Others say...

"Works good (at first)"
I think Iolo has a good idea, but it still needs some work. I've had a lot of problems with little help from tech support.
1) I receive 2 or 3 error messages when shutting down my system (all related to SM7 applications)
2) It requires a constant verification through the internet for everything you do. If you use the internet content advisor, you will have to continually put in your password (even if you permenantly allow the site first time). If you scan your system, it will freeze up if content advisor is running. Disabling CA is the only way around this.
3) It allows you to schedule regular system maintenance routines. Sounds good, but my system would hang on a regular basis when I had these set??
This program needs some serious refinement. The most I've received from Iolo tech support is re-install and make sure I'm using the most current version with all updates.

"These Reviews are Accurate!!"
I downloaded the trail version of this software and here is my assessment: Buyer Beware! I believe the people who have written reviews stating they lost system functionality, however, my experience was fortunately somewhat positive. After installing this program, I allowed it to do everything that it was capable of. My system was cleaned up rather well and I did experience an increase in speed (add five stars). I also selected all of the available options to run.

Second: I looked at the price. Too expensive for what is delivered. My perceived value of this program is $14.99 (minus one star). If you decide to buy this program, get two other people to go in on it with you and install it on all three computers - effectively bringing the cost down to $15.00.

Third: The next day from a different computer, I came to this website, read the reviews and was totally freaked out. I went home and turned on my computer. Everything seemed fine. I then opened the System Mechanic program. It reported low memory. I reflected on the reviews provided here and immediately uninstalled the program. My computer now runs beautifully. In hindsight, if you choose to add this program make sure you turn OFF all of the automatic options (minus another star). Make the use of this program intentionally manual and use it sparingly.

Iolo might want to consider making this program web-based and pay-per-visit like an auto mechanic. I would pay $4.99 to run this program from the web to improve the health of an unhealthy computer. Partnering/advertising with companies like yahoo/google would most likely provide the traffic needed to make a descent profit.

"If You Have Vista - BEWARE"

Buyer beware -- major problems with Vista, even thought it says it's compatible. Not so. Iolo Customer Support is lacking as well. I have been told I would be contacted about a refund, but still waiting. I could never get the program to install, tried at least 12x.

"Disaster"
Disaster
I installed this program on my Vista laptop mainly to clean the HD and probably gain extra space, after the installation was completed and updated for the latest version, the system scaned the HD and declared fixing broken registries and dead links, then the SM reboot the computer.
Guess what! The reboot failed and gave an error message that the windows is corrupted. All my attempts for the last two days to reboot failed, as it seems SM destroyed the Window boot.exe or change its address so it cannot be found. The last resort, according the Laptop Mnfc is to use the rescue disk, hence reformat the HD to its original factory state, and, of course, all the information, programs, pics, docs..etc, will be lost.
Consider yourself WARNED..


"Promises much but proves little"
The good: Doesn't seem to hog resources on MY PC, but I can't really tell. Has a lot of useful functions that process at reasonable speeds. Cheap (after rebates, mine was free).

The bad: doesn't have any kind of reporting to the user; won't list or detail specific problems it finds, just general categories, can't pick and choose offending problems to solve, doesn't tell you what processing results are.

Stopped working within 15 minutes of first launch (double-clicking the icon, nothing happened); I expect this had something to do with downloading a Vista update shortly after installing SM7, and I uninstalled and reinstalled it again, which got SM working. So...not 100% compatible with Vista, despite downloading updates to SM7 and being almost 9 months after Vista's official release.

Won't acknowledge hardware firewalls and can't be told to ignore the issue. My router is my firewall and, I dare say, a lot stronger then their software solution, but I can't tell SM I have a firewall in place and it doesn't detect it. Of course other people have complained here that SM doesn't respect Windows' built-in firewall because it doesn't control outbound traffic, but why not allow for the issue as a user choice?

You must approve launch on every restart before doing anything else with your PC. Maybe this is a Vista User Authorization Control issue, but I doubt it because I already turned off that stupid bot process. Hey SM, stop bugging me and run already!

Reports registry problems, wasted space, and a host of other problems on a virtually virgin drive. I really can't explain this one...I installed Vista Ultimate and a few other applications and utilities like Avast! AV, Shadowrun and iTunes on a brand-new drive, the machine ran under this build for maybe two hours, and already my drive is 20% fragged? Yeah, right.

Tech support? What tech support? I emailed a question about whether I should reinstall the app after discovering it wouldn't launch (see above); never heard from them. Many of Iolo's competitors reply to service questions with an autoresponder at the very least; several have round-the-clock staff who answer your questions within hours. These guys don't.

Bottom line, I'm major skeptical about this product because 1) it won't tell you specifically what's wrong with your system, 2) it doesn't tell you what it fixed, and 3) who knows whether it's finding real or phantom issues to "repair." Doing over again, I'd probably skip it and buy something else.