The vast majority of modern computer users know that immediately after installation, the operating system, as they say, simply “flies”, showing incredible speed (of course, if the hardware meets its requirements). But over time, productivity decreases quite noticeably, which becomes noticeable even to the naked eye. This often happens due to the fact that there are too many unnecessary files on the computer that clog the hard drive or even RAM, which slows down the entire system. To get rid of such components, it is often recommended to use all kinds of programs to clean your computer from garbage. However, before choosing the appropriate software, you need to carefully understand what is this very computer garbage.
What is meant by cleaning the computer?
Many users have a somewhat misconception about what PC cleaning is. Usually, some people think that it is enough to delete unnecessary user files or folders that take up too much disk space. This is not enough. Since all data on the hard disk, including objects loaded into RAM, is presented in the form of files, it will be necessary to delete them. But in addition to the files of the user himself, a rather large number of unused or even dangerous objects for the operating system may be present in the system! Therefore, speaking about the complete cleaning of the PC and optimizing its operation, such files must also be taken into account. The main components that need to be disposed of are the following:
- unused or very rarely launched programs;
- remnants of remote applications on the hard drive;
- Incorrect or outdated registry keys
- temporary files of the system and installed Internet browsers;
- obsolete updates and unnecessary components of the operating system, including process files that are constantly “hanging” in RAM;
- Outdated device drivers that can cause conflicts with updated software
- duplicate files;
- viruses.
Custom program files for cleaning the computer are usually not affected, therefore, when describing the main applications and their capabilities, we will not take them into account.
The main varieties of PC care programs
Based on the understanding of exactly which objects presented in the list above, you will have to work, then we will consider the main categories of programs used to care for a computer or laptop. A little distracting from the topic, it is worth mentioning separately that mobile devices, by and large, can also be attributed to a separate category of computer devices, so you can use some of the described applets as mobile versions for them. The dominant position is occupied by programs classified according to the direction of the actions performed, among which the main ones are:
- applications for removing unnecessary files and their duplicates;
- uninstallers of installed programs;
- registry cleaners;
- RAM optimizers;
- programs for managing operating system components installed by updates and startup;
- antiviruses.
Despite this separation by purpose and operations, quite often you can find applications for comprehensive care, often called optimizers, which combine several functions from the list below.
Do I need a program to clean my computer from viruses in the presence of a full-time antivirus?
And let's start the review of cleaning the PC with the most dangerous category of applications and files - viruses. Many may argue about why use a third-party program to clean your computer from viruses if the computer already has a full-time antivirus installed that starts with the operating system? Are its capabilities not enough? As it turns out, no. The biggest problem is that many anti-virus applications can skip modern threats that masquerade as official software and have special certificates of authenticity or even digital signatures. Very often they penetrate the system under the guise of affiliate software or in the form of self-installing applets (most often scripts) when the user ignores anti-virus protection warnings when switching to unreliable or doubtful resources on the Internet. In addition, some antiviruses (most often free) can be infected. And of all known security packages, only a few react to adware threats related to browser hijackers. To check the computer and neutralize all kinds of dangerous components, special portable scanners are used, among which the most powerful are the notorious utilities KVRT, AVZ and Dr. Web CureIt.
But ads like AdwCleaner do best with advertising. Despite the fact that any such program can clean the computer of viruses and can be run from removable media, the most powerful are the utilities that have their own bootloaders, allow you to load your own interface instead of the operating system and check all components, including even RAM.
A striking example is the Kaspersky Rescue Disk utility, which is confirmed by numerous expert reviews.
The program to clean your computer from garbage: what to look for when choosing an application?
It seems completely natural that the hard drive needs to be cleaned regularly from accumulated debris. A huge number of unnecessary files very often provokes a slowdown in accessing it, for example, when searching for some information or when starting applications, not to mention a decrease in free space, which affects the system’s speed (it just has nowhere to save temporary files or the so-called cache, download updates, etc.). For the normal operation of Windows, it is necessary to keep free space of about 10% of the total size of the system or logical partition.
If you talk about which program to clean your computer from garbage to prefer, you immediately need to pay attention to its capabilities. By and large, it is in this context that the application should be able to delete unnecessary, temporary files, registry keys, and duplicates. Among these software products, one can find both highly specialized utilities (RegCleaner) and utilities for complex cleaning (ASC, All-in-one-Toolbox, CCleaner and the like).
But the first program to clean the computer of garbage works exclusively with the registry, deleting old or correcting invalid entries, and the second type deletes the cache, copies, and registry keys that may remain after they are deleted. If this is not done, it will not be possible to optimize Windows. For example, loading the system will still remain very long only because the registry is scanned at startup. And the larger it has, the longer it takes to carry out preliminary operations.
In principle, you can use some simplest program to quickly clean your computer of unnecessary files (applications with a common name like DiskCleaner), but there isn’t much point in this. In addition, here you also need to pay attention to the possibility of clearing the system cache and browser cache, since during the Internet surfing, temporary files are accumulated on the hard disk, which can sometimes lead to the fact that the work of the web browser itself is observable, or access to which Some sites just become impossible.
Applications for removing unnecessary software
Removing computer trash can not be imagined without removing unused applications, which many ordinary users do not pay attention to. Why do I need any program to clean my computer from unnecessary programs? There are two main problems. Firstly, during the installation of some applications, very often unnecessary associated applets are additionally integrated into the system. So, for example, if you install iTunes, without which it will be impossible to synchronize mobile “apple” devices from a PC, as an additional component in the best case you get utilities for updating software and supporting Apple devices or Bonjour, which are, to say the least, in the system , "Hang" a dead weight. Of course, you can get rid of such applications through the standard section of programs and components in the "Control Panel". But here a second problem arises because the built-in tools for uninstalling applications of Windows operating systems, and of any modification, are far from perfect and are able to remove only the main elements of the selected packages, after which a lot of unnecessary or even undeletable files remain on the same hard drive and directories, not to mention the residual keys in the registry.
But uninstaller applications clean the computer from unnecessary programs much more carefully. The most powerful in this category of programs is a lot of software, based on the opinion of most experts, one can name such packages as Revo Uinstaller and iObit Uninstaller. They reveal absolutely all residues and can delete them automatically.
But such programs to clean the computer of unnecessary software have one more advantage, which few people know about. Apparently, there is no need to say that the Windows operating systems themselves have at their disposal many built-in applications, which can be removed only through the command line or PowerShell console. But this process is very laborious, and it is unlikely that an ordinary user will be able to perform the necessary actions independently without special knowledge.
And it is the described programs for cleaning the computer from unnecessary program files built into the system that allow you to get rid of them in two ways. By and large, with their help you can get rid of almost everything that is.
Another side of the coin is the removal of all kinds of browser panels that can be installed either independently or be built into the browsers themselves. And with them, uninstallers cope quite simply.
Finally, it is worth mentioning separately about the updates of the operating systems themselves. You can remove them from the standard partition, but there is no guarantee that nothing will remain after them. Again, with the help of uninstallers, such operations are performed in almost one click. Among other things, these applications provide the ability to batch uninstall programs. That is, you can select those packages that you need to get rid of and just click the delete button. Then the program will do everything itself.
This also includes utilities designed to control the installation of Windows updates. Virtually all known uninstallers allow you to remove them. But how to make sure that they do not install again when automatic updating is activated? Manually excluding such packages from the list is a very time-consuming process.
And then a program for cleaning the computer from potentially installed updates called Show or hide updates comes to the rescue. Surprisingly, the authorship of the development of this application belongs to Microsoft Corporation. In the program, you can select service packs that you do not need, and in the future their search and installation by the system will be ignored.
But such programs can ignore protected system components. In particular, this concerns the directory with installers of system components and installed Installer programs. The contents of this folder can only be partially cleaned with the PatchCleaner utility.
Managing operating system components
It's no secret that in Windows, by default, so many unnecessary services are activated for the user and processes that constantly take up RAM, that you are simply amazed. And not all of them are needed for work. In general, in order to increase system performance and free up a considerable part of resources, which will reduce the load on RAM and CPU, it is recommended to disable them. But far from everyone knows what exactly can be deactivated. In addition, if you don’t know exactly which process can be stopped or turned off painlessly for the system, you can play it to the point that Windows starts to malfunction or ceases to function at all. And not all services can be disabled manually. In this case, the best solution is to use utilities that allow you to perform such actions with the utmost care.
If we are talking about processes starting with the OS, it is best to disable them using the CCleaner package, which displays startup items, their keys in the registry, and scheduled tasks.
In terms of deactivating unnecessary Windows components and services that are not visible at startup, the best program for cleaning a computer from such components is Windows Manager, which has several versions and is installed on a computer exclusively for a certain modification of the operating system. In it, you just need to note the unnecessary system modules, save the changes and restart the computer.
What is the best choice for comprehensive computer care?
If we consider applications that combine the maximum capabilities, it is recommended to use the above optimizers. But not every such program for cleaning and speeding up a computer has at its disposal absolutely all the modules described. For example, CCleaner is very good at managing the registry, cleaning up temporary files of the system and browsers, deleting programs and duplicate files, overwriting disk space, restoring the system, managing autoload, but is completely unable to reduce the load on system resources or identify potentially dangerous applets.
The Advanced SystemCare application is very similar to the previous one, but it does not know how to delete programs, and is more designed to clean up garbage, fix registry errors, Internet acceleration, strengthen system security, optimize Windows boot, etc.
A huge plus - the ability to optimize in one click. The user in the main window only needs to select the necessary modules, start scanning and check the automatic optimization item.
The AVZ utility, which initially was a portable antivirus, has in its arsenal the means of eliminating problems with system components (for example, it can unlock the Task Manager), but it is not suitable for complete system optimization.
Thus, it is advisable to use programs for cleaning the computer in conjunction. Let's say that the ASC and iObit Uninstaller packages or the uninstaller bundled with CCleaner, Windows Manager and AVZ work well in pairs. There are enough options for combining applications, and it is not necessary to use only those that were mentioned above, since there are a lot of such packages today.
Particular attention should be paid to the fact that most of these computer cleaning programs are in Russian, and almost all of them are free. However, their own means of tracking the release of updates built into them constantly recommends purchasing special versions of Pro that have a wider range of capabilities, but are already paid.
How to clean your computer from debris yourself?
Now briefly dwell on cases when the user does not have a single third-party program at hand. What to do in this case? In the simplest version, you can also get rid of computer debris yourself by deleting your own large files, uninstalling unused applications and system updates from the standard partition, cleaning the cache, cookies and temporary browsers files, etc.
For cleaning, you can use the standard tool, which can be reached through the properties of the selected disk or partition. If you use the cleanup of system files, you can get rid of old Windows updates or free up space by deleting restore control points, etc.
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Afterword
Thus, the question of choosing the preferred software remains partially unresolved. It is impossible, in principle, to say unequivocally which program to clean your computer is in, since applications are very different in both their capabilities and the quality of the optimization performed. Ordinary users may be advised of comprehensive care applications like ASC paired with uninstallers. As an addition, you can use utilities that manage system components or optimizers with built-in antivirus modules. But today a single program that would combine absolutely all the described features does not exist at all, so you will have to experiment.