First Impressions

After accepting the review request, I was given a username and password to download the registered version of PC Booster v1.0. The download was only 1.5MB, even those people who are still stuck with 28.8Kbps connections (common in Australia) will have the program downloaded in 10 minutes. Installation is painless; simply double-click on the pcb10.exe file and the Install Shield wizard handles the rest. In fact, on my Windows 2000 Professional system, a reboot wasn't even required! Very impressive!

Upon running the program from the Start Menu, you are presented with the following screen:

OK, I'm hearing those advanced users blubbering already "I don't want a stupid automatic system tuner!!!" Two points, first of all the Auto Tuner is not stupid, and secondly you are given the option of choosing manual configuration, as you will see later.

Using Auto-Tune

Unlike some other "System Booster" software, you don't need a master's degree in Physics to successfully use PC Booster v1.0. If you decide to run the Auto Tuner (pictured above), all you need to then click is the "Start" button and PC Booster will prepare to tune your system, as per the following screenshot:

The first time you run the program, you are given the option to backup your existing settings. It is STRONGLY recommended that you do this, for reasons you will see later. After this, simply click the "Begin Tuning" button and a screen as per the following will appear:

The analysis process will take a few minutes, depending on the speed of your computer. On my 1.7GHz Pentium 4 with 512MB of DDR SDRAM, it only took around 90 seconds. Once the program is finished analysing your system, you will be presented with an option to view the recommendations:

When you click the "Recommend Now" button, a screen will appear detailing exactly what PC Booster will do to your system:

With the Auto Tune feature, you cannot specify which parts you want to be activated - it's all or nothing. But that is what the Manual Tweaks section is for! However when you click "Optimize Now", the following screen will warn you that the changes are about to be written to your system:

Unless you are a coward, you will want to commit the changes, so click the "Yes" button and PC Booster will then modify your system and prompt you to reboot. Press the "Yes" button to reboot and when the system loads Windows, you should notice a difference!