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Optimize Your System To Run At Its Best With CCleaner

Danny Stieben — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:01:16 +0000

Of all the tools out there, CCleaner is probably the top solution that everyone recommends. Heck, we mention CCleaner numerous times here at MakeUseOf (such as here or here or even here), but it has indeed been quite a while since we’ve last written about CCleaner in an article dedicated to nothing but it.

Over the last two years, CCleaner has changed quite a bit in terms of version numbers…up now to version 3.10 at the time of this writing. While visually the program actually hasn’t changed much (it’s good, why break something that’s not broken?), a lot of additional features have been included behind-the-scenes to make it more functional than ever.

About CCleaner and Installation

CCleaner is the most updated program out of all the Piriform offerings (CCleaner, Defraggler, and Recuva), and will ask you to update practically once every week or two. In case you haven’t installed CCleaner yet or want to check for updates without opening the program, you can head over to this page, download the setup file, and run it. During installation, I recommend that you actually look through the settings, as there may be a few preferences you may not want, such as menu options for the Recycle Bin.

Clean Out Temporary Files

CCleaner lives up to its name in a number of different ways. First, you can go through the usual temporary files of any supported applications. This includes the usual list of browsers, system, and some other lesser known options such as Java. With more and more updates, the amount of supported applications increases by a lot.

Clean Out Your Bloated Registry

The second way CCleaner lives up to its name is by its registry cleaning capabilities. CCleaner can look for a number of different registry keys that are irrelevant or unusable to the system which just clutter up the registry as a whole. As far as my experience has gone, CCleaner has been the only tool that doesn’t screw up your programs after sweeping through the registry. Updates ensure that the algorithms to find these unwanted registry keys are accurate and do not disturb anything on the system.

Even More System Maintenance Options

CCleaner continues on to include some other interesting options. In order to not have to switch between multiple applications, CCleaner also includes areas where you can remove installed programs.

You can also control the list of startup applications to lessen the strain on resources and increase boot/login time.

Deleting any old system restore points (except for the newest one to ensure you still have a point to go back to in case your system immediately breaks afterwards) helps a lot too.

Finally, you can wipe a drive’s free space (or even the whole thing) completely. For the wipe procedure, you’re offered multiple options for wiping, such as 1 pass, 3 passes, 7 passes, or an incredible (and time consuming) 35 passes.

Options

Finally, CCleaner does offer a decent amount of options to customize a few aspects of how the system maintenance tool operates. There are also specific things you can include or exclude, such as cookies and other directories.

Conclusion

CCleaner could possibly be named one of the 7 wonders of computer maintenance (don’t ask me what the other 6 are, it was just a play on words). It has been extremely easy to use, and it works. Every time. Simply on occasional runs, it often cleans out over half a gigabyte of data. While your results may not be that large, as I am a fairly heavy user, your computer will thank you for using CCleaner. So if you’re one of the very few that haven’t used it yet, I highly recommend you try it out! Don’t rely on just the Windows Disk Cleaner!

Even though CCleaner can do everything except make you sandwiches, what would you like to see added to it? Let us know in the comments! Maybe with the regular updates some will be included!

Top 5 Freeware Registry Cleaners That Improve PC Performance

Tina Sieber — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:01:17 +0000

The Windows Registry is the root ball of the operating system. Every little bit of system information is rooted in the registry, be it software, drivers, user information or registration data.

Over the lifetime of a computer, numerous tools are installed, updated, moved or removed. Even if done thoroughly, this can create a mess in the registry when files are left behind and references become outdated. As a result, the computer slows down, programs produce registry-related errors, and eventually the system becomes unstable.

There is a number of freeware registry cleaner apps out there that can fix common registry errors, such as missing shared DLLs, incorrect file extensions, invalid paths, missing shortcuts, orphan Active X objects, invalid devices, invalid links to startup programs, and lots more.

Here is a short review of the five best freeware registry cleaners.

5. CCleaner

CCleaner definitely is the most popular Windows system optimization tool. It comes with a ton of features, one of them being a freeware registry cleaner.

CCleaner is available for all Windows versions.

If you’re a diligent user, who only installs programs he really needs and who uninstalls programs thoroughly, you won’t need a full-fledged deep registry cleaner. The registry cleaning feature included in CCleaner should be sufficient. And since CCleaner is a tool you should use in the first place, it’s very convenient.

CCleaner can not backup your registry. It’s advisable that you create a manual backup of your registry.

4. Eusing Free Registry Cleaner

Eusing’s Registry Cleaner is a tool dedicated to registry cleaning. It’s perfect for people who cannot be bothered as it is very basic and easy to use.

The tool is compatible with Windows 95 through Windows 7.

This freeware registry cleaner scans a little deeper and finds many invalid entries that were not detected by CCleaner.

Through > File you can access additional features, such as a full registry or a Windows backup. If you run into problems, you can easily restore a previous registry version under > Action or the Tasks option.

3. nCleaner second

nCleaner comes highly recommended from our IT industry superhero and tech guru Karl, who wrote a thorough nCleaner review last year. Please refer to Karl’s review for in-depth information!

The latest version of this tool is called nCleaner second and it is one of the most comprehensive free system cleaning tools on the market. Like CCleaner, it also features a registry cleaner.

Unfortunately, it is not yet available for Windows 7. Currently, Windows XP, 2003, and Vista are supported.

To clean the registry, go with the > Clean System option and continue with the > Registry clean and repair option. Before you start, you can backup the registry and in case something went wrong, restore it. Right there, you can also create a system restore point, which also backs up your registry.

2. Auslogics Registry Cleaner

Here we have a very simple to use registry cleaner, which is perfectly suited for the novice user.

Auslogics Registry Cleaner is distributed for Windows 2003 through 7 and supports both 32- and 64-bit.

The cool thing about this cleaner is that it comes with a wizard that guides you through the scan. You can select either a quick or an advanced scan. When running an advanced scan, also critical items, e.g. software and shared DLLs, can be examined. Per default, only safe items are checked and a warning is displayed, if you attempt to scan items that require experience.

The wizard offers a restore changes option. So I was wondering where the option to backup the registry was hidden. Per default, registry keys are backed up before you fix problems. However, you can deselect this option.

Finally, the tool displays the speed the computer supposedly gained after the cleaning process. Before you close the application, you can also view the full report.

1. Wise Registry Cleaner

Wise Registry Cleaner is one of the most comprehensive cleaners in this list. Hence, it made it to the number 1 position.

Despite many options, the interface remains clear. Even the novice user will find this tool easy to use, since the program guides the user through each step upon running it for the first time.

Wise Registry Cleaner is available for Windows 98 through 7 and supports 32- and 64-bit.

While the tool may ask you for your eMail address and offer to download further software during installation, it’s all optional. Just be sure to uncheck the respective boxes.

When you run Wise Registry Cleaner for the first time, you are greeted with a window that provides a link to a quick start guide. The next notice offers to perform an automatic registry backup. You can choose to never see these windows again. And don’t worry, you can manually launch a full registry backup or restore a previous registry version anytime. Also the guide and further material is available through > Help.

Once you got through the initial welcome procedure, you are pointed to the start button. Entries are categorized as safe or not fully safe to fix. Using the respective buttons you can check the safe entries, all, none or invert all checks. All these options make the tool look complicated, but I find them quite convenient.

Through > Options you can edit settings and create a scheduled task to launch and auto run the tool.

If you would like to further enhance your computer’s performance, check out TanaG’s post for 7 Common Reasons Why Windows Can Get Unresponsive and refer to Angelina’s article on Top 8 Programs That Can Make Your Computer Run Faster. This material should point you into the right direction.

How often do you clean your registry and what tool do you use?

Image credits: tryout0

RegFromApp Monitors & Reports On Registry Changes Instantly

Karl L. Gechlik — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:00:56 +0000

> I write about software applications on a regular basis so I know (better than most people) how applications modify the registry. They write serial numbers, file paths and configurations and you usually have no idea what or where they are changing.

Now, this little NirSoft portable application can watch and report what changes your new applications or even Windows is making to your registry.

I’ll teach you how it works but first, you’ll need to download RegFromApp from the Nirsoft website here. It is a portable application so no installation is necessary. Next, you would want to launch the new application or installer that you want to monitor. Then, start up RegFromApp and choose the process.

I decided that I want to see what changes are made when I modify folder options in Windows Explorer.

I choose to monitor Explorer.exe to see what changes are made:

Next, I opened up Windows Explorer and choose Folder Options:

As soon as I did that, data flowed into my registry monitoring app:

I still hadn’t changed anything. So let’s see what happens when I do this:

I unchecked all the top check boxes in Folder Options and instantly, RegFromApp reported my changes:

To you or me, this information does not mean much, but we can export the changes as a .reg file so we can import it into our registry on another machine to duplicate the changes. This is really simple. I stopped the recording by hitting the red square or stop button. And then, hit File Save as.

And I saved the changes to a file called FileOptions.reg. Now, I took this file and ran it on another computer. I instantly got a pop up box asking me if I want to import the settings into the registry. I chose OK and then opened up my Folder Options and bam:

I can see this program coming in VERY handy for lots of things! Do you use a registry monitoring program? If you do share with us in the comments!

Clean Your PC with Microsoft’s OneCare Safety Scanner (Free)

Karl L. Gechlik — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 17:01:01 +0000

We have all used applications to try and fix up our computers. It goes back to the early 90′s and a little program called Norton Utilities. Then lots of other similar products showed up and yet Microsoft still did not feel the need to release one themselves ““ maybe they were just looking to help consultants like myself along with tons of work.

It looks like Microsoft has wised up a bit and offers a little service called OneCare Safety Scanner, it is located at http://safety.live.com. When I tell some people about it they roll their eyes and give me that look, you know the look that says I do not want to give Billy Gates anymore of my hard earned money! Well if that was the case you would not be reading this on MakeUseOf”¦ Are you following me?

Good! So long story short this is a free service that any authenticate version of XP or Vista can use to get a cleaning. It does not just look for spyware and viruses”¦

It also checks for registry mis-configurations and errors as well as other system issues like fragmentation. It will check on your firewall and antivirus programs as well. This program will also NOT let you shoot yourself in the foot. You will NOT be walking away with a busted computer when you are finished. Everything is un-doable via restore points as well. The one short fall of this application is that it MUST be run in Internet Explorer.

Let’s take a look at Microsoft’s Onecare Safety Scanner. Navigate on over to http://safety.live.com and you will see this. (I am working on a XP machine but I will show you what you need to do for your Vista machine as well.)

Simply click on the Full Service Scan button or you will see a link to the beta edition of the scanner for Vista (and possibly Windows 7!) It will start to download the scanning tools. This window will be in a pop-up so make sure pop-ups are enabled for this site or this instance. You will see a screen that looks like this below and you might get a security box asking you if it is alright to install the executable.

When the tools finish downloading you will be greeted by this screen:

I always choose the Complete Scan ““ it takes a bit longer but it will fix everything and even make sure your internet browsing experience is secure”¦. Or at least as secure as Microsoft Internet Explorer can be! You can find more information on which scan to choose by clicking on Help Me Choose or visiting this link here.

Once you start the scan it will start to download it’s scanning tools:

And then it will start initialing the scanners.

And finally it will start scanning your system. This can take a long time. I have had instances take up to 5 hours and I have had instances take less than 20 minutes. It all depends on how much crap you have on your system.

Once OneCare is done it will provide you with the results. In the instance below a virus was discovered and OneCare did a great job of cleaning it. My machine was recently de-fragmented and all my ports are straight so I did not see these items come up in my results but every machine is different!

I suggest scanning your machine before going to sleep and repairing it in the morning. Do you use OneCare? How about something similar? We would love to hear about it in the comments!