ACDSee 8 Photo Manager Review

1. Downloading & Installation
Downloading directly from RegistryGenius.com website is a direct process. As soon as you arrive on their main page, you will be welcomed by more than one “Free Scan” button. Click on one of them will automatically download the Registry Genius program. This version of the program is a limited version which only enables you to scan your system for errors, not repairing them. This is useful if you just want to know how badly your system needs an optimization and repairing service. Registry Genius provides you with such information. If you consider that a “patch” or a maintenance service is needed, you can always easily register the software from within the main menu of the program to unlock the full capability of Registry Genius.

The installations file itself only 1.7MB in size. So it is very small and only needs a minute away even for you who only have dial up connection. The installation process is simple, just pick the folder you want Registry Genius to be installed and you’re ready to go. After installation, Registry Genius will automatically install an icon in your system tray so that it will run faster when you call it. It will also automatically start every time you start your computer. You don’t need to remember to load it every time, Registry Genius will do the task. But if you want these two functions deactivated, you can do this in the options menu.

2. Interface
Ok, regarding interface and the GUI presentation of Registry Genius I can’t say much other than to say that it is boringly plain. Even if I want to lie with you about this one, the effort is so big that even it’s not worth the try. I mean, the overall texture is so pale. The blue header does not even resemble the modern era where texture are designed with rich, vivid, and transparent color. The icon, well the icon is only one if you can believe that. It is only the Registry Genius icon that is plainly simple and uninspired. Everything are text based with no icon presentation at all, uninteresting. And if you ask me “is it easy to use?” You bet it is. There is nothing there that it is absolutely impossible for you to get lost. Overall, Registry Genius interface is one of the worst in this generation. It is like it comes from the past to make an appearance in the presence, with all the attributes it got from the past.

3. Features
Apparently beneath its awfully simple interface lurk various features in its “Advance” menu. Outside this “Advance” menu, operation that you can conduct is only registry scanning. Features that lie beneath this “Advance” menu are backup capability, system restore, uninstall manager, junk files cleaner, startup entries optimizer, tweak memory, error utilities, and system optimizer. Surprisingly, these features are more than enough for a decent registry software. Unfortunately, like I have mentioned before, due to its interface characteristic that is not well-designed, these extra features are not integrated very well into the whole package. Instead of organizing and classifying every feature into a more specific menu, they throw it all in just one menu called “Advance” menu. While in fact because of this, you need to be an advance user to understand. Just look and compare it with the other top notch software praises for their well-integrated interface designs like PCTools’ Registry Mechanics. Registry Genius should learn much from these software.

4. Effectiveness and Test Drive
I have covered the technicality of what Registry Genius has in its pocket. Now, it’s time for the moment of truth. I will show you the actual results of what Registry Genius engine can do under its hood and how well it competes with the fierce battle in the registry software market. At the time I tested the software, I was using system that ran on Intel Celeron 2GHz and 2GB of RAM. But it absolutely can run smoothly on system with specification far, far lower than that I used. It supports Windows 98, ME, NT, Windows 2000, XP but not Vista. Plus it only needs no more than 10MB of hard drive space and only 64MB of RAM. So it absolutely can run on your old system running that old Windows 98.

Registry Genius loads lightning fast. It only needs 1-2 seconds tops. If you read our comment on this software’s interface simplicity, you might understand their advantage over the other registry software. Anyway, after the software is completely running, I conduct registry scanning test by pushing that “Scan now” button. A progress bar explaining every registry entries being scanned are presented in the bottom of the screen. The result is quite interesting. It manages to pull out 2 minutes and 29 seconds time record while spotting 2467 errors.

Put this record into effect, I analyzed how much did the software give my system performance boost after the cleaning process. Frankly, there was nothing in effect. My Windows startup process was still in 1 minutes and 18 seconds. I also tried to run several programs like Ms Office 2007, Encarta Premium DVD 2006, and Roxio Easy Media Creator 9. The time that is needed to load these programs is the exact same time before the cleaning process. AS a conclusion, Registry Genius offers a very disappointing Windows optimization tools. It is no wonder because in order to optimize your system, you need more than a clean registry. Among others, you should have Windows settings that are optimized for your system. Thus, you need other software that offers a complete collection of tools for optimization.