Number 274 - March 2006

One Great Shareware Utility: Ccleaner
by Tom Stepanek, Shareware Librarian, Tacoma Open Group for Microcomputers
I have served as the shareware librarian for our computer club for the past eight years. (That's what happens when you agree to run unopposed in every election.) However, I have thoroughly enjoyed it and have learned a lot in the process.    Over these years I have presented 80 or more shareware programs to our members. Most of these programs are utilities, since that is what our members primarily request. I learn of new programs via email from our members and by checking the Top Ten Chart of Utilities at Download.com.    I have a personal philosophy of presenting shareware programs to our members. I install every new program on my own computer, use it for several weeks, prove to myself that the program runs bug free, does what it says it will do, and, if a registration fee is required and not paid, the program still runs with some basic features. Some of the best programs I have presented are programs that are freeware. In a future article I will discuss some of the best programs we have presented and still find valuable.    I have never been more impressed with a freeware program than I have with Ccleaner, available at Ccleaner.com. The current version is 1.216.128, released in December 2005. This program has been offered to our members for the past several months, and I cannot seem to stop talking about it.    Ccleaner is essentially a PC cleaning application. Although it lacks a few features found in other cleaning applications, this free program is a worthy download. According to the Ccleaner website, the program has surpassed 12 million downloads through 12/14/05.    The interface is well designed, easy to understand and makes it easy to wipe your tracks from IE (Internet Explorer) and Firefox, various Windows system areas and a few third party applications. And best of all, it contains no spyware or adware programs.	Ccleaner installs by default to clean many, many unused files and online activities. I caution the newcomer to closely review what Ccleaner will delete, as the user may want to keep some files. I suggest the user uncheck the boxes for cookies, Windows index.dat and log files and all Advanced entries. Once the user is familiar with the program features, he or she may proceed to "clean" all the files. When I first used Ccleaner, and cautiously unchecked several boxes, the program listed 352 MB of files for deletion on my hard drive. Ccleaner presents a complete list of all the files it proposes to delete so the user can review a list of all the files and deselect those he or she does not wish to delete.    For those of you interested in some of the technical aspects of Ccleaner, here is a brief review of some features. In IE and Firefox, it will delete temp internet files, URL history, cookies, autocomplete form history and index.dat files. In Windows, it will clean the recycle bin, recent documents, temp files and log files. In third party applications, Ccleaner will remove temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from Opera, Media Player, Kazaa, Google Taskbar, Netscape, MS Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, Winzip and more.    And finally, as a separate feature, Ccleaner can clean your registry. Its advanced features will remove unused and old entries, including file extensions, ActiveX controls, Class IDs, Prog IDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, application paths, invalid shortcuts and more. Before any changes are made, the user may exclude specific entries. No need to worry here, as the program creates a backup file of all changes. If you run this feature and find a problem at some later date, just locate the last backup file and click it to fully restore what changes it made. In the main folder of Ccleaner is a subfolder entitled "Undo." Here is where you will find the undo files for all your recent changes. I must say this writer has never had to undo a registry cleaning action Ccleaner has performed. Copies of this program will be available at all future meetings. Good luck and good PC cleaning.
Number 274 - March 2006