A system cleaner removes unnecessary files from the PC when it is run. It takes care of temporary files like Internet browsing caches or leftovers after Windows Updates. The effect is a cleaner leaner system with extra space that you can use for other purposes.A second factor plays a role here as well. Privacy-conscious users run system cleaners to remove activity traces regularly. The Windows operating system records many information that may leak data to third parties. Think recent documents that you have opened in Microsoft Word, the last videos you played in VLC Media Player, or the websites that you have visited in Firefox or Internet Explorer.Deleting those traces does not yield lots of additional free disk space, but it removes information from the system that you may not want anyone else to find out about. The Best Cleaning Utilities for WindowsThis guide looks at system cleaners only.
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Tune Sweeper knows which tracks are based in the cloud and so can make an intelligent suggestion on which tracks to keep and which to remove. KEY FEATURES INCLUDE: Quickly find and remove duplicates in iTunes. Automatically download missing artwork. Remove tracks in iTunes that are no longer on your computer.
While you may find some tools mentioned here that do more than that, like Advanced System Care, we are limiting the review to the clean up components they make available. Disk CleanupWhy not start with the built-in tool that ships with Windows: Disk Cleanup. You can start the program the following way:. Tap on the Windows-key.
Type Disk Cleanup and select the entry from the list of results.The program scans the computer for temporary files and displays its findings in the interface afterwards. As you can see from the screenshot above, it sometimes may free up Gigabytes of space.It checks areas such as the recycle bin, temporary files, Game statistics or Windows Error Reporting information.
Tip: double-click on any result to display all the files marked for deletion.Pro. It includes many cleanup locations including support to clean all major web browsers, popular applications and core Windows locations. Option to overwrite files securely to prevent file recovery.Con. A portable version is not provided. There is no option to add custom Registry or folder / file locations.Wise Disk Cleanerdivides cleanup tasks into three tabs in the main interface.
Common Cleaner displays a list of locations and components that you can scan with it. While it does include several key locations, like Internet caches or some popular applications, it lacks support for many 'other applications' that apps such as CCleaner or SlimCleaner ship with.It is however possible to add custom folders under Settings General. While this is limited to folders, it offers an excellent option to customize the cleanup operation.The advanced cleaner scans for temporary files on system hard drives that you specify, while the Slimming System module suggests Windows programs and features for removal that you may not need. Tip: left-click on any result to display all the files marked for deletion.Pro. A portable version is available directly on the developer website. Custom cleanup locations are supported. Files can be deleted securely (activate under Settings General Secure Deletion).Cons.
The structure is not the best. It is not really clear why web browser components are divided into different modules.
If you want to clean all Internet Explorer or Google Chrome data, you need to click on Surf the Internet under Useless Files in Computer, and Surf the Internet under Traces in Computer.Xleaneris available as a portable version or installer. An extended version is available as well which can only be downloaded if you register a (free) account at the developer website. The extended version includes all plugins and add-ons that you can download separately for the program.If you are stuck with the regular version, you will quickly notice that its initial support is not that extensive. Good day Martin and thanks for the article. I’ve been in this business for the past 20 years or so and used a huge amount of clean up utilities as part of my business and for personal use at home.
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The term snake oil always seems to be bandied about these days but it is understandable as the offerings in this area of software are mind boggling.I used to find that Norton Utilities kept my PC running well until subsequent versions became bloated and ended up causing more problems than it fixed. I get asked a lot about all these types of utilities and generally I advise to find one that works well for your PC but don’t over use them. Apart from Ccleaner that you mentioned in your article, I have found the only software that has proved itself reliable for me over the years is WinASO Registry Optimizer although users of Windows 7 should be cautious of using the Registry defrag component as this can be a little temperamental.The rest of the suite is excellent and thoroughly accurate.I still experiment with a few others such as CleanMyPC and Powersuite but generally I find them to be rather slow in opening and not always as accurate as they should be. Something I’d like to caution people about:Most of these empty the temporary/temp folder as the first/main part of their action. Great, I love this feature (why it doesn’t auto-purge I’ll never understand) and take advantage of it often.HOWEVER, several viruses of the “Hey, your system is breaking down” malware/fake security types actually move some/chunks/all of your files into the temp folder as part of their attack; when the user can’t find their files in the usual location, they are more likely to panic and buy the “upgrade” the malware offers to “fix” the system. Running ccleaner or one of its brethren as part of our standard “ok, I’ll clean your system out for you” routine will actually DELETE THE USER”S FILES, essentially doing the virus-writer’s job for them.Just something to be aware of as you go about your system-rescuing day.
True, but that’s probably fixable by running a System File Check – assuming one has either the original CD or a copy of the CD’s files on the system – which most people don’t have either, they have this stupid manufacturer recovery partition which is useless for this purpose. Another good reason to condemn that standard industry practice.Really, it’s extremely hard for people who aren’t PC techs to recover from today’s malware on their own.
This isn’t a self-serving statement (since I do PC support), it’s just reality. Today’s malware hides files, moves system files, locks the Registry and does all sorts of things that the usual antivirus program cannot repair on its own. You need a number of specialized utilities to make the repairs and a good knowledge of the problems and solutions. Running two antimalware program scans is the minimum, and a lot of malware will still cause problems after that until it is removed either by a specific utility or manually locating and removing its files and Registry keys.CCleaner should be used before a normal full virus scan, because it cleans out gigabytes of files that would have to be scanned, wasting an hour or more in repair.
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If you’ve got a ransomware problem, a utility designed to remove that ransomware should be used first, since that probably won’t involve a full system scan, so junk files won’t be a problem.Beyond that, I recommend CCleaner to all my clients and tell them to run it weekly or every ten days or so, and I’ve never seen it demonstrably cause an issue. The default options are pretty safe. While ASC has some nifty tools, I feel you should know that most “top-tier techies” would steer you away from software like that, as it mostly consists of useless eye-candy and bloatware.
When the software is taking up more space, and utilizing more resources than it is able to clean up, restore, and/or optimize – well, you aren’t exactly improving upon anything. Oftentimes, the opposite is true.A prime example would be (things similar to) ASC’s RAM Cleaner. To your average PC user, it is understandable as to why a “RAM Cleaner” would sound quite useful and exciting. However, it is widely known that this feature of ASC (among several others) is actually pure bloatware. It turns out that the RAM Cleaner process that runs in the background actually uses up more memory than it would ever be able to “free up,” resulting in a PC’s benchmarks going DOWN after running this so-called improvement.I would never tell you what to use and what not to use, but I hope this helps you make more informed decisions when it comes to choosing applications that are supposed to improve your computers performance. Not all of them are as useful as they sound, and they are often more detrimental than they are helpful.
These companies have gotten very good at coming up with features that sound helpful, but don’t actually do anything but entice people to spend money.Good luck!. Totally bored so I decided to browse the archive – Martin, take note for your next CCleaner post. As you may know, I run a LOT of portable programs. Good and honest review of these cleaner products. I used to use CCleaner religiously but now that it has been purchased and changed, to its detriment, by another company, I’ve deleted it. I’ve been using PrivaZer lately and like it but agree that the interface is confusing.
As an example, I had installed an extension on Chrome called OneTab which keeps browser tabs for you and PrivaZer deleted all of them and I’m still trying to figure out the setting, so to prevent it from happening again. I know it’s not free but I may try Privacy Eraser Pro. Any thoughts on that product?
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February 2023
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