More System Cleaning Utilities

Yep.

It was a busy week.

Work demands, family time, finding all these new utilities.

Decorating the tree.

Finding the family hamster after its 2nd jail-break attempt.

Wish cleaning its cage was as easy as cleaning a Windows system.

Sigh.

CCleaner - (freeware) - perennial favorite amongst IT system support staff.  It cleans up Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Windows, the system Registry, and some third-party applications.  Pick as much or little as yo want to clean.  Highly customizable.  I've never tanked a system with it, but I know what I am doing. If in doubt, stay away or stick with the defaults.  Now available in USB portable and "slim" builds as well.

EasyCleaner - (freeware) - Scans the registry for entries that don't link to any real file locations, often caused by sloppy uninstall programs.  Also can locate temp and backup files, duplicate files, invalid startup programs, and items in your add/remove programs list that are displayed but no longer exist and don't seem to be able to be removed.

The PC Decrapifier - (freeware) - Uninstall many of the most common trialware and pain-ware applications found bundled on OEM purchased home desktop and laptop systems (Windows).  Download it, create a system restore point, select what you want cleaned, and let it run.  It might not get everything, but will save time on most of the worst offenders.

Wise Disk Cleaner - (freeware) - Select which files you want to target and the application will perform a fast scan and then offer you the ability to delete them.  Theme-able. (download page)

Wise Registry Cleaner - (freeware) - Very safe, fast, and dependable registry cleaner. Provides great feedback as to what is exactly wrong with the entries located, as well as icons to indicate the relative safety of the cleaning action offered.  Will allow and make a backup of the registry prior to cleaning, just to be safe! Theme-able. (download page)

Revo Uninstaller - (freeware) - one of many great Freeware Software Uninstallers, I'm re-mentioning this one because the Revo team has now released it in a USB portable version as well.  That alone is worth picking it up for.  Add it to the others I've linked to.  The power and expanded usefulness of these tools for removing installed programs is fantastic. They all have their own merits and every one is faster than the standard Windows Add/Remove Programs tool.

Mom always told us to clean our plates.

Go clean your system, just be cautious and understand what you are about to remove before you hit that "clean/remove" button.

--Claus