Cleaning out your Registry, startup items and other Windows tweaks are all free to execute, but there still exists a trade in so-called system tuners. Largely, these products fail to live up to expectations. Many either do very little or are too destructive in the way they purge system files.

iolo technologies is so achingly cool that it doesn't use capital letters in its name. Its System Shield 3 is similarly pared down as the software contains only the bare essentials of anti-virus, anti-spyware and a firewall for online protection.

Contrary to popular belief, deleted files on your laptop are not gone forever. Often they can be retrieved, even when deleted from your recycle bin. Offering simple data recovery is Iolo Search and Recover 4(£21 inc. VAT).

We've all deleted things by mistake. Microsoft aims to tackle this problem with Vista by adding an unlimited 'undelete' function that should enable you to rollback to any previous version of a document or deleted file.

System Mechanic (£50 inc. VAT) is a set of tools designed to help you keep your laptop running, if not improving its performance

There's no getting away from it: System Mechanic 6 offers very similar functionality to Norton's SystemWorks 2006 and most obviously, SAD's TuneUp 2006. Each application offers a suite of tools designed to keep your computer secure.

As system utilities go, almost every tool needed to keep things ticking over is already available to Windows users. Those of us familiar with the regular housekeeping duties will no doubt feel the necessity of such a package is surplus to requirements