Looks-wise, Norton Utilities Ultimate appears largely identical to IOLO’s highly regarded System Mechanic utility suite.

Best of all, startup times on my Surface Book noticeably improved. Sorting this out reminded me of how much cruft I’d installed from reviewing products that had long been sent back. Clicking the review button brought up a list of the offenders and recommendations on what other users had done in the same situation (allow it to stay, disable it or delay its startup). With subsequent use, Norton Utilities Ultimate also found several potentially unwanted startup programs. Within minutes my PC was sparkly and running a lot quicker. Clicking ‘Repair all’ saw Norton Utilities Ultimate getting to work. I found I could also click a drop-down menu to get more information using the ‘View details in wizard’ to find out what I was wiping off my PC.

Thankfully it was nothing serious and mostly consisted of internet, Windows junk files and several registry issues. Once I’d downloaded Norton Utilities Ultimate, I entered its product key, and it launched, hitting the ground running by running its first scan, giving me an immediate summary of the carnage on my PC.

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