Wayne Williams reveals the best free tools and quickest methods to take the hassle and tedium out of maintaining your PC without cutting corners
It’s important to give your PC a regular spring clean to keep it running efficiently, and there are plenty of excellent free clean-up tools that you can download to perform the job. Unfortunately, system maintenance is time-consuming and we’ve all got better things to do than watch progress bars creep across the screen, so it’s often a task that gets put off or skipped altogether.
In this feature, we show you how to spend less time and effort removing clutter, freeing up space, fixing errors and optimising your system, without compromising the thoroughness of the clean-up. We explain how to speed up your PC-optimising software; offer faster alternatives to built-in Windows tools; suggest new ways to clean your computer that you might not have tried before; and tell you what doesn’t need to be cleaned because it won’t benefit your system and may even have an adverse effect.
SPEED UP YOUR CLEAN-UP SOFTWARE
How to make your preferred PC-optimisation program faster, without compromising how deeply it cleans
Choose what to clean in CCleaner
CCleaner (www.piriform.com/ccleaner) is undoubtedly the most popular free PC clean-up tool, with millions of users worldwide. Much of its success comes from the fact that it’s extremely easy to use; it only takes a couple of clicks to analyse your system for unnecessary files and perform a thorough clean-up. While it requires less thought to accept CCleaner’s default settings when running a clean, you can save a lot of time by selecting specific elements to focus on. For example, if you don’t use Internet Explorer, which appears first in the list on CCleaner’s Windows tab, then don’t ask CCleaner to scan it. Any other unused programs that appear on the Applications tab can also be unticked. In our version of CCleaner, several programs including Adobe Acrobat, GIMP and McAfee AntiVirus were pre-selected, even though they’re not installed on our system!
The fewer areas that CCleaner has to target, the quicker it will perform the scan and clean, and it will remember your choices for next time. If you decide you need to clean the unticked items in future, just select them again.
Run CCleaner when your PC starts
Instead of launching CCleaner only when you need (or remember) to run it, you can set the program to start when you switch on your computer. That way it will be ready to use immediately - first thing in the morning, for example - to keep your PC running smoothly with the minimum of effort. To activate this, click the Options button in CCleaner’s left-hand menu, choose Settings and tick the box ’Run CCleaner when the computer starts’.
Configure CCleaner's advanced settings
CCleaner works perfectly without you needing to tweak anything, but it has several advanced settings that can save you time when performing PC maintenance. To find these, go to Options and click Advanced. Here, you can choose only to delete files in the Recycle Bin and Windows Temp folder that have been there for longer than 24 hours; hide warning messages and skip the User Account Control alert (if you trust that CCleaner knows what it’s doing); and have the program close when it’s finished cleaning, or shut down your PC altogether. This latter option is particularly useful when you run a clean-up at the end of the day, or before you head out somewhere.
Create a shortcut to run CCleaner on demand
Once you’ve configured CCleaner so that it’s set to clean only the areas you require, you can create a shortcut to perform your custom clean-up without needing to launch the program first. To do this, go to Options, Advanced and tick 'Save all settings to INI file’. Right-click a blank area of the Desktop and select New, Shortcut. Browse to CCleaner’s install location (probably C:\Program Files\CCIeaner), click CCIeaner.exe (or CCIeaner64.exe if you have a 64-bit version of Windows) and click OK. Add /AUTO to the end of the location (so, for example: “C:\Program Files\CCIeaner” /AUTO). Click Next, and give the shortcut a name, such as 'CCleaner fast’. Double-click the shortcut to launch it, and it will clean in the background without opening CCleaner’s interface.
Create a hotkey for running CCleaner
Once you’ve created a CCleaner shortcut using the instructions in the previous tip, you can assign it a hotkey so you can perform your speedy clean-up without even needing to click anything. To do this, right-click the shortcut’s icon and select Properties. Click inside the ‘Shortcut key’ box and type the key combination you wish to use, for example Ctrl+Shift+C
Use Clean Master to delete files on boot
One of CCleaner’s closest rivals for efficiency, simplicity and versatility is Clean Master (bit.ly/cleanmaster373), which scans more than 500 programs and boasts on its website that its “worldwide cleaning total exceeds 7 million TB“! This excellent free program has a useful feature that notifies you to scan for junk files when your PC starts up. This helps you get into a time-saving routine and ensures you always start each session with a clean slate. To turn on this option, click the arrow at the top of the program, go to Settings and tick 'Scan junk files after booting your computer’.
If you don’t want to be reminded every day, you can set a reminder frequency instead, from every two days to every two weeks. Alternatively, you can set a reminder for when junk exceeds a certain amount, from 100MB to 1GB.
Use Clean Master's Ignore function
If you’re forever telling your clean-up program not to wipe certain files, then Clean Master’s Ignore feature will come in handy. After the program has completed a scan, select any of the areas or applications you don’t want to clean, then click the Ignore button. Clicking the Details link lets you ignore specific items within those areas and applications.
Perform a quick clean in Glary Utilities
Glary Utilities (www.glarysoft.com) is another good free PC-optimisation program that can scan your system for junk and remove it. To speed up a sweep, open the Disk Cleanup option, click Check None and then carefully choose the areas to target. Tick ‘System temporary’, ‘User temporary’, Recycle Bin, ‘Windows Installer temporary’ and select any browsers you use. Everything else can be ignored without affecting the software’s efficiency at cleaning and speeding up your system.
Clean specific folders in Glary Utilities
As well as choosing which sections Glary Utilities should target, you can also set the program to clean custom files and folders (CCleaner offers the same feature). This is handy if you use a particular folder to store temporary items. Just open Disk Cleanup, click ‘Custom Files and Folders’ and add the items you want to clean.
Run a speedy clean with System Mechanic
The free version of System Mechanic (bit.ly/sysmech373) offers two individual tools for cleaning your computer - ‘Clean out PC File Clutter’ and ‘Find and Remove Junk Files’. The latter removes obsolete and unnecessary files and offers Quick and Deep clean modes. Select this, then click Analyse next to Quick Clear to see how much junk will be removed. Click Next. The cleaning process should take less than a minute to complete and won’t miss anything important.
Use System Ninja to quickly find and remove duplicate files
System Ninja (singularlabs.com) is a lightweight cleaning tool that lets you use plug-ins to add extra features to it, including a Registry cleaner, file renamer and duplicate finder. This latter option is particularly useful because it finds identical copies of files that are taking up space on your hard drive. It offers a Specific mode that lets you save time by only looking for files that match your criteria, rather than every duplicate on your system.
Use Baidu Cleaner's Clean Genius
Baidu Cleaner (cleaner.baidu.com) might not be the best-known PC-optimisation tool, but it has a clever feature called Clean Genius that automatically detects junk as it accrues on your system. This means that when you come to run a full clean, the list of removable items takes just seconds to appear, even on the most cluttered systems. Baidu Cleaner will then tell you if (or when) you need to take action.
DIFFERENT WAYS TO CLEAN
Rather than using your usual clean-up program, speed things up with one of these alternative methods
Clean your PC from the web
Agomo (www.agomo.com) is a free, web-based version of CCleaner that lets you remotely manage and maintain your PC, as well as computers belonging to your friends and family members (with their permission, naturally). This saves you having to install and run the CCleaner software, thereby giving your hard drive a rest, and you can use Agomo’s tools from anywhere. The service was recently updated and now provides an online version of Piriform’s Defraggler disk defragmentation tool. See our Mini Workshop below to find out how to use Agomo.
Schedule your PC clean-ups
Instead of having to manually run a clean-up, you can schedule a sweep to be performed automatically. Although you can do this via the Windows Task Scheduler by using the built-in Disk Cleanup feature, it’s not as good as a third-party program such as CCleaner.
Run a quick clean from the command line
You can start Windows’ own Disk Cleanup tool and specify the drive you want to clean by using the command line, which actually saves a lot of time. Click Start and click Run, or just press the Windows key+R. In the Open box, type c: Windows\SYSTEM32\cleanmgr. exe /dX (replace X with the letter of the drive you want to clean) and press Enter. Select the areas you want to clean and click OK or press Enter again.
Defrag your hard drive during downtime
Glarysoft’s free Disk SpeedUp tool (www.glarysoft.com) can defrag your hard drive automatically during idle moments and rearrange the contents to produce the speediest results. To activate this feature, click Options and choose ‘Auto defrag’. Select ‘Auto defrag when system is idle’ and specify how long the program should wait before it starts defragging. You can also pause the process when your memory or drive usage exceeds a certain level.
WHAT NOT TO USE
Windows offers several built-in clean-up tools, but they can be frustratingly slow. Here's what to use instead
Disk Cleanup
It’s hard to compare the speed at which different clean-up tools do their job because each one will target different areas of your hard drive and clean different things. One program may only be faster than another because it’s less thorough and ignores certain areas. Clean Master (bit.ly/cleanmaster373) is a very speedy tool that finds and removes an abundance of junk - certainly much more than the Windows built-in Disk Cleanup tool which focuses primarily on Windows files, and is both slow and ineffectual.
Disk Defragmenter
The built-in Windows 7 Disk Defragmenter is notoriously basic and slow. The version in Windows 8 and 8.1 is faster and handles SSDs better (you should never defrag an SSD, but you can "trim" it - a process that maintains optimum write performance and prevents fragmentation), but there are better, and faster tools available. Auslogic Disk Defrag Free (bit.ly/ auslogics373), for example, has a very speedy defrag engine and offers a wider selection of options.
MSConfig
The System Configuration tool, which you access by typing msconf ig into the Run box, lets you manage which programs run when Windows starts. Removing unnecessary items can make the operating system ready to use more quickly. However, WinPatrol (winpatrol.com) is even more efficient because as well as disabling or removing any auto-starting entries, it also lets you delay non-essential items for up to an hour. In Windows 8+, the Task Manager lets you see which programs run alongside the operating system and the impact they have on startup.
WHAT NOT TO CLEAN
Many clean-up tools perform unnecessary and ineffective tasks. To speed things up, you can skip the following
Windows Registry
Many PC-maintenance tools provide an option to clean the Registry, but there’s rarely any need to touch it. Even if there are hundreds of incorrect and outdated entries in the Registry (and some tools exaggerate the number of errors they find to look more efficient than their rivals), it is unlikely to slow down your PC or cause problems. Whereas deleting a single important Registry entry by mistake can spell disaster.
There may be some benefit in cleaning the Registry very occasionally as part of a full maintenance routine on an older PC that hasn’t had any care or attention for a long time. But think about it - if it was necessary to clean the Registry regularly, Microsoft would surely have included a Registry cleaner with Windows. In actual fact, the company did offer a free, optional tool called RegClean for Windows 95 and 98, but this was discontinued when it was deemed unnecessary in later versions of the OS. You can still download it from bit.ly/regclean373, if for some strange reason you’re still using Windows 98, but be aware that “it is very possible that RegClean will not correct a problem that you have encountered”.
Defragging your Registry is even more pointless, and any speed boost you get from reordering the database will be negligible.
System memory
Memory cleaners are designed to free up RAM, and therefore speed up your system, but the truth is that Windows does a fine job of managing memory without outside interference. If your system starts to run slowly, closing and reopening your browser or rebooting your PC is likely to produce much better results than downloading, installing and running a pointless tool.
Recycle Bin
You can empty the bin whenever you like, provided you’re sure you aren’t going to want any of its contents again. However, you don’t have to be obsessively vigilant about it because Windows automatically clears out older files when the bin reaches its capacity. If you want to free up space, just reduce the bin's size. Right-click the bin icon, select Properties and set a new size. Older files that no longer fit in the bin will be deleted automatically. If you have multiple hard drives, you’ll need to apply the change to each one.
Your browser cache
The purpose of the cache in Chrome, Firefox, IE and other browsers is to store local copies of websites, so when you revisit pages the browser can load them from the hard drive, which is faster than downloading them from scratch, and saves bandwidth. For this reason, clearing the cache will actually slow down your browsing. Browsers automatically purge old data anyway, and the cache will never grow beyond a set size. The only reason to clear the cache is if you want to wipe all traces of sites you’ve been to, in conjunction with erasing your browsing history.
PRE-EMPTIVE MAINTENANCE
Cut the time it takes to run a full PC clean-up by performing these quick tweaks every now and then
Uninstall unwanted programs
You can free up a lot of space and memory by removing programs you don’t use regularly, and use a third-party uninstaller such as lObit Uninstaller (bit.ly/iobit373) or Revo Uninstaller to remove any leftover junk. Look for portable versions of programs so you can run them directly from a USB flash drive rather than have them cluttering up your hard drive.
Clear out unused Program Files folders
Take a look inside the Program Files folder (32-bit systems have one; 64-bit PCs have two) and you will probably find folders for programs you installed
a long time ago. These may be empty or contain leftover program data such as licence details or temporary files. You can simply and safely delete them.
Remove unwanted Windows components
You can speed up maintenance by removing unwanted and unnecessary elements form Windows, such as Internet Explorer and Windows Media Center. In Windows 7, go to Start, Control Panel, click ‘Programs and Features’, and then select ‘Turn Windows features on or off’. Untick any items you don’t want, click OK and restart your PC.
In Windows 8+, open Search and type Windows features. Click Settings, then select ‘Turn Windows features on or off’.
Stop programs starting alongside Windows
Instead of stopping programs that are automatically running on system boot (by using MSconfig, for example), prevent them from adding themselves to start-up in the first place by using WinPatrol (see above).