Joyce writes:

<<I came across a "recommended" download to "speed up" my
computer:  SpeedUpMyPC by Uniblue.  Is it or is it not a good idea to
download and use this software?>>

Bad. For 2 reasons.

1. Uniblue software appears to hover on the borderline between scamware and 
genuine.  It does work in some cases, but will usually end up asking you 
for money for problems which may not be genuine. On principal, I would not 
trust any company that offers something for free, and then further down the 
line you find you have to pay for it.  I had occasion a while ago to 
research Uniblue for a friend who swore that a particular Uniblue program 
was a good thing to have, because it quoted on its website  many 
"independent" reviews, all praising it to the hilt.  Upon looking at those 
reviews, I discovered that many of those so-called independent websites had 
only Uniblue reviews, and moreover they all seemed to have been written in 
a very similar style, similar wording, phrases, etc, as if all had been 
written by the same person.  'Nuf said. Which is a shame, because it seems 
that some of their software may actually be quite good. But any software 
company that stoops to this type of marketing is "out" in my book. Maybe 
they've picked up their act more recently, I haven't looked to see.

2. I would not trust any automatic  speedup or "fixit" software. More often 
than not, they can compound existing problems, or at best cover them up in 
such a way that other, sometimes worse, problems may result. Occasionally 
they can create real havoc.  Much better to find out just what is slowing 
the system, then fix it in a methodical way. Cure-all solutions rarely work.

Don Penlington

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