Remove unwanted files with CCleaner 3.16

Windows quickly end up with lots of unnecessary files left over from deleted documents or web browsing. These can eventually reduce performance and pose a risk to your privacy. Ccleaner can scan for such problems and delete these files. It can also perform maintenance on the Registry.

Installation is straightforward, although there is an option to install the Google Chrome web browser that is selected by default. It is fine to deselect this if you would prefer. There is also an option to add Ccleaner to the Recycle Bin context menu.

After installation, it will prompt to scan for cookies to keep. This ensures that you won't suddenly find yourself logged out of websites such as Gmail and other webmail sites.

You can find more detail of cookies in the Options section. Click on the Cookies option to see a list of all the websites that have left cookies on your computer. Click on a site and then the right pointing arrow to leave these cookies alone.

The interface is simple to use with the main tools listed on the left-hand side.

The Cleaner tools look for unwanted files to remove from the computer. These include files left behind by Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer.

Memory dumps are also removed. These files are created whenever Windows crashes to help track down problems. They are rarely used and can take up a surprising amount of space.

The Registry can be cleaned of information that is no longer needed that take up space and slow the Registry down.

Other tools include a utility to uninstall sofware, adjust what programs start automatically with Windows, manage System Restore points and securely wipe empty space on the hard disk.

Ccleaner 3.16 added scheduled task management to the startup tool and an option to close browsers during the cleaning process. It has also been improved to use less memory on 64bit systems.

Version 3.15 added support for the latest versions of Firefox and Internet Explorer 9, better disk-wiping tools and new cleaning options. It has a useful option when cleaning the Recycle Bin to only remove documents deleted more than 24 hours previously. This should prevent accidently removing something by mistake. Cleaning options have also been added for Camtasia Studio 7.0, CoffeeCup HTML Editor, Ashampoo Burning Studio 11, Any Video Converter Ultimate, ConvertXToDVD, Freemake Video Downloader, Audio Converter and Video Converter.