I’ve mentioned CCleaner in a few articles that I’ve written on PC security and performance. In this article I would like to go a little deeper with this outstanding tool for Windows.

CCleaner - formally known as Crap Cleaner - is a tool from Piriform that lets you optimize your system and keep your privacy protected. CCleaner does this with a a variety of features.

The Cleaner

The first tool CCleaner provides is the Cleaner. The Cleaner’s job is to clean up your disk by removing a variety of unused files. These include temporary files, the browser cache, cookies and more. It supports all of the major components of Windows including IE and can also clean up the temporary and cache files of a variety third-party applications such as Firefox, Opera, Adobe Reader, MS-Office and many more. A very simple interface allows you to pick and choose what will be cleaned up each time you run CCleaner.

While eliminating these files can help cover up things like your browsing history, a more important benefit is to help maintain your privacy. When you login to a website, those sites leave cookies on your machine. If your machine gets infected with spyware, those cookies could make their way back to a hackers PC where he can use them in an attempt to access your online services. By clearing this data from your system on a regular basis you can help prevent identity theft or worse.

Another great benefit is the additional disk space you get. The first time I run CCleaner on a client’s machine it typically recovers several hundred megabytes of disk space and sometimes well over a gig.

A Better Recycle Bin

One of CCleaner’s options is to add context menus to the Window’s Recycle bin. This lets you “Open CCleaner” so that you can manage its configuration. “Run CCleaner” lets you run the clean process. With CCleaner keeping your system clean is as simple as emptying your Recycle Bin (which CCleaner also does). I recommend executing the “Run CCleaner” command once every few days or anytime you would like sensitive information - like login cookies - removed from your PC.

Registry Cleaner

The next feature included with CCleaner is the Registry Cleaner. Use this tool to remove unused and old entries including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more. It includes a registry backup tool so you can undo your actions if a problem occurs. However, I have not yet seen a problem caused by this feature, whereas, I have had some using other registry cleaners.

Additional Tools

CCleaner also includes a handy uninstaller that works just as good - if not better - than Windows’ “Add and Remove Programs” feature. One thing is for certain, it builds and loads the list of installed software much faster than the Windows tool does.

The Startup feature lets you see and remove any entries that automatically start programs. This is a great feature if you find the number of icons in your system tray growing. By stopping some of these unnecessary programs from loading at startup you can greatly improve the performance of your PC.

Options

CCleaner has a variety of easy to set configurations. In the Settings screen you can configure CCleaner to run automatically at startup and determine which menu items appear on the Recycle Bin. There is also a setting to determine the level of secure deletion. CCleaner currently supports normal deletion, 1 pass, 3 passes (DOD standard), 7 passes (NSA standard) and even 35 passes when deleting files. CCleaner takes longer to run if you choose a high number of passes, but the more passes the less likely any data can be recovered using any known method.

Other features let you identify files that should be included in clean up as well as files and cookies that should be excluded. This is very useful if you like certain websites to remember your login. You can tell CCleaner to keep those cookies so you don’t have to re-login every time you clean your system. This is not an option with IE and Firefox’s remove cookies features. With the built-in tools they provide, it’s all or nothing.

Because of it’s ease of install, it’s effectiveness at keeping your machine optimized - and because it’s completely free - I highly recommend this great tool for all Windows users.

Click here to find CCleaner in the Free Software Catalog.

I would love to here about your experiences with this and other cleaning tools that you may of used.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 11:39 am and is filed under Free Software, Product Review, Performance Tips. 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.