Keeping your computer in shape is a bit like looking after your body. Cram it full of junk, fail to ensure the motions of your recycle bin are regular and neglect the fitness of vital components, and you'll end up with a bloated system. It definitely makes sense to have a monthly maintenance routine, although it's easier to stick with if you've got a program to help keep it up.

System Mechanic does just that, and iolo technologies has recently unveiled version 8.5. It provides a number of tools to keep your PC streamlined and clutter-free, although your first port of call is likely to be a quick system status scan. This takes a couple of minutes to examine your machine and highlight any problem areas.

When run on our test PC, System Mechanic rated its security as good, though in the performance department eight problems were earmarked, meaning our rating was only fair. The main issues uncovered were some large lumps of system clutter, a number of registry errors, some security fixes (which were basically actions against potentially dodgy executables) and a few more minor bugbears like the odd broken shortcut.

Get the latest Dell Coupons and other computer coupons at CheapStingyBargains.com.

Everything can be fixed automatically with a click of the mouse, or you can take a proper look at an individual problem, ordering a deeper scan for a more in-depth picture. For example, after a 20 minute full scan the program reported on the exact breakdown of our system file clutter, which was by-and-large a big wedge of temp files (unsurprisingly). However, System Mechanic also picked up a hard drive error in this closer examination of the local disk.

All of these problems were solved in a matter of minutes. The program also makes further suggestions, such as prompting you to back up the registry if you haven't done so. There's also a bank of speed boosting tools, which offer services including defragging your hard drive and registry and optimising your Internet connection.

The Internet optimisation doesn't provide a description of the steps it takes, making the tweaks behind the scenes, but testing out our average download speed before and after (on a 8Mb ADSL line) we detected a slight increase. Potentially this was just a variance in the averages, but it was larger than you'd expect for simple fluctuations.

System Mechanic also boasts secure file deletion and a technology dubbed ActiveCare. The latter can be set to constantly monitor your system and automatically deal with optimisation tasks (only kicking in when your computer is idling to avoid sapping any resources). It must be said that when a scan is occurring, the program does put a reasonably heavy strain on system resources, so you certainly don't want much else going on at the time.

System Mechanic is a thorough and impressive maintenance tool which will ensure your PC doesn't develop a beer gut (or a file gut, at any rate). It's easy to use for the novice, while the expert can dive into the deeper scans a bit more to pick and choose what tweaks they'd like. The asking price seems fair, but it should be noted you are only purchasing a 12 month subscription to the program.