VCom Fix-It Utilities 6.0

No matter how much you adore it, one day your PC may crash. It might get a virus, the Registry could tie itself in knots, and it may throw hard-drive and software tantrums at the worst possible moments. This is where Avanquest's VCom Fix-It Utilities comes in.

Hot on the heels of Iolo's System Mechanic Pro, Fix-It leaves its other main rival, Norton SystemWorks, where it belongs - back in 2005. Whereas Norton has a habit of repackaging the same old disk-utility tools in a nice new box, Fix-It has brought out the big guns for this particular release.

Its powerful fusion of hard disk tools, drive defragmentation, data recovery and antivirus would have been complete, if only it had incorporated live technical support. We can't help thinking that the number of options alone will confuse beginners.

In fact, Fix-It bulges with so many impressive features, it almost tries too hard. It could do without some of the lesser inclusions. For instance, you can synchronise your clock with any online source, or log your Windows error messages.

As an antivirus program alone, Fix-It isn't too bad. As well as automatic web updates and email and file scanning, it sports an option to remove viruses without prompting. It's definitely a useful antidote to forgetfulness.

But this isn't just an antivirus tool and Fix-It will speed up, clean up and fix your system. It can defrag and optimise your hard drive, make Registry access more efficient, plus find and fix errors in your hardware. It can even scan for spyware, make a rescue disk, and monitor system resources. What more could you ask for?

Fix-It still has some way to go if it wants to be top of its field; however, it does what it's supposed to, and it's definitely an improvement on earlier versions.