Editor's Review - CCleaner (Crap Cleaner)

CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a system cleansing utility designed to help you get rid of all unwanted, residual files and registry entries.

When you start the program, it will autodetect and display minimal system information in terms of: operating system (with service pack), CPU type and frequency, RAM and video adapter.

Using the program is a child's play. There are two main section containing cleaning options: 'Cleaner' and 'Issues'. The 'Cleaner' gives you the opportunity to clean up Internet Explorer's temporary files, cookies, history, etc. Here, you can also select the options for cleaning Windows Explorer recent items and the operating system's components: Run section, recycle Bin, temporary files, Memory Dumps, etc.

The good thing is that you cal also clean the disposable files of other installed applications: Mozilla, Opera, Google Toolbar, Office, Sun Java, etc. The cleaning process is simple: when you press the 'Analyze' button, the program scans for junk files. In order to get rid of them, hit the 'Run Cleaner' button. You need to pay attention before erasing any item, as they will be permanently deleted.

In the 'Issues' section you can scan for Registry integrity issues as well as for file integrity issues. Before fixing any problems occurred, you can create a backup to be restored in case anything goes wrong. Restoring your Registry is a bit complicated, since the program doesn't have a restoring option. You need to remember the location of the backup and access it from there (double clicking it will restore the former Registry entries).

Other than cleaning the system and fixing problems, you can also to edit the 'Installed programs' section and the 'Startup programs' section. You can also edit the list of Internet cookies separately.

Pluses: You can add an entry to your Yahoo! toolbar (if you have it installed) and access the application from your browser.

Drawbacks / flaws:

In conclusion: Considering the speed and the efficacy of the program, and that fact that it's free, I think that this is an excellent system cleaning solution.

version reviewed: 2.29

by Soft32 Editors on 02/25/2010: "CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool."

CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) Publisher's Description

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, Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, Office XP, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and more...

Registry Issue Cleaning:

CCleaner uses an advanced Registry to check for problems and inconsistencies in your registry. 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...

Safety and Security:

CCleaner was designed from the ground to be safe and secure to use. It has multiple levels of checks in place to ensure that it cannot delete any useful information or documents you may still need. We also certify that it contains no Spyware or Adware.

Multiple Languages:

Thanks to the translators, CCleaner is now available in the following languages:

English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Russian, Polish, Japanese, Traditional Chinese and Korean.

What's New:

v1.21.130 - [12th July 2005]

- Moved Tools and Options into the listbar and they now load

into the main window rather than a new window.

- Fixed listbar display issue with Japanese characters.

- Added REMOVESELF cleaning parameter to delete folders and

not just empty them.

- Added cleaning for: Google Earth, Ad-Aware SE Plus,

Photoshop CS and CS2, Microsoft AntiSpyware,

PerfectDisk 7.0, Azureus.

- Updated cleaning for: Windows log files,

Real Player, Adobe Reader 7.0,

SpyBot Search and Destroy.

- Updated Swedish, Spanish and French translations.

- Minor display fix to the Applications tree.

- Minor interface tweaks.

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