CCleaner a PC Cleaning Application
By Joy Stapleton
CCleaner is an efficient means of cleaning up your hard drive by removing unneeded temporary files that are left behind by
software applications, and additionally protecting your privacy by cleaning up your browsing history and temporary internet
files. CCleaner does a better job than Microsoft’s Disk Cleaner utility, and it’s free.
If you’ve used the Windows Add/Remove Programs utility then you know how incredibly long it takes for the list of programs to
load. CCleaner’s Uninstall feature will load the list of installed programs immediately.
Occasionally you’ll find a program name that annoyingly lingers in the Add/Remove Programs list even after you know it has been uninstalled. CCleaner can remove these obsolete entries for you.
CCleaner also gives you the ability to select the programs that you want to automatically start when Windows boots up. You can enable or disable the programs that you want to execute at system startup, but in addition to that, you can delete entries from
the list, which is an option that Microsoft hasn’t provided in their System Configuration utility.
When you uninstall software from your computer the Windows registry becomes cluttered with entries that get left behind that are
no longer needed. To enable Windows to run more smoothly, CCleaner also includes more advanced features for cleaning the Windows Registry by safely removing old, invalid, and unused registry entries.
The Wipe Free Space option allows you to permanently erase any previously deleted files. When you delete a file it isn’t actually removed from the hard drive, but instead, only the reference to the file is removed. Eventually the space that the file occupies will be overwritten by other files, but until then the file can be recovered with the right software.
System Requirements
Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2003 and 2008 Server, Windows 2000, Windows NT4, Windows ME, and Windows 98.
From the Editorial Review at PCWorld.com: “CCleaner includes an optional Yahoo toolbar that you may choose to install along with the program. Installing this toolbar may trigger alerts from some antispyware programs. CCleaner's makers assert that CCleaner is spyware-free.”
You can download CCleaner at http://www.ccleaner.com and extensive documentation is available at
http://docs.piriform.com/ccleaner
Joy Stapleton started out as a mainframe Programmer/Analyst in 1985. In 1992 she became a PC software developer and PC technician. As a private consultant, Joy provides PC technical services and develops Web sites.