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General discussion

PC system cleaners: Who's doing a better job of cleaning?

Jul 29, 2011 8:03AM PDT
Question:

System utility cleaners: Who's doing a better job of cleaning?


How come when you use 3 different utilities (CCleaner, Glary utilities, Advance System Care 4), they always find different things to clean? Is one doing a better job than the other? Is one cleaning out less and another cleaning out more than is needed? What gives? And who should I believe and is there any possible harm in these discrepancies? Any explanation around this mystery will help me better understand it all. Thank you.

--Submitted by: Guillermo O.

Here are some member answers to get you started, but
please read all the advice and suggestions that our
members have contributed to this question.

Purpose matters --Submitted by: stringboy
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-6138_102-5177221.html

PC System Cleaners --Submitted by: petelw
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-6138_102-5177753.html

The 7 P's --Submitted by: High Desert Charlie
http://forums.cnet.com/7726-6138_102-5177020.html

Thanks to all who contributed!

If you have any additional advice, suggestion, or opinions for Guillermo, click the "reply" to submit your advice, suggestions/opinions, or tips. Thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Check System Sounds
Aug 5, 2011 2:22PM PDT

I use CCleaner for wiping the free space clean. You have to be careful with everything else because it will delete your Windows startup, shutdown and recycle bin sounds. Check them after you use it and then use System Restore to get them back if they were deleted.

I've used Registry Mechanic for years now with no trouble. It doesn't "over-clean" and I've never had a problem with it.

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What is goal of this "cleaning"?
Aug 5, 2011 2:23PM PDT

First, you need to describe what you are trying to accomplish by all this "cleaning".

Is something dirty? Do you beleive you have an infection?

Are you looking for quicker response? Do you believe that cleaning will really make your system quicker? Who told you that? Did they run any tests to prove it?

Are you running out of disk space? If so, Windows has a disk cleaner utility that works quite well.

If all you want to do is remove internet temp files and such, that is fine but it will NOT make your system any quicker. I would be very surprised if any improvement is more than 1%.

I just have 31 years experience in engineering IT systems so perhaps someone here with more experience can help you more.

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CCleaner preferred
Aug 5, 2011 6:33PM PDT

HI everebody! I use CCleaner for a long time. It is very powerfull utility, but this has some minuses, such as it can't delete folders (insted of, it proposes to show the folders which will be cleaned). After deleleting of the contents of a folder, this folder is stiil being. CCleaner is not able to clean the Windows swap file. Also it not able to delete records in the MFT. After all I recomend to you use this soft and use manual cleaning method. Switch Windows in safe mode and make all manipulations by your hands. Do not be afraid to do it yourself without the use of special programs.

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CCleaner/Piriform actually does research
Aug 5, 2011 9:53PM PDT

Unlike companies like IObit, Amigo, TuneUp and others, Piriform actually does research on what they're marketing and doesn't publish 'system killers'. But hey, I'm just another nobody with an opinion that doesn't matter to anybody but sites like cnet that make money off user-content and sensationalist titles..

Most of these companies are just in it for the revenue and use contractors to develop their products..

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Sometimes Things Work, Sometimes They Don't
Aug 5, 2011 10:59PM PDT

Like people, PCs tend to get slower and more cantankerous with age. I have used many different methods for trying to improve the performance of "mature" PCs and here are a few of my comments:

First off, you can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. Your old Pentium II machine with 256MB of RAM isn't going to run like it's got a Core i7 2600k. It's just not. Don't expect it to. Don't even TRY to put Windows 7 on it. It would be better off converted to Linux. Modern Windows versions and modern apps were designed for more power and more capacity.

The only really reliable way to restore a PC to top performance is the tried, true and trusty wipe-and-reload, where you first backup your data and then actually reformat your PC's drive(s), then reload the O/S from original distribution, update the O/S to current, update all your various drivers to current (including flashing the ROM BiOS with the latest update), then reinstall the applications you actually use, and then restore your user data. This can get tricky, particularly for such things as saved email where different clients have different locations for storing the data But although this is laborious and time-consuming it will always work to restore your PC's performance.

As for less drastic solutions, the first thing to do is scan for malware. Spyware and adware in particular can slow a machine to a crawl. Viruses, of course, can render a machine actually inoperable.

A couple of good freeware anti-ad/spyware applications are Lavasoft's Ad-Aware (available with reduced but adequate functionality as freeware) and the fully freeware Spybot Search and Destroy. These are both better used periodically as scanning software than as resident malware blockers because both can slow down your system if left resident. And both apps find items the other missed, so I use both, but leave neither resident.

But a problem here is that, in many cases, the chief culprits for the slowdown in performance are the anti-malware applications themselves. Older versions of Norton (before the much improved 2010 version) and McAfee, and most others as well, can be a terrible burden on older PCs. Anything installed by your ISP is sure to slow it down (and may be almost hilariously difficult to uninstall). Some passable freeware anti-malware programs have a much lighter "footprint" and will not slow down your PC as much. Avira and Avast are good, lightweight freeware anti-malware apps, and Panda Cloud provides the least impact on system performance of any antivirus program I have ever tried. For the vast majority of users, these are perfectly adequate to protect their computers from the bad guys.

Personally, on my three main computers I use Norton 2011 Internet Security for resident malware protection, and nothing's gotten by it yet, but the least powerful of these machines is a Core2Duo E6600 with 4GB of RAM so processing burden isn't much of an issue (I won't even describe my new #1 computer for fear that you'll short-circuit your keyboard with all the drool). On my old XP laptop I use Panda Cloud. My even older Athlon 2100+ machine is now a quite well-performing Linux (Debian) box -- no AV needed!

Another thing that slows down a lot of computers, particularly ones running XP, can be All-in-One printer drivers. Full-featured HP drivers can be particularly burdensome (although their most recent versions are MUCH improved!). They mainly slow down PCs during their initial loading at boot, but this can sometimes take as much as ten minutes or more, during which time your PC will respond HORRIBLY slowly, often to the point that it's unusable during that time. On older machines it's usually best to run only the "Basic" drivers rather than the full-featured ones, but even these can be a burden.

A lot of "crap" like temp files can slow down a computer sometimes. Programs like Windows Washer or the highly capable freeware CCleaner can deal with this. Also, wiping (or "bleaching") the free space can, for some reason I cannot fully fathom, sometimes make a PC feel a little "crisper."

Badly fragmented drives can also slow down a computer. The defragmentation program supplied with Windows is rather primitive. Something like Raxco's PerfectDisk may give you hope of an actually noticeable performance improvement, although it takes really extensive fragmentation to significantly slow down overall performance.

I have never experienced any noticeable performance improvement from registry cleaning or compacting. I do it as part of any refurbishment but it's never made any real difference in performance no matter how slopped-up the PC's registry was to begin with.

I once had my own PC sped up really significantly -- REALLY significantly -- merely by reflashing the BiOS. This is MUCH easier and safer to do now than it was a few years ago when it was a, "Now kids, don't try this at home," kind of thing. Some of them now have graphical user interfaces and can be done as easily as installing any application.

Slowdowns can come from all sorts of file corruption-based sources, so it's a good idea to run a system file check from time to time. The command, issued with administrator rights, is sfc /scannow . Depending on how your PC was set up by the vendor, you may need your Windows distribution disk handy.

All that said, I haven't really ever found a good, reliable do-everything program to restore a PC's performance. Indeed, I've never found one that really worked well at all. And believe me, I've looked. In short, so many different things can slow down a computer's performance that it is unreasonable to expect one tool to do it all to restore it to health.

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Funny...
Aug 6, 2011 9:36AM PDT

I'd swear my Vista PC has become faster and faster with every Microsoft update. Of course CCleaner and AdAware keep things faster on browsing too; but every since SP2 and the .NET updates my PC is running better than any PC I've ever owned - three years now.

Now I will admit I tore my hair out until this computer operating system settled down, but it is now fantastic. Now my friends with Windows 7 are tearing their hair out, what little they have left. HA!

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PC System Cleaners
Aug 5, 2011 11:13PM PDT

Hi! Guillermo, since they first came out I have tried them. It is right that each one will find
diferent items to clean.
For the last six years though I have stuck with CC Cleaner and TuneUp Utilities.
For me I think they work best.
Cheer's jororich

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My July 29th post on this thread's 2nd page is still
Aug 6, 2011 12:38AM PDT

the best advice I can give. Otherwise, the best registry and hard-disk drive cleaner-restrorer is a complete clean install of your O.S. that will, automatically, wipe out all data on your hard-drive and the registered program keys of your entire registry.

A clean install of your O.S. is a lot to think about but, it is the only sure thing to completely refresh your entire machine to a factory setup's status of prime functionality.

Other than that, the reputation of the maker for the cleaner-fixer application software is, quite, to be considered. More to add to all of this is, pure speculation.

Have a nice day, everyone. Happy

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The Best Advice from a Pro
Aug 6, 2011 3:32AM PDT

I run once a month CCleaner,Super Anti Spyware,Glary Utilities and it keeps my system running smoothly.All three are free and i have been using them for a long time.never had any problem and also i reinstall my OS once a yearWhen i reinstall i wipe my drive clean first then reinstall.My system runs like NEW.

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Cost efficient
Aug 6, 2011 3:48AM PDT

It would be better if you're going to use system mechanic pro,it has a lot of features on it,back up,reg cleaner,anti virus etc.. and it can fix those errors on your system in just 1 click.

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Why Isnt registry cleaner included for free in Windows ???
Aug 6, 2011 4:20AM PDT

Scott McNealy, the famous former CEO of Sun Microsystems, call Windows "hairball" . Windows has too many loose ends that is so easy to hack in or whatever.. Microsoft is somewhat obliged to include registry cleaner for free to all Windows users on its website.. Registry cleaners of all sorts help computers run more smoothly and more importantly waste less time for users to do what they are trying to do on computers.. Happy user experience is very important to Microsoft and if most of us are pinching pennies and still unwilling to pay for a registry cleaner on a membership subscription, then Microsoft should make it available for free.. Please do that.. I once used a registry cleaner for a year and decide not to renew it because Ican not afford it.. I rather spend money on something else like my new drum set! Registry cleaners is something that microsoft can afford to support and give away to all users.. It doesnt cost money and it is duplicative~

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CC Cleaner & MS Security essentials works for me
Aug 6, 2011 5:53AM PDT

I'm running XP Media Center on a 2005 HP Pavilion.

I used CC Cleaner to remove BS that came preloaded and control what runs on start up.I run a full scan every evening with MS Security. Defrag my hard drive and run a CC Cleaner scan and overwrite once a month or so. My machine still boots & runs faster than new.

As others mentioned each cleaner apparently has a different algorithm to determine what constitutes a registry error. In the past I have hose up a machine screwing with the registry. I'm fairly conservative about registry changes. So far CC Cleaner works for me.

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Who's doing a better job of cleaning?
Aug 6, 2011 10:45AM PDT

I use Glary, Malwarebytes, and AVG to scan my PC, and do some "fixing"
I also defrag the hard drive, perform disk clean up, and manually go through files/programs/apps, and remove stuff that I do not need or want. I never "run" these utilities at the same time, that can cause serious conflicts, and freeze ups, of the operating system, and possibly the hard drive. I am convinced that one is not "better" than the other, some catch "bad" stuff that others do not. The world of PC's is way too complex, and changing all the time, even the best IT person out there does not have all the answers. Just be careful what you allow to run on your PC, and if someone you know and trust has a program that really helps, than go with it.

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Don't you just need ... MalwareBytes and Spyware Blaster ??
Aug 6, 2011 6:27PM PDT

The pletherer of programs seems to change.
I prefer the free WinXP taskbar programs that just alerted you to how the changes affected your registery. If you were flumaxxed you could always perform a scan and see your files pictorally.

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Depends....
Aug 7, 2011 6:20AM PDT

MBAM does a good job of cleaning up after malware that it detects. Spyware Blaster simply puts registry edits that block Active X threats. These kind of threats are not as numerous as they used to be, but drive-by exploits are still reported to this day. Don't forget to password protect the console of any anti-malware utility if it is possible, because the bugs will modify the console to allow their buddies into your PC, if and when you stumble across them on the web.

I feel Spyware Blaster's flash killer and host file for IE and Firefox are equally important protection features. Many threats come through flash ads, so both of those will greatly reduce the threat profile of your PC. These extra features do not affect the registry, and none of them slow the PC down one iota.

I use AdAware and SAS as well. IT pros are advocating Super-Anti-Spyware more and more lately. Security analysts are reporting SAS as being one of the number one attack targets of malware lately. I figure if it is under attack, it must be doing a bang up job! AdAware; as best as we can tell, uses some kind of communication clipping technology to thwart communication between advertisements and their servers. This could help reduce your threat profile too, but I still like MBAM's outgoing IP blocker, as this can keep the malware from phoning up their minions as well.

I simply run CCleaner when I see an outbound IP block, and the malware is gone!! I think you will find that only an integrated, in depth defense will properly lower the threat level for your computing. You can't totally wipe it out, but you can go a long way toward reducing it greatly. You can only use one firewall, anti-virus, and usually any one kernel based solution; but many malware solutions use a wide and varied methodology, and can be used in tandem, with virtually no problem. I do it all the time, and my tests in the ******** lab have backed up my assumptions.

The MOST important part of this defense is using a standard account for everyday work. Only use the administrator for maintenance and installation duties.

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HOW I TESTED MY 2 CLEANING PROGRAMS
Aug 7, 2011 4:27AM PDT

The 2 software products I always use
and have tested are Ccleaner (free) and Advance System Care Pro
(about $20 for 12 months). There is a basic free version as well which
is ok as well.
My operating platform is windows 7
To
record the amonut of unnecessary data that both of these cleaners
detected I used the "snipping tool" that is found in the
windows accessories folder. Following is the process I used.
1:
Ran CCleaner>ANALYSE (NOT RUN CLEANER) Took snip of the result and
pasted it to my text programme. Then ran REGISTRY and recorded the
results also. I then closed CCleaner.
2:
Ran ASC Pro using MAINTAIN WINDOWS TAB ONLY hit SCAN and again took
a snip of the results and pasted it to my text programme.
Both
cleaners came up with different amounts of data to be removed. I
checked each programs files detected, comparing each individual file
found on both programs. By using Snipping Tool it enabled me to take
a snapshot of each category and compare them.

CCleaner
detected more "Junk Files" than ASC Pro, but not a huge
difference. However, the Registry Cleaners of both programs resulted
in a huge difference. On average, ASC Pro detected 95% more registry
entries in need of attention than CCleaner. I ran this test over 10
sessions. I did it out of self interest and it didn't surprise me.
CCleaner is a good junk file remover whereas ASC Pro specialises in
many optimisers, including registry and defragmentation which I highly recommend.
Just so you know I have no promtion interests in any products I use.I also tried Glarys which I find ok and Ashampoo Win Optimiser which
costs about $20 a year but I feel not as good as ASC Pro for about
the same price. I have used CCleaner for over 8 years and have never
had one issue. ASC Pro I've run for 2 years and again not one
problem. In fact, I can truthfully tell everyone.These two programs
are all you need . I use my computer an average of 10 hours per day for a variety of activities I
will also highly recommend AVG basic. Not once have I had a malware
problem. AVG consistantly detects, removes, heals, or quarentines any
malware it picks up and this has been the case for the past 8 years.
My theory.Don't get hung up about viruses and the system clogging
up if you trust the programs recommended by those who have
actually used them over a long period of time) AVG is set to automatically run
updates of new viruses. Also the last thing I do before shutting down
my pc is to run ASC Pro which I have set to shut down my system when
it has scanned and cleaned. Very simple, reliable,stable and safe.

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Cleaning
Aug 8, 2011 3:18AM PDT

I have found that doing a reformat and reinstall every couple of years is about the best thing for a pc. But what a pain.

In the interim, for registry maintenance, I've been using Registry First Aid from Rose City Software for the last
6-7 years. Been using it on XP, Vista and now Win 7 machines. I don't know if it is the best registry cleaner available, but my partner and I had identically configured XP machines, purchased at the same time. After 4 years, hers would take forever to do simple tasks. While both had slowed down due to constant software updates, mine was much faster, and still usable (till it had a disk failure). The only difference was that I had installed, and been using, RFA since inception.

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I swear by System Mechanic
Aug 8, 2011 2:30PM PDT

Hi,
I'm a relatively advanced PC user and have been involved with Microcomputers since the days of the Apple II+ (remember that one?!). Anyway, I've checked out a few of these so called system cleaners and, by far, the one I swear by is System Mechanic. I've had nothing but good luck using it and it definitely speeds up my system without having to wipe the drive and do a clean reinstall. I've used it with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7; all with excellent results. I haven't tried all the ones out there but of the ones I have tried, System Mechanic is the best in my opinion. You want to be judicious about killing startup programs and services though to make sure you don't need the software that is starting up in their Startup Optimizer (which can have a LOT to do with making a system both start up and run faster once it's going). I've never had a problem with the registry cleaner aspect of System Mechanic, but, if necessary, you can select what you delete from the registry beforehand. Easier yet is to do a backup of the registry using the software (it does that too) and THEN do the registry cleanup and compacting. If something got, perchance, screwed up, you can use System Mechanic to restore the previously backed up registry so you're back to square one. (I have no financial or otherwise interest in System Mechanic; it can be found here: http://www.iolo.com).

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CCleaner team actually researches architecture
Aug 9, 2011 5:01AM PDT

iobit, tuneup, ashampoo, avs and others are written by contractors and very unstable and very rushed to meet marketing deadlines. CCleaner is properly designed for both end-users and tech people.

Most of these vendors are oblivious to the fact their software causes critical software failure and data corruption. CCleaner was once like this, but now has a good team behind it as you can tell from the out-of-box configuration and updates.

Just saying how it is, if you can't put it on a computer illiterate persons machine and not have to micromanage usage, then it's a failed product and a reflection of poor publishing practices..

Advance System Care is the only one that comes close, but they have it where it kills systems with the default configuration without even using it's 'tools'...pretty bad.

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It must have been a long time ago....
Aug 9, 2011 5:52AM PDT

that CCleaner caused problems. I haven't had one problem with it and hundreds of clients in at least 5 years. Because it is so easy to do a registry backup, it would be easy to recover if CCleaner were to damage any values there. Simply click the backup file and voila! The registry is recovered!

However, I don't use the reg cleaner for a panacea to everything either. I only run it after removing software that tested poorly, or after a bad malware recovery. It is really not necessary to constantly run it. I may run the registry cleaner after 4 months of fairly heavy software installs and uninstalls, but otherwise, I may not run it for a year!

It is the file cleaner that makes CCleaner so wondrous to me, as it does such a thorough job of getting to all the folders/hidden or otherwise that make the biggest difference in performance or malware deposition. There is a reason CCleaner has been under attack by malware authors everywhere; it has thwarted many a nefarious condition that left many vulnerable after a day of surfing the web. After all, it is the malware that DOESN'T need to install that has been doing the most damage to online clients these days. The threat scape has changed; and Vista/Win7 standard user security has changed that threat profile.

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CCleaner & Registry Mechanic.
Oct 24, 2011 2:28PM PDT

Registry Mechanic also has a file cleaning function which can be run separately or in conjunction with the registry cleaner. You can run the file cleaning function over and over again at 5 minute intervals without running anything else, and continue to get files that "need" to be removed. Thing is that some files that get deleted are regenerated by Windows XP/7. I did an exhaustive study some time ago, but don't remember exactly what those files were, but I think one of those was index.dat. That was exactly the file that I wanted deleted/refreshed. I had paid for one file cleaner for just that feature (don't remember which one--OTD), but it didn't work. CCleaner also gets those index.dat's. I have used CCleaner for along time, and never had a problem. It will also clear free space, but I've never had enough time to let it run to completion, and then test.

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Summary or vote tally
Aug 9, 2011 6:45AM PDT

Lee,

Reading all (at this time 121) replies to this thread is not very effective, especially since many are "me too" or "unless" or off topic.

What would be very helpful is a list of cleaners we could vote for/against in addition to the text in the reply.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely

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ooook...
Aug 9, 2011 7:26PM PDT

I'm a veteran software engineer and professional in the field of digital forensics. I wrote a post here giving my opinion having used most of the solutions and gave no mention of 'me too' or 'unless' scenarios.

The reality is these vendors only care about what effects their bottom line and marketing on a marginal scale. They couldn't care less about forum posts or non-headlined reviews(they rarely even address end-user issues).

CCleaner actually researches for their product instead of doing crap-shoots with system stability and persistence on their users machines. ASC is the only one that comes close in the made-for-marketing demographic of these solutions..coming from someone who knows stuff and actually used the software(s) and read bug reports..

P.S. these solutions didn't even go thru half-way on end-user testing for this article..

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System Cleaners
Aug 9, 2011 9:44AM PDT

I bought .... from the Microsoft marketplace and even though I knew better hit the one fix button. Needless to say, I could no longer restart my system. Fortunately I had done a complete backup a couple of days earlier and I was good to go again. What really surprised me was that I received a complete refund from the marketplace. Kind of reminded me of Norton SytemWorks 7 or 8 years ago. They had an option of cleaning orphan files and I could not believe how many people complained of their system no longer working.
Long story short, be careful of one button fixes.

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Some PC cleaners are just too aggressive
Aug 10, 2011 4:15PM PDT

Some time back I used System Mechanic and found myself with a bunch of compromised programs on my hands. System Restore could not fix the problems that System Mechanic created. It took me days of email tech support from the various program vendors to put everything back together again. One of the tech support guys (he had the patience of a saint) asked if I had used a registry cleaner. When I told I had he explained that some registry cleaners are extremely aggressive and will remove stuff they shouldn't causing damage to installed programs. He told me to beware of programs that find hundreds and hundreds of registry errors. Unless you know what it is you are removing when you click on the "fix" button you might want to think twice before you do it. The "tech saint" recommended that I stick to ccleaner. I also use SpyBot Search and Destroy, Malwarebytes, and Glary Utilities (all programs recommended to me by computer techs). I monitor what starts up when I turn on my computer with Autoruns (logon tab). I have Diskeeper 2011 on my computer and it quietly and efficiently keeps my hard drives defragmented automatically (fragmented hard drives can really slow a computer down). The bottom line is that it takes a variety of utilities to keep a computer running smoothly. Different programs deal with different problems.

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I use certain cleaning utilities which does work without any
Aug 12, 2011 1:23PM PDT

I admit that I do use CCleaner with CCEnhancer which works very well for my Windows7 64-bit PC.
I also subscribed too System Mechanic 10.5 which has been Updated and Enhanced for better cleaning and any Performing issues and Stability issues.
I have being with iolo.com who does System Mechanic for many years now and they have Improved over the many years in circulation.
Even AOL advertises this popular software which my personal view is very good.
I would try the 30 Days Trial and it will be Full Working for the Trial and thn you decide if you think the same as me.
It has improved my computer by approximately 150%. It seems too speed your system up and start up with ease.