CCleaner - A Freeware Software Cleaner
CCleaner is an amazing free software tool. It does everything that we don’t want to do. It takes out the trash, cleans the registry, removes unneeded items from your Windows startup. The good thing about this is it gets rid of all your junk folders and files, even junk registry keys, to speed up your computer and save precious wasted hard drive space. It’s so simple, yet so complicated.
It scans your computer, your files, and your folders looking for unused programs, DLLs, files, just about anything that hasn’t been used, and it isn’t connected to any programs installed on your computer, and then it either sends them to the recycle bin or deletes them permanently. I just have it delete them permanently because CCleaner is good at filtering out the junk. It scans your internet browsers, windows explorer, system files, applications, utilities, and media applications too. Just make sure with your internet browsers to uncheck the cookie boxes if you have cookies that you don’t want to be deleted.
This is everything they say it cleans:
- Internet Explorer -Temporary files, URL history, cookies, Autocomplete form history, index.dat.
- Firefox -Temporary files, URL history, cookies, download history.
- Opera -Temporary files, URL history, cookies.
- Windows -Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log files.
- Registry cleaner- Advanced features to remove unused and old entries, including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more… also comes with a comprehensive backup feature.
- Third-party applications -Removes temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many apps including Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, MS Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and many more…
Also, CCleaner includes a registry scanner too, with your permission it makes a backup of the registry, and scans it for any orphaned keys that may be in your registry leftover from previous installs. Then it deletes them and everything is running smoothly.
CCleaner has an uninstall list tool, as well as a startup tool too. The uninstaller, unlike Windows Add/Remove programs menu, shows you every program, update, and hidden update that has been installed on your machine, so you can uninstall everything if you wish, but I’m not sure why you’d want to. And the startup tool helps you delete startup entries to control the amount of programs that load when Windows starts up.
It’s hard to believe that CCleaner is free, with software that performs like this, I’m sure they could make a lot of money off of it.
What free software do you use to keep your PC running in tip-top shape? Leave me a comment with your answer.
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March 6th, 2008 at 8:53 am
I use Ccleaner too, but one of the best free programs I’ve come across is called Sandboxie. Open any application (mainly Firefox for me) in a quarantine zone and when you’re finished, your cookies and everything that you’ve downloaded or installed can be either recovered or simply swept into non-existence. Great for trialling freeware; you don’t have to uninstall it if you don’t like it! It’s like eating a messy sandwich with a sheet of paper protecting your lap - when you’re done, throw the paper away and the crumbs goes with it.
March 6th, 2008 at 8:57 am
I’ve read about Sandboxie before. I wasn’t quite sure how it worked at first, but now I think I’ll take a look at it. I’ve messed up my Windows install so many times by doing things that it doesn’t like.
March 10th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
CCleaner is great. I let it manage my Firefox cookies, creates 2 columns, one with cookies I am keeping, the other with cookies from my current internet session. CCleaner allows me to switch cookies from one column to another, so I can keep or remove whatever cookies I want.