Skip to Content

Submit your nominations for the Luxist Awards' Best in Decor
AOL Tech

Filed under: Utilities, Windows

Cleaning off the crap with CCleaner

CCleaner

Is crap piling up on your hard drive? CCleaner, which stands for Crap Cleaner, is a freeware cleaning tool for Windows that's worth every penny -- and probably about $24.99 more.

CCleaner's developer is constantly updating the program (just look at the extensive version history, the most recent change occuring earlier this week). A new interface makes the program even easier to use.

The program first analyzes your registry and other applications and then makes suggestions on items that are safe to remove. A recent analysis of my PC took 101 seconds and suggested items that could save 557 MB of space on my hard drive.

Most importantly, CCleaner cleans out the unused and old entries in your Windows registry. It also cleans:
  • Internet Explorer temporary files, cookies, autocomplete form history and URL history.
  • Firefox temporary files, download history and other data.
  • Windows temporary files, log files, the Recycle Bin and the recent documents list.
  • Third-party application tempoary files and recent file lists. The list of applications includes Microsoft Office, Acrobat, WinZip, eMule, Google toolbar and Netscape.
CCleaner can fix a number of PC problems, too, like unused file extensions, invalid or empty file classes, and ActiveX/COM issues. A recent scan fixed 81 issues on my computer.

The only caveat I have is that CCleaner is doing things that, while completely transparent, I'm not sure what they all mean. But the program has worked well for me for months, so I'm happy to keep my trust in the developer's hands.

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio