CCleaner is the most popular Windows cleaner and optimizer. The program cleans the registry and disk space. It is equipped with a disk space analyzer, an uninstaller, an autorun manager, an entire disk wipe function, and other valuable features. The secret of CCleaner's popularity is trivial: it is well-thought-out.

The program is entirely free. It also has a paid Pro version, but the developers do not force users to buy it. All its primary features are available in the free version. CCleaner is not overloaded with unnecessary items and implements its work processes correctly. Its user-friendly interface is easy to master for beginners and allows the program to acquire a loyal audience. We will tell you more about this program.

Windows cleaning

Instead of the single Windows cleaning section, there are two sections in the latest CCleaner versions. These two modules are called "Standard cleaning" and "Complete cleaning." The "Standard cleaning" module is a simplified format of system cleaning. It includes deleting browser cookies and emptying the Recycle Bin, temporary Windows files, browsers, and programs.

After clicking the "Analyze" button, you can delete all these elements with the "Clear all" option. You can also find out what part the program will delete by clicking on the data category links. Standard Cleaning has two categories of data. Tracking files, i.e., browser cookies, is one of them.

Trash, i.e., the content of the Recycle Bin and temporary files, is another category. If necessary, you can exclude certain types of data by unchecking them. The "Complete cleaning" module is an advanced Windows cleanup where you can configure the cleanup options, i.e., specify the types of data deleted from the system, browsers, and programs. To perform the cleanup, click the "Analyze" button and then the "Clear" button.

Beginners often confuse cleaning Windows with its optimization, believing they are doing everything possible to improve the computer's performance. In the old Windows ХР, cleaning the system led to better performance after using programs like CCleaner. But in newer Windows versions starting from Vista, there is no such effect after using any cleaner program.

Cleaning the system is just the hygiene of the computer. It frees up cluttered disk space and removes unnecessary elements, such as cache, history, filled forms, logins and passwords in browsers, data about open documents, clipboards, etc. Try not to clean a disk, especially an SSD drive, unnecessarily. Frequent cleaning of the browser cache while visiting the same sites leads to unnecessary overwriting of data and wasting the potential of an SSD drive.

Fixing registry issues

CCleaner for Windows has the "Registry" section. It is a module for fixing problems with the Windows registry. Sometimes this operation can slightly speed up the system's performance. The effect is achieved by removing irrelevant registry entries. This makes it easier for Windows to work with the relevant entries.

The program checks the registry integrity and searches for outdated, erroneous, or leftover entries from uninstalled software. You can click the "Scan for issues" button and then the "Fix selected issues" button in this section. You can also customize the types of registry entries scanned for cleaning if necessary.

An uninstaller

The tools of CCleaner include a Windows uninstaller. It is worse than other uninstallers because it does not allow cleaning the remains of uninstalled programs. However, it is noteworthy because it will enable you to remove modern applications, such as Modern and UWP, in Windows 8.1 and 10. The ability to save the list of installed programs to a TXT file is one of the primary features of the uninstaller. It may be helpful to reinstall Windows as it is a checklist for installing software in the new system.

A software updater

The Software Updater is a new tool in CCleaner for Windows. It is a program update manager where updates of programs installed on your computer are monitored. It shows the current and relevant versions of programs. The paid version of CCleaner provides batch upgrading of programs.

An autoload manager

CCleaner has an advanced autoload manager. Here you can manage the autoloading of ordinary programs, tasks in the scheduler, system services, and third-party programs. Managing means deleting or turning off and on programs for a while. You can enable advanced mode for autoloading objects among scheduler tasks and program services.

Managing browser extensions

The tools of CCleaner for Windows also include a manager controlling extensions installed in browsers. It is a single environment to temporarily turn off and remove extensions in the browsers installed in the system. This is not the most necessary function, but it is useful when cleaning browsers from trash extensions. There is also a valuable feature of saving the list of extensions to a TXT file for reinstalling Windows if browsers are used without synchronization.

Disk analyzer

Disk Analyzer is a helpful tool for users of any level of computer experience. CCleaner is a graphical and informational representation of your computer's space usage by individual categories of user files, such as videos, music, images, documents, and other data. Each file type can be sorted by size to see the files that take up the most disk space. File operations are performed from the context menu.

Drive Wiper

Drive Wiper is a helpful tool for CCleaner. It deletes data from your hard drive, thereby preventing information leakage. A three-pass wipe is sufficient if you want to sell a hard drive on a secondary market or give it to average users. This is a rapid procedure. If the disk was used to store important information, you should use a 35-pass wipe, but it takes a long time.

Deleting cookies

CCleaner settings provide another useful tool. It is a single list of cookies collected from all browsers used in the system. Here you can delete the cookies of individual websites and add cookies of selected files to exceptions so that they are not damaged in the cleaning procedure.

Disabling Smart Cleaning

CCleaner minimizes the system tray and runs in the background by default when the program is closed. This feature is called Smart Cleaning. It notifies you about how much space can be freed up on the system disk and prompts you to clean it up. If you don't want CCleaner to run in the background, uncheck the options in the program settings.