Soluto Attempts To Make PCs Less Frustrating

[Jon Childs]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/can-soluto-really-make-pcs-less-frustrating/2164' target='_blank'>http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/can-...rustrating/2164</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"The idea behind Soluto is to use the experience of thousands (or, ultimately, millions) of PC users to approximate the knowledge that a Windows expert gathers by trial and error. The software-currently in beta and free for the download-runs as a background service that watches your PC as it works, detecting slowdowns and trying to analyze the cause. By comparing those events and possible causes against a database of apps, drivers, and other software (cleverly called the PC Genome), the software can suggest solutions that you can implement with a click or two."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1274886643.usr486.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>This sounds like a great idea.&nbsp; My current method for addressing slowdowns over time&nbsp;on my PCs&nbsp;is to simply reinstall everything every 9 months or so.&nbsp; This has gotten much easier since most PCs seem to have a restore partition built in, but it is still kind of a pain to reinstall all the other software.&nbsp; If I could run a small task in the background that could self-diagnose any problems I would certainly give it a try.&nbsp; The only potential catch is that they appear to be relying on the network effect to create their database of issues.&nbsp; So unless a lot of people sign up it might not be that useful.&nbsp; The Beta just addresses boot time issues, but over time Soluto has grand visions of making everyone's PCs run like they are brand new.&nbsp; I certainly hope they succeed.</p>

[Hooch Tan]

While I like the concept, some of it may be a judgement call. In having to "optimize" several PCs not my own, I'll often have to ask the question if they use this program or that. Do they use this toolbar or that.

What I find that slows down most PCs is the sheer burden that they expect their computer to handle. It's like driving a car, and loading stuff in, but very rarely, if ever, taking things out of it, like a spring cleaning. So when they have 30 system tray notification icons, a dozen toolbars and 75MB of free space, it is no wonder that it takes a while to boot.

Like you, I used to redo my computers every year or less, but lately, I've found less of a reason to, as long as I maintain proper maintenance. That and for my work computers at least, I keep them very trim, and do not install just anything on them. They have just what they need and nothing else.

[calwell]

Wow, what a brutal process of registration - just to make a comment. Might I suggest you look into Disqus or something similar?

Soluto is definitely a great idea - the plausibilities of taking a larger scale database of user problems and finding ways to solve them, has great potential. I think that's the reason why they won Techcrunch Disrupt 2010 (http://tcrn.ch/bMgVpK).

That being said, there are a couple serious problems with this model. I even wront about this on my own blog here: "First Impressions - Soluto" - http://url.cwl.cc/clitk

1. They need a mass adoption of technical users - these are the people that will provide Soluto with the online wiki information they need to populate the PCgenome and likely the information Soluto needs to determine problems and fixes going forward. The program as it is is too slow, flashy and bloated for power users to actually consider putting on their own computers.

2. Soluto's business model seems backwards - they plan to take the database of solutions gathered and sell that to the less tech savvy users as a (possible) automated solution for solving problems? So you want technical people to help you gather this information and then you plan to sell it to less savvy users? Without providing significantly less eye candy and much more real vale for those that need to populate the PC Genome database - adoption (and success) of this platform will be difficult, at best.