The two locations where this becomes apparent the most are the computer desktop and the Windows start menu. Especially the start menu becomes crowded after some time of usage.

Bad Shortcut Killer is a program like the previously reviewed Broken Shortcut Fixer. The program can verify all shortcuts that are stored on the desktop and the start menu.

All that it takes is to click on the Find Bad Shortcuts link after program installation. The program will check all shortcuts in those two locations and display the broken ones in the program interface.

Each shortcut is listed with its status (invalid) and the full path of the shortcut on the local computer system. The program is missing an option to open the containing folder for manual validation, but that’s the only missing feature of the program.

Options are available to check individual or all broken shortcuts. A click on the delete selected shortcuts button will remove them from the system.

Some users may find programs to delete broken shortcuts from the computer redundant. This can be the case if they run software like the popular temporary file cleaner CCleaner which comes with the same functionality. CCleaner can remove broken shortcuts both from the Windows start menu and the desktop.

The thing is though that the default configuration does not include the verification of broken shortcuts on the PC. CCleaner users need to locate the System group in the program interface and enable Start Menu Shortcuts and Desktop Shortcuts Manually.

Windows users who like to give Bad Shortcut Killer a try can download the program from the official program website. The application is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Two additional versions of CCleaner, CCleaner Home and CCleaner Business, are also available next to the free and network edition. And with the release of CCleaner Network Professional, users now have the choice between five different versions. Lets take a closer look at their differences:

• CCleaner Free: Free for non-commercial use.
• CCleaner Home: Like the free version but with priority technical support.
• CCleaner Business: Like the free version, but with premium business support.
• CCleaner Network Edition: Suggested for computer networks with ten or more computers. With SMB and Enterprise network support, simple one-click deployment onto clients and options to analyze single machines, workgroups or the entire network. Additional, the network edition supports Active Directory, management of all operations from one place and encrypted communications.

The newly released Network Professional version of the software looks on first glance much like the Network Edition. The only difference to the network edition is inclusion of the company’s disk defragmentation software Defraggler.

Interested users can download a trial version of the Network Professional version after filling out a form. The download link and product registration code will be send to the email address entered in the form. You won’t find the software download anywhere else on the Internet, as you are asked to enter the product key during installation.

The program offers to scan the entire network for client PCs after installation. The trial version is limited to 500 clients which should be sufficient for the majority of trials.

You can then install clients on connected systems right from the admin client. Once done, you get access to both CCleaner and Defraggler in tabs This is true when selecting a Workgroup or a single client PC.

The program itself works like the CCleaner Network Edition with an additional program included in the package and manageable from the same admin interface.

Interested users find more information about the Network Professional version of CCleaner at the Piriform website.

You can automate the built-in Disk Cleanup utility in Windows if desired. However, in my experience, a more thorough disk cleanup can be achieved with a free utility called CCleaner. This free software is a well known “geek” standard. It allows you to customize the disk cleanup with a little more finesse than the standard Windows Disk Cleanup utility. The download link follows. Use the Slim-Build version to avoid toolbar add-ons.

You should still perform a security scan on the download before opening it, as you should with anything downloaded from the internet. Run the installation after the security scan shows that the download is clean. The program will open automatically and a shortcut icon will appear on the desktop.

This is the control panel for CCleaner. Determine the setting that you want to run automatically. In this example, everything is selected. You would only do that for a complete clean. If you use some cookies and want to save recent documents and recently typed URLs, you will want to leave those boxes unchecked.

All checked boxes will indicate items to be cleaned out, so customize to your needs. For example, here cookies, recently typed URLs and recent documents have been unchecked. You can always run a manual cleanup if you wish to clear these at a later time.

Now click on Options \ Advanced and ensure that all settings will be saved to an INI file in the same directory. “Save all settings to INI file” should already be checked by default. If it is not checked, do so.

Type “Task Scheduler” or “Schedule” in the Start menu search box and select Task Scheduler from the menu and press Enter. Click “Create Basic Task” in the right-hand column.

You will need to give the task a name. In this example, the name “CClean” was used, as it is easy to recall. Provide a description of the task as shown. Click Next and this will open a window that allows you to select the schedule. Select how often you want the task to run. Daily is best, but other options are available. Click next after selection.

Next you will need to choose the time of day to run the cleanup. Choose a time of day that your computer is on but you are not using it. Click Next and choose “Start a program”. Click Next. Browse to the CC Cleaner .exe file. Add the /AUTO switch to the “Add arguments” box.

Click next once you have added the correct pathway. Check the box next to “Open the Properties dialog for this task when I click Finish” before clicking finish:

Choose the option to “Run with highest privileges”. This will ensure that the task will run with administrator privileges. Click the conditions tab to select different options for when the task will run. You can customize to start the task only when the computer is idle for a selected period of time and also choose to wake the computer from sleep mode to run the task. Other options are available. Click OK when you have made all the selections and everything is set.

AppCleaner is a new contender, created by the developers of the software updater Update Star. The program is currently offered as a beta version for all recent versions of the Windows operating system.

It displays a tabbed interface after installation and startup. The Cleaner tab lists the four sub-tabs Apps, Browsers, Registry and Windows. It uses the usual checkbox system to enable or disable cleaning of specific temporary files.

Here is a short overview of the available cleaning options:

• Apps: Java, Adobe Flash Player, 7-Zip, Internet, Multimedia, RegEdit, Remote Desktop
• Browsers: Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, including temporary files, cookies, internet history, login data and sessions.
• Registry: services, missing clsids, missing shared dlls, mui cache, run at startup, obsolete software, fonts
• Windows: Recent Documents, Clipboard, custom folders, dns cache, file fragments, temporary files

Each section offers additional options, but the overview should be enough to give you an understanding of the program capabilities. When you compare the offered cleaning options to CCleaner, you will come to the conclusion that they are almost on pair. UpdateStar offers to add custom file locations under Options > Custom Files just like CCleaner does. The latter has the excellent CCleaner Enhancer tool which adds about 300 additional programs to CCleaner automatically.

Some other things are missing in a direct comparison. It is for instance not possible to exclude cookies comfortably from the cleaning. While it is possible to ignore files or directories to prevent them from being cleaned, it is rather cumbersome to add them to the program. All you can use is the standard file and folder browser to exclude items.

A click on the analyze button checks all enabled items for temporary files and displays the findings in list form in the interface. AppCleaner displays the overall size of the temporary data as well as the name, size and amount of each individual item. A click on Clean deletes the temporary files on the system.

AppCleaner comes with three tools, a tool to uninstall software, to manage startup items and a third to manage system restore points. They are nice to have but only as comfortable as the default Windows tools for the job.

AppCleaner is a program to look out for. It is currently in beta and it is likely that the developers will continue working on it to improve it further. It is a solid CCleaner alternative. There is however no portable version available, which some users may see as a negative.

If you like the idea of testing another temporary file cleaner for Windows, you find the program download and further information at the developer website.

The developers Pirisoft have updated CCleaner today, bringing the latest version to 3.05. The new version introduces support for new and updated programs and improvements in the scanning and cleaning functionality.

Interested users can take a look at CCleaner’s version history for the full list of changes. Probably the biggest additions are support for the recently released web browsers Internet Explorer 9 and Mozilla Firefox 4.

Internet Explorer users in addition can now clean cached feeds and add-on statistics, as well as invalid Browser Helper Objects. The developers have furthermore added support for iTunes cookie management, cleaning of obsolete Windows firewall rules, and support for more than 20 different programs, from the popular gaming platform Steam to the voice communication software TeamSpeak and Ventrilo.

A scan for obsolete Windows Services has been added to the Registry Cleaner.

v3.05.1408 (24 Mar 2011)
- Added support for Internet Explorer 9.
- Added support for Firefox 4.0.
- Added Internet Explorer Cached Feeds cleaning.
- Added Internet Explorer Add-ons Statistics cleaning.
- Added iTunes cookie management.
- Added Opera cleaning for saved/opened directories paths.
- Improved Firefox/Mozilla Saved Password cleaning.
- Improved Intelligent cookie keeping functionality.
- Improved Registry cleaning for Obsolete Software.
- Improved Registry cleaning for Unused File Extensions.
- Added Registry cleaner for Windows Services.
- Added cleaning for obsolete Firewall Rules.
- Added detection of invalid Browser Helper Objects.
- Added new environment variables for user documents. (i.e. %CommonDocuments%, %CommonMusic%, %CommonPictures%, %CommonVideo%, %MyDocuments%, %Documents%, %MyMusic%, %Music%, %MyPictures%, %Pictures%, %MyVideo%, %Video%).
- Added cleaning for Adobe Air, Advanced Searchbar, Steam, Xfire, Skype, AOL Instant Messenger, Camfrog Video Chat, Miranda Instant Messenger, Pidgin, Yahoo Messenger, ooVoo, TeamSpeak, Ventrilo Client, Ventrilo Server, FrostWire, uTorrent, Shareaza, iMesh, BearShare, DC++ and Ares.

The new cleaning options are available under the Cleaner menu in the program. CCleaner scans the system for supported programs and will display all applications that are installed on the system in the listing.

It is still recommended to use the third party program CCleaner Enhancer to add support for additional programs to the software.

CCleaner 3.0.5 is available from the developer homepage over at Piriform. The program is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 2000, and the corresponding server operating systems.

The program is still provided as a portable version and installer, which both offer the same features and cleaning options. The interface has not changed at all, and some users may find it hard to spot any differences to previous versions of the software.

If they look at the individual cleaning options they find additional options for programs that were not supported in previous versions of the application, provided that they are installed. Included in CCleaner 3.04 are among others support for FeedDemon, Free Download Manager, Internet Download Manager and Comodo Dragon.

In addition, support has been added for Thunderbird’s and SongBird’s embedded browser and Opera’s Icon Cache folder.

The detection of temporary files for programs like AVG Antivirus, Windows Media Player and Google Chrome has been improved as well.

Here is the full list of changes of the current release:

Added support for Windows 7 SP1.
Added Internet Explorer UserData cleaning and management.
Added Safari cookie management.
Improved Google Chrome detection.
Added Google Chrome JumplistIcons folder cleaning.
Added Opera Icon Cache folder cleaning.
Added support for Comodo Dragon.
Added support for SongBird embedded browser.
Added support for Thunderbird embedded browser.
Added Registry cleaner for Sound Events.
Improved Registry cleaning for Unused File Extensions.
Improved Registry cleaning for Application Paths.
Added environment variable support in Custom Locations.
Command line exporting of embedded INIs (/export [folder path]).
Added cleaning for Excel Viewer, FeedDemon, WinDiff and Last.FM, Free Download Manager, Internet Download Accelerator and Internet Download Manager.
Improved cleaning for AntiVir Desktop, AVG AntiVirus 10.0 and Windows Media Player.
Improved system file detection security.
Minor bug fixes.

Both a 32-bit and 64-bit edition are supplied with CCleaner, regardless if the user downloads the installer or portable version. CCleaner 3.04 can be downloaded from the developer website over at Piriform.

Check out the guide How To Install And Use CCleaner and the third party tool CCleaner Enhancer which adds support for more than 200 programs to CCleaner.

System Ninja is a portable temporary files cleaner for the Windows operating system. It has to stand the comparison to the most popular in this niche CCleaner, and it does not fare that bad in the comparison.

System Ninja displays its core features in tabs in the main interface. They consist of a junk scanner, startup manager, process manager and a link to more tools which leads to a folder junk cleaner, file analyzr and the popular CCleaner add-on CCEnhancer.

The Junk Scanner lists its scan settings in the sidebar. This setting is nowhere as detailed as that of CCleaner. It lists 13 different entries, from game caches to common torrent tags and temp files. The main problem here is that it is not possible to customize the selection. If the Internet Cache is selected then all Internet Caches get deleted (for instance that of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome). It would have been nice if selections could be made here. There are several unusual scan settings here, like the common torrent tags scan which according to the developer clears .txt files that come with many torrents.

A click on Scan Drive will scan the drive for all selected sources. The findings are directly displayed in the main interface. Each file is listed with its path, size and file type.

It is then possible to delete selected temporary files or all by clicking on the Select All button. The startup manager lists file, Registry and scheduled task startups. Especially the latter option is interesting and not that common. Startup items can be removed easily from the all sources.

The process manager lists all running processes by name only. That’s handy for users who know what they are doing, not so much however for beginners and inexperienced users. It is possible to kill multiple processes at once.

On to more tools. The Folder Junk Cleaner can be used to perform the scan for junk files in a specific folder or removable drive. The File Analyzr can compute checksums and display information about a selected file. It offers to send the file to the two virus analysis services viCheck.ca and ThreatExpert.

The last option is to update CCEnhancer and run CCleaner with the latest updated version.

System Ninja offers several interesting features that users may find interesting. The developer should consider integrating help tooltips and better customization options to improve the software. Users who would like to download and try System Ninja find the software at the developer site. The program requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.

What kind of traces are we talking about locally? Numerous if you are using the default settings of the browser, or browsers, you are using on the Internet. Probably the most known of them all are the web browser cache and cookies. The cache is filled with objects from websites that are accessed during sessions, and cookies are stored by the websites on the local system, either to track the user, save preferences or store login session information.

But there is more than that. There is the browsing history, possible downloads, browsing session information, Flash and Java plugin logs and temp files, Flash cookies, crash reports, data entered into search fields, offline cache or crash dumps. And even that may not be all.

Some web browsers offer means to clear at least some of the traces automatically. It is for instance possible to force the web browser to clear the web browsing cache, history and cookies on exit. But that’s not very efficient as it leaves lots of other traces behind.

Web Browsers Traces Eraser is a specialized tool that can be used to deal with web browsing traces of several popular browsers. The program supports the five popular web browsers Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Apple Safari, but also lesser known browsers such as Flock, K-Melon, Avant Browser, Iron, Chrome Plus or SeaMonkey.

Cleaning options are displayed for each separately in the main interface. The program activates several web browsers by default that it identifies as being installed on the system. In addition to that, it offers to clear Flash Player Shared Objects, Flash Player Sys History, Java Cache, Java Logs, Java Temp Files and several Windows operating system traces. A click on Scan does the same during a session.

The clean button spawns a suggestion to create a System Restore point before the selected locations will be cleaned of all browsing traces. That’s recommended but optional. Settings can be saved, which is fine if you do not want to remove data from a certain web browser. These settings are however not loaded by default. It is necessary to either click on the Load button to load them, or to open the program’s settings to configure the program to load the settings ini file on startup.

Web Browsers Traces Eraser is more or less a specialized version of the popular temporary file cleaner CCleaner. Its main advantage is that it supports more web browsers out of the box than CCleaner. It lacks custom locations to include portable browsers and a preview of what is going to be cleaned before it is cleaned. There is also no option to whitelist cookies and other data.

The software program is available as a portable version and installer for the Windows operating system. Users who want to give it a try can download Web Browsers Traces Eraser from the No Virus Thanks website.

ClearProg is a CCleaner alternative for Windows. The program is available as a portable program and installer, and supports hundreds of temporary file locations in Windows.

The program interface needs some getting used to time. The supported programs and locations are listed in a sidebar in the main interface. Selected by default are the usual suspects, from web browsers like Internet Explorer and Firefox to Microsoft Office, multimedia applications and Windows specific locations.

Program locations are selected for clearing with checkmarks with options to select all at once from the main toolbar.

Plugins are available in addition to preconfigured locations. A click on Extras > Plugins > Select Plugins opens the menu that currently lists 248 different programs. These programs can be selected individually. Far better than this approach is to click the Check button, which activates all installed programs automatically.

The selected plugins are then added to the sidebar listing indicating that they will be included in the cleanup.

The third option available is to create own folders and locations for cleanup. This is done by clicking on Own Folder > Add Folder in the menubar. A folder browser window is opened automatically so that folders can be picked for deletion. There is no option to add Registry keys to the listing, which limits the functionality a bit.

Finally, it is possible to run a preview scan to see the number of entries found by ClearProg, before clearing the files. There is no direct option to clear from the preview window though.

The software displays the number of cleared entries and the bytes saved in a log file, as well as totals in the end.
Options are available to switch from normal deletion mode to trash or secure deletion mode. The first moves the temporary files to the recycle bin, the second overwrites them with random data to make sure they cannot be recovered by file recovery software.

ClearProg is a solid alternative to CCleaner. The program is available for download at the developer website. It was tested on a Windows 7 Professional 64-bit system, and should work fine on most Windows systems as well. (via Caschy)

Users of previous versions of CCleaner will receive update notifications in the program on startup, leading to the official CCleaner site where the latest version of Crap Cleaner can be downloaded to the local system.

So what’s new in CCleaner 3?

• A new 64-bit native EXE designed specifically for 64-bit systems.
• A new Drive Wiper tool screen under the Tools section, which allows users to securely erase the contents or free space on a specified drive.
• Improved support for Internet Explorer 9 and the Google Chrome browsers.
• We have also added improved cleaning support for HTML5 database storage, allowing CCleaner to effectively manage the next generation of web applications.
• Additional cleaning support for Microsoft Silverlight Isolated Storage.
• We’ve added three new environment variables (%SystemDirectory%, %SystemDirectory32%, and %SystemDirectory64%).
• New application icon.
• New Intelligent cookie keeping feature.

The interface has not changed a lot, colors look a bit brighter but this can be my imagination.

Most notable new features are the native 64-bit client, the addition of the Drive Wiper tool to erase free disk space on a hard drive to make the date unrecoverable, and the addition of cleaning support for several additional data locations.

The drive wiper tool operates similar to Eraser, overwriting free disk space to prevent recovery of files. This only works on conventional platter based hard drives and not Solid State Drives though.

CCleaner 3 is available for download as a portable version and installer. Bot are available at the download builds page over at Piriform.

What’s left to say? Happy cleaning!

But what about on-demand virus scanners? Avert, which stands for Automatic Virus Eradication & Removal Tool, is a free program intended to be used on already infected systems, or systems that a user wants to scan with multiple antivirus engines to be sure that no virus, trojan, worm or other malicious program is found on it.

Avert can scan the computer system with eight different antivirus engines. By default, it will only download and run VIPRE. A click on the Tools and Settings button in the lower left corner displays the options where scanners from A-Squared, ClamWin, Trend Micro, Sophos, Panda, Avira and VBA32 can be selected. A click on Download loads the programs to the directory of Avert, and makes them automatically available for future scans.

Everything is kept portable, so that it is possible to move Avert and all downloaded antivirus scanners to another drive or computer.

The program directory with all antivirus tools included has a size of 313 Megabytes, less if only some of the virus scanners are downloaded.

In addition, Avert offers to run CCleaner and a set of three tools on the system. With CCleaner it is possible to remove temporary files to free up disk space. The three tools are available to backup the Windows Registry and reset the Windows Hosts file and proxy settings.

The depth of the scans and utilization of the included tools can be configured in the program’s main interface.

The virus scans can be configured before the start. Avert offers to run a full system scan, balanced, quick or custom scan. CCleaner can only be run in thorough mode if enabled, and the three tools can be enabled individually.

The individual programs may download the latest antivirus signatures if updates are available. These signatures do not seem to be saved locally, which means they need to be download every time the program is run. Vipre needs to be downloaded every time as well, because the developer does not offer an option to download the signature file separately. Avert runs all selected programs consecutively afterwards.

Avert is a free portable software for Windows. The program requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0. (via)

That is a privacy nightmare as it is possible to use the temporary data to create an activity profile of the system’s users. But privacy is not the only concern here. These temporary information need space on the hard drive. It can happen that these files occupy one Gigabyte or more of hard drive space.

Square Privacy Cleaner is a new privacy software from the Novirus Thanks developers.

The program divides the available cleaning options in five tabs at the top. Each tab lists multiple temporary file locations that can be cleaned. Selections can be made manually, or by clicking on Actions > Select All to clear data in all available locations at once.

The program lacks an option to select all locations of a tab though which means that most users will have to make manual adjustments.

A click on Delete Traces will delete the information stored in all selected locations.

How does the tool compare to CCleaner? Square Privacy Cleaner appears to the faster, but this can be attributed to the fact that it does not display information about each storage location prior to deleting the data. Most of the available locations are supported by CCleaner as well. And the tool has the additional advantage of advanced options, like the ability to add custom locations or excluding specific cookies from being cleaned with the rest.

Still, Square Privacy Cleaner shows some prospect. It could become a CCleaner contender, if the developers start adding additional options, like the ones mentioned in this review. For the moment though, it is a solid alternative but not a contender.

The privacy cleaner is available as a portable version and installer for 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows at the developer website. (via JKWebTalks)

It is therefor recommended to clean the temporary files regularly to recover disk space and reduce the risk that someone else finds data on the computer that leaks private information.

The most popular third party tool for Windows to clean temporary files is CCleaner. Why? The program supports lots of different temporary file locations out of the box, is very thorough with the cleanings and offers to include custom locations to include in the cleaning.

We have recently had several articles on how to enhance CCleaner, including articles about the CCleaner Auto Updater, CCleaner Enhancer to add more programs to the application and a tip on how to run CCleaner automatically for all accounts.

But this review is not about CCleaner, it is about Moo0 DiskCleaner. It is very similar to CCleaner, in that it offers to delete temporary files on the hard drive and the system Registry. The disk cleaner is available in 17 languages as a portable version and an installer.

The application scans all supported temporary file locations on startup, and displays those that have been found in its interface. The remaining programs are hidden by default, but can be revealed by removing the Show only Related checkmark in the main interface. That’s interesting, as it provides a full listing of supported applications. The scan is a lot faster than that of CCleaner.

Each temporary location is displayed with a title, size occupied on the hard drive and items found in the location. Checkboxes at the beginning of each row can be used to select items for deletion. A click on the arrow at the very beginning of each row reveals the locations or paths of the files on the system. The Recycle Bin entry will for instance list the recycle bins of each partition separately. Cookies are displayed individually, so that they can be selected separately for deletion if needed.

The program displays the Megabytes and total item size on the Clean Now button, and updates the count automatically whenever a new selection is made.

Moo0 DiskCleaner supports adding custom targets like CCleaner, but with additional options. CCleaner only supports file locations (correct me if I’m wrong about this, but the include menu seems to suggest it), while DiskCleaner supports Registry locations as well.

DiskCleaner is a solid alternative to CCleaner. Both programs have their distinct strengths. CCleaner for instance can be configured to protect certain cookies from deletion, a setting that it remembers after restarts. Another feature of CCleaner is the ability to secure delete the files so that they cannot be recovered with file recovery software.

Moo0 DiskCleaner is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Interested users can download the portable version or installer from the developer website.

Users still have to download the new version of CCleaner from the developer homepage and install it manually. CCleaner Auto Updater is a third party addition to CCleaner, that automates the updating process.

The tool basically gets rid of the requirement to update CCleaner manually whenever a new version is released. CCAuto will download and install new versions of CCleaner automatically and silently in the background.

ccleaner auto updater

The CCleaner install path needs to be selected on the first start of the program. The current version and build are then automatically added by the updater.

A click on Update CCleaner starts the update process. The program checks if a new version of the program is available, and displays a confirmation prompt if it is. CCauto Updater becomes unresponsive for a short time, in which the latest version of CCleaner is downloaded and installed.

A notification prompt in the end informs about the status of the operation. This update is still semi-automated, as it requires the user to run the CCAuto Updater to update CCleaner.

The developer therefor has added options to run the updater on startup or scheduled. Update checks can be configured in the scheduler. Options include daily, weekly or monthly checks at a specified time of the day.

CCleaner Auto Updater is a handy program for users who use CCleaner. It is definitely faster than the manual update of CCleaner. CCAuto Updater requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0, and is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Downloads are provided at the developer website.

CCleaner Enhancer is a portable program for Windows that improves CCleaner tremendously by adding 270 new programs to it. The software makes use of the custom rules capabilities and adds its rules to the existing ones.

The latest version of the program supports both portable and installed versions of CCleaner. Wiindows Vista and Windows 7 users need to run the program as administrators, as it otherwise fails to work properly.

ccleaner enhancer

A click on Download Latest in the main program window downloads the latest definition files and adds them to CCleaner if the program is installed. Portable users need to click on Extra > Install for Portable CCleaner to locate the ccleaner.exe manually.

CCleaner on next startup will display the additional programs under Applications. Please note that only recognized programs are listed there, programs that are not installed are not displayed in the list, even though they are supported.

A full list of all new applications that are added by CCleaner Enahncer is available in the newly created file winapp2.ini.

Among the programs are support for SRWare Iron, Yahoo Messenger, WinRAR, Windows Update Logs, Windows Live Messenger, VLC, Winamp, uTorrent, Valve Steam Logs, Gimp, SMplayer, RealPlayer SP, Quicktime, MS Visual Studio, KMplayer, IMGBurn, Foxit PDF Reader, Foobar 2000 and dozens more.

The new programs can be selected in the Applications tab in the CCleaner interface. Some are preselected while others need to be enabled first.

CCleaner Enhancer is a great addition to CCleaner. It adds value to the system cleaner. New signatures are added to the list all the time, which means that it may be a good idea to keep CCleaner Enhancer on the system after using it to add the new program signatures for the first time.

CCleaner Enhancer can be downloaded from the developer’s website (via Raymond)

Update: Website seems to be temporarily down, you can download the portable program from our servers instead. CCleanerEnhancer, and the current definitions file. Simply unzip that file into the CCleaner directory winapp2. The program cannot connect to the host right now, it seems to be using the website of the developer for downloading the signature file.

Update 2: CCleaner Enhancer has found a new homepage. You can download the latest version of the application from the new homepage.

Open Source application BleachBit is a CCleaner alternative for Windows and Linux. The software can be used to delete temporary files and other information that are recorded by the supported operating systems and specific applications.

Running a software like BleachBit regularly protects the user’s privacy by deleting information about opened programs, files and websites. It also increases the free available hard drive space by deleting temporary files.

BleachBit is available as a portable version and installer. Both versions display the same interface on startup. The left side lists the programs and locations that can be cleaned, the right information about each entry or progress of the cleaning.

privacy software bleachbit

The information provide immediate information about each entry in a category which is helpful to determine the temporary files to be deleted. CCleaner for instance does not provide information about the entries.

The available programs and locations are comparable to CCleaner with the exception of missing custom locations. BleachBit users cannot add additional locations to the cleanup process.

BleachBit users can clear system files and locations like the Recycle Bin, logs or recent document lists as well as temporary data from programs like Skype, Thunderbird, Mozilla, Opera or Microsoft Office. Lastly there is an option to deep scan the computer system for temporary and backup files.

The preview button can be used to run a scan on the system without actually deleting files immediately. This is helpful to determine the files that are deleted and the disk space that gets recovered by doing so.

Temporary files can be overwritten automatically to prevent file recovery. Another option to prevent this is to wipe free disk space of a drive or folder. The program preferences offer options to change the files or folders and whitelist programs that should not be deleted under any circumstances.

BleachBit makes many things right. It would be a worthy CCleaner contender if the developer’s would add an option to delete files in custom locations.

Windows and Linux users can download the privacy and maintenance software from the developer’s website over at Sourceforge.

The newest version of CCleaner, which was just released, adds support for Microsoft Office 2010 next to several other program and feature additions.

CCleaner 2.32 introduces Opera search field history and favicons cleaning, Real Player SP cleaning and better support for Media Player Classic next to the support for Microsoft Office 2010 cleaning.

Users of 64-bit operating systems will experience better shortcuts cleaning. Not all of the changes have been to programs and temporary files.

* Added support for Microsoft Office 2010.
* Added Opera search field history cleaning.
* Added Real Player SP cleaning.
* Added “Analyze” and “Clean” context menu options to rule tree parent nodes.
* Added “Restore default settings” button to Advanced Options.
* Improved Opera favicons cleaning.
* Improved support for Media Player Classic.
* Improved cleaning of shortcuts on 64-bit machines.
* Improve localization support.
* Fixed bug with Russian translation.
* Minor bug fixes.

CCleaner can be downloaded from the developer’s website. The software displays an Check for updates link in the program interface which however only leads to the developer website as well.

Users who install the new version should pay attention to the items that the application wants to install as it includes the Yahoo toolbar.

CCleaner is offered in three different versions. In addition to the main download which provides a standard application installer, there is a portable version available as well as a slim installer. The standard installer will install a CCleaner Yahoo Toolbar if the option is not unselected from the installation dialogue, while the portable version and the slim installer do away with the toolbar. It is therefore recommended to install or run one of these in lieu of the standard installer.

The main interface is divided into the four tabs: Cleaner, Registry, Tools and Options. It is usually a good idea to look at the Options tab first in order to configure some general rules that apply to all the cleaning jobs. For instance, to ensure that files cannot be recovered it is possible to configure secure file deletions (aka file wiping) instead of normal file deletes. This option only makes sense if a conventional hard drive is selected. The options can also be used to select cookies, files and folders that should never be cleaned. It is also possible to define additional directories or files that should be cleaned whenever the cleaner is being executed. This is helpful for temporary file directories which are not included by default in CCleaner, portable application folders and folders from removable devices.

The heart of the application is the Cleaner tab which provides a list of applications and their data storage locations to be cleaned. This includes temporary Internet files, cookies and the history of several web browsers, system files such as the Recycle Bin and log files and Windows Explorer information such the recent documents or thumbnail cache. Additionally, third party applications such Adobe Reader, Quicktime and Java as well as Windows related applications like Wordpad and Paint can be cleaned as well. Each entry can be selected or unselected individually, which is one of the strengths of CCleaner. For instance, it is possible to clear the browser history and cache but keep the cookies and saved form information.

Before cleaning, CCleaner provides an analysis detailing the total estimated disk space freed as well as the data storage requirements and files of every item that has been selected for cleanup. The Run Cleaner button will delete the files and data on the computer system, either normally or securely depending on the user’s choice in the options. All issues and problems that are found during the scan will be displayed in the results window. CCleaner will display a query to the user that contains an option to backup the data before it is deleted from the system. It is possible to clear all issues at once or take a closer look at each issue individually.

The Registry tab displays options and tools for cleaning the Windows Registry. It contains all the common items which are normally included in Windows registry cleaners, such as missing shared dlls that have remained on the system after uninstalling software on the PC, unused file extensions, installers and obsolete software. It is possible to keep every option checked or remove some of them in case they should not be included in the registry scan.

The Tools tab contains a software uninstaller, startup programs manager and a system restore manager.

CCleaner is an excellent program for regular maintenance tasks. Its customizability is one of the unique features that it offers. It is great for users who want to clean up data that is not included in the default listings. CCleaner is a great program that belongs in every system administrator’s and technician’s tools collection.

One difference between ACleaner and CCleaner is that it is slightly more complicated to select the items that should be cleaned. CCleaner displays them in the main interface right away while they have to be selected in the settings in the ACleaner interface.

The items that can be cleaned are divided into categories like Windows, browsers or applications which are divided into further categories like MS Office or system in the Windows category or Internet Explorer, Opera, Google Chrome or Firefox in the browsers category.

Items like cookies, temporary Internet files or recent documents can be selected individually or all at once by right-clicking in the interface of each category.

ACleaner provides additional options to clean Registry settings next to cleaning files in the Windows operating system. This is actually an easier process as it takes one click to scan the Registry for issues and leftovers.

There are options to deselect specific items that are excluded from future scans. Custom items and locations can be added to ACleaner just like they can be added to CCleaner. This is interesting for users who want to clear data that is not included by the default categories like portable software files.

Another interesting option is the ignore list that can be used to protect items so that they are never cleaned during cleanups.

The scheduler can be used to enable automatic cleanups in intervals that range from every 15 minutes to every eight hours.

ACleaner has all the options needed to cleanup the Windows operating system regularly and effectively. The software program can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Wipe will automatically scan the system upon startup offering to clear the history and traces right away or switch to advanced mode which is displaying a list of analyzed items and the amount of files on the disk, entries in the Windows Registry and the total size of the files in a list.

The items that are found are divided into categories like Windows, web browsers like Firefox or Internet Explorer and applications like Skype or Microsoft Office.

CCleaner provides a better overview of the elements that are analyzed. Wipe on the other hand displays the previously mentioned file size, Registry and file counts for each item individually which can be very helpful in determining the biggest offenders.

Each item in the list can be selected individually by clicking on the checkbox in front of its line. It is furthermore possible to select or deselect all items in a category by selecting the category header (for instance Windows 7). This will select or deselect all items automatically.

Items that can be cleared with Wipe include:

• Windows: clipboard, mru list, temporary Internet files, rss feeds carche, recent wallpapers, thumbnail caches..
• Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer: temporary Internet files, download history, cookies, passwords..
• Windows Media Player: recent items, autocomplete and record path histry..
• Java, Flash: temporary Internet files
• Microsoft Office: recently accessed items, autocomplete history..

Missing are options to add programs or paths that are not included in the program yet. This includes for instance the Google Chrome web browser which cannot be cleaned with the program.

A click on the delete button will clear the history of all selected items. A standard delete will be performed which can be changed in the program’s options to make the traces unrecoverable. Available deletion methods are one-pass anti-recovery, DOD anti-recovery, Gutmann or Russian Gost anti-recovery (the last three only available after registration).

The deletion of files can take additional time depending on the choice in the menu. Wipe can close any running process before the history is cleared which is for instance important if the web browser is running all the time on the system.

Wipe is a good alternative to CCleaner. It lacks the customizability but offers a better overview of the files, registry entries and sizes of the entries that it lists in its interface. The program can be downloaded from the developer’s website.