Glarysoft Ltd. developed Glary Utilities Pro to be an all-in-one PC system utility software program that can free up disk space, clean the registry, manage the drivers, tighten up privacy and maintain security protocols. There are over 20 tools in this software suite designed to improve and optimize your computer. In our tests, this app produced the best results and had a high diagnostic consistency score.
We tested each PC optimization app by starting with a frustratingly slow computer running on Windows 7. Then we used PCMark 8 to benchmark the PC’s performance, both before and after we used the app’s optimization tools. The benchmarking tested word and data processing, graphics processing, web browsing and video chat. We tested whether there was any improvement in the boot-up speed, along with the diagnostic consistency of the app. The best PC cleaner should diagnose issues consistently.
System Improvement
After multiple rounds of testing Glary’s optimization tools, the average improvement to our test PC was 12.62 percent, which was the best result in our tests. By comparison, AVG PC TuneUp produced an 10.74-percent improvement and System Mechanic provided an 8.59 percent improvement. Still, it’s important to note that it still wasn’t boosted enough to make a noticeable difference. In fact, the computer’s performance ranked in the bottom 12 percent of computers in the PCMark Test both before and after running the optimization tools. In other words, even though Glary Utilities Pro produced the best performance improvement, it wasn’t enough to turn a slow computer into a fast one.
On average, it improved the word and data processing by 6.1 percent, and it improved the graphics processing by 6.35 percent. However, it failed to improve web browsing speed, and it only improved the video chat quality by 0.18 percent.
Ease of Use
Using the boot-up optimization tool, we improved the startup speed by an average of 34.52 percent. This is the most noticeable improvement made by Glary Utilities Pro. However, by using the Windows startup manager tool, which is built in to your operating system, we were able to achieve a 42-percent improvement.
The app only recovered an average of 800MB of storage. This isn’t a lot, but it’s more than most.
Glary Utilities Pro received an A for diagnostic consistency. We tested this by scanning for errors, fixing the errors and then scanning for errors again. Theoretically, it shouldn’t find errors on the second scan. Only two products had a perfect diagnostic consistency. And Glary only found a few additional errors. We ran almost 30 of these tests, so an A diagnostic consistency grade is excellent.
We rated the ease of use as a C, which means the average novice user will find it more difficult than most of the software in our review. There are many tools, but most of them don’t offer much help and only clutter the interface.
The easiest part of the interface is the one-click maintenance tab, which lets you run all the optimization tools at once. However, the rest of the interface is complicated and requires some experience to navigate effectively. In addition, it earned a C- for the ease of installation because it tries to get you to install additional software, Malware Hunter. Typically, when software tries to get you to install other software, you should decline, as these are too often bloatware and can sometimes be malicious. In this case, the additional software installation seemed to hide in a box that appeared to only ask you to agree to terms and conditions. In other words, you have to pay close attention or you may end up installing software you don’t want.
Advanced Tools
Glary Utilities Pro has over 20 optimization tools. You can back up and restore your entire system, recover accidentally deleted files, repair shortcuts and registries, optimize security and privacy, and shred and encrypt files.
The only advanced tool it’s lacking is an SSD (solid-state drive) optimizer, but only a few PC utility apps have this tool. Optimizing an SSD can be tricky because you can actually shorten the lifespan.
Help & Support
You get three computer licenses, which allows you to install the software on three computers. However, the help and support options are disappointing. You can only contact support through email. There’s no phone support or live chat. The service provides a FAQs page, but the content is scant.
Summary
Glary Utilities Pro is a suite of PC system utility software designed to improve your computer’s performance by providing an all-in-one tool for maintaining and monitoring the health of your computer. In our tests, it improved the overall performance of our test PC by 12.62 percent, and it improved the boot-up speed by 34.52 percent. In addition, the diagnostic consistency was good. However, despite being the best performing app in our tests, the boost isn’t enough to notice, and it’s not the easiest app to navigate.