VCOM SystemSuite Professional 6 review

Unlike many PC utility packages, SystemSuite's 50-odd tools claim to provide all things to all users, including PC maintenance, anti-spam, anti-virus and a firewall.

The trouble is that it feels a bit piecemeal. The suite's anti-spam filter, MailWasher, is installed not as part of the main package, but as a bonus product. Other components taken from other manufacturers come with their own installers, so getting everything ready requires several restarts. Installing updates is similarly scrappy.

The suite's main screen, the QuickStatus console, tells you which components have been run. Heading up the list of tools is One-Stop Solutions. Here, novices can give their systems a once-over, freeing up disk space and sorting out Registry problems without getting bogged down in details. If you want to fine-tune your system, we'd give these quick-fix tools a miss, as they don't tell you what they're about to delete or fix, they just do it. Other headings, such as Diagnose, enable you to test system settings and many individual components in detail. Clean-up utilities extend beyond the usual duplication of Windows tools for emptying your browser's cache, and let you choose which ActiveX controls or browser plug-ins you want to ditch. Another bonus is a tool for transferring program installations to another disk partition, which is handy.

It's SystemSuite's security tools that prove the biggest let-down. The anti-virus component, based on Trend's PC-cillin, offers a wide range of preset scanning options, but some appear unnecessary. QuickScan, for example, scans only .exe files. More worryingly, PC-cillin missed several Trojans when we tested it in Labs, June 2005. The firewall, made by SyGate, fared much better, and provides good protection. Our only criticism is the lack of any console-style management.

SystemSuite 6 Professional's precise diagnostic and fine-tuning tools make it a good choice for system maintenance and recovery, but for this much money, we'd like to have seen better anti-virus protection, too.