Buy Now...

Based in Berlin, O&O Software has been in the business of developing tools for use with Windows since 1997.  Sold in over 50 countries, these tools cover various aspects of Windows operating system including cache management and the use of memory with its O&O CleverCache product which is now up to version 6.  As is usual with O&O titles, CleverCache 6 is available on a 30-day trial basis enabling you to test the product's suitability before you need to make a purchase.

As part of the product's installation, CleverCache 6 adds itself to the Windows start-up routine so that its functionality is always available, from a system tray icon, whenever you turn on your computer.  By right-clicking on this system tray icon you can access a Control Panel that allows you to make changes to the current settings used by the CleverCache software and create profiles for specific eventualities.  By default the Control Panel will present a view of the software's status with buttons to switch to cache monitoring and profile management features plus other modules designated as Settings, Extras and System Monitor.

See also: Utility software

more

CleverCache uses a variety of tools to help it when it comes to boosting performance of your system.  Using its AutoSense facility, CleverCache analyses the host system at start-up to check for any changes to the main memory.  If any changes are detected then CleverCache will adjust its settings accordingly.  Once you are up and running, CleverCache will make use of Mem-O-Free technology which monitors the amount of available memory in Windows.  On the occasions that the amount of free memory drops below a user-specified level, then Mem-O-Free will instigate a freeing up of memory by instructing the operating system to off-load data to the hard disk.

As part of the normal operating system's way of working, data that is to be saved is not immediately written to disk.  Instead the data is buffered in the internal file cache and held for what we might consider a short period before the write operation kicks in to action.  While we might think of the delay as small, it can be between 4 and 15 seconds depending upon other system activity, there is always the possibility that a crash could occur during this period with the result that the data would be lost.  To help avoid this type of situation, the third element used in the CleverCache approach is Mem-O-Safe.  This technology has been developed to help ensure important data is not lost following a system failure.  With Mem-O-Safe you can configure, in milliseconds, the delay interval before a write operation is carried out.

Selecting the Extras module allows you to make adjustments to processor time by choosing from five pre-set balance levels between programs or background processes.  You also have a choice of allocating memory priority to either application use of file access while other options are available to block the use of the 8.3 file naming convention and the saving of "last accessed" information plus activate a system monitor feature.

While you may not notice any improvement in system performance when you initially use this software, some benefits should appear over time.  However, if my experiences are anything to go by, you should not expect any dramatic improvements.  System requirements for this product are a Pentium 200MHz processor with 64MB of RAM and 30MB of available hard disk space.  CleverCache 6 has been priced at £19.99 and is Vista compatible. 

http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/products/ooclevercache/