Microsoft Quietly Previews PC Advisor Repair Tool

notthatwillsmith writes "On Friday, Microsoft invited members of the Windows Feedback Program to try out a preview of a new application, the Microsoft PC Advisor. The new tool promises to 'continuously monitor your PC for problems and give you the solutions to fix them, in real time.' After testing on several Vista machines with a variety of problems, Maximum PC has written a full report on the Microsoft PC Advisor. The short version? Like every other 'PC Repair' tool they've tested, the new apps signal-to-noise ratio is quite bad, and it misses the obvious and important problems, like out-of-date videocard drivers."

Comments

Re:I wonder what they were expecting.

[lysergic.acid]

where exactly does the review say that?

the author's major complaints against the tool seem to be:

• PC Checkup diagnoses non-problems (UAC being disabled, desktop shortcut pointing to wrong version of a program, the use of a custom power profile)
• offers useless tips (empty Temporary Internet Files, enable IE's phising filter, turn on Windows Firewall)
• missed obvious problems like outdated drivers which were causing actual system crashes
• rest of the menus were just shortcuts to the control panel or other pre-existing Windows content/features

it sounds like the author's evaluation that this program offers non-fixes for non-problems seems like a pretty accurate one. he does give the program benefit of the doubt and states:

...the PC Checkup functionality could deliver some interesting functionality, especially if it develops the ability to suss out real PC problems...

i think they were just expecting what MS tried to promise--a program that would actually help troubleshoot computer problems. but in the end, Microsoft's PC Advisor Repair Tool suffers the same problem as other PC repair programs--they don't work.