All you need to do is download the new ini file called winapp2.zip from the CCleaner forums, unpack it and extract it into the CCleaner directory. It will overwrite the old ini file. The old file has a size of 40K while the new one one of 60K, that should give you a rough idea on how many new applications are added by using it.

The Beginners guide contains an extensive chapter that explains how you can add your own ini entries to CCleaner to extend the functionality even further. It does not sound to complicated at first glance but you need some basic understanding of Windows, the Registry and file parameters.

Unfortunately though it is only running on the account of the user that is currently logged in. There is however a way to run CCleaner automatically on all system accounts. This tip is actually right from the CCleaner Beginners Help File which is the only place that I know of that mentions command line parameters of the software.

The command ccleaner.exe /AUTO autostarts CCleaner in the background, runs the cleanup process and closes the application afterwards. The only thing left to do is to incorporate this command in the Autostart group of all users that have an account on the system.

Open the folder C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup in Windows Explorer, right-click in that folder and select New > Shortcut from the menu. Now paste the command “C:\Program Files\CCleaner\ccleaner.exe” /AUTO into the first field. Make sure the path is correct. If you have installed CCleaner in another directory you need to use the correct path you have installed it to.

Whenever a user logs into Windows CCleaner will be autostarted and perform the cleanup process.

The Issues tab in Crap Cleaner scans the registry for missing shared dlls, activex issues, unused file extensions, obsolete software and many more entries and displays them after finishing the scan. You may then click on fix all issues which prompts to backup your registry before continuing. After that the first issue is displayed with information why Crap Cleaner decided it is one.

You may clean issues individually or clean them all together. I decided to use the radical method of cleaning all 1317 issues found and was not able to witness any ill effects so far. I’m actually not sure if this has any effect on my system at all. Sure, some registry keys got deleted, some shortcuts removed but this is nothing that effects the system at all. It does not speed things up, it does not reduce the size of the registry.

The other features that Crap Cleaner offers are nevertheless having a great effect on the system. It scans several programs like the cache of Internet Explorer and Firefox, the Trashbin and multimedia players such as the Quicktime Player and makes it possible to delete temporary files and histories. You can also clean cookies, saved forms, the recent documents and much more using one single scan.

Just disable a box if you do not want it to be scanned and removed. I did this for my Firefox cookies for instance. There is also an advanced tab that lets you clean old prefetch data, hotfix uninstallers and the like. Just make sure you know what you are doing before enabling those options.

Crap Cleaner has a build in uninstaller as well. It makes it easy to remove already uninstalled products from the remove software list in Windows.It is also possible to rename entries and start the uninstaller from within.

Conclusion:

Crap Cleaner is still one of the best programs to clear temporary and private data from Windows. The issues and uninstaller functionality is not needed in my opinion. An alternative for Crap Cleaner is Disk Cleaner, which concentrates on cleaning data.