file washers and cleaners (Registry editors and cleaners in general)

Member Name: stjamespark

Product:	Registry editors and cleaners in general
Date:	22/04/01 (1130 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Protect your privacy.

Disadvantages: See text

There seem to be two reasons for wishing to clean files from your hard drive:
a)you are short of space and
b)you need to cover up your internet tracks from you partner/ boss/prospective purchaser of your pc/laptop.

If all you need is space, then emptying of the recycle bin, windows/temporary internet files and windows/temp directory should do the job. You can do this manually through Windows Explorer (or My Computer if you prefer) or better still through a little program called ‘Disk Cleanup’ in your Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools.
In addition Microsoft have a neat little download called ‘RegClean’ which deletes unwanted rubbish in your registry, where you don’t want to go unless you are an expert! And that’s that!

However if you are worried about the prying eyes of the internet you can also delete the files in windows/cookies and instruct Internet Options in Control Panel to keep your History files for 0 days.

If you are not confident about doing any of these things, or you really want to cover your tracks, then you probably need a ‘Washer/cleaner’ and there are heaps of them. Most of them are shareware i.e. you use them for a trial period then you pay or delete them. A couple are freeware and appear to be just as good.

You can find a lot of them at www.tucows.com/diskc95.html

Most of them do the same job as I have outlined above, more or less. Some have the added bonus of cleaning your registry at the same time as deleting files.

A few of the more common ones are :
a) Shareware
Cache, cookies and windows cleaner - does what it says including Netscape and Opera,

Cleandisk Pro – frees memory and cleans registry too, but takes a while,

Cleanit! – a very simple cleaner – hardly worth using,

History killer - again includes Netscape and Opera - has a popup killer, but no registry cleaner that I
could see. A bit of a pain to use. Too many boxes to tick.

Safe Clean – no registry cleaner,

Window Washer 4 – has plugins to clear used documents in other programs. Probably the simplest to use, but no registry cleaner,

12 Ghosts wash – no registry cleaner,

Ultra Window cleaner – Needs lots of know-how – looks lethal in the wrong hands,

4diskclean – no registry cleaner – same as the rest,

Amnesia – same again,

Complete cleanup – and again,

Dr. Cleaner – nothing special,

Smart Cleaner - no smarter than the rest,

Washandgo – good, but does one thing at a time so it takes ages,

System Mechanic – this is probably the most thorough of the bunch although it can take a while, but does have a ‘wizard’ to do it for you.

b) Freeware
CleanUP! From 'The Strangely Green Chicken Co’. Which is FREE, but I would be worried by it’s use by an ‘amateur’. It does all of the above including deleting your newsgroups unless you tell it not to, but no registry cleaner

c) Tweakers
These are free programs which allow you to change the settings that most of us never see.
The simplest is TweakUI, then Tweakall and finally the daddy of the three is X-Teq Systems X-Setup. They will do all the things that the washer/cleaners do and a lot besides, but you need time and patience to play with them.

In conclusion.

To save space - set your History to 0(zero) days, use disc cleanup and finish off with RegClean

To cover up your naughties, download each of the above and try each until you find a one you like. Windows Washer is the easiest to use - System Mechanic probably the most thorough.

Summary: