My last post was about the all-in-one tool Glary Utilities and I have another free all-in-one tool that is my personal favorite.  The program is called CCleaner.  The following information comes directly from the CCleaner site.

“CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy, and cleaning tool.  It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.  It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history.  Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner.  But the best part is that it’s fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!”

I have personally used CCleaner for over four years.  There are a number of reasons why CCleaner is my favorite all-in-one tool.  It’s extremely lightweight, fast, and easy to navigate and understand.  I use the program when I feel my computer needs to be cleaned but used to run it once a week.  When you open up CCleaner it will give you some of the specification of the computer.  There will also be four tabs on the left hand side.  These tabs are cleaner, registry, tools, and options.

CCleaners built-in cleaner allows the user to erase tracks from Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, System, and the various programs installed on the computer.  Under the Windows sub tab of cleaner, I only have three boxes that aren’t checked.  Under Internet Explorer, the last box is not checked.  Under System, the last box is not checked.  The last box of Advanced is not checked as well.  Under Applications, there probably will be different programs here, it depends what’s installed on the computer and I didn’t mess with any of these settings.

The registry cleaner will scan the computer for invalid registry entries and allow the user to delete these entries.  CCleaner will allow you to conduct a backup before erasing the registry entries and I think this is necessary just in case something gets deleted that shouldn’t.  I’ve never had to restore any of the registry entries.  I have every box checked under the registry tab.

The tools tab makes it easier to uninstall programs, cleanup system startup, and restore the computer back to an earlier date.  I only use the tools tab to optimize my computer startup.  From here, I can disable programs that I don’t want to start with my computer and this will increase the computers boot time.  The only programs that start with my computer are the security programs.

The options tab is where the configuration settings are for CCleaner.  I personally don’t use this section because I don’t feel the need to change any of the option settings.  CCleaner is a program that I believe every computer should have.  It’s lightweight, fast and easy to use.  Whenever I work on computers, CCleaner is one of the first programs I install.  If you have any questions feel free to comment or contact me via the contact page.