Freeware Disk Cleaning Compared – Ccleaner Alternatives

Disk cleaners are not the most glamorous of  tools and some think they are a waste of time. How much junk do we need to get rid of when a 500gb hard drive can be had for around £50?

Photo by Schnittke

One reason may be privacy, perhaps you are looking for something you don’t want you’re kids or other half to see in your browsing history, like a birthday present or secret medical condition (you thought I was gonna say pron – admit it). When searching for transformers you may not want Googles drop down suggestion list to say transexuals – nice way to break it to the other half though :/

What can be classed as junk? Anything that is no longer needed – old installation files, temporary files and folders, browsing history and cached files.

If freeing up those kb’s is your o.c.d, as it is for me, then a lot of space can be freed with these programs. I can remember a number of occasions after installing ccleaner on a computer (usually when emptying temp folders to try to remove a virus infection) and found that 2 or 3 gigabyte has been removed from a sluggish computer.

Security may be an issue to you also. Your browser can store log in details and cookies in the cache that if in the wrong hands add to the wealth of private info people can exploit.

If any of the above are an issue to you then the following list of programs may be able to help.

Ccleaner by piriform is the most widely used (in my opinion) disk cleaner out there at the moment. And rightly so. Frequently updated to include more and more software (Google Chrome for example) this cleaner will remove a lot of junk. Also available in portable edition it is a handy app to have on a usb stick if surfing on someone else’s computer and privacy is an issue.
Other features include registry cleaning and startup editing. These may not be as comprehensive as some registry cleaners Eusing registry cleaner for example or Autoruns by Microsoft for startup entries – but they do provide quick access in one program.
A program uninstaller is included which again is not as fully featured as my favourite – Revo but provides a better way of listing items than waiting for the Add/Remove screen to crawl into action.
Formally known as crap cleaner it also has the ability to securely delete the items it scans which is good for the paranoid. It can also run automatically then close or run from the browser if the toolbar is installed (which I don’t bother with as I have enough toolbars already :)). Ccleaner is regularly updated and will tell you when it needs updating – a little too frequently for some people.
This is a definite in anyone’s computer toolkit if you ask me.

Fcleaner is a relatively new (at least to me) cleaner but looks quite impressive. Again it has a basic uninstaller and can automatically clean from startup but the interface is not as polished as crap cleaner (yet) and I’m not convinced it gets rid of as much things as crap cleaner.
This may be one to consider if ccleaner isn’t your thing.

Kcleaner is another free alternate to ccleaner (detected the naming theme yet? :)). Kcleaner seems to clean almost as much as ccleaner whilst being much simpler. It  concentrates on cleaning alone and can be set to run in the system tray continually monitoring for junk. This set and forget feature may be the winner for many people but another app in my already maxed systray or an even longer boot up for me is not an option. It does seem light, quick and simple to use and warns when an update is possible.
Overall a different approach but not enough to take ccleaners crown.

Ncleaner from nkprods.com hasn’t been updated since July 07 so not so good if you want to clear the browsing history of google chrome. Don’t let this put you off too much though as this is possibly the most thorough of all the cleaners listed here. After running all the other cleaners listed here Ncleaner was ran and found another 14mb of flash files. Caution could be the key here however as on the forums for this program are a few users complaining of losing a little too much. I must say that I have ran this on two computers for over a year and never had a problem.

Two slightly more comprehensive program are Glary utilities and Advanced Windows Care V3. Both these are similar in nature aiming to be a one stop shop for all your junk cleaning, registry cleaning, secure deletion needs as well as having uninstallation tools and general system optimizers.
These programs intend to have all the tools you will need on a computer to speed it up and make things work the way you want it to. Advanced Windows Care also claims to have some spyware removal capabilities but I certainly wouldn’t rely on it for any thorough detection or removal. Both programs also have “one click fix” buttons so you don’t have to go through the numerous elements individually.
Glary Utilities has the upper hand here though and is my winner as it has less of a flashy interface and is easy to understand and navigate whilst performance and features seem to be similar.

If I had to pick one it would be a close call between CCleaner and Glary Utilities but Ccleaner outshines overall.

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