FW Editor: What are your plans or objectives in the near future?
Alexandra Lawrenz: TuneUp is currently getting ready to launch the 2011 version of TuneUp Utilities and we have been working to put the final touches on our new product. We are also engaging in a number of technology partnerships and working to expand our market to offer a leading product to the enterprise space.

FW Editor: How and when did you start writing the code for TuneUp Utilities 2010? What inspired you the most? Do you plan to develop new software, or are you more focused on optimizing the current ones?
Alexandra Lawrenz: Everything began 14 years ago when Christoph Laumann and Tibor Schiemann started the development of Germany’s first Windows PC optimization package. Inspiration came from being “tech geeks” who were frustrated with slow PCs and bothered by poor computer performance. TuneUp’s founders believe that consumers are not aware of all the power their PCs could have and often lack the skills to optimize their computers on their own, so they created TuneUp Utilities to take care of it for them. We are now getting ready to release TuneUp Utilities 2011, which is already the 10th version of the software. Each version of TuneUp Utilities is planned more than 12 months prior to its release. For each new product, TuneUp does extensive beta testing and takes customer input into consideration to enhance the product as needed. Our goal is to always stay one step ahead of the technology curve when it comes to optimization—meaning, every year consumers become more dependent on the Internet and new software, hardware and processors hit the market. Each of these has a profound impact on PC performance and tuning, which is why active product development is a must.

FW Editor: TuneUp Utilities 2010 is one of the best system maintenance applications from the market. What is the secret?
Alexandra Lawrenz: Thank you! We have a team of highly skilled product managers, developers, usability engineers, and testers that take care of our yearly releases of TuneUp Utilities and all the other research and development activities. With their help, we are able to maintain our position as a technology leader and at the same time work closely with our customers so that our products are compelling both from a technological and a user standpoint.

FW Editor: Is there anything you would like to change in TuneUp Utilities 2010? There are some extra features that you may like to have? Is there anything that is not working as intended and you are planning to remove it?
Alexandra Lawrenz: As a company, TuneUp’s goal is to always provide our customers with the best, most effective and useful features in TuneUp Utilities. However, not all of them get included right away in each release due to timing constraints, our commitment to deliver high quality software, file size and so on. So yes, there are always some additional features that we would like to have in every version. There are also some things that we would want to change about TuneUp Utilities 2010 since we improve the software from version to version. In fact, you can try the 2011 version of TuneUp Utilities to see what those specific new features are! As for the 2011 process—development is done, our beta testing has wrapped up and usability testing is complete so the product is in great shape for the launch at the end of the month. We have many loyal customers who have purchased previous versions of TuneUp Utilities and look forward to getting additional tools and enhancements to a software they already love so we are looking forward to introducing the new product to them.

FW Editor: TuneUp Utilities 2010has quite a strong competition but, so far, it succeeded in making a name for itself. What do you think about the huge success of TuneUp Utilities 2010?
Alexandra Lawrenz: Thank you, we think it’s amazing. We feel there are three ingredients that have helped to make TuneUp a success. First, in TuneUp Utilities we have a solid software that truly does what we say it does: helps our customers make the most out of their PCs. Second, we listen to our customers and integrate their feedback into every version as best we can. Finally, rather than focusing exclusively on increasing company revenues, TuneUp has a loyalty to solving PC optimization issues and is truly customer-focused. Our company believes that turning out good products will return strong revenues on its own and this is exactly what we have seen over the past 10+ years.

FW Editor: What are the advantages of using TuneUp Utilities 2010over any other similar product?
Alexandra Lawrenz: TuneUp Utilities has a number of features that our competitor’s products do not offer. These include Turbo Mode, which disables unnecessary background programs and concentrates all the PC processing power the user’s active programs and Live Optimization, which accelerates the startup and response times of programs. TuneUp Utilities also maintains systems with one-click maintenance, optimizes a PC at startup and shutdown, defragments hard disks and cleans the registry. In the new 2011 version of TuneUp Utilities, we’ll feature an innovation that is unique to the market – a technology developed exclusively by TuneUp that further enhances system performance by focusing on all the software that is installed on a system. Not all PC users have the required know-how to maintain their PCs or feel comfortable using very “techy” free tools that manipulate their system with no guidance before or support afterwards should a tuning action not turn out as expected. This is precisely where we come into the picture. With TuneUp Utilities, anyone can get the most out of their computer, keep it fit in the long run, and customize the operating system according to a user’s individual preferences, even without being a PC expert and all in a safe and user-friendly way.

FW Editor: How safe is TuneUp Utilities 2010? From my own experience, system maintenance applications can modify some basic windows settings resulting in a system failure.
Alexandra Lawrenz: TuneUp Utilities is completely safe—the great thing about our product is that it works by making recommendations to the user. We want to guide and support users in a very unobtrusive way so that they can refer to our recommendations and notifications whenever they want. Our software keeps watch and lets the user know whenever something of interest comes up via the System Tray, the TuneUp Start Center, and the TuneUp Gadget located on the desktop. Also, all changes can be undone with a simple mouse click and the software saves the backup point before optimization steps are initiated, which provides a safety net during PC optimization. This respect for our users is just one of our core values—we strive for reliability, transparency and are full of passion where our customers are concerned. These values do not only apply to us, but also to our software. This is why we prefer to guide the user by providing expert recommendations through our software and leaving the decision in the user’s hands.

FW Editor: Is there any customer support service for TuneUp Utilities 2010 users?
Alexandra Lawrenz: Yes, of course. TuneUp’s customers can visit http://www.tune-up.com/support/ to find contact information for our support team. They can contact us via email or call one of our customer service lines. Customers are also encouraged to get in touch with us via our social media channels, including our Twitter (@TuneUp4Windows) and Facebook (facebook.com/TuneUp4Windows) pages.

FW Editor: Now, to end our small interview, is there any message you would like to send to TuneUp Utilities 2010 users?
Alexandra Lawrenz: We would like to thank our customers for their loyalty—we are looking forward to introducing them to the 2011 version of our product, which will be released at the end of the month. We also invite you to visit our blog: http://blog.tune-up.com/ where we cover tips and tricks for optimizing, streamlining, and troubleshooting Windows. Our blog also points out new optimization techniques and offers exclusive behind-the-scenes information on the ins and outs of Windows. This information helps readers to be more productive by getting things done in new and clever ways.