Soluto calls itself “anti-frustration software”. A free program for Windows, and still in Beta, Soluto analyses your PC’s startup process and recommends solutions.

It’s been out for a few months now and I’ve been trying it on a number of computers, running XP and Windows 7 64-bit. All work without an issue.

You install it and it runs during each boot up, timing it and looking at the various startup processes. Simply go into the software for a breakdown of those processes. They are divided into 3 sections – “no-brainer”, “potentially removable” and “cannot be removed.” The latter category mainly includes system software (and Soluto itself). The other 2 you can do something about – either delay (make the program start later, when the computer is idle) or pause (switch off) each. In all cases you can view each program in turn, viewing what information Soluto knows about it, and make the decision yourself as to what you wish to do with it.

In the case of my home PC, running Windows 7 64-bit, my boot currently takes 1:58. Without being overly aggressive, I have reduced this by 3.3. Unfortunately, running Soluto adds 3 seconds so I’ve hardly gained anything.

To be honest, as an “expert user” I know exactly which processed need removing and how to do it and I can often remove more than Soluto can. However, for the amateur “dabbler” this is an ideal solution as it provides all the help you could ask for, including details on what other people did and even allowing you to edit program descriptions.

Lastly, there’s a flashy history screen showing how your boot times have changed over time along with key changes that were made.

Summary of Soluto

A good quality product that really can help the amateur PC owner. However, for the geeks amongst us this may be a frustrating solution and, as the saying goes, results may vary. For a free product, there’s no excuse to not at least try it!

Reviewed by David Artiss on 23rd March 2011.

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Screenshots

Ok, you can add this wherever you want, but it looks particularly nice in your sidebar.

FileHippo provide a handy way to return a list of their latest software updates in JavaScript format and I was able to get a nice result with just the following code…

<li><h2>Latest Software Updates</h2>
<script language="JavaScript" src="http://www.filehippo.com/en/rss2/?format=js&icons=0" type="text/javascript"></script>
</li>

Note the icons=0 parameter. This has turned off the option to display icons next to the software packages – simply change this to icons=1 to display them again.

The output includes class names so you can use your stylesheet to modify its look (e.g. making the dates stand out, maybe in bold text).

Alternatively, from their own page you can design your own widget, compatible with pretty much all websites.

X-Setup, a rather splendid Windows tweaking application, is now available for free after the demise of its parent company.

You can download the install, portable or U3 versions from MajorGeeks and then use the serial number XSA092-11TA9R-8K12YT.