Best software cleaner so far?

[Clorky]

Hello, I'm in doubt about which cleaning utility should i use. Sometimes my PC is pretty slow, overhauled with registers, I'm using CCleaner, for Defragmentation O O Defrag, which seems to be the best.

So my question is simple - should i stick with CCleaner or is there a better cleaning software out there? Thanks for help.

 

[Auric]

In before hoi polloi claim cleaners are useless/folly.

I concur those are pretty much the best. Other cleaners may find additional crap (such as Wise Registry Cleaner which also includes a registry defrag/compactor) but usually not much critical. Indeed, besides CCleaner any additional can be handled manually (not for sissies).

However, unless there are fairly severe issues such as an accumulation of incompletely uninstalled startup items/services/non-pnp drivers then noticeable slow down is unlikely in the short term. Still, better to maintain than join the "reformat gang".

 

[rgallant]

you have fairly good hardware , I'd do a flesh windows install ,new bios update ,chipset drivers , vid drivers , sound drivers , and what ever .

 

[theevilsharpie]

I've maintained my present Windows install since Windows 7 was first released, and that's including a transfer from one computer to another.

Re-installing Windows to fix a performance is like using the Death Star to kill an ant. It's complete overkill.

 

[Binky]

In the long run, registry "cleaning" is likely to do more harm than good. Any defrag is fine. I have no idea what you mean by "overhauled with registers."

 

[theevilsharpie]

In the long run, registry "cleaning" is likely to do more harm than good. Any defrag is fine. I have no idea what you mean by "overhauled with registers."

Maybe this is the OP's PC

 

[cl-scott]

In before hoi polloi claim cleaners are useless/folly.

Well to be fair, they are.

The registry is just a rather simple flat file database, so I really do wonder why it is people seem to attach all these almost mystical properties to it. The level of impact it has on performance of the OS is negligible save a few extreme situations that wouldn't be helped by a registry cleaner anyway.

I'd tend to argue that defragmenting is often a waste of time, since few tasks the average person does is in any way disk intensive. If someone is doing a lot of high end video editing, running a large database server, or even a large web server, then fine. Someone who browses the web, maybe bashes out the odd email or letter using MS Word, possibly watches some videos on YouTube... The vast majority of computer users in other words... They aren't going to see any gains worth mentioning.

You really shouldn't need to do much to keep your system running well, so if that doesn't describe your situation, then you might be better off spending some time evaluating your habits.

 

[Ferzerp]

I'd tend to argue that defragmenting is often a waste of time

With an SSD not only is it a waste of time, it reduces the drive lifespan as well.

 

[Iron Woode]

I like GlarysUtilities myself.

 

[pandemonium]

In the long run, registry "cleaning" is likely to do more harm than good. Any defrag is fine. I have no idea what you mean by "overhauled with registers."

I'd argue otherwise. My mother's laptop was running extremely slow so I took it upon myself to do a proper cleaning. Removed old/unused programs, checked startup for unnecessary applications running, cleaned temporary installation files, cleaned registry entries with CCleaner, cleaned with Malwarebytes, and defragged the drive with Windows generic defrag and it significantly improved to the point that she said I did some magical act. The HDD was only 6% fragmented, malwarebytes found nothing wrong, and temporary files amounted to 2.4GB on a 200GB spindle drive. I'm pretty sure uninstalling the 5 or 6 unused programs helped the most and removing the 2-3 startup programs, but there were over 2000 invalid entries in the registry. I'd bet that made a pretty big difference. /shrug

 

[serpretetsky]

I'd argue otherwise. My mother's laptop was running extremely slow so I took it upon myself to do a proper cleaning. Removed old/unused programs, checked startup for unnecessary applications running, cleaned temporary installation files, cleaned registry entries with CCleaner, cleaned with Malwarebytes, and defragged the drive with Windows generic defrag and it significantly improved to the point that she said I did some magical act. The HDD was only 6% fragmented, malwarebytes found nothing wrong, and temporary files amounted to 2.4GB on a 200GB spindle drive. I'm pretty sure uninstalling the 5 or 6 unused programs helped the most and removing the 2-3 startup programs, but there were over 2000 invalid entries in the registry. I'd bet that made a pretty big difference. /shrug

since you did so many things other than just "clean" the registry it's hard to say if it really had any impact.

 

[pandemonium]

You must've missed the big section that I broke down what each step actually did and how there were 2000+ invalid registry entries.

 

[bruceb]

Removing a few programs, likely had no affect, unless they tried to run at startup on a computer with very limited RAM. Sometimes, cleaning the registry of program leftovers from uninstalls is a big help. As is clearing out all temporary files. I had an old Toshiba laptop a Satellite 1415-S015 which initially only had a 20GB hard drive and 256MB of RAM .. that thing started working relatively quickly when I upped the RAM to 512MB and installed a 100GB (faster rpm) hard drive. It was like night and day then (may it now rest in peace, as the display panel has cracked)

 

[corkyg]

All good points - but, back to the original question - CCleaner is about as good as any.

 

[Berryracer]

I use GeekUninstaller for uninstalling aps.

It doesnt need to run in the background to monitor installations. When you uninstall a program using Geek Uninstaller, after the uninstallation, it scans for any leftoever registry entries. Very efficient and FREE

 

[Blain]

I've used registry cleaners (run from ISO CD), bring systems back to life after severe corruption.
They aren't magic, but they have their place.

 

[ringtail]

I made a shortcut on my desktop that runs the Windows-native Sagerun, and you might give it a try.

(I also run CCleaner, and sometimes also the junk cleaner tool inside Revo Uninstaller free version)

If you prefer, you can tell Windows Task Scheduler to run Sagerun automatically, however often you wish.

Here's the "how to"

http://www.timeatlas.com/5_minute_tips/general/easy_disk_cleanup_with_scheduled_tasks


http://windowssecrets.com/langalist-plus/sageset-unlocks-cleanmgrs-power/

 

[Socio]

I like GlarysUtilities myself.

Ditto!

The one click maintenance feature alone makes it hands down the best for me and has never caused me any problems.

 

[Venom20]

this may sound like a silly question, but have you ran normal AV/AS applications?

 

[gevorg]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

 

[cl-scott]

I like GlarysUtilities myself.

I always steer people away from this program specifically, and for a rather simple reason. A while back, they were notorious for astroturfing forums, and probably other places.

I'll allow for the possibility they contracted with a rather shady advertising company and then as soon as they really understood what was going on, put a stop to it... But even that scenario has issues IMO.

To my way of thinking, if a company has a good product, they don't need to create a bunch of fake user testimonials to plaster all over various web forums. The product should be able to stand on its own merits, and no need for any gimmicky marketing tactics.

So even if the people behind Glary were duped by some marketing company acting on their behalf, they still have to own up to not properly vetting this company. That's kind of the best case scenario I can come up with.