How in the Tech

Remove Unused Files and Registry Entries with CCleaner

By Adam Myers ⋅ January 12, 2009 ⋅ Tags: System Administration

Back in the day with computer hard drives were just a couple of gigabytes (or even megabytes) in capacity we were all quite aware of just how much stuff we had stored. While we may not have knew where all our storage went, we most certainly knew how close to 100% capacity we were. I couldn’t even harbor a guess of how filled my hard drive is today – knowing human nature and our propensity to be a pack rat I’m sure it’s over 90%. However, this is exactly my point – it just isn’t an issue like it was just a few years back. In those times it would almost be a monthly ritual to go hunting around for temporary files or anything that can be deleted. Web browsers caches and Windows Temp folders would collect cruft over time often resulting in gigabytes of lost space – that is until it was hunted down and reclaimed.

Today, for the most part, these worries are behind us. But since old habits die hard and most tech enthusiasts suffer some form of OCD – hey, I freely admit that – this is still a process we undergo all in the name of system optimizations. CCleaner is a free Windows utility that removes the tedious process of cleaning up your computer. It’s not really necessary to list all the locations CCleaner scans and cleans but suffice to say, it hits all of the ones I know of. True, Windows has some of this functionality available natively but it is nowhere near as thorough and easy to use.

Furthermore, CCleaner also includes a fully featured Registry cleaner that will check for problems and inconsistencies throughout the Windows Registry. If you are feeling a bit uneasy about diving into this you should know that the program will create a back-up of all the registry changes before they are applied so, ideally, a recovery process is equally painless as the cleansing.

Will CCleaner improve the performance of you PC? I’m sure it does, but I strongly doubt you’d ever notice the difference. That doesn’t mean it is without merit, in fact, it’s a utility I have installed on every one of my computers. There is something to be said about the peace of mind afforded in knowing your computer is running in tip-top shape no?