Winners Announced!
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This contest has now expired. Winners will be notified by eMail.
- David Schopp
- Ali Aljoudi
- Vijay Shyamani
- Graham Cox
- Kiril Zernovski
Congratulations to the Winners and Thank You to everyone who participated!
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WinOptimizer 16
Ashampoo is the gift that keeps on giving! This time around they have given our readers a chance to win a copy of their latest WinOptimizer 16 version. We have five licenses to give away in this contest. Each license is normally valued at $39.99 (US), but you can get a huge ~50% discount by visiting this Ashampoo WinOptimizer page.
“Over time, even modern systems slow down or become faulty and cluttered with junk files. Especially Windows 10 collects more data than its users would like. Ashampoo® WinOptimizer 16 takes care of these issues – with unparalleled speed and efficiency. It doesn’t take any prior knowledge or lots of time and your computer will feel like new again! Let WinOptimizer help you make the most of your PC and protect, clean and optimize your machine for maximum performance and privacy every time.” ~ Ashampoo
Installation
Installation is a snap. When you run the program for the first time you will have the choice of trying out a free trial version or activating it with Ashampoo and entering your license. Ashampoo requires an account with them, but it’s a simple matter of providing them with an eMail address and name. I have never had a problem with being bombarded by eMail from this professional company.
System Requirements
- Operating System: Windows® 10, Windows® 8 / 8.1, Windows® 7
- Computer: Any computer that supports the above operating systems
- Other: Full administrative rights are required to use the program. An Internet connection is required to activate the program
First Run
When you run WinOptimizer 16 for the first time you will be presented with a window like this:
The first thing I like to do when I run a new program, especially one this powerful, is to check out the settings:
In the left panel, you can see that Basic functions is chosen, and the right panel offers settings within eight different tabs. Each category on the left offers choices laid out in a similar fashion. A person could spend a lot of time adjusting settings alone. Anyway, I ran this puppy by clicking that Analyze button and was shown this screen after an analysis was quickly processed on my system:
I’m probably missing something obvious here, but I don’t understand what “478 issues” means. Clearly, there were over 2,000 “Browsing traces” found. If someone can explain this to me, it would be much appreciated.
Regarding those browsing traces, that’s why I never run these programs in automatic mode. If the “One Click” optimization mode was allowed, then a lot of browser cookies would be deleted that I want to keep. Those cookies store handy website information that I don’t want to continually have to type in. That’s why I run these types of utilities manually. Check all the settings carefully before you click that Optimize button!
Note: Ashampoo has taken every precaution to make this program safe to use, including a backup system which you can use to revert to the previous state.
Benchmarks
One very cool feature included in this program is a suite of bench-marking tools. I was really curious how my computer stacked up against owners of other systems on the Ashampoo site. I ran a System benchmark (which took 60 seconds). At the end of the benchmark a window pops up with a button which will send you to that Ashampoo page. Here are my results:
As you can see, I ranked 86 out of over 900 entries in the Ashampoo database. That may not sound too bad, but take a look at that RAM score. Ouch! This is a good way to determine what, if any, bottlenecks may be affecting your system performance. You know? I spent a lot of money on that RAM– this is very disappointing.
Conclusions ?
Ashampoo WinOptimizer 16 is hands down an excellent program and I can feel safe recommending it. As with all utilities of this nature, use it wisely. It can be a blessing if you’re careful, and a bust if you’re not.
How To Enter The Contest
We’d appreciate it if you’d take a moment and submit a comment telling us why you’d like to win Ashampoo WinOptimizer 16. However, submitting a comment is not required to enter this contest and will have no bearing on your chances.
For your chance to win, simply enter your name and valid eMail address in the spaces provided below, then click Enter Contest. After your entry is accepted you will be presented with options to share the contest on Twitter and/or Facebook. For each person who enters the contest as a result of your share you will earn two (2) extra entries!
Sharing the contest on social media is completely voluntary, but is encouraged.
Competition Rules:
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- To enter, simply submit your name and a Valid eMail address. Your address will not be shared outside this site
- You must submit a VALID eMail address. We need to contact the Winner, so disposable eMail addresses will not be eligible
- Additional entries may be earned by voluntarily sharing on Facebook and/or Twitter
- Shortly after the contest ends, the winner(s) will be chosen at random
- Winner(s) names will be posted on this giveaway page. Please check back here to see the winner(s) name announcement!
- The winner(s) will be notified by eMail at the eMail address used to enter the contest – be sure to use a valid eMail address that you check regularly
- Winner(s) must claim their license within five (5) days. After the five (5) day period, unclaimed prizes will be distributed at DCT’s sole discretion
- Entrants agree to allow DCT to communicate with them via eMail using the address provided by the entrant when entering the contest
- To enter, simply submit your name and a Valid eMail address. Your address will not be shared outside this site
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Good luck to everyone!
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