7Smoker Pro

7Smoker Pro is a free-to-use software program that comes bundled with a wide range of tools designed to help you improve the performance of your computer, such as freeing up RAM, as well as to administer some Windows 7 features.

It's wrapped in a user-friendly interface, represented by a large window that shows the system resource monitor: total, used, available and free RAM, system pagefile size, along with used, available and free pagefile.

The app's components are organized into four widget categories: tweaks, maintenance, security, and password. You can get started by picking a category to explore its modules.

When it comes to system tweaking, you can ask the utility to automatically tune the PC, optimize the hard drive when it's idle, disable Aero Peek, Snap and Shake, set the L2 cache for CPU, manage CPU priority for programs or background services, disable core parking, or boost the gaming experience by stopping system services to free up RAM and CP.

You can manage autostart apps, stop Windows Update services, clear the offline search history and event logs, restore IE toolbars, disable balloon tips, Recycle Bin and Windows Messenger, edit PC owner information, administer services, remove arrows from shortcuts, optimize the mouse refresh rate, and so on.

As far as computer maintenance is concerned, you can analyze the disk space to find out the largest files, remove junk files, find and delete invalid DLL entries, browse the shell, access the Windows 7 Control Center, view system information, or create and manage system restore points.

A toolbox is put at your disposal to remove hotfixes, repair services, get a list with all Windows features (i.e. "God Mode), enable or disable hibernation on Windows 7, as well as create or remove extensions from the Windows Explorer right-click menu for creating and moving items, and for opening a Command Prompt dialog in the current location.

It's possible to hide or remove various entries from the Start menu, taskbar, documents and folders, like network places, games, toolbars, recent documents history, or favorites. 7Smoker Pro also lets you administer system settings (e.g. secure access to removable drives, disable system restore tools and settings), as well as hide or deactivate objects from the desktop, Windows Explorer and system components, such as desktop gadgets, error reporting, toolbar customization, or file type modifications.

Regarding the Control Panel, you can restrict desktop theme controls, disable the addition or deletion of printers, manage applet security settings, and set program restrictions. Moreover, you can disable password caching when it comes to login and authentication, deactivate User Account Control, add or remove applications from the firewall, as well as enable or disable access to USB, CD/DVD, floppy and high-capacity floppy drives.

No error dialogs popped up in our tests, and the software program didn't hang or crash. Some changes require system reboot to be committed. It had minimal impact on PC performance, running on low CPU and RAM.

Taking into account its numerous list of intuitive features dedicated to system tweaks, maintenance and security, 7Smoker Pro should meet the requirements of many users, even if they are PC beginners. No recent updates have been made, though.