Cleanup and Optimize Windows with CCleaner

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CCleaner The Windows registry is a mess !

There … I said it.

And the more I use Windows, the more I’m reminded that if there is anything close to a cardinal truth, it is the fact that a windows computer will become slower and slower and crash more often as it grows old.

Of course, ‘Old’ is a subjective term here and depends on how much you use your computer and how many software you install and uninstall everyday.

Also, if you use the computer primarily to surf the Internet, all that muck that you acquire from the different sites that you visit, is only going to add more weight to your operating system slowing it down even further.

Yes, there are ways to get rid of all that but unless you are a computer guru (and most of us aren’t), you most probably will have no idea where to look to find these files and remove them.

Fear not, for we’ve found this great freeware program called CCleaner which does exactly that for us.

Installation is a breeze and CCleaner puts you right in the hot seat as soon as you launch it. Click the Analyze button and it’ll run some quick check on your computer and print out a report telling you about all the operations that it’ll perform if you click the Run Cleaner button. For me the report says that I’ll be able to save almost 350 MB worth of space. Worth a shot, I say !

CCleaner

The second tab titled Registry, can be used to clean and optimize the Windows Registry. Run a Scan for Issues and Fix the Selected Issues. That alone should shave off a couple of seconds from the Windows boot time. Of course, the Registry is a dangerous place to play and before making any changes, make sure you backup the registry.

CCleaner Backup Registry

The third tab titled Tools is useful for uninstalling software from your PC, cleaning unwanted entries from the StartUp items list and for cleaning the list of stored System Restore Points.

Don’t let the last item on the list scare you. I’ve been using CCleaner for a long time now and have never had to use the System Restore option. So, I think it’s a good idea to remove the older restore points and recover some more space. CCleaner doesn’t let the user delete the last system restore point, for obvious reasons, so you can always go back to that, if you want to.

CCleaner Tools Tab

In my opinion, CCleaner is a great choice no matter what level of computer experience you have and the fact that it is free, only weighs the scale in it’s favour.

About Sharninder:

Programmer, blogger and a geek making a living shifting bits around the Internet. Sharninder is the owner of Geeky Ninja