When you ask a person who is a bit computer savvy which program to use to remove temporary files on your Windows PC and clean it from problems and obsolete files, it is likely that among the recommended programs there will be CCleaner. This is one of those essential programs for computer maintenance because it keeps it free of junk and because it fixes those little gunk issues on the registry and filesystem that can slow down overall system performance. Deleting temporary files also has two important purposes: firstly it frees up disk space which is always a good thing, especially if you are using a fast but not too large SSD drive, and then for privacy reasons you may want to delete temporary files capable of revealing information about how the computer is used.Let’s see together in this guide how to download and use CCleaner, exploring all the functions integrated into the free version of the program, more than enough for house cleaning and to speed up any version of Windows 10 without having to use other cleaning programs.READ ALSO -> Alternatives to Ccleaner to clean up Windows
How to use CCleaner
CCleaner is a very simple program to use but for those who are beginners with a computer it is better to know immediately what are the features offered and the menus that can be used, so as to be able to clean up the PC quickly, also speeding up the system startup. If we have not yet downloaded CCleaner on our PC we can fix it immediately by downloading the latest version from the official website.
Graphic interface
The program interface always shows the various tools on the left side, so you always have them just a click away.
At the first start, you will be asked whether to install also the new CCleaner browser (with Chromium technology) which basically allows you to delete the history after each navigation and browse incognito. CCleaner is available in Italian and, as you can see in the image above, it can be divided into 5 sections, which we will analyze in the next chapter of the guide.
Available menus and functions
The first menu on the top left is Integrity check: this menu allows you to start a full scan of the computer, so as to immediately search for useless files, residues of program uninstallations, orphaned links, unassigned registry keys, and other useful elements to keep the PC fast and snappy. This control can be done manually and is ideal for beginners: just press the button Forward to start a very effective and quick check.
To get the traditional cleaning menu of CCleaner (dedicated to the most experienced) just open the menu on the left side Personalized cleaning: from here we can choose which browsers to include in the scan, which programs to check for unnecessary files, which parts of the operating system to scan (including some advanced sections). The items already checked by default are the same as in the simple mode, which we can thus customize according to our tastes.
Another menu that we can open on the left side is Registry: in this menu, we find the registry cleaner, which looks for links, libraries, applications, and other elements without any process assigned, orphans of past installations. Although many believe that these cleaners are useless (as also seen in the guide What mistakes that slow down the PC should we no longer make) CCleaner acts very lightly and safely, so it’s best to leave everything as it is and apply the suggested improvements after a scan.
One of the most important menus is without a doubt Instruments: in this menu we find various submenus with which you can uninstall programs on your PC, update third-party programs, check which software or processes start with the system, manage compatible browser extensions, scan the disk to immediately find the larger files, scan the disk for duplicates, manage system restore points and finally clean up external or internal disks, starting a procedure that erases everything and prevents files from being recovered with dedicated tools.
The last menu we mention is Options, which allows you to access the program settings and modify the start of the program icon, the permanence in memory, the manager of the cookies present in the browser, the system to include or exclude specific system folders, the planning system of the automatic scans (paid PRO version only), the activation of intelligent scanning (paid PRO version only), the user manager on PC (also in this case only PRO version) and other menus dedicated to updating the program and some secondary settings.
Conclusions
The free version of CCleaner it’s more than enough to keep your computer running fast and reclaim disk space, without having to manually search for unnecessary files or duplicates to delete. Really useful integrated tools, which represent for many users the easiest way to check auto-start programs and services right away, with the ability to completely delete the entry that allows you to start a program together with the operating system. As guessed from the guide, a paid version of CCleaner is also available but it is recommended only for users who need to plan cleaning activities: if we are simple home users and do not want to spend anything, we can very well be satisfied with the free version, remembering to start the scan from time to time (at least once a month).
If we want to use other tricks to speed up the PC with Windows 10 we can read our guides How to speed up your PC to the max e How to speed up your computer for free in just a few steps.
If, on the other hand, the system is always slow even with CCleaner, perhaps it is a good time to switch to Linux, as seen in the guide Things Ubuntu does better than Windows.