CCleaner: It’s Free, But Is It Any Good?

Let’s face it, the more you use your computer, the more clogged up it gets. Installing and uninstalling apps, creating data files, word processing files, copying files around and even simply surfing the internet loads down your system with information and dumps files on your hard drive that do little more than take up memory and space. There are lots of computer maintenance applications available that are capable of cleaning up your system so it not only runs better but more efficiently as well. However, there is a charge for may of these that many users don’t feel is worth the money. Piriform makes an application titled CCleaner and offers it for free. However, free doesn’t always mean good, does it?

Yes, It’s Good

When speaking about CCleaner, the answer is that yes, free is definitely good. While the Pro version is indeed $24.95, that only provides you with support services and automatic updates which rarely are critical as there’s a provision in the free version to check for upgrades. And with all the things that the free version does for the user, you really can’t complain about “free” as the price to pay.

Downloading and Installing

Downloading and installing CCleaner is easy and straightforward. Once installed, the installer will ask if you want to run it and will bring it up automatically. Otherwise, a simple click on the Start Menu will bring it up for you. The first phases of the clean-up operation are geared towards all the extra space files take up on your hard drive. Whether its the history and files from your browsers or files piled up in your Recycle Bin, CCleaner gives you a series of options you can sort through to eliminate space that could otherwise be used for other things. Leaving the default checkboxes in place is usually the easiest and best options. Once you click the Analyze button, CCleaner will show you how much space will be saved from the different areas. Cleaning up those files is done with a simple click of a button.

Cleanup

The next part of the clean up session is to clean up issues that may exist in the registry. Clicking the Analyze button allows CCleaner to go through the registry to see if there are any issues that may require attention. Once analysis is complete, you’ll be shown a list of issues that CCleaner has found and with another click of a button, all of those issues can be disposed of.

The Tools section allows you to sort through installed software and easily uninstall packages you may no longer need or want. Also, you can go through your Startup section to see what programs are being started when Windows runs and with a simple click, you can turn off any programs you no longer want starting with Windows. There’s a concise Search function called File Finder in the tools area as well as a System Restore area with a list of the most recent Restore Points your system has available. The Drive Wipe function allows you to overwrite unused space on your drive for security and can even overwrite an entire drive prior to removal.

All in all, CCleaner is a very flexible and powerful package. Everyone should run some type of system maintenance of this type once a month or so and having a utility like CCleaner makes the job extremly easy.