A Review on Sunbelt Software's "AutoPilot"
May 09 '03
The Bottom Line Recommended to keep ALL Windows NT, 2000, XP systems running at top performance.
Software: AutoPilot
Company: Sunbelt Software
Web Address: www.sunbelt-software.com
Requirements: Windows NT, 2000, or XP
Price: $29.95
30-day trial available
Has your Windows PC slowed to a crawl? Did you upgrade the memory, only to find that it still isn't performing at top speed? The problem is not with you or your system, but with the Windows operating system itself. Its built-in memory-management and task-management systems are very inefficient. If you have a lot of programs and utilities installed, and especially if you run a lot of them at the same time, Windows will have trouble managing the overhead. It doesn't matter how much memory you have in there.
Sanity Check: Hit Ctrl-Shift-Esc to bring up the Task Manager. Click on the "Performance" tab. Compare the "Total Physical Memory" (your installed memory) to the "Total Commit Charge" (the amount of memory actually in use). If you are using a lot more memory than you have installed in the system, then you need to get more memory. When Windows runs out of real memory, it starts to offload stuff to your hard drive. This really slows the system down. If this is occurring under your daily use, then you really need to upgrade your system. AutoPilot won't help much in this case.
On the other hand, if you have plenty of memory to spare, you may notice that Windows still performs a lot of excess disk access. This is memory management at its worst. Windows is still offloading memory to the disk, even though it still has memory free! It doesn't matter how much memory is in your system -- Windows will still do this, slowing down your system unnecessarily. This is where AutoPilot can help.
Sunbelt's AutoPilot fixes this behavior. Sunbelt software originally created AutoPilot to automatically fine-tune high-end multiprocessor Windows NT server systems. This software uses an intelligent "neural network" model to learn how a system works and fine-tune it to make it perform much more efficiently. Servers running this software only typically need half the usual memory, and still run a lot faster.
This software works so well that it will also benefit the average consumer PC. It may seem like overkill, being a heavy-duty server tool, but the software automatically applies only its modules that make sense on a particular system. You probably don't have a multiprocessor laptop, yet this software can greatly improve its performance.
For example, I had a "top-of-the-line" 333-MHz Pentium II workstation running NT with 64 MB of memory. It soon slowed down to a crawl under the software load, so I upgraded it to a respectable 128 MB, then again up to a ridiculous 384 MB (at the time). To my astonishment, it still wouldn't work at top speed. I decided to try the AutoPilot trial, just to see what it would do. What a difference! Soon all of the software was working at top speed, and disk access all but disappeared.
I also had an old, 266-MHz Pentium laptop with 256 MB memory. This system would have been completely unusable without AutoPilot. The software gave it the boost it needed that allowed me to use it until its hardware finally wore out. I ran it into the ground! AutoPilot extends the usable life of a system by keeping it at top performance.
I recommend installing it on any and all Windows NT, 2000, and XP systems. The performance boost is well worth the small price. You can spend a lot of money upgrading the memory of a system, only to receive marginal performance, or you can install AutoPilot and just the "right" amount of memory to run your applications, and achieve truly top performance.
Download the trial. Give it about a week to "learn" your system and your work habits. You'll notice a lot less disk access and a lot more performance. When the trial period ends, your system will fall back "out of tune" and eventually be back to its old, sluggish self.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
gsearle
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: Greg Searle
Location: Nashua, NH
Reviews written: 27
Trusted by: 10 members
About Me:
Computer graphics designer and software developer with interests in technology, home improvement, and family life.
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.