How to clean your computer with CCleaner. How to use CCleaner for Windows
CCleaner is the most popular tool for cleaning your computer from unnecessary programs and accumulated garbage. The program has in its arsenal a lot of tools that will allow you to thoroughly clean your computer, achieving its maximum performance. This article will discuss the main points of setting up the program.
As a rule, after installation and launch, CCleaner does not require additional configuration, so you can immediately start using the program. However, after spending some time adjusting the program parameters, using this tool will become much more comfortable.
1. Setting the interface language
CCleaner is equipped with support for the Russian language, but in some cases users may encounter that the program interface is not in the required language at all. Considering that the arrangement of the elements remains the same, using the screenshots below, you can set the required program language.
In our example, the process of changing the program language will be considered using the example of an English-language interface. Launch the program window and go to the tab in the left area of the program window "Options" (marked with a gear icon). A little to the right you need to make sure that the program opens the first section in the list, which in our case is called "Settings" .
In the very first column there is a function for changing the language ( "Language" ). Expand this list, and then find and select "Russian" .
In the next moment, changes will be made to the program, and the desired language will be successfully installed.
2. Setting up the program for proper cleaning
Actually, the main function of the program is to clean your computer from garbage. When setting up the program in this case, you should focus solely on personal requirements and preferences: which elements should be cleaned by the program and which should not be affected.
Setting up cleaning elements is done under the tab "Cleaning" . A little to the right are two sub-tabs: "Windows" And "Applications" . In the first case, the subtab is responsible for standard programs and sections on the computer, and in the second, accordingly, for third-party ones. Under these tabs there are cleaning parameters, which are set in such a way as to perform high-quality garbage removal, but at the same time not remove unnecessary things on the computer. Still, some points can be removed.
For example, your main browser is Google Chrome, which has an impressive browsing history that you don’t want to lose just yet. In this case, go to the “Applications” tab and uncheck those items that the program should never delete. Next, we launch the program cleaning itself (more details about using the program have already been described on our website).
3. Automatic cleaning when computer starts
By default, CCleaner is placed in Windows startup. So why not take advantage of this opportunity by automating the program so that it automatically removes all garbage every time you start your computer?
In the left pane of the CCleaner window, go to the tab "Settings" , and a little to the right select the section of the same name. Check the box next to the item "Perform cleanup when computer starts" .
4. Removing a program from Windows startup
As mentioned above, after installation on the computer, CCleaner is automatically placed in Windows startup, which allows the program to automatically launch every time the computer is turned on.
In fact, the presence of this program in startup most often brings dubious benefits, since its main task in minimized form is only to periodically remind the user to clean the computer, but this very fact can affect the long loading of the operating system and reduce performance due to operation of a powerful tool at a time when it is completely unnecessary.
To remove a program from startup, call the window "Task Manager" keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Esc , and then go to the tab. The screen will display a list of programs included or absent from startup, among which you will need to find CCleaner, right-click on the program and select the item in the context menu that appears "Disable" .
5. CCleaner update
By default, CCleaner is configured to automatically check for updates, but you have to install them manually. To do this, in the lower right corner of the program, if updates are detected, click on the button "A new version! Click to download" .
Your browser will automatically launch on the screen and begin redirecting to the official website of the CCleaner program, from where you can download the new version. To begin with, you will be asked to upgrade the program to the paid version. If you want to continue using the free one, go to the bottom of the page and click on the button "No thanks" .
Once on the CCleaner download page, immediately below the free version you will be asked to select the source from which to download the program. Having selected the one you need, download the latest version of the program to your computer, then run the downloaded distribution and install the update on your computer.
6. Drawing up a list of exceptions
Let's say that when you periodically clean your computer, you don't want CCleaner to pay attention to certain files, folders, and programs on your computer. To ensure that the program skips them when performing garbage analysis, you will need to create an exclusion list.
To do this, in the left area of the program window, go to the tab "Settings" , and a little to the right select the section "Exceptions" . By clicking the button "Add" , Windows Explorer will appear on the screen, in which you will need to specify the files and folders that CCleaner will skip (for computer programs, you will need to specify the folder where the program is installed).
7. Automatic shutdown of the computer after the program ends
Some program functions, for example, the “Clean up free space” function, can take quite a long time. In this regard, in order not to delay the user, the program provides a function to automatically shut down the computer after completing a running process in the program.
To do this, again, go to the tab "Settings" , and then select the section "Additionally" . In the window that opens, check the box next to "Shut down PC after cleaning" .
Actually, these are not all the options for customizing the CCleaner program. If you are interested in more detailed customization of the program to suit your requirements, we recommend taking some time to study all the available functions and settings of the program.
The registry cleaning program CCleaner is very easy to set up and will not harm your computer in any way.
Optimal CCleaner settings for Windows
Install and run the utility. The first item in the menu in the left column is Cleanup, where you can configure browsers. Go to Applications and select the browser you use most often. Check the boxes next to:
– Internet cache.
– Download history.
Do not mark the remaining points, as they will be useful to you. For example, autofilling forms is a very convenient service for users. If you visited a website and filled out a registration or subscription form, autofill remembers the data.
When you re-open the site, you will already see the filled-in lines of your data; all you have to do is confirm them. If this item is checked, then after cleaning your browser will forget how and where you registered.
The browsing history is the memory in the browser where it remembers which sites you have been to. If you clean it, the history will not be preserved.
Cookies are responsible for remembering your logins and passwords that you enter on sites and social networks where you once registered. This is suitable for those who do not like to enter their data every time to get to the site or their page.
You can click on the pop-up window in the browser itself - “never remember the password for this site”, and in CCleaner check the box next to Cookies - do not check files. Using this principle, you can set up cleaning of any browser in the program.
Cleaning the registry of garbage
Do not uncheck any boxes in this menu. Just click on the button at the bottom left - search for problems. When you remove programs from your computer or some kind of failure occurs, entries about this remain in the registry, which slow down the computer. Therefore, if CCleaner shows problems in the registry, it needs to be fixed.
Service
With it, you can remove programs installed on your computer. The service has a startup item; it shows which applications and programs are loaded along with the operating system when the computer is turned on. You need to monitor this and disable unnecessary startups, as they slow down the startup and shutdown of your computer or laptop.
When installing or uninstalling programs, the system creates restore points with which it can be restored. But when a lot of them accumulate, they take up enough memory, which also affects the operation of the computer. In the menu - system recovery in CCleaner, you can manually remove unnecessary points, leaving the last 2-3.
The above CCleaner settings are aimed at the average user. If you are an experienced computer technician, you can configure the program more professionally.
When using a computer, it is very common to create temporary files and cache files of running programs to speed up their operation. However, over time, the need for them disappears, for example, after you have finished working with these programs. Despite this, temporary files remain on the system even after you finish working with programs and the operating system. To remove them, you need to use special software. It is best to use CCleaner in this case. There are many programs that essentially do the same thing, but this program is the fastest and most convenient. This is not to say that this is an ideal program, but it copes with the tasks assigned to it perfectly. Let's figure out how to set up CCleaner and how to properly clean your computer using this program.
Cleaning unnecessary files on disk
To run the junk file cleaning process, follow these steps:Step 1
Launch the CCleaner utility.
Step 2
After launching the program, you will immediately see the Cleaning tab. This is exactly what you need. You will see 2 tabs: “Windows” and “Applications”.
Take a close look and tick the categories that need to be cleared. For example, you can uncheck the boxes next to clearing your browser history, cache or cookies.
Note: if you clear your browser cookies, this will remove automatic login to sites - to log in you will need to re-enter the login and password that you specified during registration.
Feel free to check the boxes almost everywhere except the “erase free space” item - if you check it, you will only be wasting your time.
Step 3
After setting the desired cleaning parameters. Click the "Analyze" button.
The system scanning procedure will start, which will take some time (from 1 to 5 minutes on average). Once the scan is complete, you will see the result in the main program window.
Step 4
Please review the scan results carefully. If you see that, for example, the Recycle Bin is taking up too much memory, check it before emptying it. It's possible that you may have accidentally deleted necessary information. Once you are sure that the detected files are indeed “Junk”, click the “Clean” button. The cleaning procedure lasts from a few seconds to several minutes, depending on the volume being removed.
Cleaning the registry with CCleaner
CCleaner also supports cleaning the Windows registry. This is a very useful feature, since over time a large number of “dead” entries and keys accumulate in the registry, which are no longer used by the operating system and significantly slow down its operation. Typically, such “tails” are left behind by remote programs, which, when uninstalled, do not clear out temporary files and keys in the registry.To run a registry cleaner, do the following:
Step 1
Launch CCleaner.
Step 2
Go to the Registry menu.
Step 3
Check the boxes next to all the items if they are not checked, and click the “Search for problems” button.
After a while you will see a list of found errors. Most of them are due to no longer existing file associations, missing libraries and application paths.
Step 4
To fix existing problems, click the “Fix…” button and in the pop-up dialog box, click the “Fix marked” button.
Step 5
After the errors have been corrected, in the same window, click the “Close” button.
Note: If the program has detected a large number of errors in the registry, it is worth repeating the registry cleaning procedure again and again until the program stops detecting errors. This is necessary because deleting one value may break the dependencies of another, thereby causing a new error in the registry entries.
Uninstalling programs using CCleaner
To remove a program, go to the “Tools” section and select “Uninstall programs”. Select the program you want to uninstall and click Uninstall. After this, the program installer will start and uninstall it.
Note: After uninstalling the program, do not forget to run a system cleanup of temporary files, as well as a system registry cleaner.
Disabling autorun programs
Using this function, you can disable the startup of unwanted programs. To do this, just select the desired program and click the “Turn off” button.
Saving cookies by CCleaner
By default, CCleaner erases all cookies from all installed browsers during cleaning. If you don't want to delete any of them, you can save some of them, such as emails or from social networks. To do this, open the “Cookies” panel, which is located in the “Options” section. Right-click on the panel with the list of cookies and select “Optimal analysis”. CCleaner will automatically scan all the cookies on your computer and, based on the frequency of use and importance, will whitelist some of them (mail and search engine cookies first).
If you want to add cookies from other sites to the whitelist, then find the cookies corresponding to the resource you need in the list and click the button in the form of an arrow pointing to the right to add them to the whitelist.
Complete disk erase
Surely, when deleting files from your PC, you didn’t even think about the fact that they can be restored almost without problems. It seems like no big deal, but what if you need to delete valuable information, for example, to transfer your PC to third parties or sell it? In fact, the OS does not delete the files; instead, the pointers indicating its location are erased, and in its place the OS puts a special flag indicating that this space is free for writing. CCleaner can prevent this by wiping free space with the Disk Cleanup tool. This occurs by overwriting the empty space with zeros, which eliminates any attempt to recover the data. To do this, go to the “Service” section and select “Erase Disk”. Select the disk you need and the cleaning method, then click on the “Erase” button.
Include custom files in scan
CCleaner is programmed to clean only certain files and folders. It does not affect user data. If, for example, you use a directory to store temporary information, you can include it in the cleaning list, thereby keeping your PC in order and not clogging its memory with unused information. To add a folder or file to CCleaner cleanup, open the Options section and go to the Inclusions tab. Click the "Add" button and specify the path to the folder or application.
Note: Be careful, you may accidentally add important files or folders and lose their contents. You can enable scanning of them in the “Cleaning” - “Your folders and files” section.
" or " what points to mark" - items are written in plain text that can be safely cleared, Italicized items that are not advisable to clear.
Browser data
Temporary browser files – useless files that the browser downloads when visiting a site. And when you visit again, the browser simply downloads them from the computer to speed up the loading of the site page.
Browser log - this is a list of sites you have visited, which can be viewed by opening the history in the browser (located next to the settings).
C Cookies – this is text information that a site sends to your browser so that the browser remembers your data on this site. This is necessary so as not to enter a password, login, etc. every time you log in; they allow you to automatically log in to the site. As a rule, this text information is automatically deleted after closing the browser, but some sites, if necessary, are recorded in cookies.txt You can clean it freely, since the password and autofill are not affected by this item.
List of entered addresses – in addition to the “browser log” there is a list of sites whose addresses you entered in the address bar.
Index.dat files - this is practically the same as “browser history”. These files are a list of websites that you have visited in the past.
Last download path – this is the path to the folder in which you last saved downloaded files. If you check the box in this section, then the next time you download files, you will have to re-specify the folder you need or the file will be automatically saved to the download folder.
It is not advisable to clean:
Autofill forms – this is data saved in the browser that pops up when you enter the site. For example, you go to a website, and the browser automatically fills in your login and password.
Saved Passwords These are passwords saved by your browser. It is not advisable to clean it unless you remember all the passwords by heart or they are not written down somewhere.
Windows Explorer:
Recent Documents is the history of your visits to documents on your computer. It can be viewed in the “Recent Documents” folder, which are usually located in Start.
Execute - This is a file search command that is located in the Start menu. CCleaner offers to clear the search history for certain files on your computer.
Other recent objects – other useless information that does not relate to other listed items and needs to be deleted.
Thumbnail cache – when you open folders with pictures in thumbnail view mode, the computer automatically saves their thumbnails to load them faster the next time you visit.
Quick Access Lists – allow you to open the last opened documents in a particular program (a list of recently used programs in Word, etc.).
It is not advisable to clean:
Network passwords – these are passwords from the local network.
System:
Emptying the Trash – empty the basket.
Temporary files – this is cleaning the “TEMP” folder, in which garbage constantly accumulates. It is polluted by programs that create temporary files as a result of their work.
Clipboard – stores copied files, it is not necessary to clear them, since the data disappears when the computer is turned off, but it will not be superfluous.
Memory dumps – this is data that is created during program failures, blue screens of death, Windows errors, etc., for the purpose of system recovery.
Chkdsk file fragments – the Chkdsk program built into Windows checks the hard drive for errors and creates files to recover lost information. Essentially these files are useless unless you are a programmer.
Windows log files – files in which Windows keeps records of errors that occur during operation or installation of programs.
Windows Error Report – files that contain errors that occur when opening programs. Personally, I have never needed them; I don’t see the point in storing them on my computer.
DNS CACHE - DNS recognizes the IP addresses of sites to open them. To avoid having to access DNS once again, Windows remembers the IP addresses of sites and puts them in the CACHE for faster loading. Can be cleaned, but its weight is negligible.
Font cache – needs to be cleaned if you have problems with fonts (squares instead of symbols, etc.). There is no point in cleaning it, since it takes up quite a bit of space. If you clear it without changing anything, Windows will again create a list of frequently used fonts.
Main Menu Shortcuts – removes shortcuts that will be entered into non-existent programs (if you deleted a program, but the shortcut remains, etc.).
Desktop shortcuts – removes desktop shortcuts that will enter non-existent programs.
Other:
Windows Event Logs – logs in which programs record all errors, failures, etc.
Outdated selections – clears Prefetcher (designed to speed up Windows boot) from outdated data. There is no particular point in clearing it, since the Prefetcher component maintains itself. But if you clean it, you won't lose anything.
Menu queue cache – will arrange all items in the start menu alphabetically, removing information about the previous location of components.
Notification area cache – clears outdated error records. But after cleaning it, Windows will require you to restart the explorer.exe process. It is not necessary to clean it, it takes up little space.
Window size cache – resets information about your preferred window sizes.
Environment Path (Environment Variable) – as defined in the wiki:
An environment variable in Windows is used to store user text strings and information about operating system settings.
- it is not advisable to clean, there may be problems if Windows crashes.
List of recent programs - clears the list in the Start menu of recently used programs.
IIS Log Files – cleans the C:WindowsLogFile folder. You can clean it, but ccleaner will only clean a small amount of megabytes.
Other files and folders – ccleaner cleans folders and files that are no longer needed for the operation of the OS.
Clearing free space – will take a lot of time if you check this box! Windows saves temporary files, folders and files of deleted applications, etc., resulting in a bunch of unnecessary folders and files taking up disk space. This is the same as clearing free disk space; it removes all garbage.
Applications:
CCleaner diagnoses installed programs on your computer and removes temporary files that these programs litter. However, there are failures during which a program may forget its previous settings, and CCleaner deleted them. I personally haven’t encountered such a problem yet, and if this happens at any time, I can download this program again, so I check the boxes everywhere in my CCleaner.
Registry integrity
Below “cleaning” there is a “registry” item, check all the boxes, CCleaner will not remove anything unnecessary.
Conclusion:
An excellent free program for cleaning your computer. Most files and folders cannot be cleaned manually, but CCleaner can do it without much difficulty. Allows you to clean your computer from temporary and unnecessary files, and speed up Windows.
This is a fairly powerful tool for cleaning the system from those files that various programs leave behind. Customizing CCleaner will give you a more convenient use of the program. The fact is that during the cleaning process a lot of data is deleted. On the one hand, this is good - the computer starts working faster. On the other hand, after cleaning you need to log in to the sites again, the list of recently opened documents disappears, etc. In order to find a middle ground between convenience and cleaning, we will try to customize CCleaner to suit your needs.
Step 1. The program settings begin when you first launch it. At this point, CCleaner prompts us to perform an optimal search for cookies. Cookies store authorization data on sites, so the site has the ability to remember you. When you delete cookies, all authorization data is lost and you need to enter your login and password again. Now CCleaner can clear cookies so that authorization data from some popular sites remains. In the window that you see below, it is advisable to click on the “Yes” button. But cookie settings for different browsers will still be found.
Step 2. In the main interface we see two tabs: “Windows” and “Applications”. On each of them are marked those elements that can be removed or left. For example, on the “Windows” tab in the Internet Explorer section, items such as “Temporary browser files” (the so-called cache), “Browsing log”, “Cookies”, etc. are marked. The cache weighs the most, and clearing it will allow the browser to work faster, but the browsing log does not weigh much, but after clearing it, the browser will stop suggesting pages to you as you type. Therefore, it makes sense to leave this item, especially if you often look at your browsing history and look for sites there. Carefully review all the items and uncheck those items that you do not want to delete.
Step 3. Among the unchecked elements there may be data that you do NOT need, please mark them. If you don’t know what a particular item means, it’s better not to do anything, or find information about it on the Internet. A description of all elements is beyond the scope of this article.
Step 4. On the “Applications” tab, everything is built on the same principle. Set up cleaning for the browsers you use. Below are other programs. Leave everything as it is initially - CCleaner will clean up all the junk files that remain after these programs. There is no point in paying special attention to anything there.
Step 5. Go to the Settings tab. Here we see an interesting option: “Clean up when the computer starts.” This is a good idea, so you can check the box here.
Other settings are of little interest to most users.
