I recently mentioned the site Piriform. I received several emails asking about what it offers, so today we will take a look at some of the excellent free utilities they have.
Their most well-known tool is CCleaner. When the company first started out this was their first app and then it stood for, "Crap Cleaner." Since they are highfalutin now that nomenclature has vanished. This app will allow you to do several things. First you can have it run the "Cleaner" to check for unneeded files scattered about your computer. Not files you have created but the pesky ones left over from old installations, junk temporary files, the cached files in your browser(s), etc. It will scan and make suggestions to remove those files. It is up to you but I run this every couple of weeks on my constantly used computer and delete everything it suggests. I have never had any problems; however, as with all apps, use at your own risk.
It will also clean up your registry files which I (and many other geeks) feel become disorganized over time. CCleaner will straighten them out keeping your computer’s health and speed up.
Some geeks think this is a waste of time but it has always worked for me. This app will also uninstall your old applications if you need it to. I believe it does it a little better than the windows default uninstall program; however, that is also open to debate. It has several other features you can check out.
Next, Defraggler is the app which replaces your built in Windows Defrag. Fragmentation occurs (as Windows is designed to do) as files are changed and rewritten to your computer. Say you open a letter in Word that you have written. It is opened in RAM memory (not on the hard drive) where you edit it. After you have finished you saved it, which writes the document back to the hard drive. When saved it may put it in a different location from where it started leaving "crumbs" (my word) behind.
In many cases it may also split the file up into pieces, so you have one piece stored in the center of your drive and another on the outside edge. Over time it will take longer to access all the parts and reassemble them when you want to open the files up later. This is called a fragged drive. Defraggler undoes this process and makes things run faster. Think of it as sleeping at night and waking up to bad hair; Defraggler combs it and makes it neat.
Next week the last two tools from Piriform that I will mention; both of which can come in quite handy when you need them.
