360Amigo System Speedup Pro review

You won’t want to disable each service manually each time you boot your PC, so a better way is to use the Startup Optimizer. This lists all the processes and services that are loaded with Windows, and the program classifies them as Required, Not Required and the oddly-named User’s Choice. You should use your own discretion when disabling startup programs – you may not agree that Google software doesn’t need to update itself while Apple’s iPod service is essential. There’s also no way to view processes and services after you delete them from the list, so it’s hard to undo changes.

Once we’d run every optimisation we could and removed any unnecessary startup programs, we used BootRacer (www.greatis.com/bootracer) to time how long it took our two-year old laptop to start compared to before running System Speedup Pro. The optimisations made no difference, and the laptop scored the same in our benchmarks. However, running the software on a brand-new Asus laptop loaded with manufacturer crapware took the startup time from one minute and three seconds to just 48 seconds – a significant improvement.

360Amigo is loaded with features and can be effective depending on the state of your Windows installation. Its interface is messy in parts, though, and it’s expensive – £24 only buys you a year’s use, while TuneUp Utilities 2011 is far slicker and is just £14 for a time-unlimited three-PC licence.