http://www.glarysoft.com/gu.html?tag=download
Right after I posted my review of Absolute Uninstaller, I got in touch with GlarySoft (the authors) about adding the 'install size' feature. They replied within the hour, telling me that they would soon be implementing that feature (although they left it up to me to decide whether I had inspired it or it was already planned). They also suggested I check out another piece of freeware they produce called Glary Utilities, which I did.
Here's the review.
Glary Utilities is a utility that incorporates a number of other small freeware apps by Glary, including the previously mentioned Absolute Uninstaller. It has loads of really useful stuff that saves you having to download other separate apps to do the same. There are probably too many things in it to list here comfortably, but screw it – I'll try.
It includes:
- a disk cleaner utility
- a registry cleaner
- a shortcut fixer
- absolute uninstaller
- a startup manager (similar in function to msconfig, but a lot more user friendly )
- a memory optimizer
- a context menu manager
- a history wiper (or privacy tool if you like)
- a 'file shredder' for permanently deleting stuff
- a special util just for restoring IE to the way you want it after settings are hijacked by something (for all those luddites still using it that is…)
- an encryption suite
- a disk space analysis tool similar to treesize but better
- a duplicate file finder
- an empty folder finder
- a file splitter / joiner
- a process manager which is better than the standard windows task manager
and finally, a link to all the windows leftovers like defragmenting and system restore
Theres a free version that never expires, and a paid upgrade. The free version does ALL the stuff I just listed. The paid version also does some trojan and spyware blocking, lets you schedule operations, and probably gives you back massages and cleans up around the house aswell.
This is an amazing set of utilities, many of which were already available to pc users, but not in a collection this neat, and not this well designed. It's clear that a lot of thought and care has gone into designing the interface, which is something that's often skipped over, or ignored. Take the process manager for example.
The first thing you'll probably notice is the colour. the GU version has icons for whatever processes have icons, and a color bar showing a rating of how intense the processes are. Under the number in the CPU usage column it shows a tiny, constantly updated bar-chart, if thats your thing. It more columns you can add, like process start date or company, and it even has a ‘google it’ so you can look up a process you’re not sure about straight away.
Glary Utilities is a fabulous collection of utilities for all kinds of situations. I only have two criticisms of it. The interface they've gone for on the dashboard doesn't resemble a typical windows app, which is both good and bad. Good in that it's very funky looking, bad in that I, at least, have an immediate distrust of apps that look like that. A lot of apps I've seen that deviate from the windows standard tend to be a bit dodgy, ie either unstable or a plain old spyware. Thankfully this is not the case with Glary Utilities, but I can see people being hesitant to give it a go because of this interface choice. That's criticism number one. Criticism number 2 is that it's missing a defragmenter, a strange absence given all the other apps that are included.
Overall Glary Utilities is an excellent package that combines loads of useful utilities into one neat solution, making it essential freeware.