 Pro
Defragment the disk and registry The registry may be defragmented as well to obtain better performance results. A quick evaluation reveals the current size, estimated new dimension and redundancy state for each hive. After triggering the registry defrag job, it is necessary to restart the PC to finalize it.

Wise Care integrates a startup manager that lets users easily deactivate apps and services which automatically run at system startup to speed up Windows boot time. It shows a list with the description, rating (based on the Wise Care user community) and boot time for each identified application, letting users seamlessly deactivate them with one click.

Showing the startup manager in WiseCare 365 Pro
Showing the context menu manager in WiseCare 365 Pro
Manage autostart programs and context menu entries There is also a manager available for the right-click menu in Windows Explorer. It displays the menu caption, publisher and status for each entry, enabling users to disable them with one click too.

Privacy Protector

In case the owner of the computer is sharing it with other people, it is crucial to keep sensitive data private at all times. Therefore, Wise Care integrates options for erasing the history of viewed pictures, movies, various videos and accessed pages while surfing the web, along with the accessed files. Any selected items can be cleaned, while the remaining ones can be spared.

Showing the privacy eraser in WiseCare 365 Pro
Showing the disk eraser in WiseCare 365 Pro
Ensure PC privacy by erasing sensitive data and making deleted files unrecoverable Files that were previously deleted by eliminating them from the Recycle Bin or using the Shift+Delete hotkey can be normally recovered with specialized tools by anyone with access to the computer. For this scenario, the application prepares a tool that wipes free space (previously occupied by files which were deleted in any of the aforementioned methods), giving users the possibility of selecting the number of encryption passes, depending on how much time they are willing to spend making everything secure (between 1 and 35 passes). During this time, the PC can be scheduled to power off as soon as the task is finished.

Similarly, a file shredder deletes files and folders beyond recovery, without having to go through the disk erasure mode.

Showing the file shredder in WiseCare 365 Pro
Showing the password generator in WiseCare 365 Pro
Shred files and folders, generate secure passwords The final component dedicated to privacy protection consists of a simple function that generates random passwords based on the user-defined rules, in order to apply them in email accounts, wireless network connections, or anything else. These rules revolve around the types of characters used (digital, lower case, upper case, symbols), as well as the key length. It generates unique keys with each click, which can be then copied to the Clipboard. However, there is no password manager or history list integrated into the application to keep track of all keys.

System Monitor

Sharing functionality with Task Manager, this tool oversees all active processes and shows how much CPU and RAM they use, the I/O read and write count, together with the user name assigned. Any selected process can be terminated with one click (where permission is granted) without confirmation, and it is also possible to view system processes too.

Showing the process monitor in WiseCare 365 Pro
Showing a hardware overview in WiseCare 365 Pro
Monitor and kill processes, examine the hardware configuration Furthermore, Wise Care acts like a system information utility that shows valuable details about the computer. For instance, it fetches an overview on the operating system name, CPU, mainboard, total memory, disk device name, graphics type, network adapters and sound card.

Additional data can be retrieved for the processor (e.g. socket architecture, family, version, threads count), mainboard (e.g. serial number, board type), memory (e.g. architecture, speed, serial number), graphic card (GPU and memory), hard drive (e.g. interface type, temperature), network adapter (e.g. MAC address, net connection ID) and sound card (device names and descriptions). Unfortunately, the software utility does not integrate options for copying data to the Clipboard, printing it or exporting it to file.

Extra components may be quickly installed for free from the main menu and immediately used to optimize RAM, uninstall programs, running a search tool, recovering deleted files, hiding files and folders, and scheduling a PC power option (e.g. shutdown, restart).

Other program settings

System restore points can be created at any time while tinkering with Wise Care, in order to take a safety measure if Windows starts experiencing issues after making modifications. For the same purpose, users may create a full registry backup and restore it at a later time if required. The UI theme or color along with the languages can be changed.

Many options can be altered from the "Settings" area, starting with removing Wise Care from the autorun sequence or deactivating the Bootup Booster at Windows boot. The file shredder is automatically integrated into the Explorer context menu at installation (it may require system restart to apply changes), and it can be disabled.

Showing the general settings in WiseCare 365 Pro
Showing the cleaner settings in WiseCare 365 Pro
Configure general and cleaner settings Moreover, the tool can be set to check for updates automatically on a daily, weekly or monthly basis (or never), securely delete files when cleaning the system and include a custom folder in the job, as well as scan the registry in normal, safe or deep mode (thorough but risky scans).

The areas to verify when looking for junk files, invalid registry entries, optimizing the system, deleting browser and PC traces, and checking the availability of important security features (e.g. Registry Editor, Firewall) may be customized too.

Showing the custom checkup settings in WiseCare 365 Pro
Showing the exclusion settings in WiseCare 365 Pro
Configure custom checkup and exclusion settings In addition, users may exclude any files, folders, file types, registry keys or domains from the scanning modules. Last but not least, Wise Care is capable of making a portable edition of itself, in order to use it on any computer directly from a removable storage unit.

The Good

The application worked smoothly on 64-bit Windows 8.1. Pro during our evaluation, without hanging, crashing or popping up error messages.

It features support for multiple UI themes and languages, automatic checkups for software updates, together with extensive help documentation on each aspect of the product.

CPU and RAM consumption was generally low.

Since it gets sent to the system tray area on close, Wise Cleaner silently continues scans in the background while users may carry on with normal PC activity. Plus, while it is busy running a job, users may explore its other features without interrupting anything.

Casual users may perform operations with just a few clicks, while those more experienced can pop open the hood and tinker with settings.

A scheduler can be configured to let the tool run maintenance tasks once or regularly at specific times and dates, but this is not mandatory.

The Bad

By default, Wise Care automatically runs and launches Bootup Booster at system startup, without asking for permission beforehand.

The Truth

To be honest, compared to other system tweakers and optimizers that we previously reviewed, Wise Care 365 seems cleaner. It gets the job done without going over the top. Its thorough cleaning components are the highlight of the whole package.

NOTE (21 Jan 2015): Softpedia and WiseCleaner are giving away unlimited license keys for Wise Care 365 PRO version 3. Normally, one key costs $29.95 / €22.95. Each key has a 1-year availability, so it expires on 31 Jan 2016. All you have to do is access the download link provided on the Software Giveaways and Discounts page to claim your reward (the app is automatically registered to Pro - the Softpedia giveaway version at installation). The deadline for this giveaway promo is Saturday, January 31.

Follow us on Twitter @spgiveaways or visit our Software Giveaways and Discounts page to stay up to date with the latest Softpedia giveaway offers.

user interface 4
features 4
ease of use 4
pricing / value 4


final rating 4
Editor's review
very good
 
NEXT REVIEW: Calendar Magic