SlimWare Utilities
Encyclopedia
SlimWare Utilities is an American information technologies
company that produces cleaning and optimization
programs for an international market. The products they produce center on using crowdsourced
feedback to generate real time reviews and quality evaluations of other programs.
in that could be freely distributed and downloaded.
The company, based on the Gulf Coast in D'Iberville, Mississippi, expanded its marketing arena over the course of the following year. The company's marketing scheme sought to codify the idea of "slimming software" via a single theme, reflected in both the logo and the application names.
The release of SlimComputer marked the first of SlimWare Utilities’ totally free
offerings. It also characterized the branding scheme of the company, aligning it with the minimalism movement in computing. SlimComputer was designed to be a program that would remove all of the pre-loaded software that comes with new retail PCs. Part of its marketing strategy was keyed on its small size and ease of use.
Upon its release, SlimComputer was offered as a simple binary (executable
) for a PC or for a direct-to-USB file which would auto-install the program into a flash-drive
. This version could then be executed on a new computer, without its having to be installed. This makes the application portable, a feature that was hoped to gain the attention of computer technicians, giving repair agents a mobile platform with which they could simultaneously flag junk software and recommend optimizations.
In July 2010, SlimWare Utilities debuted the release of SlimComputer at the BlackHat Security convention in Las Vegas. It met with favorable reviews by the security community for its ability to minimize security risks, mostly through the removal the pre-installed trials and adverting links that come loaded onto a retail PC.
The promotional argument is as follows: by minimizing advertising-based surfaces
within a new computer, one can also minimize access points for other, affiliated advertising platforms that may be linked to or associated with the pre-loaded programs. SlimComputer also performs general cleaning routines that are designed to aid the defense of personal data by cleaning/deleting recorded information, including Internet caches
, saved Internet files and log files from all of the major browsers, IM clients, etc.
SlimWare Utilities’ programs deviate from this framework by encouraging and implementing user feedback
, i.e. community-sourcing. The proposed goal is to establish a framework for using crowd-sourced
feedback as a way to produce optimization schemes for a computer.
SlimWare applications separate the service updates from the feedback. The service updates can be controlled or disabled by the user at will and carry the normal program-related updates that add functionality and bug fixes. The feedback is voluntary. Evaluations are fed to every version of a SlimWare Utilities’ application so that a user has the potential to receive recent reviews within a relatively short period of time in relation to previous reviews.
Dynamic Feedback is implemented in SlimWare Utilities’ Programs in the following ways:
The general promotion of SlimWare Utilities’ programs is also one that focuses on the idea of minimalism on a personal computer: maximizing efficiency by minimizing unnecessary functions and maximizing space by minimizing unnecessary programs. SlimWare Utilities' marketing philosophy claims to promote better productivity and safety through various methods, including marginalizing resource-consuming elements and decreasing surfaces of attack
.
Because the link is otherwise perpetual, SlimWare Utilities’ programs specify in their respective privacy policies that data sent is limited to that which is relevant to a given scan. This includes data requests sent to the cloud and a subsequent reply containing evaluations of programs, services, Internet configurations and start-up entries.
The user must specify how many of the suggestions he or she wishes to implement and then must push a “GO” button to activate. No user-personal data is exchanged in this process. User-based controls are also provided for additional behavior, including scheduled scans, the application's running service and its start-up control. All SlimWare Utilities’ programs also include full uninstall sequences.
SlimCleaner is a freeware
application. It is FixCleaner’s sister program in that it performs many of the same functions but has no licensed version. Users can run and implement any of the utilities individually but there’s no sequence that runs all of them simultaneously.
SlimCleaner also includes a diagnostics hijack log. This log utilizes the cloud-link feedback to make an evaluation of a computer’s software infrastructure. Inspired by the ubiquitous Hijack-This log, the community-sourced feedback log produces the same type of roster listing all installed applications, services, and recently active registry keys. The log appears as a in-program readout that can be copied to a text file and used to profile a PC for repair. Within the application, a given entry in the log can be hovered over to see its evaluation as set by other technicians who contribute to the SlimWare Utilities’ data cloud.
SlimComputer is a freeware application, designed to offer a portable cleaning and diagnostics program. It’s marketed to computer technicians but is freely available to anyone. It provides an automated sequence that can be run on a new computer to find pre-installed programs, trials and ad-links. It also flags corresponding services and start-up entries. Built in to the utility package of SlimComputer are other functions, designed to aid in further cleaning, including a shredder (overwriting sequence)and various optimizers.
SlimDrivers is a freeware driver-update program designed to use community-sourced feedback to recommend driver updates. It scans a computer and compiles a list of the installed drivers that are outdated. It includes device drivers and system drivers.
DriverUpdate is the shareware sister to SlimDrivers. It employs the same features but includes a single, “Update All” sequence. Upon purchasing a license, users can click this button and initiation the install processes for all selected drivers at once.
, both of which are accessible via 24-hour chat and email. The support, in addition to fielding questions about given products, is geared toward proving a measure of universal computer care, and technicians are willing to broach questions concerning any aspect of PC maintenance.
With the launch of SlimComputer, SlimWare Utilities also set up a forum to both accommodate questions, and foster a public environment for Q and A that was more in keeping with its "community-based" theme.
Since SlimWare Utilities offers both licensed shareware and freeware, the sales structure is based on the level of automation and user wants. Nearly all of the functions that the various programs render can be implemented for free, but purchasing a license for either FixCleaner or DriverUpdate, allows the optimization process to be automated, as such, they are geared toward non-savvy computer users who want the ease and convenience of push-button cleaning.
The multiple functionality of applications like SlimComputer is aimed at aiding computer repairers or technicians who can use them as a base for remotely diagnosing and repairing a client’s PC.
. The partner certification is a network of approved manufacturers and developers to which Microsoft
has granted exclusive access to developmental resources. The certification also highlights programs that are specifically made to work with Windows operating systems and that meet the standards of programs considered to be safe, effective and beneficial by Microsoft.
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
company that produces cleaning and optimization
Computer optimization
Computer optimization may mean:* Solving an optimization problem using a computer.* Optimizing the performance of a computer system via hardware tuning and/or adjusting some operating system-related settings either directly or using a piece of computer system optimization software. e.g., using disk...
programs for an international market. The products they produce center on using crowdsourced
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....
feedback to generate real time reviews and quality evaluations of other programs.
History
SlimWare Utilities CEO Chris Cope launched the company in 2009. This launch corresponded with that of FixCleaner, a general cleaning and optimization utility. FixCleaner was built on the platform of sharewareShareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
in that could be freely distributed and downloaded.
The company, based on the Gulf Coast in D'Iberville, Mississippi, expanded its marketing arena over the course of the following year. The company's marketing scheme sought to codify the idea of "slimming software" via a single theme, reflected in both the logo and the application names.
The release of SlimComputer marked the first of SlimWare Utilities’ totally free
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
offerings. It also characterized the branding scheme of the company, aligning it with the minimalism movement in computing. SlimComputer was designed to be a program that would remove all of the pre-loaded software that comes with new retail PCs. Part of its marketing strategy was keyed on its small size and ease of use.
Upon its release, SlimComputer was offered as a simple binary (executable
Executable
In computing, an executable file causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions," as opposed to a data file that must be parsed by a program to be meaningful. These instructions are traditionally machine code instructions for a physical CPU...
) for a PC or for a direct-to-USB file which would auto-install the program into a flash-drive
USB flash drive
A flash drive is a data storage device that consists of flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus interface. flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g...
. This version could then be executed on a new computer, without its having to be installed. This makes the application portable, a feature that was hoped to gain the attention of computer technicians, giving repair agents a mobile platform with which they could simultaneously flag junk software and recommend optimizations.
In July 2010, SlimWare Utilities debuted the release of SlimComputer at the BlackHat Security convention in Las Vegas. It met with favorable reviews by the security community for its ability to minimize security risks, mostly through the removal the pre-installed trials and adverting links that come loaded onto a retail PC.
The promotional argument is as follows: by minimizing advertising-based surfaces
Attack surface
The attack surface of a software environment is the code within a computer system that can be run by unauthenticated users. This includes, but is not limited to: user input fields, protocols, interfaces, and services....
within a new computer, one can also minimize access points for other, affiliated advertising platforms that may be linked to or associated with the pre-loaded programs. SlimComputer also performs general cleaning routines that are designed to aid the defense of personal data by cleaning/deleting recorded information, including Internet caches
Web cache
A web cache is a mechanism for the temporary storage of web documents, such as HTML pages and images, to reduce bandwidth usage, server load, and perceived lag...
, saved Internet files and log files from all of the major browsers, IM clients, etc.
Cloud Computing
SlimWare Utilities' method for proposing optimizations is contrasted against one wherein a cleaner comes with a pre-loaded set of optimizations. This set constitutes a list built in to the application that flags malicious objects and benign objects deemed to be unnecessary.SlimWare Utilities’ programs deviate from this framework by encouraging and implementing user feedback
Feedback
Feedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or occurrences of the same Feedback describes the situation when output from (or information about the result of) an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or...
, i.e. community-sourcing. The proposed goal is to establish a framework for using crowd-sourced
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....
feedback as a way to produce optimization schemes for a computer.
SlimWare applications separate the service updates from the feedback. The service updates can be controlled or disabled by the user at will and carry the normal program-related updates that add functionality and bug fixes. The feedback is voluntary. Evaluations are fed to every version of a SlimWare Utilities’ application so that a user has the potential to receive recent reviews within a relatively short period of time in relation to previous reviews.
Dynamic Feedback is implemented in SlimWare Utilities’ Programs in the following ways:
- Programs - feedback suggests uninstall of malicious programs or those deemed to be un-useful
- Services - feedback suggests disablement of malicious services or those deemed to be un-useful. These suggestions are processed by the application and rendered as a 3-fold template: one is more lax, allowing more services to run, one is moderate, and one is sever, disabling the most services for maximal running speed.
- Startup Entries - feedback suggests disablement of malicious start-up entries or those deemed to be un-useful
- Internet Settings Configurations - feedback suggests configurations that best match a given computer’s preferred browser, Internet Speed and previously set user specifications
- Drivers - feedback suggests upgrade of certain drivers if an older one is detected for a given device.
- Program Updates - feedback suggests updates (including windows updates) - if they are found for certain programs.
Computer Minimalism
Because SlimWare Utilities’ programs don’t carry with them large rosters of evaluated applications and services, their size on disk is relatively smaller than other cleaning applications. In other regards, they are marketed as having a low profile, with few to no notices or alert messages. To keep contact with their dedicated servers, they do include an always-on service. This service can be readily disabled. Further, programs like SlimComputer are treated in such a way as is common in the open-source community, that of applications that are highly portable and can be run from remote locations like a removable disk drive.The general promotion of SlimWare Utilities’ programs is also one that focuses on the idea of minimalism on a personal computer: maximizing efficiency by minimizing unnecessary functions and maximizing space by minimizing unnecessary programs. SlimWare Utilities' marketing philosophy claims to promote better productivity and safety through various methods, including marginalizing resource-consuming elements and decreasing surfaces of attack
Attack surface
The attack surface of a software environment is the code within a computer system that can be run by unauthenticated users. This includes, but is not limited to: user input fields, protocols, interfaces, and services....
.
User Safety
The continual link between a SlimWare Utilities program on an individual’s PC and the SlimWare Utilities data cloud is reliant on broadband access. However, all SlimWare Utilities programs will function without continual Internet access; they simply won’t have the up-to-the-minute dynamic feedback until the connection is re-established.Because the link is otherwise perpetual, SlimWare Utilities’ programs specify in their respective privacy policies that data sent is limited to that which is relevant to a given scan. This includes data requests sent to the cloud and a subsequent reply containing evaluations of programs, services, Internet configurations and start-up entries.
The user must specify how many of the suggestions he or she wishes to implement and then must push a “GO” button to activate. No user-personal data is exchanged in this process. User-based controls are also provided for additional behavior, including scheduled scans, the application's running service and its start-up control. All SlimWare Utilities’ programs also include full uninstall sequences.
Products
FixCleaner is a shareware application. It was designed to be a multi-purpose cleaning application. It’s divided into utilities, each of which cleans a given section of a PC or alters settings in such a way as to better computer performance. It has a registry cleaner, a shredding application designed to overwrite user-selected data, and various optimizing utilities. The optimizers assess the way running programs behave and then suggests different configurations that are tailored to a given computer.SlimCleaner is a freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
application. It is FixCleaner’s sister program in that it performs many of the same functions but has no licensed version. Users can run and implement any of the utilities individually but there’s no sequence that runs all of them simultaneously.
SlimCleaner also includes a diagnostics hijack log. This log utilizes the cloud-link feedback to make an evaluation of a computer’s software infrastructure. Inspired by the ubiquitous Hijack-This log, the community-sourced feedback log produces the same type of roster listing all installed applications, services, and recently active registry keys. The log appears as a in-program readout that can be copied to a text file and used to profile a PC for repair. Within the application, a given entry in the log can be hovered over to see its evaluation as set by other technicians who contribute to the SlimWare Utilities’ data cloud.
SlimComputer is a freeware application, designed to offer a portable cleaning and diagnostics program. It’s marketed to computer technicians but is freely available to anyone. It provides an automated sequence that can be run on a new computer to find pre-installed programs, trials and ad-links. It also flags corresponding services and start-up entries. Built in to the utility package of SlimComputer are other functions, designed to aid in further cleaning, including a shredder (overwriting sequence)and various optimizers.
SlimDrivers is a freeware driver-update program designed to use community-sourced feedback to recommend driver updates. It scans a computer and compiles a list of the installed drivers that are outdated. It includes device drivers and system drivers.
DriverUpdate is the shareware sister to SlimDrivers. It employs the same features but includes a single, “Update All” sequence. Upon purchasing a license, users can click this button and initiation the install processes for all selected drivers at once.
Technical Support
SlimWare Utilities provides both international and American-based technical supportTechnical support
Technical support or tech support refers to a range of services by which enterprises provide assistance to users of technology products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, software products or other electronic or mechanical goods...
, both of which are accessible via 24-hour chat and email. The support, in addition to fielding questions about given products, is geared toward proving a measure of universal computer care, and technicians are willing to broach questions concerning any aspect of PC maintenance.
With the launch of SlimComputer, SlimWare Utilities also set up a forum to both accommodate questions, and foster a public environment for Q and A that was more in keeping with its "community-based" theme.
Organization
The company is headquartered in D'Iberville, Mississippi. Headed by C.E.O. and founder Chris Cope, SlimWare Utilities has divisions that focus on R and D, public relations, marketing, web content, and support.Marketing
The general marketing schema of SlimWare Utilities are keyed on non-invasive software that can better the overall performance and safety of a personal computer. Their cloud-based feedback initiative makes up the bulk of their specialized branding.Since SlimWare Utilities offers both licensed shareware and freeware, the sales structure is based on the level of automation and user wants. Nearly all of the functions that the various programs render can be implemented for free, but purchasing a license for either FixCleaner or DriverUpdate, allows the optimization process to be automated, as such, they are geared toward non-savvy computer users who want the ease and convenience of push-button cleaning.
The multiple functionality of applications like SlimComputer is aimed at aiding computer repairers or technicians who can use them as a base for remotely diagnosing and repairing a client’s PC.
Microsoft Certification
In March 2010, SlimWare Utilities was made a Microsoft Certified PartnerMicrosoft Certified Partner
A Microsoft Certified Partner is an independent company that provides Microsoft-related products or services.Microsoft Certified partners provide Microsoft services on behalf of Microsoft worldwide spanning many fields including OEM, Education, Software providers and Technical Support.Microsoft...
. The partner certification is a network of approved manufacturers and developers to which Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
has granted exclusive access to developmental resources. The certification also highlights programs that are specifically made to work with Windows operating systems and that meet the standards of programs considered to be safe, effective and beneficial by Microsoft.