Highly recommended, but do be careful to make sure you think about what you have checked.

DWHarrison

@neosoul: It is to me!

Charlie_Bucket

I've been using it for a couple years. Highly recommended!

Speedmaster

So this one seems pretty safe then? Only I have read all sorts of horror stories about the 'disk cleanup' utility that comes built into Vista and how checking certain boxes leads to the removal of vitally important parts of the operating system and similar which means that I only use it to remove old system restore points.

Nat-London

@neosoul: It's not significant... unless it gets loaded everytime you boot, and is cluttering up frequently-accessed system folders or other folders you open frequently. It's not just about the disk space... Not to mention when you have less files you have a smaller MFT, and that helps even if marginally.

More importantly, I like the feeling of knowing %APPDATA% (and %TEMP) just had its rectum flushed =)

kureshii

I frankly don't understand the mentality behind obsessively wiping such useful items as Temporary Internet Files, Cookies, History, Recent Documents, autocompletes and on and on. It's like you're just looking for a way to make your computing experience slower and more frustrating in exchange for a few squeezings of memory. In that screenshot, there's only one item I see that gets out of control ("Temporary Files"). Everything else is there to make your life easier, and if you think those squeezings are worth it you'd be better off looking at the settings which limit them rather than just blindly wiping them out all the time.

Rhywun

This app is avaliable Portuguese language.

Rodrigo Lupatini

@neosoul: Yes, I think several gigs of wasted disk space is significant. As long as you use this for the simple cleanups (no registry cleaning and little system settings cleaning), there's not much to worry about if you know a little about your computer. I use it every few weeks and love it.

SenorDunda

Oh, and don't forget to uncheck the crap ware yahoo toolbar during install.

dognose

It just managed to find 3GB to clear out off my PC. Maybe it's time for a reformat anyway...

Xenon

I'm skeptical about this and all other cleaners of its type. Honestly folks, 1.6GB a lot of disk space to you? :/

neosoul

Back when I used Windows ::shudders slightly:: this was one of my absolute favorite apps. Makes the top 10 list for sure. Highly recommended.

dwroth

The best cleaner I have used by far! I recommend it to everyone I know.

jmiranda

I love CCleaner, but this is one of those apps that is updates too frequently. Seems like every time I open it, which is weekly, it wants to download a newer version. Oh, well...I guess it beats the alternative.

eeefresh

Sorry, first line in the 2nd paragraph should be "When in doubt, leave it unchecked."

kureshii

Oh, um, I'd advise first-timers to be careful with the "Advanced" options under the "Cleaner" tab. XP keeps a lot of settings you'll often take for granted, such as remembered window location and sizes, tray icons you chose to hide all the time, as well as customised folders, in addition to other things.

When in doubt, leave it checked. In fact, I have all the "advanced" options unchecked. Be especially careful with the hotfix uninstallers; I seem to recall (last I visited Piriform's support website) that it makes it impossible for you to uninstall hotfixes once you carry that option out.

Likewise with the registry cleaner; I learned the hard way that certain things should not be cleaned up if you don't know what they are, such as those cryptic ActiveX classes, shared DLLs and unused extensions. Also leave the MUI cache alone if you don't know what to do with it.

I still love CCleaner (even though it hard cleans anything more than 100mb for me anymore), but I wish I knew all that stuff above earlier when I first downloaded it.

kureshii

I have used this in the past and it has worked well.

I just bought two Dells and through the myriad of online configuration options you can now remove most of the cruff (AV, Entertainment, ISP, etc). I won't be needing ccleaner this time.

And XP Professional was only a $20 add-on :)

zakharm

Might want to note that there's a portable build and a slim build as well - available from the "Builds" link on the download page ([www.ccleaner.com]).

kureshii

This app should be in everyones virtual toolbox.

synth7

For the 3 years I've been using CCleaner, I've never had a problem with the registry cleaner. It's great.

BenRad

I also find it greatly decreases the likelihood of spyware living in my computer.

gpzbc

Agreed it's probably not worth obsessive attention, but occasional attention can stave off larger and more mysterious problems down the road.

For example, if you're sloppy with your Outlook attachment handling you'll slow and then stop your ability to open new attachments - and Outlook may start crashing randomly. The temp files are stored with the IE cache (but not in it), so if you have this problem and don't know where to look to solve it, something like CC is the safest way to do so.

@Rhywun: The question isn't so much "why" as it is "how". IF Windows allows you to see the stuff, and allows you to delete it, there are many different places to look - and if you don't do a thorough and correct job of it you can introduce instability ranging from broken MRUs and histories to crashing apps.

These features can make your life easier - until they make it harder...

darsal

LOVE IT!

I have never had a problem with the registry cleaner.... but it allows me to backup the registry just in case.

Highly recommended.

gpzbc

Please be very careful with this program and know exactly what you are doing. I stupidly ran the registry cleaner on my machine at work, for which I don't have admin privileges, and it got hosed up. I use it to cleanup temp files, etc but watch out for the registry cleaner and do a clean boot before using it.

shackleton

I agree , its a must have on any PC's tool kit

jonthomasdesigns

@Rhywun: I think it is analogous to using q-tips in the ears - it feels good to do and makes us want to do it more. There may be no real benefit however it is nice to know that deep cleaning is only a click away.

Fierock

Great utility. The secure deletion options are useful but slow. Otherwise I have had no problems with it in the 1+ yrs I have used it. DONATE!

new282

I use both cleaners ruthlessly. I've cleaned up about 7 gigs of crap on one machine that had never been cleaned before. It always fixes heaps of registry junk... I still save a backup just incase.

JiveMasterT

I'm a long-time loyal CCleaner user and I'm feeling a little guilty that I haven't already ponied up a donation to the author...

I especially like to fire off CCleaner right after a fresh XP load to tidy up a bunch of the junk that gets dumped on the drive from the get-go. (Be sure to turn off System Restore prior to doing this to get the most benefit!)

Note that CCleaner is bundled with the Yahoo! toolbar for IE. I recommend that you deselect that option during the install.

Rob O.

And Lifehacker is reading my mind again...... I just installed this last night on a portable usb stick. Great program.

555Filk

Best program I have on my computer by far. I love ccleaner and recommend it to anyone; even if you don't know anything about your computer, you can still use it with great results!

uncballzer

This is a great program. I have used it for quite some time with more than my fair share of success. I agree with others that I should have donated to the author(s) as a way of saying thanks and to offer my support for additional builds of this program. Nifty utility, very few issues to report.

tmlfan81

Also, does anyone know if there's anything like this for the Mac?

Jabronimus

I just ran CCleaner on my PC, including its Registry Cleaner, before I read all these comments (stupid me). Since many of you had problems with the registry cleaner in the past, what kinds of issues should I look out for now?

Jabronimus

@eeefresh: I agree. I wish updates were internal. If you didn't have to freakin reinstall every day, it'd be a real treat! Great app, just needs better update options.

JoshuaB

I use ccleaner every since I saw it recommended my Consumer reports (not that they are my bible), and it does a great job.
If you are a novice, just use it with its default settings, as some cleaning action can erase years of customizations you invested in your OS..

LordieLordie

Be sure, sure, sure you click the "Applications" tab and check what CCleaner wants to do there before you let it do it. My husband didn't, and lost all his cache and cookies from Firefox.

infmom

you gotta check out their defrag app Defraggler. 's amazing fast

you can turn off automatic updates in ccleaner, you don't really need to upgrade every time a .0x release comes out. I only check for updates once a month or so.

what i love is the speed with which it launches, how lightweight it is in RAM and on disk & how fast it cleans

_||_

i think we should all chip in and buy Gina some RAM for Christmas.

BTW Ccleaner is way better than what i used to use :)

B1663R

Any significant change to warrant upgrading from the previous version? I have the old version configured just right.

tonynyc

As great as it sounds, I never liked programs that change the registry. There are just too many things that could go wrong. Unless you know what every registry key is for, and whether or not it is being used, I wouldn't screw with them.

The other features of the app are certainly convenient, though.

As far as I'm concerned, however, the best way to clean a computer of all crap(ware), is to reimage every six months.

Just my $0.02

ish91

@tonynyc The new ver. will keep your config.

Beware the Yahoo toolbar bar bundled. You must make sure it is de-selected -- easy to miss.

Viajero

CCleaner is great, as is all the software that Prirform makes.

Aanidaani

Nice! I've been using this program for 2 years i think i am not sure i love it. It comes with its portable version too so you can keep it wherever you go :)

ChambrasWeed

The only problem I have is that CCleaner needs to be run for each user account. As the 'owner' of the admin account on our home PC, I like to do some (not very) regular maintenance. But with CCleaner I need to get each family member to run it themselves.

Otherwise, it's a great tool.

aslsw

forgot to say i much prefer ccleaner to msconfig when it comes to editing start up items

gorilly

been using it for ages, it only seems to get better... most i have seen it remove from a clients pc 4.1GB... beat that!

gorilly

This works pretty well i'll say my computer is jammed with crap... this program got rid of 6.3 gigs! (p.s. hahahahaha i got more removed then you!)

mzeal93

I was quite impressed by how much it removed, then I realized i no longer have Adobe Flash player and can't manage to re-install it. No YouTube for me! Goes to show you: Be careful of free crap.

RSM2000

Holy crap, I got rid of 21870MB. I don't know whether to be proud or ashamed. I'll just blame Vista for it.

RSM2000

It's a good idea to turn off the "Old Prefetch Data", since regularly clearing that actually slows your system.

Apart from that I use this app nearly daily (mostly for the "Menu Order Cache").

stepnet

One of the best. Long live freeware!
[www.ccleaner.com]

Featherstonehaugh

Comment on CCleaner 2.0 Decrapifies Your PC This is an excellent program! Removed a lot of junk. I believe version 2 is also portable "out of the box". Also, you can erase cookies and recycle bin up to 35 times, so it seems to have "eraser" functionality as well. The only problem I have had with CCleaner is when I was testing the options to clean, I was unable to uninstall certain windows updates. (oops).

JacquelineToad

For installed Windows hotfixes, I usually rename the directories in %windir% for a few weeks (typically $NTUninstallKB...) until I'm sure that I won't need to uninstall the hotfix, then delete it.

Ran CCleaner for the first time and it flagged about 12MB of files. Big whoop.

mmbb

I've been using CCleaner for a couple years now and love it. The registry cleaner leaves something to be desired though, as all it finds for me are unused extensions (some of which I know are in use sometimes...hmmm...)

Interesting that people are complaining about the number of updates to the program. I guess I turned the update notification off a long time ago. Still works great without all that upgrading.

OX4

@ish91:

I've been using version 1.41.544, and I always click on the issues button to scan and clean the registry before every shutdown, have never run into any problems, it only cleans out the obvious stuff, after I clean the reg with CC, I scan with v16 PowerTools and it shows a bunch of entries that CC did not.

tonynyc

i really like it. easy to use, seems to speed up computer and fix common issues.

techman9

I've never had a problem with CC registry clean, I suspect it's not very aggressive. Always backup first and run twice to catch everything.

Off topic: Anyone know if it's possible to get Sysinternals PageDefrag to work in Vista?

algypug

I use it and love it! I have an How To use CCleaner for Portuguese users at my blog: [gonext.info]

g0n3xt

@uncballzer: I totally agree.

CCleaner is incredible. That and Revo Uninstaller are a great knockout punch for crap on your system.

radio1

I used it yesterday. It is amazing! I had too many cookies and more 'bad things'.

kai@ormecourt.com

juanz

Hello, first comment, I have Vista and I was wondering if CCleaner works fine on Vista, 'cause their web says they're having some minor issues... are those relevant? help?

albertojb

@albertojb: I've been running it on Vista for about 8 months and never had a problem with it. Now with this new version I can't say.

PopcornDave

I think some of the naysayers above are missing the point of something like this. While it's great for us techie folk, it's pure gold when you bring it to grandma's and clean three years worth of accumulated crud off her pc.

SuburbanSocialite

This is a good program although it does have many advanced options that could confuse a simple, less knowledgeable, computer user and enable him to really screw up his computer. This is why I would suggest a program called ATF Cleaner. It is a very simple program that allows you to get most of the junk that something such as CCleaner will find, but it has much less of a chance of screwing a simple minded user's computer up. Additionally its very lightweight (about 50 kb). Here is a link:[www.atribune.org]

binsch

CCleaner was the second thing I installed on my new laptop, right after AVG-Free, and for good reason.

I have been using CCleaner for well over a year, before Piriform took over, and absolutely love it!

Despite the outstanding disk cleaner, the startup programs manager and registry cleaner are both excellent, and have only improved over time. I have yet to find a better replacement for this little gem!

underdog23

This is probably the first piece of software I put on any PC that I load windows onto. (that includes Mom's, friend's,...etc.) It does free up alot of space and clean your registry pretty well.

brian7000

When I set up friends and relatives' new PCs, I include this in my standard 'package' of software. Great little program.

onesix18

This and Tor are the two best programs they make that I use on a regular basis. I recommended EVERYONE to use this baby.

TheManator

CCleaner is nice, but it is certainly not IMO one of the best registry cleaners. Pros out there recommend 'Argente Registry Cleaner'. I'd add JV16PowerTools, Uniblue Registry Booster, and Wise Registry Cleaner, all far above CCleaner.

If I have a deep registry cleaning to manage, I use all 5, and all 5 (even CCleaner) happen to find what others don't. Some are specialized in deep registry analyze and omit superficial inconsistencies, others on the opposite (like CCleaner) handle the latter just fine. All have their engine specialty ...

DonDiego

This is one of the rare softwares that work as advertised. I have been using ccleaner for more than a year now and it has worked. I have created scheduled tasks which run very early in the morning and clean up the junk accumulated everyday from browsing/install/uninstalls etc.

arungupta