hi all,
can u guys suggest a software that i can download to clean up my computer.State the website as well.
P/s;free version
thanks a lot!
cheers=)

it's not called cc cleaner it's just ccleaner (crap cleaner) it's a common misconseption and it's what i though it was called before too
and it is a very good cleaner but if you clean the registry be sure to always make a backup before you delete any thing and it's really easy to use too. :)

cheers

Glary utilities is excellent. Plus ccleaner. Chuck in Auslogics reg defrag as well.

@whs i dont think it was really an argument because i agreed on jacks correction

it is free to use and repair the errors as well?

I've posted this standard "warning" of mine on registry cleaners before, but just to expand on whs's point I'll say it again here.

Here are two links to articles on Registry Cleaners that I'd highly recommend be read by anyone thinking about using one (CCleaner excepted of course):

http://asknerd.net/bestregistrycleaner.html
An excerpt from that article:

" . . . The problem with most registry repair titles is that they are based on the same open source software script . . . they are being sold by companies that didn't develop them - and therefore have no real understanding of their function or even how they work. The result is that you risk installing an inferior piece of software that can permanently damage your computer"

Another excerpt:

"The issue lies in the explosion of spam-review sites which are nothing more then websites promoting affiliate links under the guise of an official " review " site. There main goal is to accomplish one thing - to send you to the site they are promoting and hoping you buy the product they are selling - if you do, they get up to a 75% cut of the sale. In other words, their reviews are up for sale - and are not anything but thinly veiled sales pitches. For example, if you do a search for the term " Paid Survey " or " Registry Repair " you'll notice that the paid listings all include sites that say " read our review " or " warning, don't download anything until you read this..."

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000643.html

The article on this site is titled "Why I don’t use registry cleaners"
An excerpt:

" . . . what possible performance benefits can you get from “cleaning up” unneeded registry entries and eliminating a few stray DLL files? Even in the best-case scenario the impact should be trivial at best. Maybe a second or two here and there, maybe a few kilobytes of freed-up RAM, and I’m being generous. How can you balance those against the risk that the utility will “clean” (in other words, delete) something you really need, causing a program or feature to fail?"

Another excerpt from the same article:

"The Registry is an enormous database and all this “Cleaning” really doesn’t amount to much…I’ve said this before, but I liken it to “sweeping out one parking space in a parking lot the size of Montana” … a registry “tweak” here and there is desirable or even necessary sometimes, but random “cleaning”, especially for the novice, is inviting disaster."

As I said, CCleaner is OK AS LONG AS YOU BACK UP THE REGISTRY IN CASE CCleaner malfunctions.

Thanks LH. I really get nervous when people start talking about registry cleaners. Similar to what whs said, I think oftentimes they do more harm than good, and result in posts about problems with deleting .dll's and not being able to log on again . . . which very often results in a reinstall effort.

Hey english,

Sorry, your first question isn't clear to me. Can you restate it?

And, since this thread is on the VISTA forum, I don't know if you are talking about VISTA (or if it even has a native backup function . . . I assume it does) or if you are talking about Norton Ghost or Acronis TI.

I have XP HE and use TI, so if your question is about VISTA or Ghost, I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with those to offer an opinion. In TI "backup" is a terminology used to indicate data files only, while "image" indicates making a restorable copy of the OS. While I'm not familiar with Ghost, I've been told by those that use it on this forum that "backup" is terminology in Ghost that means either data or OS copies. So I'm not sure what you mean by "backup".

If you mean an "image" of the OS, then Yes, a backup would include the registry.

And . . . just curious here . . . what does this have to do with optimization or registry cleaners??

I don't mean to throw roadblocks in front of you, but before I venture an opinion on your first question, I want to make sure I understand what it is exactly.

aemy90, You can safely use CCleaner to clean up your temporary files - no problem here. The registry cleaning function you can use too (I never had a problem with CCleaner in this regard either). But it is prudent to make a registry backup (which is an option of the registry cleaning) - just in case. But if you do NOT clean the registry, that is just as well. There are only rare cases where a registry cleanup does something for you.
Antivirus software is another question (nothing to do with CCleaner). A lot of people use AVG - but be aware that the free version does not rate very high. All the good ones you have to pay for (Kaspersky, BitDefender, G-Data, etc.). AVG and some others you find best in filehippo.com

ok