IObit Toolbox: Portable jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none program by IObit

IObit, a company who’s many products have been discussed on dotTech in the past (Advanced SystemCare Pro [freebie], Internet Security 360 [scandal], Game Booster, IObit Advanced Uninstaller), has released IObit Toolbox, a program that can best be described as being the portable version of Advanced SystemCare.

IObit Toolbox is a “system utility” type program that has 21 different tools built in (chart created by IObit):

(Click on the image to view it in full size.)

Users of Advanced SystemCare may experience deja vu while reading the list of tools IObit Toolbox has because most many of them are the same; the main difference between IObit Toolbox and Advanced SystemCare is: Advanced SystemCare is a primarily automated tool, requiring little to no user interaction after installation, while IObit Toolbox is portable (no installation necessary) and manually driven (so to speak). In fact, IObit advertises Advanced SystemCare within IObit Toolbox as being the “automatic solution”. (Since both programs are so similar, users can expect IObit Toolbox to perform similarly as Advanced SystemCare.)

An interesting feature IObit added to IObit Toolbox is the ability to custom brand the program. Users can customize the name of the program and add an image to the title:

(The above screenshot has been created by IObit – I did not brand IObit Toolbox like shown above. I wonder how long before Big Jobs and Billy sue IObit for misappropriation.)

Instructions on how to brand are provided in the Readme.txt that comes with IObit Toolbox. (Branding is done very easily by modifying an INI file and adding a 48×48 PNG image into a folder.) As per IObit Toolbox’s homepage, companies are apparently allowed – in fact encouraged – to custom brand IObit Toolbox without having to pay any license fee.

Another interesting feature of IObit Toolbox is the “Favorite” tab:

I am not particularly sure how the “Favorite” tab appears – it is not originally present in the program and just appeared out of no where for me (I tried to investigate how it came about, but could not figure out how) – but this tab provides quick access to any five tools of IObit Toolbox. You can easily change which tools appear under “Favorite” by modifying the favorite.ini file found in “tools” -> “Favorite” folder.

One thing that annoys me about IObit Toolbox is it has Internet Security 360, Game Booster, and IObit Smart Defrag shown as being part of the program (found under “Optimize” and “Security”), but those three programs are not actually included in the toolbox: When you click on the links to use Internet Security 360, Game Booster, or IObit Smart Defrag you are taken to IObit.com and asked to download those three programs separately (they are freeware also but they are not portable, as far as I know).

In the end, IObit Toolbox is nothing revolutionary or groundbreakingly new. However, it is another option for users who want jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none type programs. Without a doubt the best part of the program is that it is portable, so users can carry it on their flash/USB drives if desired. You may download IObit Toolbox from the following links: