What people think about deleting leftover files from my computer.
What people think about deleting leftover files from my computer.
Hey everyone, After wiping my hard drive clean, I thought it was broken because of software I downloaded. In fact, that program did the opposite by slowing things down instead of making them work better. I guess the stuff is from iObit, particularly Advanced System Care and the uninstaller tool. I think driver booster works okay for one time update but what do you guys think about Advanced System Care and those uninstallers? Should I just download CCleaner once to clean up any leftover files from programs and junk every month so things stay balanced?
I generally ignore these apps since they do nothing more than what Windows does itself. If I need to clean up extra space beyond what those tools can handle, WinDirStat shows me where the big space thieves are. I don't think leaving stuff in drives or the registry slows things down (as long as there is still a lot of free room). So if I have maybe 10MB of junk around, that doesn't bother me. I might care about gigabytes worth though, but my main drive is usually half empty anyway, so it really doesn't matter to me.
I generally ignore these apps because they are just extra features I already use with Windows tools. If I need a deeper clean beyond that, WinDirStat helps me see where space gets stuck. I also don't believe leftover junk in drives or the registry hurts performance as long as there is enough free room left. So if I have maybe ten megabytes of junk, it doesn't matter to me. But if I had gigabytes, I might care since my OS drive is mostly full anyway, so that's why I'm not really worried about a few gigabytes of junk.
I only run Disk Cleanup from Windows once or twice a week. You know how I keep lots of space free on my drives (between 20% and 30%). Backups are way more important than trying to clean the system up. At least two copies in different places, one offline copy that's safe, all of them proven to be readable when you need them.
The only thing that really slows down my PC is which files are linked with their icons on the screen. When too many apps add new file types, searching takes way longer because Windows has to guess the right picture for each new extension. Most cleaning tools aren't good enough to fix this mess. I recommend uninstalling old programs you don't actually use and completely resetting Windows from scratch every once in a while just to keep it running smoothly.
I use disk cleanup and CCleaner all the time. People complain about CCleaner on the internet, but I haven't found any issues with it. My own experience shows that some apps' built-in uninstallers leave a lot of junk behind. To be sure, I've been testing Revo Uninstaller to see if anything is left over.
If that happens, should you try the free trial of Revo to delete leftover files? Does cleaning up help make your PC run faster on a fresh install? Also, do you think I shouldn't use junk file tools like CCleaner instead?
I don't know where people find a free trial. I just use the basic version. It shows me what's been left behind after an uninstaller runs. Then it gives me two choices: keep those things or clean them up more. I never tried the junk cleaner feature because that's my go-to tool. Do you really think anything crazy will happen over time? As stuff gets added and removed, you might end up with a bunch of unnecessary clutter.