Several weeks ago I recommended software named, “Advanced System Care Free” from Iobit.com and got many emails.  Most of them were thanking me for the suggestion which sped their computers up appreciably.  Others wrote to say that although it sped up their computers, it kept asking them to upgrade to the paid version.  Most of those, in the last category, I found had downloaded the wrong version and needed to uninstall it and reinstall the free version.

The next group of emails starting coming in a week or two later with a different issue.  These were saying that it ran as it had before but after ASC ran it said something like, “You can repair these problems by upgrading to Advance SystemCare Professional”. They were then informed that those hundreds of problems could be fixed once you upgraded to the paid version.  (See the messaage I got below.)  Ouch, I hadn’t seen it yet, but I thought, “Oh gee, nagware!”

Now if you are running ASC don’t panic.  It is still a good program but it will nag you to purchase the full version after a certain amount of time or uses.  If you just click “Later” it will continue and take care of all but the additional xxx issues.

I don’t believe this is a great way to make people love your software and want to purchase it.  I personally would not now purchase the full version.  If they wanted to make a couple of the items not work in the system from the beginning and then stipulate you have to purchase the full version that would be ok with me.  But I am not fond of being told it is a free and then sort of “Indian giving”.

Again, it is not a danger but an unfriendly way to get purchasers to buy the pro version.  I have run the software many times since and gotten the “upgrade” message at random times.  So you may see it once or twice a week or every random number of runs but you apparently will see it.

This also makes me a little gun-shy of suggesting more software for you.  I am running tests on some now for future columns.  I always test software for a while before I tell you about it.  I then search the internet for others’ experiences before I recommend it and check with a few software pros.  However, with this one I didn’t hear about anything out of the ordinary.

So as always be cautious what you install on your computer.  It isn’t always perfect.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 at 5:19 am and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.