There’s a do you/don’t you approach to system maintenance software. Some users swear by the tools, running in the background keeping their system in-check. Others complain of system errors and unnecessary Registry cleansing which can do more harm than good.

The secret is, control. Switch off all automated processing and simply choose the tools you want to run manually. We’d advise against system-wide Registry cleansing for example. Let Windows do this for you. The other secret is to find a maintenance tool you can trust, from a recommended developer.

Auslogics is one such developer and has released BoostSpeed 11, its complete ‘do it all’ system toolkit. What’s new is a free version, a first for BoostSpeed, albeit with limited functionality. The free version offers basic system cleanup, manual control, essential privacy protection and a disk defrag module.

Also expect to find an improved user interface, designed to mimic your web browser and, we have to say, it’s far easier to navigate, so gets our thumbs up.

What else is new? There’s a new Cat Mode which is somewhat hard to fathom, but what it’s supposed to do is detect when your cat or small dog crawls across your keyboard and automatically prevents your computer from doing something it shouldn’t. You can now force-remove unwanted and stubborn software, whilst there’s a new deep disk cleanup mode (borrowed from Disk Defrag 9).

Talking of Disk Defrag 9, that’s also received a major update including the addition of multiple algorithm enhancements to speed up the disk defragmentation process. Although the basic Disk Defrag is still free, there’s now an Ultimate edition, which is a paid product and includes new algorithms for SSDs, a disk cleanup function, a drive space wipe module and the ability to schedule an automatic defrag.

File Recovery 9 has also had a refresh and brings the user-interface in line with BoostSpeed 11. Although File Recovery 9 is also a free product, you’re limited by the number of scans and files you can recover, meaning you are almost certain to require the commercial edition, which retails for $29.95.

All three products are available on special offer from the Downloadcrew Software Store. The Pro version of BoostSpeed 11, regularly $59.95 is available for $19.95, saving 67% from MSRP. Disk Defrag 4 Ultimate is only $9.95, a saving of 67% from the $29.95 MSRP. File Recovery 9 is $14.95, a saving of 50% from the usual $29.95 MSRP.

Alternatively, download the brand new free versions of BoostSpeed 11, Disk Defrag 9 and File Recovery 9.