It’s always good to have a toolbox lying around. You might not use the thing all the time, but it’s indispensable whenever you need it. SK Tools 4 is much the same, featuring a very wide variety of system tools to tweak or repair most anything on your PDA. JAMM has already covered the previous version in a head-to-head review, but today we’ll take a look at SKTools 4 with a fresh pair of eyes.

Hit the jump and read more words! (It’ll be fun!)

edit 7/16/08 – I mistook my TyTN’s version of SKTools for the latest, but I was mistaken. I’ve since made edits to the Backup and FreeUp RAM! sections of the review to make it more accurate.

Installation and Trial

Choose to get the .exe or the .cab file from their downloads page and start fixing up your PDA! A trial version is available, but it limits the number of items you can see on any page to a maximum of six. You’ll have full access to all features for an unlimited amount of time, but it’ll be a real pain cleaning up your PDA six items at a time. If you want to do any real cleaning on your device you’re going to need the full, registered version.

A different perspective (semi disclaimer)

SK Tools 4 is a a gargantuan program. It takes up very little space on your device, but it’s like one of those tents in Harry Potter. Looks small enough on the outside, but expands exponentially when you walk in. There are really far too many features for me to understand as a user, let alone cover as a reviewer. So I’ve gone lighter on the details in this review compared to my usual scheme of "smother everything in detail, then marinate it in silliness". This is a critical power overview of a program that’s equal parts incredible and overwhelming.

Rummaging around the toolbox

To help navigate the caverns of SK Tools 4 the developers thought it’d be useful to sort each of the 50 features into categories. Pressing the left softkey will bring up a list of categories. This is where my first gripe with the program lies.

Ow! Who put this ‘ok’ button here?

Unlike most other WM programs, SKTools never actually shows you an ‘x’ in the top-right corner of the screen outside of the categories screen (shown right). The moment you head into a category the button will switch to an ‘ok’, but pressing this ‘ok’ won’t take you back to the categories menu…it’ll just minimize the program. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve accidentally minimized SKTools during this review when all I’ve wanted to do is just see the categories. It just seems backwards to have the ‘ok’ button (close a dialogue and move up a level in the program) do the same thing as an ‘x’ (minimize/close application).

The other flaw in the current categories design is the absence of a title bar for the selected category. No matter which category you are in, the top bar will always say ‘SKTools’, and there is nothing to tell you which part of the program you are in. It’s not a deal breaker in terms of usage, but with a program this big, users need all the navigation help they can get!

In any case, I’ll cover the program using this list of categories, although I prefer the "All" option which displays every single features in a massive list (shown right). I’ll list every tool in each section, but I’ll only cover each tool once. Some tools are in as many as three categories.

Standard

The Standard section is really what average WM users will adhere to when opening this toolbox. SK Tools 4 has 50 tools, many of which serve very specific functions. The Standard category contains the Clean! function which is a digital creeping barrage that wipes out all of the gunk registry keys, temp files, and obsolete files from bad uninstallations. You run Clean!, you watch a 20-minute episode of Scrubs, and you come back and click Delete All via the left softkey. Bam. A cleaner PDA.

Another streamlined feature in this section is the Optimize! tool. You can optimize your system based on maximum performance, stability, memory (there’s also maximum memory, but I don’t know the difference), and default. I played around with this a lot when I had an Axim x51v, but I found the results really tapered off when I moved to Windows Mobile 6 on my TyTN. Optimizing for performance felt faster, but I really couldn’t measure how much of it was a placebo effect.

Next up is the Tune Up! tool. This guy (or girl!) is a lifesaver. You can tune the width of scrollbars, move the PIE cache to storage card, and even re-map softkeys. This is a real boon because it gives you more control over the hidden parts of Windows Mobile. It definitely has a higher learning curve, but a handy help feature explains some of the more confusing tweaks so you know what you’re changing. This tool also has the biggest number of horizontal tabs, and it’s quite a take-off from the new visual categorization direction of SK Tools 4, but more on that later.

Uninstall Programs is pretty self-explanatory. I usually just use the default WM Remove Programs, but SK Tools has a more detailed interface, showing you the sizes of each program, and the ability to save the list of installed programs to a text file. The last feature is very useful for when the time comes to switch devices or upgrade firmware.

One of the more archaic tools in the Standard category is the Move Data. Sure you can move certain programs to the storage card without re-installing them, but the biggest use of this feature was really back in the 2003 Second Edition of Windows Mobile where using up ROM meant that you’d actually lower the amount of system RAM available. Thankfully, MS wizened up since then and we no longer have to move data to a card to have a fast, stable system.

The last three features of the Standard section are Notification Queue, SKTools Backup, and Registry Explorer.

The notification queue is essentially opening up a clock and looking at all the gears that make it tick — you can see how your system manages notifications and even deletes duplicate ones (a double notification for a birthday, for example). Truth be told, I never found a use for this one. Even with the multitude of appointments that I’d add to my calendar, I never had too much trouble with too many notifications popping up. However, if you’re getting phantom notifications that you just can’t seem to stop, this will be the place to go.

The SKTools Backup is an interesting addition to the SKTools pack, especially since there are a lot of programs out there that charge $20-25 just to handle backing up your data.  It will handle a full backup (everything on your device and even storage card) and the SFX backup can be run without installing a thing. I found the size of the SKTools 4 backup to be smaller than the one Spb Backup made, but this was an older version of Spb’s software I had, and not the recent 2.0 version.

The Registry Explorer tool is another feature that is covered by other programs, and in this case I’d have to say it’s really a matter of preference. I was introduced to the world of registry editing by Resco Explorer, and so I’m a lot more used to the tree interface they have. SKTools Backup is a lot more straight-forward, and just tapping an item will either open it or start to edit it. You can also add bookmarks for quicker navigation to frequently used areas, but the presence of some sort of ‘Up one directory" key is missed. Again though, one of the biggest appeals of SKTools is its comprehensive coverage of everything you could possibly need to do on a Windows Mobile device. This isn’t the best registry explorer I’ve used, but it has all the functions I need.

Cleanup

As we go on you’ll start to see the pattern here. Most users won’t have to deviate from the Standard category, but the other categories help you get specific things done much faster than the tools in Standard will allow.

There are tools devoted to cleaning invalid registry values, bad shortcuts, messaging/ temp/junk files, and ms reader bookmarks. Clean! from Standard already does all of this, but the choice to do a very specific kind of cleaning is also yours to have.

The third tool is Advanced Clean, which will nuke your IE and Program History. The IE history could save you some space if you surf a lot, and the program history will clear up your start menu if it’s been getting too long for your liking.

The final tool in Cleanup is the Registry Optimizer, which is something I’d never even thought about doing on my PPC. The idea behind it is that your registry can get clogged up with a lot of invalid or obsolete values and folders, which can lead to some slowdown if there is too much of it. Running this every once in a while (based on how much software you install and uninstall — I know it’s a boon for reviewers!) will keep the registry size small and efficient. This is something that isn’t covered by the Clean! function, so it’s definitely a good idea to run this every month or so.

Maintenance

There is quite a lot in the maintenance category, but I’ll only talk about what is unique to this category (i.e. there are a lot of repeats).

Storage Cards sounds like a simple tool, but it has a really amazing feature aside from the ability to format cards and restore data: it can, in theory, fool the system into thinking the contents of the card are in My Documents. However, I just couldn’t get this feature to work…I told it to turn my SD Card in to My Documents, and then I did a soft reset after quitting SK Tools (it was my best guess — the help file only talks about the feature, but not how to activate it).

For the big tweakers out there, File Types allows you to control the two lists that Windows Mobile uses to open files in File Explorer. When you click a .jpeg file it will open program ‘x’ to do so, but you have the power to change this with File Types. Another way to use the tool is to find out what program you have associated with a certain file type, which can be very useful when you’re trying to open something but don’t know why it’s failing over and over again.

Aliases requires the most tech savvy out of the tools in Maintenance, but it allows you to make shortcuts to anything on your system as long as you know how to specify it in text. That way you can launch a program without having to type out its entire location (ex. :SKTOOLS will launch SKTools ). This has its uses with programs like Wisbar Advance Desktop, which can then target these aliases to make virtual desktops an even simpler task.

There are tools I was downright afraid to touch, and Databases ranks as one of the highest among them. This handles the system databases and SKTools has this to say about it: "Please use this utility only if you know exactly what you are going to do, and why you are doing this". You heard the company, folks. Backs away slowly.

Maintenance is then rounded out by tools to cover CPU usage, running processes (and how to terminate them if they’ve hung), services (what’s running in startup), and input methods. The last tool proved especially invaluable to me, as I loved trying every SIP under the sun, but not all of them were fleshed out enough to offer a “primary SIP” setting. The Input Methods tool would let me set my primary SIP upon soft reset. Saved me a lot of hassle during reviews.

Files

Not too much to discuss here. These tools are focused on managing files, empty folders, and .cab files. The two most interesting tools can analyze your programs’ and folders’ sizes as a percentage of your total ROM space or scan your ROM files to see which ones have been replaced. People who like to stay with the latest version of system apps like Windows Live Mobile will really appreciate these tools, since it can be hell to keep track of all the different versions that Microsoft releases with various ROMs.

SKTools

This category is composed of two tools: Backup (which I covered earlier) and Statistics (SKTools usage statistics — ‘nuff said ). Frankly, I don’t see this category getting too much usage. The Backup tool is quite handy, but users can already access it via the Standard category. I used the Statistics tool a total of once, just to report its function in this review :O

Information

This is a hub for all your device-related info. CPU usage, processes, a benchmarking tool, and insanely detailed statistics on your device usage. The System Information is the killer app (err, tool?) here, with its ability to tell you how long it’s been since you last powered the device on, a list of every feature on your smartphone (and their statuses), as well as specific details on your CPU. Again, like a lot of portions of SKTools, these services aren’t useful to everyone, but it’s incredible that they’re all here in one package.

PIM

Duplicate or obsolete PIM, SIM card, or Messaging info can all be dealt with or deleted in this category. This is also the place users will go to delete all PIM information (including messaging) on the device.

System Tweaks

It really looks like these category descriptions are getting shorter and shorter, doesn’t it? The title of the category says it all, and you’ll find repeat tools in here, such as: Optimize!, Tune Up!, Aliases, and Move DLLs.

Phone

There are three tools in this category: Advanced Clean, SIM Contacts (manage and delete them), and SIM SMS (manage texts saved on your SIM card).

Registry

Well, it’s been a long journey, but we’ve finally arrived at the last true category: Registry. You can manage invalid registry values, use Tune Up!, or hop into the Registry Explorer to clean things up yourself.

All

This category is like Gaia – it is the culmination of every category in SKTools, like some sort of super cool hive mind category. What this means is you see every single tool in SKTools in a gigantic list. The list isn’t alphabetized, but it is organized by the tool’s type. Specific registry cleaning tools together, PIM tools together, etc.

My Favourites (yeah, it’s “Favorites”, but I’m Canadian!)

Once you start to get your groove with SKTools you’re going to know which tools you’ll be using on a regular basis. With this in mind, the program allows you to pick and choose favourites (simply tap-n-hold on a tool, then add it to the list!) that you can then access via this Favourites category.

This completes the category analyzation part of the review. Thanks for bearing with me there. ‘

FreeUP RAM

edit – I was informed by SKKV Software that there’s also a way to free RAM in the background as of v4.1.26. It goes without saying that this makes a major difference in the utility of FreeUp, so my previous comments about a two-step process getting in the way should no longer apply.

This is a small tool that’s got its own .lnk file in your start menu, and you’ll have to activate it there or via automation (covered in the next section of this review). FreeUP does what it says, although it’s a two-step process. You’ve got to start the tool up, choose the parameters you’d like it to follow, and then click OK. It does a comparable job to the freeware tool Oxios Hibernate, although I’d prefer the process to happen the moment I click on FreeUP instead of after a dialogue. That said, it really does make a difference to run this tool, and I highly suggest running it after closing large programs (like browsers or word processors).

Settings Menu and Automation

Leave it to a gigantic box of tools to have an equally gigantic section devoted to how you want to display said tools. This section is really best left to a user to explore at a whim, but it does hide an excellent feature of the program that isn’t even shown in the categories: Automation.

Automation allows you to set SKTools (or FreeUP RAM) to run like clockwork at a date and time of your choosing. You can have it run once a month, or even once a minute (well, that wouldn’t really work out). However, this is something you’re going to want to set up while the device is on the charger and you’re sleeping, since the processes have absolutely no progress bars to tell you how long it will take to finish the automated cleanup. This is something I’d definitely like to see some improvement on, as I never knew quite when to let the automated clean-up go on for a bit longer and finish…or if I should just stop it and use my device.

Final Comments

According to the history of the program, one of the biggest changes to SKTools 4 was the addition of categories. These categories were supposed to help people navigate the massive program, but I don’t think they’re quite there yet. Overall, the categories ended up disorienting me more than anything, and I much preferred the long list of tools (the All category) to the new labyrinthine options. SKTools 4 is certainly a step in the right direction, but I think the categories need to be made more distinct, and some seem downright unnecessary. The SKTools category features only two tools, and the Phone category features only three. These categories also feature mainly repeats of tools from previous categories, so the whole list of categories could likely be cut down significantly.

The last point I’d like to comment on is the idea of the UI in SKTools. The program is a fantastic solution for many problems normal and power users can have with the Windows Mobile OS, but SKTools’ solutions can sometimes be as unwieldy as the OS whose problems SKTools is trying to solve. I think the program could really benefit from more streamlining, and maybe a bit more of a graphical style instead of the list and column format it currently holds. I’m not talking a fancy iPhone or TouchFlo interface here, but I think user statistics could be graphed in a pie chart, and more of the tools could be combined and set into tabs. Obviously, these are just my projections of my ideal SKTools, but the point is the program feels just a little bit too segregated at the moment.

In any case, although the toolbox could still use some work, the contents are in great shape – and for $17 this program is an absolute steal. You’d be hard pressed to find another package with as much bang-to-buck value as SKTools 4.

Super Important Info

Developer: SKKV Software

Price: $16.99

Availability: PocketGear, Handango

Related posts:

1. SKTools for Windows Mobile Updated to 4.5.1.3
2. SKTools 4.4.7 Released!
3. New SKTools Version 3.1.1 – Adds Registry Explorer
4. New SKTools 4.1.22 released!
5. Review: MemMaid 2.0 and/vs SKTools 3.1.9