Review of cleaner on PCmech.com

http://pcmech.com/show/opensource/888/

For this week's Freeware Frenzy, I will be taking a look at CCleaner v1.27. The extra C stands for "Crap", and the program's aim is just to eliminate just that. After months and months of work, games, downloading, uninstalling, surfing the web, etc, our PCs are weighed down with junk. Our hard drives are jammed full of old programs, remnants of data gone by, cookies, histories of files long gone and a host of other useless information. CCleaner allows you to purge this junk from a variety of areas in one convenient program. So let's take a look and see if it stands up to all it claims.

Installation was quick and easy after a tiny download. I appreciated how CCleaner asked my permission to install various shortcuts, and even adding itself to the right click menu of the Recycle Bin. My hard drive is 80GB currently and it has been a few months since I last reformatted and reinstalled Windows. In the mean time I have spent plenty of time using the machine. Writing this column each week means I am downloading and uninstalling software very often, so I knew that CCleaner would have no trouble finding some junk to remove. Just how much, I had no idea.

http://www.pcmech.com/admin/imageview.php?image=4407

When I first ran CCleaner, it was a simple interface with almost no learning curve, a good sign. Along the left you'll find Cleaner, Issues, Tools and Options. The Cleaner option searches your drive for various items within Windows, including but not limited to Temporary files, IE Cookies and History, Recent Documents and Log Files. It also searches for histories and unnecessary files in some of your Applications. CCleaner found Adobe, Nero, ZoneAlarm, QuickTime, Ad-Aware and others on my system, and included them in the search. I was impressed that CCleaner could implement so many existing programs without any intervention on my part.

The Issues section of CCleaner is even more useful. This searches the registry for things like obsolete entries, missing DLLs, missing shortcut references, old installers etc. When we uninstall programs, they often leave behind registry entries and other scraps on the system that we have no use for. Over time, as we build up these scraps, they can cause conflicts and take up space.

My analysis took only a few seconds and CCleaner found a total of 483MB of junk that I could remove. This included 93MB in my recycle bin, but it is still a huge number. I was surprised that I could accumulate so much junk so quickly.

The Tools section of CCleaner contains an Uninstall list, which allows you to not only uninstall apps like Windows' own Add/Remove Programs, but it also allows you to rename and/or delete entries. It also has a list of your startup programs and allows you to remove undesired apps. Quick Tip, if your system is booting too slowly, take a look here for anything that you don't need to load when you boot up. Plenty of applications tend to create an entry here without your knowledge and gum up the works.

Finally, the Options are quite sparse, but CCleaner is a simple program, designed to do one thing well. You can set CCleaner to run at startup, so your system is cleaned everyday, delete or keep selected internet cookies, add custom folders and files to be cleaned, and few other odds and ends.

So to sum up, CCleaner removes junk from your system. It's that simple. CCleaner does it quickly and easily. It searches thoroughly and gets the job done with little effort on your part. I think it is worthy of running at least once. Who knows what kind of stuff is hiding on your system that you don't know about. You can grab it at www.ccleaner.com and it is only 530KB.

I hope you realize that reproducing/copying a whole review or other information from a copyrighted website, etc., can be looked down upon. Now rather they'd actually get lawyers involved is another situation altogether if they feel damaged, and with lawsuits flying around rampant these days it's better to play it safe because allot of people are "sue happy." Most don't mind if you copy an excerpt with a link to the original article, then again some don't even like you to copy an excerpt at all and would prefer that you only provide a link.

I think it is merely a matter of putting the copied portion into a QUOTE tag; then it doesn't look like "stolen".

My analysis took only a few seconds and CCleaner found a total of 483MB of junk that I could remove.

lol 483MB? That's nothing. Check this out... I downloaded and installed CCleaner today... I had 2.5GB of crap that could safely be removed! :lol:

lol 483MB? That's nothing. Check this out... I downloaded and installed CCleaner today... I had 2.5GB of crap that could safely be removed! :lol:

Holy crap! How big is your hard drive? You must have had a bunch of stuff in your Recycle Bin or something.

But yeah, CCleaner is great like that. Tell all your friends. :)

I hope you realize that reproducing/copying a whole review or other information from a copyrighted website, etc., can be looked down upon. Now rather they'd actually get lawyers involved is another situation altogether if they feel damaged, and with lawsuits flying around rampant these days it's better to play it safe because allot of people are "sue happy." Most don't mind if you copy an excerpt with a link to the original article, then again some don't even like you to copy an excerpt at all and would prefer that you only provide a link.

I provided a url and never claimed it was my own, but i guess you are right.

I hope you realize that reproducing/copying a whole review or other information from a copyrighted website, etc., can be looked down upon. Now rather they'd actually get lawyers involved is another situation altogether if they feel damaged, and with lawsuits flying around rampant these days it's better to play it safe because allot of people are "sue happy." Most don't mind if you copy an excerpt with a link to the original article, then again some don't even like you to copy an excerpt at all and would prefer that you only provide a link.

Another example of this is on Tarun's site, is it me or does that post and the news story on BetaNews look more or less the same? With no credit given to BetaNews ;) .

Another example of this is on Tarun's site, is it me or does that post and the news story on BetaNews look more or less the same? With no credit given to BetaNews ;) .

Um, and if copying is also illegla, isn't it also illegal for their to be a part of his post in all of your posts? Isn't that like copying the copier? So all you people are just as guilty.

Um, and if copying is also illegla, isn't it also illegal for their to be a part of his post in all of your posts? Isn't that like copying the copier? So all you people are just as guilty.

Are you talking about quoting someone elses post in a forum?

in all of your posts?

Are you referring to me? if so what are you talking about, i posted a link to the news story on his site, not the actual story. When ever i do post some news which i read on another site i only quote a snippet of the story with a link going to the original site.

Are you talking about quoting someone elses post in a forum?

Hey, I never quite got how you can "own" intellectual" property. If we keep on, how will we be able to talk cause everyone will own a word or phrase or even a tune and we can no longer play or talk. Besides, once you release an idea, noone can stop it from spreading, cause thats like impossible.

I agree that piracy is wrong, but it is just as wrong to label sharing as piracy. The fact is, if you buy a cd, it belongs to you. I never heard of shared ownership before that you BUY something to make it yours, but they still own it and can tell you what to do with it. Do you let them tell you what you can do with YOUR wife also? Wow.

Oh, and don't get windows vista unless they change it to NOT being "trusted computing platform based" which means that ccleaner can't work because they are trying to lock out all freeware companies in competition with them under the guise that it is "safer" I know ccleaner is much safer than 99% of microsoft crap so I don't buy that. Plus they are trying to get video companies to make monitors that will refuse to display video if it is a coped disk. If you bought a dvd, why cant you have a backup? Your dog can easily destroy one, as can scratches etc. Plus, they might never make that movie again later on. I never understood how you can own a thing but they can still tell you what to do.

Who is gonna be the first to sue them for not telling the truth, that they disobey the truth in advertising act. They aren't selling you a cd, they are renting it. The dirty f****** bastards. Please excuse my anger, I can't say any dirty words, but that is just how angry they got me.

Oh, and don't forget if sony sues you, be sure to sue back and point out that while they sue everyone for $200,000 per song for "potential" lost revenue, they only offered 11 free songs that didn't cost them jack on their website to people who were affected by their rootkits. I want to buy one of their cd's with it so it can destroy my computer data, cause it potentially can do millions of dollars worth of damage to my computer business. Hey, I got everything backed up, but jut don't tell Sony that yet. If they can sue for millions, why can't I sue them for the same thing, or isn't it the same thing?

Hmmm, no more sony for me. Be sure to support the new hd format that they said can have 300 gig dvd's and not blue ray that sony does, or it may have content protection, even if it is an mp3 that YOU created from your own band.

Well, any time I can help you guys, I am so proud of your tech response. I got over 100 views yesterday. I am so happy. I love you guys, and I can't help it. Hee hee.:P

He never claimed to have created the content.

The "Quote" clearly makes it clear that it is a quote.

He also provided a link to the source.

It is fair use.

Well, any time I can help you guys, I am so proud of your tech response. I got over 100 views yesterday. I am so happy. I love you guys, and I can't help it. Hee hee.

I'm not surprised you got 100 veiws the amount of posts you made. Are you trying for a world record of posts in a forum ?

I'm not surprised you got 100 veiws the amount of posts you made. Are you trying for a world record of posts in a forum ?

I doubt it. He's only up to 28. :D

One day I made (I believe) 41 posts, although I'm not sure if that is something to brag about. It wasn't spam, I promise!

I'm not surprised you got 100 veiws the amount of posts you made. Are you trying for a world record of posts in a forum ?

any prize for that...? :lol:

any prize for that...? :lol:

I'll send him a digital pat on the back.

110001010010101.

I'll send him a digital pat on the back.

110001010010101.

Heh heh, thanks pal, everyone needs a pat now and then. You really made me laugh with your silly replies. :D

:lol: he sure look silly... :lol:

The fact is, if you buy a cd, it belongs to you.

Actually if you by a cd (I'm talking about an audio CD) you don't own it, you've only purchased a license to use it an unlimited amount of times. The same goes for software you purchase.

Actually if you by a cd (I'm talking about an audio CD) you don't own it, you've only purchased a license to use it an unlimited amount of times. The same goes for software you purchase.

True. Stupid, but true.