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Ashampoo Winoptimizer 14 Review
#1
Ashampoo WinOptimizer 14


Ashampoo Winoptimizer is an optimizer tool especially designed for Windows Platform to clean, protect and optimizer your system. It frees disk space, fixes errors and ensures steady performance. WinOptimizer tackles the shortcomings of Windows and provides you with a faster, cleaner and leaner system. It has various feature modules to ensure all ways of system performance enhancement.

Key Features Summary:

Auto-optimization
One click optimizer to delete traces, logs, etc.
HDD inspector to monitor and keep your disk healthy 
Windows 10 privacy control, 
System Failure warnings
Anti-spy for windows
BenchMarking for CPU and HDD
Tweaking windows at different levels under one place
Network Tuner for better bandwidth utiliisation
Task scheduler for automatic task run
System Restore Manager,
Service, Process & Uninstall Manager
Other essential common features that are there in most System optimizer (Defragmentation, Cleaner, etc.)
 
Requirements:

OS Platform Supported: Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10 (All 32-bit and 64-bit supported)
Company Website: www.ashampoo.com
Product Website:   https://www.ashampoo.com/en/usd/pin/4806...timizer-14
Download Link:      http://www.ashampoo.com/ashampoo_winoptimizer_14_sm.exe
Download Size:      27.15 MB
Latest Version:      14.0.0.2
Price:                    $49.99 for new licence and $19.99 for upgrade from previous Winoptimizer versions

Review:

The main UI is neat and clean with the optimization status of the CleanUp, Optimization (Registry Optimizer) and Protect (Browser files like cookies, tracing logs, etc.) modules. Whereas, on the bottom side we have system hard disk status to notify user for the hard-disk failures, Automatic maintenance to do the optimization in the background at a scheduled time so that user don’t need to do it all the time from which we can say that just install and forget, Ashampoo Winoptimizer will do the tasks by itself. Yeah, it is worth to mention that on the right side down side, we have our basic hardware details like RAM, CPU version and graphics.

[Image: SCsZBl6.png]

The main one click optimization start is present to make your system faster in only a few clicks.
[Image: qTS2ZCN.png]

All the other necessary details are given in the above image itself. The settings icon beside start button have some basic question by Ashampoo Winoptimizer that it should know to give better recommendations
When the one click optimizer finds the issues it shows a RED bar to alert for the issues and user can review the detailed issues by clicking on the respective module details where you can hide the issue if you want not to fix that one. It also asks the user’s permission to start the cleanup process and then it fixes them automatically.
[Image: 1nMHiNS.png]

After fixing all the issues, the red ribbon changes to green to symbolise all the issues are fixed and there are no issues found by Winoptimizer.
[Image: IYv4tPI.png]

Now next time you start the Winoptimizer, it will show the last successful optimization date and time.
[Image: 6PaEwnn.png]

It has three menu, Options menu has settings, task planner and user experience to make Winoptimizer better. Second menu is the same traditional My Shampoo with all activation and Ashampoo marketing features.
[Image: Zv7K51J.png]

I am impressed with the shortcut given as Main Menu which open the pane on right side containing all modules that are there in Modules section.
[Image: Yk5V0as.png]

The Automatic module has options to disable/enable features like Auto-Clean, Live-Tuner, Game-booster.
[Image: yS21bTo.png]

Auto-clean: Various applications that stores temporary data and don’t delete them even after the application is closed. Winoptimizer helps in regaining that disk space by auto-cleaning the temporary files created.

Live-TuneUp: It speedup the application launch time by changing the priority level of processes. The trusted and system apps are given more priority compare to other.

Game-Booster: It helps in running your game smoother by taking resources from other processes and allocating it to the game processes. This is done by shutting the non-essential processes when the game runs and restoring them back when you quit the game. Whenever game booster is on it shows notification like this 
[Image: 0O1UkQi.png]

Now coming to the MODULES section, it can be viewed in three different types, viz. All modules, Categories, Functions.

All Modules: This view type uses actual module names, e.g. maintain system has cleaner, optimizer, etc.
[Image: 6eBsWgk.png]

Categories: This view type resembles as of All Modules but with little extra information for each module.
[Image: uONUtbT.png]

I have marked each section with letter and the corresponding section content is shown in next image below
[Image: jxqJdoI.png]

Functions: This view type uses cases instead of module names, e.g., Windows has all sets of programs related to the Windows OS.
[Image: PzN25WU.png]

I have marked all modules with the numbers to take them as reference in the review, if required. So, we will follow up the All Modules order to demonstrate and explain each module workings.

In favourites tab, you can mark your four favourite modules which can be either automatically determined by the program or user can set them by click star on each module. But remember only maximum of 4 can be made favourite. 
[Image: gbGCLZa.png]

[Image: lqu6KSM.png]

Before optimizing, Ashampoo Winoptimizer do a backup of the important file like registry optimizer, etc. and if something goes wrong after cleanup, user can easily rollback to previous state. In Backups tab, you will find all the backup done by the Winoptimizer.
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In Statistics tab, you will find all the optimization work done by Winoptimizer for different categories.
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Now coming back to the main section tab, i.e., Modules which have different mou=dules for optimization. Again to remind you guys, I will follow up the All Modules sequence to explain and here is the image again to clarify the things a bit:
[Image: 6eBsWgk.png]

For the matter of explaining and to make it easy for users, I have put numbers to make it easy to point to that module.

Now coming to first sub-section “Maintain System”

1. One Click Optimizer: It runs the basic three cleaner one after the other, viz. Drive Cleaner, Registry Optimizer, Internet Cleaner. So this basically this module calls out the three different modules in a go instead of going and cleaning in each one of them. When you open the One Click Optimizer for the first time, it asks for a setting to be tweaked as by user. This setting allow user to decide whether Winoptimizer do the cleaning without prompt or not.
[Image: zVoquZb.png]

In this module, when you search for issues it shows the found issues in their categories and you can get the list to edit/hide from their respective category edit buttons marked as A,B,C.

Here note that, the Option button takes you to the settings for that specific module.
[Image: ZY8xWzW.png]

After going into the details of the respective cleaner we can list or find the issues in variety of ways and summary tab shows the summary for that specific module. Even report can be generated for the found issues for service help purpose or for anything else depending on user requirement. There in the details you can add any detected issue to an exception by right-click context menu and it will be removed from any future detection on the system.

The following details are for Internet trace cleaner which cleans the traces that resides because of browsers like cookies, temporary browsing files, cache files, etc. To organize them I have put A,B,C labels on the below screenshots to help you understand better.
[Image: Lk49Tf5.png]

The second one is drive cleaner summary which shows all the files and logs issues found. Same as above, report can also be exported in text format for any reference purpose.
[Image: fXCIYYM.png]

And the last one is registry optimizer which looks for the software registries which are no longer needed or are invalid.
[Image: mbuxq7H.png]

2. Drive Cleaner: Since it is already mention this module also run from One Click Optimizer tab, so it is same and scans for the drive issues. Now are you thinking why this native module is required then? So if user want to scan and delete found files related to drive only and doesn’t want to clean internet traces. Thus this make things easier and independent for user.

3. Registry Optimizer: As already told, this search for broken or invalid keys and no longer registry key to make the PC faster.

4. Internet Cleaner: It free up the space by deleting unnecessary temp files created by various programs on the disk.

5. Defrag3: It rearranges the file fragments in a more designed patterns to speed up the file access time. This is done by moving same cluster files in the nearby cluster block so that hard disk doesn’t need to jump much for each cluster access or by some more complex algorithm.
[Image: bja5Sgv.png]

Here let’s go through the important button function

Options: Take you to the defrag settings which we will go through at later point.
Analyze: Analyse the selected disks whether defragmentation is required or not and display them visually on the below cluster map graph.
Start Defragmentation:  It has three way of defrag
                                          Fast: Defragments all files without altering their positions.
                                          Normal: Defragments all files and moves them to speed up access times even more.
                                          Intelligent: Defragments all files and moves them to speed up access times even more based on their number of file accesses.

Stops: Cancel the current defrag task.
Pro Active Defrag: Defrag 3 can automatically start defragmenting your drives in the background whenever the CPU load falls below a given threshold to prevent future file fragmentation.
Refresh: It updates the list of available drives. It is useful when a new drive is plugged in to the system after the defrag3 module is started.

6. Registry Defrag: Just like the data need to be rearranged to access them more quickly, registry also needs some retouch to make the specific registry search and load faster. This module defragments the Windows Registry database to speed up your Windows performance. It scans the registry and list the areas which can be optimized.
[Image: Agv7ZsZ.png]


Now the next sub-section is “Analyze System” which has following modules:

7. System Information: It displays all the information about the hardware and software on the system. It includes various details about the 
Note: "Again here too, all settings are marked with label and are shown in next image with the same label."

Hardware (CPU, Ports, Display, Main Board, Printer)
[Image: FLLVqkD.png]
[Image: 6GO5YxI.png]

Drives (logical drives installed on the system)
[Image: lOuosZR.png]

Software (Installed OS, Software installed, RAM amount, Drivers, Framework such as JAVA, Environment Variables)
[Image: wCYF9WD.png]
[Image: hteFtJk.png]

Network (Installed Network Components, current routing tables and shared folders on network)
[Image: 51rlPTV.png]
[Image: KissvO2.png]


Multimedia (Video codecs and audio codecs)
[Image: Aw05Yws.png]


8. DiskSpace Explorer: This modules helps in analysing and visualising the files on the current drive. It helps in tracking down of huge files on the disk and even can get the list of folders with its content size.
[Image: o08qLhy.png]


9. System Benchmark: This modules run the performance benchmarks for your current hardware and can compare it with other hardware config online
[Image: jqcvV6I.png]

10. HDD Benchmark: Similar to the hardware/CPU benchmarks, you can run performance tests for your hard disk. To demonstrate it, I put the current benchmarking test under different environments as shown in the image below. It gives you the read and write speed along with access time of the disk.
[Image: 1fuo6jD.png]

11. HDD Inspector: This is one of most important feature that every system tuner/optimizer must have and fortunately WinOptimizer has this. It gives the current health of the hard disk by checking for any possible errors on any cluster of the disk. This helps in pre-determining the hard disk failure and really helpful in preventing sudden data loss.
[Image: 2gmptgN.png]

[Image: WXbLTg1.png]

[Image: UZdAkrH.png]

If users wants to know about S.M.A.R.T. then can go to this Wikipedia Link

12. Font Manager: This module gives the detailed list of all installed fonts on the system. Most of the details are provided in the image itself.
[Image: S8hx6Ps.png]


Now till we have completed two sub-section modules. The next, third one is “Improve Performance”

13. Service Manager: Services are background programs required by Windows and other applications to work properly. This module provided you the detailed lists of services along with their usefulness ratings and description of the service. Here you can start/stop and disable/enable the services manually.
[Image: YH3ieH9.png]

14. StartUp Tuner: All the startup applications are listed here along with their ratings and description. User can control the application startup behaviour with the right click context menu.
[Image: KpnDeAE.png]

15. Internet Tuner: This helps you in optimizing the network connection speed which can be done either automatically or by manual tweaks. 

In Automatic Mode, everything is handled by WinOptimizer automatically. If you are using a very slow connection or your machine is part of a heterogeneous network you should not disable "QoS", otherwise, you can disable this feature to increase network speeds.
[Image: CYnMmQp.png]

In Manual mode, users can adjust every parameter keeping in mind that wrong adjustments may decrease the network speed or disturbances.
[Image: j60C1ai.png]

16. Process Manager: This module lists all the currently active processes and here we can terminate them or can change their priority to run some programs more effectively (programs with higher priorities).
[Image: E3ylKwU.png]

17. Uninstall Manager: Some programs leave some residue entries even after uninstallation. So this module allows you to uninstall applications and remove entries for incompletely uninstalled programs.
[Image: h9xLfYA.png]


The next sub-section is of “File Tools” which contains the following

18. File Wiper: Whenever some data is deleted from the drive, it is marked as reusable and only the cluster pointers are deleted but the data is still available as residual. So that data can still be recovered and can be a risk for the user’s data. File wiper delete the data by writing zeroes to all the data locations that are being deleted ensuring no recovery of that data by any means.
[Image: 1TN16bF.png]

19. File Manipulator: This module allows you to split/join and encrypt/decrypt the files.
[Image: 6ns5uSa.png]

Again please note that I have marked respective settings with labels and are shown in next image so that every image is not too small to see.

Split - Select the file to split and optionally specify an output folder. If no output folder is specified, the parts will be created in the original file folder. Then, select the desired size of your parts and click "Start" to begin the operation.

Join - Make sure all required parts reside in the same folder and select one of them. You may optionally specify an output folder for the newly assembled file. If no output folder is specified, the file will be created in the original file folder.

Encrypt – Choose the file that is to be encrypted and enter password to be used for this. Users can also make self-extracting archives which can be extracted on system which doesn’t have Ashampoo Winoptimizer.

Decrypt – Choose the encrypted file and put in the password you used during the encryption process.

[Image: zSRxYv1.png]

20. Disk Doctor: It scan your hard disk for errors that may occurred due to hard-disk crash, improper external HDD removing, etc. and try to fix them if possible.
[Image: IoCPU5Q.png]

21. Undeleter: If you have accidently deleted some important data, then don’t worry. Undeleter is there to help you in recovery of some accidently deleted data if that data cluster are not being overwritten till. It also provides the status of each file. Lost means data is approx. lost and there is less chance of recovery.  Good means the data can be recovery without any loss of information in it.
[Image: B2ftWAD.png]

22. Link Checker: Link Checker validates program shortcuts and can delete invalid items.
[Image: NDsQL5M.png]

23. Duplicate Finder: It helps in finding out the duplicate files and helps in regaining the disk space used because of extra irrelevant copies of same file.
[Image: y82y65q.png]


Now coming to “Customize Windows” sub-section which have the following modules:

24. Tweaking: It allows you to do many customizations to the systems like automatic logon, welcome screen, etc. These all settings can be modified manually in windows without this but Winoptimizer makes it easy to do many customization in a go without much efforts.
[Image: M4Bngk3.png]

Logon: “Logon” tab has all customization that are related to the windows log in. Automatic Logon allows you to directly sign in automatically in the specific user account without the need of entering password every time you start your system. Also, welcome message can also be displayed on every successful login the system.
[Image: 3WKczUz.png]

Devices: Here tweaks relaed to Nework, Mouse, keyboard, etc. can be done. Note that these manual tweaks can be done with control panel which are scattered but Winoptimizer makes it easy to modify them under one hood only.
[Image: G6vH1Gp.png]

Drives: All hard drive related tweaks like Cache size, hide specific drives, File system, etc. can be modify from here.
[Image: vHrxRYd.png]

System: These settings affects the system stability, security and performance with more enhanced privacy tweaks.
[Image: lqGGUNN.png]

Desktop: Tweaks related to desktop view can be changed like taskbar, aero theme, Info Area, etc.
[Image: XFO0Y1s.png]

Explorer (Windows File Explorer): UAC control, windows file explorer appearance, hibernation enable/disable, etc. can be changed from here. There is one more interesting feature called superfetch (only for Windows Vista or higher) which helps in loading frequently used modules of program more quickly by storing them in a special format.
[Image: PNgoCB2.png]

Internet Explorer: All IE related settings can be monitored from here.
[Image: YAB2TIv.png]

Mozilla Firefox: Settings pertaining to Mozilla firefox performance, appearance, etc. can be accessed.
[Image: esgH9Zr.png]

Other Softwares: Other Windows default legacy softwares  settings like for Windows Media Player, Outlook, Windows Mail, etc. can be modified from this tab.
[Image: NyrDU3p.png]

Windows 8: This is a special windows 8 tweaks that can be applied only for windows 8 or higher.
[Image: m1ndtZB.png]


More features and settings to be continued in next post....>>>>>>
Reply
#2
25. Antispy: This tool allows you to stop Windows from spying in you to a certain extent. The following tabs will ensure your data for being protected.

Services - This will disable many of Windows' telemetry features that are used to collect data and send it to Microsoft.
[Image: ASYUsxf.png]

Network – This allows you to disable certain network related actions that may compromise your security like Remote Access, Network folder sharing.
[Image: YVoCaxC.png]

Software – Tweaks for Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player which may be able to guard your privacy are listed here.
[Image: 1Jx2Bgp.png]

System – Various customization at system level can also prevent risks like blocking scripts and always prompting for credentials at windows login.
[Image: UmynJQs.png]

26. Win10 Privacy Control: Since the release of new Windows 10, it is always in controversy about the privacy of user’s data. Thus to overcome and help users protecting their privacy, Winoptimizer introduced this tool especially meant for Windows 10 OS.
[Image: 3fNghxk.png]

[Image: JXmRFje.png]

[Image: lnglA2P.png]

27. File Associator: This module allows user to specify the application to be launched by default for specific file extension.
[Image: Iqy5z55.png]

28. Context Menu Manager: This module allows you to enable/disable various menu items in Windows' right-click context menu.
[Image: IlttVbl.png]

29. User-Rights Manager:  Use this module to adjust/restrict user rights, e.g. to keep guests from altering display options or uninstalling applications. It is particularly useful in multi-user environments. 
[Image: 3q3pDmv.png]

[Image: 7TwbYAy.png]

[Image: 4eTDdHN.png]

Now coming to the last part of the module section, i.e., “General” 

30. Backup Management: As already stated that Winoptimizer creates backup for the keys before cleaning up the issues found so that if something wrong key got deleted, users hasthe option to roll back to the previous state.
[Image: eFFk58T.png]

31. System Restore Manager:  This module manages system restore points as created by Windows, e.g. before installing Windows updates. System restore points allow you to revert your machine to a previous state in the event of system errors.
[Image: 6BFQsf0.png]

32. Icon Saver: Icon Saver saves the position of your desktop icons and can restore their original layout, e.g. after it was altered by newly installed application.
[Image: q4H1oPz.png]

33. Task Planner: This tool allows you to schedule a certain task which will do certain function automatically like running Defrag3 module at specific time schedule.
[Image: vhkvJbl.png]

34. Settings: It is just only the shortcut to get you to the Winoptimizer settings.

So now let’s go to the "SETTINGS" to get some hands-on of them

[Image: uaZ6tlD.png]

A. Basic Functions: Use these settings to select a different program language, look and Winoptimizer access control, Backup and System analysis. Winoptimizer comes in two looks as displayed earlier in Light Blue or Glossy black theme.

[Image: 5GBuCuR.png]
[Image: UNU9VKo.png]

B. One Click Optimizer: Settings that can changed optimizer scanning behaviour are available here.

[Image: lFcUGJB.png]

All the settings below are self-explanatory but remember, don't change settings that you are not familiar with otherwise some changes may make your system/program unstable.

C. Drive Cleaner:

[Image: l1Xucx8.png]

[Image: 5GBuCuR.png]

D. Registry Optimizer:

[Image: UuYPhHO.png]

E. Internet Cleaner:

[Image: oHvgQGH.png]

[Image: MulGgvA.png]

F. Defrag3:

[Image: ormwnK6.png]

G. File Associator:

[Image: E5bt6wz.png]

H. Diskspace Explorer:

[Image: 5Kr5qgB.png]

[Image: Tyg5Q5i.png]

I. File Wiper:

[Image: NaM55ST.png]

J. Undeleter:

[Image: FC5wR9d.png]

K. Duplicate Finder:

[Image: iy6MY1l.png]

[Image: 39aNjoj.png]


The notification bar icon shows like this when live tuner is on

[Image: jbv2CWt.png]

And when both live tuner and game booster are on it  changes to gamin console type icon like

[Image: ekI1iDd.png]

If you have notice that the right-click menu contains the settings for Auto-Optimization

[Image: tLfGLea.png]

[Image: yw8XrlH.png]

[Image: eWxFJrr.png]


Final Verdict: The Ashampoo Winoptimizer has lots of features that may change your system into a improved machine.Along with the polished main modules of optimizer, certain unique modules like Windows 10 privacy control, AntiSpy which really cares for users data protection are also the center of attraction. The auto-optimization really make the slow PC more smoother,faster and reponsive by realtime balance of resources. Overall, It is always worth for what you are spending and I didn't find any issues with the Winoptimizer 14 till now.
Reply
#3
thanks you very much gdant
very nice detailed review Heart
Reply
#4
Thanks a lot for the detailed review gdant
Reply
#5
Thanks for the great and detailed review. Welcome to the team gdant
Reply
#6
Nice review and very detailed.
Reply
#7
Very good review, Thanks for your hard work for us. Thumb
Reply
#8
Just perfect!   Bow
Reply
#9
Thumbs Up 
gdant : Thanks for such Nice and detailed review !
Reply


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