Often, when you ask your friends, family member or colleagues about how to protect your computer from viruses or malware, how to speed up computer and how to erase browsing histories, some of them will inevitably suggest CCleaner.

So, what is CCleaner? What CCleaner can do? Is it free and safe to use? Our computer CCleaner reviews will answer all of these questions.

Let’s get started.

What is CCleaner?

CCleaner is the cleaning software developed by Piriform, the company which was acquired by Avast in July 2017. Being able to remove the potentially unwanted data and invalid Registry entries, CCleaner is one of the most famous cleaner program. Some users refer to it as a “crap cleaner” because it removes many unwanted files and programs that PC vendors used to install on your systems. 

This software is available on Windows PC, Mac, Android phone and iPhone. You should download CCleaner from Piriform’s site, Google Play or App Store. Be cautious that there are malicious programs that look and sound like CCleaner.

CCleaner Main Features: What Does CCleaner Do?

1. Cleaning Up “Junk Files”

If your computer running slower and slower, one of the reason is that it collects more and more unused files and settings which take up hard drive space. CCleaner can help you with is deleting “junk files” from your computer system to free up hard drive and make your computer run faster.

Pro Tip: Your computer has a built-in app called ‘Disk Cleanup’ that you can find and select via the search bar on Windows 10’s ‘Start Menu’. It helps to eliminate files you no longer need.

To delete temporary files:

1. In the search box on the taskbar, type disk cleanup, and select Disk Cleanup from the list of results.
2. Select the drive you want to clean up, and then select OK.
3. Under Files to delete, select the file types to get rid of. To get a description of the file type, select it.
4. Select OK.

If you need to free up more space, you can also delete system files:

1. In Disk Cleanup, select Clean up system files.
2. Select the file types to get rid of. To get a description of the file type, select it.
3. Select OK.

2. Erasing Browser History and Cookies

Advertisers and websites track your behavior online with cookies that stay on your computer. CCleaner erases your browser search history and cookies so any internet browsing you do stays confidential and your identity remains anonymous.

Pro Tip: Nowadays privacy features are built in the primary browsers. You can clean up cookies and search history automatically or manually.

For example, in Google Chrome, you can easily automate this:

1. Click the menu and click Settings.
2. Scroll down to the bottom and click Advanced.
3. In Privacy and Security, click on Content settings.
4. Click Cookies.
5. Enable Keep local data only until you quit your browser.
6. Click Add next to Clear on exit.
7. Type [*.]com and click Add.

3. CCleaner Registry Cleaner

CCleaner can also remove all the following from your registry if they’re unused on your computer:

• File extensions
• ActiveX controls
• Class IDs and Prog IDs
• Uninstallers
• Shared DLLs
• Icons and application paths

Over time your registry can become cluttered with errors and broken settings which lead to crashes. CCleaner’s patented registry cleaner clears out this clutter to make your PC more stable.

4. Disable Unnecessary Startup Programs

Many programs run silently in the background when you start up your computer. CCleaner can speed up your compute by disabling unneeded programs.

Is CCleaner Safe to Use?

CCleaner is not quite safe to use.

•  CCleaner was hacked at the end of 2017. The hack put 2.27 million PC users at the risk of being infected by malware. After that, the question “is CCleaner safe” is frequently asked by Windows users.
• Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system has been warning users about installing CCleaner. The company’s own built-in Windows 10 Microsoft Defender program now classifies the free version of CCleaner as a potentially unwanted application (PUA).

Is CCleaner Free?

There are 3 versions of CCleaner.

• Free Version

It has basic PC-cleaning capabilities, as well as privacy-protection tools that let you delete cookies, passwords, and other related browser files.

• Professional Plan ($19.95)

It offers more features like real-time system monitoring, automatic history cleaning, and automatic software updates.

• PROFESSIONAL BUNDLE – Up to 3 PCs ($29.95)

It adds 3 more features, which includes hard drive defragmentation, file recovery, and PC spec viewing.

Final Thoughts On CCleaner

In the final thoughts of our CCleaner review, we believe that CCleaner is not for anyone. It is just a great free program that let you clean cache, cookies, registry and scan virus from a single interface. In theory, everything CCleaner does could be accomplished using Windows’ own optimization tools, the Task Manager and your browser settings, but that would take more time and it may be easy for some of to do the task manually on our computer. CCleaner’s clear, well-designed interface makes it incredibly simple to for technique newbies to maintain their computer healthy.