Whenever family and friends come to me and say my PC is running slow the first thing I do is install and run the free utility CCleaner for them. The features page on ccleaner.com explain why:

Program Summary:

CCleaner is a freeware PC optimization tool.
It combines a system cleaner that removes unused and temporary files from your system and also a fully featured registry cleaner!
CCleaner allows Windows to run faster, more efficiently and gives you more hard disk space.
The best part is that it’s Small, Fast and Free!

Cleans the following Windows components:

• Internet Explorer
  - Temporary File Cache
  - URL History
  - Cookies
  - Hidden Index.dat files
  - Last download file location
• Firefox
  - Temporary File Cache
  - URL History
  - Cookies
  - Download manager
• Recycle Bin
• Clipboard
• Windows Temporary files
• Windows Log files
• Recent Documents (on the Start Menu)
• Run history (on the Start Menu)
• Windows XP Search Assistant history
• Windows XP old Prefetch data
• Windows memory dumps after crashes
• Chkdsk file fragments

Advanced Options allow cleaning of:

• Menu Order cache
• Tray Notifications Cache
• Window Size and Location Cache
• User Assist history
• IIS Log Files
• Custom Folders

Application Cleaning:

As well as cleaning up old files and settings left by standard Windows components, CCleaner also cleans temporary files and recent file lists for many applications. Including:

• Firefox, Opera, Safari, Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, Microsoft Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat Reader, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and more…

Registry Cleaning:

CCleaner uses an advanced Registry Cleaner to check for problems and inconsistencies. It can check the following:

• File Extensions
• ActiveX Controls
• ClassIDs
• ProgIDs
• Uninstallers
• Shared DLLs
• Fonts
• Help File references
• Application Paths
• Icons
• Invalid Shortcuts and more…

Simply running CCleaner and then doing a disk defragment usually makes a noticeable difference, but sometimes serious malware issues are the real problem. In that case CCleaner also has the ability to remove unwanted applications from auto starting as well as an interface for uninstalling software.

All in all, CCleaner is a tool I recommend to maintain the health of all Windows systems.

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Tags: applications, ccleaner, free, internet, treesum, Windows

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 10:22 am and is filed under applications. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.