Remember the day you first got your current computer? Did it seem to run a lot faster than it does now? It probably isn’t just fond memories fooling you into thinking it is running faster in days gone by, computers slow down over time as they fill up with unneeded junk.

That’s where iolo System Mechanic 14 Professional comes into the picture. It gives you a variety of tools to restore the speed of your computer and make it run even better. It works with Windows XP all the way through Windows 8.1. Yes, there are free tools out there in the same product category. While they do help, the free tools just aren’t as good as System Mechanic 14 Professional. PC Magazine and c|net both gave it their Editors’ Choice in the tune-up category.

After installing, an analysis is run on your system. You can choose a quick analysis or a deep analysis. While a deep analysis takes longer (5-7 minutes), take the extra time so you can reap the most speed benefits.

When the scan is done, you’ll get a list of the problems found along with suggested solutions and explanations of how each suggestion will improve speed. Most likely, you’ll just press the Repair All button to implement each of the fixes. These fixes can speed up both the amount of time it takes for your computer to boot as well as the allowing software to run a bit faster. If you are having instability problems, it might even fix the issues causing the crashes.

Another included tool is called Program Accelerator. It moves the files required by a program to the optimal place on your hard drive to allow them to run at their fastest. Think of it as similar to disk defragmenting except it focuses on putting program files in just the right order on your disk.

In addition to tools for speeding up your computer are tools that help to protect it from security threats. Another tool tunes the power usage of your system memory and CPU so that the resources can be dedicated the most important processes. Need to truly delete files so they can never be recovered? The “Incinerator” does these to exacting Department of Defense standards.

I’ve only scratched the surface of everything that you can do with the tools included in iolo System Mechanic 14 Professional. The folks at iolo have a detailed page listing everything it can do along with a special offer to save $20.