For the last three years, I have been using TuneUp Utilities. It is quite comprehensive, has an easy-to-use GUI, and works better than Norton Utilities. (While I must admit, I have the 2000 version; the newer ones might be better.) PC Tools Registry Mechanic is a better registry cleaner (Spyware Doctor is damn good too), but that’s all it does. TuneUp Utilities is what I recommend to my non-geek friends.

But I have never actually purchased it myself; I’ve always used the 30-day evaluation version. Every time one reinstalls Windows (something I had to do frequently on my old legacy systems), or they come out with a new version, the trial period counter resets.

But their MemOptimizer is the best memory leak fixer I’ve come across. And, since I installed my home network, memory leaks have been a big problem.

This shouldn’t even be necessary; keeping memory, and other system resources, tidy is one of the principal tasks of an operating system. (Although I understand the NT family is better – I’m running 98SE.) That said, it would seem like something as simple as this could be had as freeware, but I have yet to find a free one that works 100%. I’m currently using YourWare FreeRAM XP Pro 1.4, and it kinda’ works, but not quite; the ram well still runs dry in time.