Please help me with CCleaner

[Renea]

Hello and good day;

 

Please I need some help. I'm new to computers and I'm 58 years old.

After getting my computer back from repair guy for a new motherboard.

I found out that he had downloaded this program "CCleaner".

I viewed it then called him and asked why and he said he liked it.

 

Ok Heres my questions

1. Should I use it or stay with my scan disk & defrag?

2. Will it make my computer run faster?

3. I also was told since I never use it to stay away from it.

 

I'm just afraid to try it....

I'm and old dog and it hard to learn new tricks. LOL

I would be so greatfull for any help.

Someone PLEASE be honest with me.

 

Thank you for listenting

Renea

 

P.S. Today Im going to open it up and clean out the dust

[Andavari]

Welcome to the forums Renea.

 

To learn about CCleaner you can read the documentation about it to see all that it does here:

http://docs.piriform.com/ccleaner

 

As for your other maintenance questions using the disk error checker ("ScanDisk, ChkDsk"), and Defrag it's up to you how often to run them.

 

On modern systems with the file system NTFS they're more robust against erroneous errors appearing however after a bad shutdown such as a STOP error/BSOD or power outage I always run ChkDsk.

 

I personally defrag everyday which is actually overkill. Depending upon disk usage defrag may only need to be done once per week, month, etc.

[pwillener]

1. Should I use it or stay with my scan disk & defrag?

2. Will it make my computer run faster?

3. I also was told since I never use it to stay away from it.

1. I have used CCleaner for many years, and it keeps my computer clear of unneeded cr*p (that is what the first 'C' stands for). My recommendation: use it, but continue to use scandisk and defrag.
   
2. Not necessarily, but it will most likely make defragmentation faster.
   
3. CCleaner has several functions; I recommend that you use the 'Cleaner' function, but not the 'Registry' function - at least until become more used to the program.
   

Before you run the Cleaner for the first time, go to 'Options', then 'Cookies'. In there you will get a list of cookies that CCleaner will delete. Here you can select the cookies you want to keep (e.g. login cookies), and the ones that can be discarded. Move the ones to be discarded to the right side of the panel.

 

If you don't want to do this right away, go back to the Cleaner panel, and uncheck 'Cookies' from Internet Explorer (Windows tab) and any other web browsers you may use (Applications tab).

 

I'm and old dog and it hard to learn new tricks. LOL

I'm a much older dog than you (2 years!), and I'm never afraid to learn new tricks

[Alan_B]

I'm just afraid to try it....

I'm and old dog and it hard to learn new tricks. LOL

I would be so greatfull for any help.

Someone PLEASE be honest with me.

 

Using CCleaner is not a mistake, just do not go mad with the registry cleaning.

 

You are afraid of making mistakes - me too, but I can recover from disaster.

I use ERUNT, which every morning takes 8 seconds to create a full backup of the registry.

I have never used the backup - but it is nice to know I have valid disaster insurance up to date,

I also use Acronis to create backup images of my system on an external USB2 connected hard drive.

 

ERUNT is free and generally recommended.

 

Acronis - out of date but more than adequate versions are available free if they detect the use of certain brands of Hard drive.

You can buy (one time - not annual renewal) up to date versions to run with any brands.

There are many FREE alternatives that are recommended on Piriform forums - take your pick.

 

Whatever you use to backup your whole system, the backup image SHOULD be on a different physical hard drive,

otherwise one head crash could mean the end of life as you know it ! !

Before you buy any extra hard drive, bear in mind which brands can enable use of the Free Acronis.

You also need to ensure that your backup includes, or has the ability to create, a BOOT CD.

You need a BOOT CD if a malware disaster destroys the operating system,

and I always create a back-up image before I let a Patch Tuesday loose on my system ! !

 

In theory I can do a hard low level format on my Laptop's single drive,

and then spend 6 minutes to fully restore from the external hard drive.

In practice - I know I have a good life belt,

but I am not stupid enough to jump off the cliff to prove it !

 

I am however quite confident because my children bought me a 140 GB H.D.,

brand new, formatted and empty,

and when I swapped out the old 30 GB H.D. it only took a few minutes for the BOOT CD to restore my system on a larger drive,

and the only difference was I suddenly had an extra 110 GB free space for more partitions.

 

Regards and best wishes from an O.A.P.

Alan

[Carol25]

Hello and good day;

 

Please I need some help. I'm new to computers and I'm 58 years old.

After getting my computer back from repair guy for a new motherboard.

I found out that he had downloaded this program "CCleaner".

I viewed it then called him and asked why and he said he liked it.

 

Ok Heres my questions

1. Should I use it or stay with my scan disk & defrag?

2. Will it make my computer run faster?

3. I also was told since I never use it to stay away from it.

 

I'm just afraid to try it....

I'm and old dog and it hard to learn new tricks. LOL

I would be so greatfull for any help.

Someone PLEASE be honest with me.

 

Thank you for listenting

Renea

 

P.S. Today Im going to open it up and clean out the dust

 

Renea,

I too am an old dog, but I still try new things. I was introduced to CCleaner by my computer technician and was glad he told me about it. If you don't like it (can't see why you wouldn't) then just uninstall. Truly it's a great program.

 

Wishing you the best,

Carol25