TV Commercials for a product that promises to boost your computer performance had me curious. I wanted to know, first if the product had been reviewed by any credible computer news magazines, or Websites, and second if it would boost the performance if an old laptop I have in my office for testing. What I found caused me never to test my laptop.
On the Maxmyspeed.com home page I noticed acclaims from Tucows, CNET, and PCWORLD and so I immediate thought my first desire had been satisfied. PCWORLD did review CyberDefender favorably in December 2009, but the CNET and Tucows were user reviews and anyone, even someone from Maxmyspeed.com can post a user review.
CNET’s download.com is a favorite of mine because it has editor and user reviews. The writers at CNET sometimes do their best to put a product through it’s paces, but only users have to live with those products day in and day out. Users can often lack objectivity when they like or hate a product and so it is harder to find good reviews from users.
Ultimately what I found on Download.com was a lot of positive feedback with typos and where the only con seemed to be that they didn’t know that after installing they would have to pay for the product, but that the product was worth it and they are happy. I don’t find these reviews credible and believe that the company posted them or paid a third party to post them on their behalf.
The negative reviews actually looked like real people writing reviews and they are not pretty. And there are plenty of negative reviews. The overwhelming majority call the product a scam.
The claims in the TV commercial sounded like a company trying to get a few dollars out of people who in hard times would rather spend a few dollars than buy a new computer. Not a very nice way to make a living if you ask me.
Stay away from programs that claim they can make your PC faster – especially MaxMySpeed.com.
What about that PCWORLD article that made claims about the product? Many of these articles are written by freelance writers who are paid by companies like MaxMySpeed.com to submit them to magazines in the hopes of getting favorable press. I suspect that CyberDefender even did a little advertising to greese the wheels a bit.
I have used many of the software and hardware products supposedly reviewed by reputable magazines and I have found few consistencies in my real world use. I don’t even subscribe to PCmag or PCWORLD any longer. They have no credibility with me.
Thanks so much for reviewing and reporting Maxmyspeed.com.
I heard it on television and immediately Googled it and found your review. I will NOT go to Maxmyspeed.com. Thanks. Ana
Thanks so very much for posting MAXMYSPEED.COM as a scam. I am really looking for a way or a software that is really reliable and honest that will boost my speed on my computer. I will certainly stay away from Maxmyspeed.com.
just what i thought, thanx greg
If anyone thinks that a program would EVER increase performance you are surely mistaken. There are programs out there do increase performance but those are only for the geeks. But what the “consumer” doesn’t understand is the fact that computers are the absolute most simple thing in the world. But everyone thinks they are so complicated and even touching a mouse is forbidden, at least thats what my dad thinks and he isnt even 50! I don’t even use anti-virus. It’s not hard. Watch what you go to and you wont get viruses.
Chris,
There are actually some tweaks that can make computers appear to run faster, and I suppose that these kinds of programs simply make those tweaks. The bottom line is the computer isn’t running faster and the programs can in some cases cause problems as they try the one size fits all approach to tweaking computers.
I would highly recommend that you install Anti-Virus software – even a free version like Avira linked on this site. Viruses can come from many sources. I have seen infections come from Websites, email, flash drives, anything you connect to your computer with storage.
Good luck, and happy computing!
Want to speed up your Web surfing (the majority of what people use a computer for at home)? Change your browser to Google Chrome. Maybe I will write a new article on the subject.
I saw the ad for MaxMySpeed.com on tv. I went to their site and downloaded their software. Then paid 39.99 for the “full product” to clean up my computer. Instead of getting an activation password, I got a popup with a phone number to activate my software.
When I called the number I was transferred to a technician who had me let him log in to my
pc. He ran diagnostics then told me I needed 10 hours of technical help at a cost of $299 for one year or approximately $600 for 3 years. Finally I started to get suspicious because of his hard sale.
I believe I have been scammed. Especially after googling the company and seeing all the negative posts. I wish I had Googled before I downloaded their software. I am going to file a protest against the credit charge.
What is the best way to take this software off my computer?
Fletcher,
I’m not 100% sure how to get the software off of your computer but I can give you a few ideas that might help and I hope you can report back your results.
First, go to Add/Remove Programs in your control panel. (WinXP = Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add Remove Programs or Start > Control Panel > Add Remove Programs). Look for the program by name “MaxMySpeed.com” or by the company name “CyberDefender” and click on it and press the remove button.
If you didn’t find it in the Windows uninstaller list above, or even just for safe measure I recommend saving the file ComboFix (link in the right column here on my site) to your desktop or downloads folder and run the file. You should disable your anti virus software first. Let it install the Windows Recovery Console if it requests to do so and it will run through 50 stages of scanning and then clean up the computer when complete. It may restart your computer automatically and you should log in again if needed after it does so. When complete it will open a log file with the details of what it did. You can just close the log file and your system should be cleaned up.
Good luck.
EI EI EI SCAM!!! EVERYTHING THAT SAYS ‘THIS PROGRAM CAN INCREASE YOUR PC’S SPEED!’ OR ANY THING LIKE THAT ALWAYS A SCAM SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Remember “FinallyFast.com? I think it became maxmyspeed.com. These websites that promise to clean and speed up your computer can do more harm than good when their programs mess with your registries. They have been known to delete necessary parts of programs rendering them unusable. Worst case scenario is having to format your hard drive after one of these services has run a muck through your computer. And to add insult to injury they charge you for the havoc they leave behind.
There are many free and safe programs out there which will help you tidy up your computer. CCleaner is a good place to start. Avast, Avira, or AVG are good choices for free anti virus software. Just don’t try to install and run them all at the same time as they have been known to fight with each other bringing computers to a grinding halt. More is not always better.
Check out CNET’s forums for advice from other computer users. It’s free and there is a lot of freely shared valuable information to be had there.
Brian is there a phone number to complain , there trying to charge my card and never ask them I got my money a month ago , now received a e-mail saying tanks for geting maxmyspeed
Unfortunately I don’t think there’s anything that you can do. You can call your bank and make sure they’re not authorized to make any more charges. You should also thoroughly clean out your computer. See the link on my site for instructions for running combofix.