PC Matic Frequently Asked Questions

We send out three types of email messages, you can opt out editing your account options. If you have questions about how email addresses and other account information is used, see our privacy policy.

1. Newsletter: Sent infrequently (no more than monthly) to notify users of new site features and important updates.
2. Recalls: When vendors announce safety or reliability recalls and we can determine that a PC you tested may be affected, we can notify you.
3. Administrative: When you register, we send a welcome message with your registration data. We may also notify you if we plan to remove the account due to inactivity.

The only way an account is created at PC Matic is if a user visits the site and creates one. If you do not recall having created an account, it is possible that someone used your email address without your permission. Since you can read email at that address you can remove the account by having the password sent to you

To change your newsletter and product recall options, edit your account. To eliminate all mailings, remove your account (see below). When you remove your account, we do not keep a permanent record of your email address. However, there is a small window of time (typically less than 48 hours) in which you may receive a mailing because of the way we pull email addresses from the database in preparation for mailings.

In most cases, you can opt out of the newsletter mailing list simply by replying to the newsletter message with the subject of "remove"; this shortcut will only work if the email address in your mail client exactly matches the email address that you registered with PC Matic.

Go to the Edit Your Account page; you may need to log in. (If you do not know your password, click here and we will email it to you.) Make the changes you would like to your email address, password, newsletter preferences, or other data, and click Submit. If you changed your email address or password, click the "Log Out" link under your name and log back in with your new information.

You can go here to reset your password (https://www.pcmatic.com/support/#/kb/login-issue) if you have forgotten it. You must use the email that you used to sign up with, or the email that is currently associated with your account. After submitting it, check your inbox for instructions on the reset process.

Your computer is not accepting session cookies. Our site is accepting your user name and password and creating a session to remember your results, but your computer is not returning the cookie that identifies your session. This may be because of your browser settings or because you are using a third-party browser or security program that is blocking cookies.

When you create or update your account, we send a reminder message to the email address you are using. If that message is returned to us as undeliverable, we flag the account and you will see a message about the problem when you log into the site. Here are some common reasons why an email address is marked invalid:

1. You have entered it incorrectly. Double-check the address.
2. You are using an anti-spam product such as MailWasher that sends back "undeliverable" notices on messages that it considers spam. Disable the product temporarily or add pcmatic.com to an exceptions list.
3. You are using an anti-spam service that requires the sender to respond to a challenge message before the mail goes through. Our automated mail agent cannot respond to these messages.
4. Your ISP or mail service is returning the mail because it is thought to be spam. Check the company's support site to see if you can modify the settings. If possible, add bounces@pcmatic.com to your whitelist ("friends list") so that the mail can get through.
5. Your mailbox is full, and your mail service is returning the mail. Go to the inbox and read or delete enough messages to make some room.

When you come to the site and receive a message on the testing page that says your email address is invalid, click the "Change Login" link under your name. Double-check the email address, make any required changes, click the "Change Account Info" button, and we will re-verify the address. (If you think the email address is valid, just resubmit it; you don't have to actually change any information.) If you are consistently unable to use your email address to receive mail from us, we suggest you sign up for a free mail account from a site such as GMail or Yahoo.

Note that we do not mark an email address invalid unless we receive a reply that indicates there was a problem delivering the email. Mail sent to the reply address is processed by a program and not read by the staff.

If you receive the message "Unknown user" when you try to log in, this indicates we do not currently have an account for the given email address. (Please note that the support forums have their own separate registration; you are not automatically registered in both places.) If you are sure that you have registered on the main site before with this email address, the account may have been deleted for one of these reasons:

1. Inactivity: The account has not been used for more than three months.
2. Bad email: Messages to the email address of a new account were returned undeliverable, and the problem was not corrected within a month.

If your account has been deleted, simply create a new one with the same email address. To ensure that the account isn't deleted, stay active on the site by testing your system and checking your email address at least once a month.

To permanently remove your account and results from the PC Matic database please open a ticket with our Customer Service department at https://www.pcmatic.com/support/ and we will be happy to oblige.

Third-party services such as Google AdWords deliver some of the ads on our site. Please note that PC Matic does not not necessarily endorse products or services that are advertised, and cannot always control the content of these ads. Please let us know if you purchase a product from an ad on our site that you believe is fraudulent or deceptive. If you cannot determine where you made your purchase, check your browser history pages to find the location or see if the web site is listed on your credit card statement.

No, PC Matic of St. Louis (pc-pitstop.com) is not endorsed by us, and we have no relationship with it. If you have purchased something at that site, please contact them.

No, PCPitstop.net is not related to us. If you have purchased something at that site, please contact them.

No, PCPitstop.biz is not related to our site. If you have purchased something at that site, please contact them.

A browser cookie is a small piece of data that a web site may place on your hard drive to keep track of certain information. Cookies generally fall into one of two categories: session or persistent. Session cookies are only used for the duration of your visit to a Web site, and are removed when you leave the site. Persistent cookies store data between visits to a site.

PC Matic use both session and persistent cookies, as described above. You must accept some of these cookies for the site to work, but others are optional. Here are the details on the cookies that we use:

To use the site properly, we recommend these settings for Internet Explorer 11. If you are using an older version of IE we suggest that you upgrade because the cookie settings in IE11 provide more control than earlier versions.

For Internet Explorer 11:

Select Tools > Internet Options > Privacy tab, and click the Advanced button.

Select the following options:

1. Override automatic cookie handling
2. First-party cookies: Accept
3. Third-party cookies: Block
4. Always allow session cookies

To change your security settings in Internet Explorer 11, select: Tools > Internet Option > Security. Make sure you have selected the Internet zone as shown on the picture. Usually, the Medium security level is sufficient for use with PC Matic, and you can get to that setting by clicking the Default Level button.

PC Matic can usually test a PC that has a software firewall enabled. If you have changed the firewall from its default settings and made it more restrictive, however, some parts of the PC Matic tests may fail. In particular, many firewalls will try to block the Internet upload speed test which uses FTP, and stop the testing process when they do so. You can tell PC Matic to skip this test on the debug page or temporarily disable your firewall.

In most cases, PC Matic will have no trouble testing through a hardware firewall. The Internet upload test sometimes will not run if your firewall is very restrictive, and it can be skipped through the debug page.

All support is handled through our Customer Service team. We strongly encourage you to read through our user guides and frequent issue sections before submitting a ticket for help. If you do take this route and still need assistance, please contact our support team and be sure to let them know which methods you have already attempted.

Yo can also take advantage of our PC Matic Forums. Please try the suggestions on this page and on the troubleshooting page before asking questions. When you post a question on the forums, provide as much information as possible about the problem you are seeing, including the following:

1. The page name from the Address box on Internet Explorer
2. The message in the blue status bar on the page, if any
3. Exact wording of any error messages you receive
4. What you have tried already (like the advice in this FAQ!)
5. Basic info of your system (Windows and IE version, at least)

First, reduce the running software to the minimum required. Every program running in the background has the potential to affect your system in ways that can cause PC Matic's tests to fail. Always try these steps first:

• Make sure your cookie and security settings are correct - See our cookies and security FAQ pages for complete instructions.
• Use PC Matic's troubleshooting page - The suggestions there take into account any information we are able to gather from the system itself, so it often lets you zero in on specific problems quickly.
• Scan for viruses - Run a quick or full scan and clean with PC Matic to make sure you remove any malicious files.
• Disable browser add-ins such as ad blockers or popup stoppers - they often make changes to the HTML and script code on a page.
• Update your operating system using Windows Update - If you are not visiting Windows Update at least monthly, or using AutoUpdate, you are almost certainly missing one or more important security, performance, and stability patches.

If none of these steps solve the problem, read the remainder of this FAQ carefully.

During PC Matic's testing process, you will see a blue status bar on the screen. The status bar tells you the test that is currently running. If an error occurs, you should make a note of the text in the status bar because many of the troubleshooting procedures will refer to this. For example, you can use this information to skip over the problematic test. Also, if you ask for help on the forums we will want to know this information.

Occasionally, our PC Matic utility has bugs, but that is fortunately rare. More often, our tests discover a bug in a driver or other system software that results in a crash. To troubleshoot the problem, note which test you are running (from the blue status bar; see the FAQ item immediately above).

If you have have received some sort of error dialog, take note of what it says. These details are important to help us find the cause of the problem. In particular, there will be an error message something like program.exe performed an illegal operation in module.dll at address, write this down carefully. (You will need to click a link or button in the error dialog to get this detailed information, see the screen shot below.)

Now that you know where the tests are stopping, here are some specific causes of crashes in specific tests:

• Upload Bandwidth - The upload test uses FTP to send some random data to our server. Some firewall programs, try to block this traffic but cause the browser to lock up in the process. Disable the firewall and the problem should go away, or skip this test through the debug page. Our Firewall FAQ has more information.
• Download Bandwidth - To test download speed on a broadband link, we send a very large web page to your computer. Some firewall programs cannot handle a web page this large and will cause it to fail. Disable the firewall program and the problem should go away. Remember to turn it back on after testing.

Yes, in most cases the troublesome tests can be skipped. To skip a test, go to the debug page and check the boxes for the tests you want to skip. When you skip some tests, you won't get a full set of advice since we'll be missing the data we use to do that analysis.

You can reach out for support at our official PC Matic Forums, or to our Customer Service team. When you post a question on the forums or submit a support ticket, provide as much information as possible about the problem you are seeing, including the following:

• The page name from the Address box on Internet Explorer;
• The message in the blue status bar on the page, if any;
• Exact wording of any error messages you receive;
• What you have tried already (like the advice in this FAQ!);
• Basic info of your system (Windows and IE version, at least).

If you have been able to test your system at PC Matic in the past, please post a link to your most recent results with your message.

Our tests use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to gather some of the system configuration data from your system. If WMI is not working properly, it could cause certain information to be reported incorrectly by PC Matic.

WMI Dialogs
A system can have WMI problems yet appear to run properly most of the time. This is because WMI is most often used by system diagnostics. A word processor, spreadsheet, or email program rarely depend on WMI. To check your system's WMI status, you can use this procedure:

1. Right-click on ‘This PC’ and select Manage. (Alternate: Click Start > Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Computer Management.)
2. Left-click the arrow [>] next to Services and Applications to expand the tree view.
3. Left-click on WMI Control.
4. Now, right-click on the same WMI Control item and select Properties.
5. If WMI is working properly, you will see "Successfully connected to ".
6. If WMI is broken, you will see one or more error messages in the dialog.

How To Fix WMI
WMI is pre-installed with Windows operating systems. In rare circumstances, it can become corrupted. Once corrupted, it can sometimes be fixed relatively easily; in more extreme cases, you will have to repair or reinstall Windows itself.

You can find a Microsoft Diagnosis Utility for WMI here. This utility, which does not use WMI itself, can tell you the current state of WMI on your computer. The WMI Diagnosis Utility was designed for use by experienced Windows administrators. If you are computer-savvy, then the WMI Diagnosis Utility is probably the place for you to start.

The PC Matic team has also put together a tool to help repair WMI on your machine. You can download the batch file here.

1. Please download and save the batch file to re-register and repair WMI components.
2. Navigate to the saved file and Right Click it and choose: Run as Administrator
3. Please allow it to complete, then restart the computer.

If you’re still suspect you’re having WMI issues, contact our customer support team for further assistance at www.pcmatic.com/help.

There are just a few simple steps to the process:

1. Create an account on the PC Matic site if you don't have one already. Anonymous users cannot share their results.
2. Run the Full Tests or load some previous test results. When you get to the Summary page showing your results, click on the link that says "TechExpress: Share or email test results." You may find this link at the bottom of the page.
3. Copy the link at the top of that page and email or post it wherever you would like. You can also use the Email a Friend link on that page if you prefer.

Your PC Matic results contain a lot of detailed information that most computer-savvy people will want to know when trying to solve a problem. By providing a link to your results along with your question, you can save the time it takes to dig out the information that someone might need before they could solve your problem, such as: "What version of Windows are you running? Which version of Internet Explorer? Do you have an antivirus program?"

One of the best places to share your results is on our own PC Matic Forums. Our online community can help you solve virtually any PC problem quickly and at no cost. It's a fun place to hang out too; you might even make some new friends! Maybe you're considered the PC guru among your family or friends. If so, shared results will definitely make it easier to help them with computer problems. Just have them register on our site, test their system, and send you the link. These results can also be helpful for our customer support team to understand your computer configuration.

To protect your identity, we do not display your IP address when someone else loads your results through a shared results link.

In most cases, the data collected by PC Matic is simply technical information about your computer; it does not contain any personally identifiable data. You may, however, have named your computer after yourself, or given your disk drives labels that were the same names as your children. We recommend that you review your test results before sharing them to see if there is any information that you would feel uncomfortable showing to others.

The most common reason a link stops working is because it has expired. Results links are only valid for one month from the time they are issued. This provides you with better control over who sees your results. (You don't need to retest to get a new link, just load the old results.) Another possibility is that the results have been deleted, either through the "View previous test results" page or as a result of the user removing their PC Matic account.

A results link always shows the latest results for a particular configuration of a computer. If you test your computer under two different video resolutions or change the amount of memory installed, you will have two or more configurations reflecting those different setups. You can see all the configurations for a computer you have tested on the View previous test results page.

If you give out a results link and later decide that you don't want people to see your results, go to the View previous test results page and delete the configuration for the results that you shared. DO NOT delete all configurations at once using the red X next to the computer name, doing it that way will still allow others to see your results. (When all configurations are deleted for a computer, the results are only marked to be deleted and actually deleted later, so you don't have to wait.)

Other than installing the ActiveX controls described below, PC Matic does not make any changes to your system during testing. The ActiveX controls themselves are passive, run only while you are testing your computer on the site, and do not have the ability to change any system settings. When you are offered advice and/or Autofixes for problems that we detect, you always make the decision whether to follow the advice. Nothing happens "behind your back" without your permission or approval.

PC Matic installs several utilities (ActiveX dll and EXE files) on your system when you give it permission by clicking OK on a security certificate. Not all the utilities will always be installed on your system, it will depend on which parts of the site you have visited and what features you selected for testing.

Note: You cannot remove the utilities if you have just run tests at the site, because the files are in use by IE. Close all IE windows, start IE again, then use the procedure described here.

Most of PC Matic's utilities are installed automatically when needed by Internet Explorer and don't have an entry in "Add/Remove Programs". To remove them, open Internet Explorer and go to Tools | Internet Options. Under the General tab, click the Settings button under Browsing history. Then click the View Objects button. In the list of installed objects, find the ones with the names listed in the table above. (Not all of them may be installed on your system.) Right-click each one and select Delete.

**An internet connection is required to run PC Matic.**

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7 | Android 4.0.3 and up | macOS Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra

Processor: 1 GHz or greater

Memory: 512 MB or greater

Hard Disk: Need 1 GB or more of free space

Windows often forgets to clean up many files that are no longer needed by the system. The space taken up by these files can clog your disk and cause slower disk access. These files are in three major categories:

1. Recycle Bin. Files are not actually removed from the drive when you delete them with Explorer. Instead, the files are moved to the Recycle Bin where you can retrieve them if you later decide that you should not have deleted them. PC Matic empties your Recycle Bin to reclaim this disk space.
2. Internet Cache. Internet Explorer creates temporary files that are not needed after you finished surfing. These files can take up large amounts of space and should be removed periodically. Although you can clear the cache in Internet Explorer, PC Matic uses a more thorough method that deletes files left behind by IE.
3. Temporary Files. Windows and applications create various temporary files that are not needed after the application exits or Windows is shut down. In many cases, however, the applications do not always clean up after themselves.

After scanning your system, PC Matic gives you the option to review the files that it found and to select which files should be deleted.

PC Matic has three parts that changes your system registry: internet optimization, registry cleaning, and system performance optimization. The settings changed in the internet optimization part of the application are set according to your connection type. Settings that may be changed for Internet optimization include:

Invalid keys that are removed from the registry cleaning part of the application are entries in the registry containing information about COM and ActiveX objects. These objects are parts of programs and when you remove the programs these keys sometimes still exist. PC Matic safely removes these keys if the COM object no longer exists. Areas of the registry we look for the invalid keys are:

1. Invalid Class IDs (CLSID)
2. Invalid Program Identifiers (ProgID)
3. Invalid Type Libraries (TypeLib)
4. Invalid Interfaces

The performance section of the application changes some registry settings that help get the most out of your PC. These setting include:

The hard disk clean-up permanently removes unnecessary files and cannot be undone. All of the other utilities in PC Matic can be completely reversed. The very first action PC Matic does before making any registry setting changes is to make a backup of these settings. When you run PC Matic it will give you the option to restore the registry settings back to any point before the application was run.

For any technical questions, before or after you purchase the product, please contact our Support Team. Our team is available 7 days a week 365 days a year via email to assist you with everything PC Matic!

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and XP

Processor: 100MHz or greater

Memory: 64 MB or greater

Hard Disk: Need 10 MB or more of free space

Browser: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome

**PC Magnum does not support Opera or Safari.**

Everything you do on your computer is being recorded by Windows in order to create a more personalized experience. However, this same history log can be easily accessed by unscrupulous third parties to track and learn your computing habits. Important information includes which websites you frequent, which documents you've been using, and documents you've recently deleted. PC Magnum is a unique privacy product that removes this potentially embarrassing and private information, allowing you to control what others may learn about you and your computer habits if your PC is accessed without your knowledge.

1. Browsing History. Browsers keep a detailed list of how many times and when you have visited each website. Your PC may have records dating back to your PC purchase. PC Magnum deletes browsing history in Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome.
2. Image Cache. Browsers also download and store all images viewed on a website you have visited. PC Magnum scans Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome for cached images and deletes them for you.
3. Cookies. Saved to your PC by websites you visit, cookies are used to create a more personalized and interesting browser experience. However, cookies can also be used maliciously to track your browsing habits. PC Magnum scans for cookies inserted by websites you have visited recently and removes them.
4. Internet Cache. Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome create temporary files for websites you have visited to improve browsing speeds. However, these unnecessary files can take up large amounts of space and could undermine your privacy.
5. Auto Complete Forms. Your browser stores all of the information that you type into web pages. While this feature makes it easier to fill out forms, it also makes it easier for intruders to discover your personal information.
6. Recent Document History. Windows and Office maintain a list of recent documents used on your computer for your benefit. PC Magnum allows users to delete this list to prevent others from knowing what they've been working on.
7. Recycle Bin. After deleting a file with Explorer, the file is imported to the Recycle Bin. Until they are permanently erased, these files may be seen by others. PC Magnum allows users to empty their Recycle Bin and reclaim this disk space.

For any technical questions, before or after you purchase the product, please contact our Support Team. Our team is available 7 days a week 365 days a year via email to assist you with everything PC Magnum!

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and XP

Processor: 100MHz or greater

Memory: 64 MB or greater

Hard Disk: Need 10 MB or more of free space

Windows often forgets to clean up many files that are no longer needed by the system. The space taken up by these files can clog your disk and cause slower disk access. These files are in three major categories:

1. Recycle Bin. Files are not actually removed from the drive when you delete them with Explorer. Instead, the files are moved to the Recycle Bin where you can retrieve them if you later decide that you should not have deleted them. Optimize empties your Recycle Bin to reclaim this disk space.
2. Internet Cache. Internet Explorer creates temporary files that are not needed after you finished surfing. These files can take up large amounts of space and should be removed periodically. Although you can clear the cache in Internet Explorer, Optimize uses a more thorough method that deletes files left behind by IE.
3. Temporary Files. Windows and applications create various temporary files that are not needed after the application exits or Windows is shut down. In many cases, however, the applications do not always clean up after themselves.

After scanning your system, Optimize gives you the option to review the files that it found and to select which files should be deleted.

Optimize has three parts that changes your system registry, internet optimization, registry cleaning, and system performance optimization. The settings changed in the internet optimization part of the application are set according to your connection type. Settings that may be changed for Internet optimization include:

Invalid keys that are removed from the registry cleaning part of the application are entries in the registry containing information about COM and ActiveX objects. These objects are parts of programs and when you remove the programs these keys sometimes still exist. PC Matic safely removes these keys if the COM object no longer exists. Areas of the registry we look for the invalid keys are:

1. Invalid Class IDs (CLSID)
2. Invalid Program Identifiers (ProgID)
3. Invalid Type Libraries (TypeLib)
4. Invalid Interfaces

The performance section of the application changes some registry settings that help get the most out of your PC. These setting include:

The hard disk clean-up permanently removes unnecessary files and cannot be undone. All of the other utilities in PC Matic can be completely reversed. The very first action Optimize does before making any registry setting changes is to make a backup of these settings. When you run Optimize it will give you the option to restore the registry settings back to any point before the application was run.

For any technical questions, before or after you purchase the product, please contact our Support Team. Our team is available 7 days a week 365 days a year via email to assist you with everything Optimize!

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and XP

Processor: 100MHz or greater

Memory: 64 MB or greater

Hard Disk: Need 3 MB or more of free space

No specific supported browser is required.

A driver is software that allows your computer to communicate with hardware or devices. The maintenance of your system's drivers are critical to the overall performance of your PC.

Updating your PC device drivers can often improve the speed of your PC, resolve known technical issues and add functionality.

When manufacturers release new products, these products are often found to be incompatible with other products on the market. Manufacturers fix these problems by releasing updated drivers. Unfortunately, many of these manufacturers fail to include an auto update feature for updating drivers. Driver Alert offers an easy way to keep your drivers current, while enhancing the stability and overall performance for your system.

Unlicensed users can run up to 3 Free Driver Alert scans.

Only Driver Alert users/subscribers have access to the following:

1. Download Links
2. Release Notes
3. Driver Alert Notification Service
4. Invalid Interfaces

PC Matic offers several options for users who would like to track driver changes for multiple PCs.

1. Home - Up to 5 PCs
2. Home Plus - Up to 10 PCs
3. Professional - Up to 50 PCs

Driver Alert subscribers will receive a monthly report.

For any technical questions--before or after you purchase the product--please use our Paid Products forum. That way, you can get quick answers and share your questions with other users. If you have a computer issue unrelated to PC Matic, please use our support forums. You can also reach our official customer support team here.

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and XP

Processor: 100MHz or greater

Memory: 64 MB or greater

Hard Disk: Need 10 MB or more of free space

Disk MD supports FAT32 and NTFS (New Technology File System).

Disk MD is an easy to use, customizable defrag tool that provides you with a detailed view of the defragmentation process. In addition, Disk MD is the first defragment product on the market to defrag system restore point, which are arguably the most fragmented files on a drive and usually locked and un accessible to applications.

When Windows writes a file to the hard disk, quite often it has to break the file into multiple pieces. As this happens over days, months, and years, the drive becomes fragmented. The impact to performance is huge. It is not uncommon for a very fragmented file to take 60 times as long as an unfragmented file.

Yes you can. However, it is not recommended because the system is constantly changing files. The impact on overall performance varies with the configuration of your system.

The processes will not not interrupt the defrag process. However, it is always recommended that everything be closed down during defragmentation. Applications sometimes create and delete files, including temporary files which can hinder the effectiveness of defragmentation.

Yes, defragmentation creates an exclusive lock on files while it is moving them.

For any technical questions--before or after you purchase the product--please use our Paid Products forum. That way, you can get quick answers and share your questions with other users. If you have a computer issue unrelated to PC Matic, please use our support forums. You can also reach our official customer support team here.

Percent of Data Fragmented

Of the total amount of data on the disk, the percentage of data that resides in fragmented files. Generally, the lower the number, the better the system performance. If the percent of data fragmented is very high, but the number of files fragmented is low, this indicates large files holding a majority of the total data on the disk. Note: These results may differ slightly from the numbers shown by the analyzers in defragmenting utilities due to differences in the way used and available disk space is counted.

Percent of Files Fragmented

Of the total files and directories on the disk, this is the percentage of files and directories that are broken into two or more fragments. Lower numbers indicate better system performance potential. Note: These results may differ slightly from the numbers shown by the analyzers in defragmenting utilities due to the way files are counted.

Total Fragmented Files

The actual number of files on the disk that are fragmented. Even a freshly defragmented drive may have some fragmented files, particularly if you use the defragmenters that are bundled with Windows. Those versions often cannot swap files or system files, which means they cannot totally defragment the drive.

Total Excess Fragments

Total number of extra file fragments on the drive. Ideally this number should be close to zero.

Average Fragments per File

Average number of fragments in each file. Ideally this number should be close to one.

Most Fragmented Files

The files on the system that are shown to be the most fragmented. If the fragment count is over 100 then your system performance is impacted. SSD or Solid State Drives do not need to be defragmented.

System Restore Data

The data that supports the System Restore feature of Windows XP. System Restore enables administrators to restore their computers to a previous state without losing personal data files (e.g. Word documents, graphic files, e-mail).

Usually, a program runs "in the background" so that it can provide some sort of service while you are using the computer. For example, it may support special function keys on the keyboard, or interface to a scanner. Other programs are spyware or adware, and are designed mainly to benefit the companies that wrote the program--not you. Each program that runs consumes some computer resources such as system memory, and may also consume CPU time. This can reduce the performance of the PC, so it is best to run only the programs you really need.

PC Matic users can run a scan and clean to remove malicious or potentially unwanted programs from their computer. If there are other programs that you are unsure of or don’t remember installing that are not being removed, contact our support team for assistance www.pcmatic.com/help.

Windows XP/7: Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and select Task Manager. Click the Processes tab and select the program you want to stop from the list. Click the End Process button to stop the program.

Windows 8/10: Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and select Task Manager. Press More details if no information is shown. Click the Processes tab and select the program you want to stop from the list. Click the End Process button to stop the program.

If the program has been automatically configured to start, it will start the next time you boot your computer. This is a good way to see if a program is really needed. Stop the program using the method above, then use the computer for a few hours. If you do not see any negative effects or loss of functionality, then you can probably disable the program permanently.

The best way to permanently stop a program from running is to uninstall it. Click Start | Settings | Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs. Find the name of the program you want to remove on the list and select it. Then click the Add/Remove button. Some programs, particularly spyware and adware, may not completely remove themselves when they are uninstalled. In these cases you can run a PC Matic scan and clean to remove them.

In some cases, you may only want to disable one part of a program, or the program may not have provided an uninstall entry. Windows XP/7/8/10 users can use the System Configuration Utility (MSConfig) that is provided as part of those versions of Windows: Click Start | Run and type msconfig. Then click the Startup tab. You will see a list of programs that will run each time you start your PC. Clear the checkbox next to an item to prevent it from running. If you later find that you need that program, go back to MSConfig and check the box next to that item, and reboot.

There is a separate interface that controls services. Click Start and type services.msc in the search box and press enter. Find the service that you want to change and double-click it. From there you can start or stop the service, and change whether it should be started automatically when the system boots. In general it is not a good idea to "Disable" services unless you are completely sure that the service is not needed. Use "Manual" instead.

PC Matic's utilities get much of their information from the system BIOS, which keeps tables specifying the processor type and memory configuration. In some cases, this information is not recorded correctly by the BIOS and we cannot determine that the BIOS information is incorrect. Common data problems include:

• System brand or model is incorrect (e.g., "System Manufacturer")
• System type shown as desktop when it's a notebook
• Incorrect number of free or filled memory slots
• Incorrect memory type or maximum module size

PC makers are supposed to use the System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) Specification to provide a way for utilities such as ours to get information about the PC. Older PCs built before about 1998 usually do not implement SMBIOS at all; PCs built before 2000 often have serious inaccuracies in their data. Even brand-new systems can have incorrect SMBIOS data, and it is common with many systems that are not from brand-name manufacturers.

This is another sign of incorrect SMBIOS data. The SMBIOS indicates that a CPU cache is present, but that it is disabled. We have no way to know that the BIOS is giving incorrect information.

Usually, it has no impact on functionality or performance. SMBIOS data is intended for use by inventory and diagnostic programs. Microsoft Windows does not depend on SMBIOS information to be able to run properly. However, incorrect SMBIOS data can be a sign that the system maker did not do some basic quality control. If they did not get the SMBIOS data right, there is certainly a chance that they made other mistakes.

BIOS and system makers have utilities that can write to the SMBIOS data areas, but they do not usually make them available to end users. Sometimes the problems with SMBIOS are fixed through BIOS updates that will be made available by your system vendor or the manufacturer of the system board. If you cannot get a copy of the vendor's SMBIOS utility and a BIOS reflash does not solve the problem, then you will have to live with the data being wrong.

SMBIOS (also known as the DMI BIOS) is part of the work of the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). The SMBIOS specification is available on their web site at https://www.dmtf.org/standards/bios.php.

There is a separate interface that controls services. Click Start and type services.msc in the search box and press enter. Find the service that you want to change and double-click it. From there you can start or stop the service, and change whether it should be started automatically when the system boots. In general it is not a good idea to "Disable" services unless you are completely sure that the service is not needed. Use "Manual" instead.