Resolved System Care Software

I have a software application called CC Cleaner that I have used to optimize my Computer. It seems to eliminate junk files, registry issues, etc. My question is if it does the job it says it does, why then if I immediately use another such software application like Advance System Care does it still find junk files and other problems that the previous software was supposed to eliminate?

 

I use CCleaner too - have for many many years (easily well over 20 years). And one of the reason I prefer it is because it is NOT overly aggressive, like other programs often are.

As a tech, I have used CCleaner on all my systems, and literally 100s of other systems. I have never, not once, had CCleaner "brick" a computer. I cannot say that for other "cleaners" or "optimizing" programs. At worse, after running CCleaner on a very "cluttered" system, I've had the system lock up. But this was always cleared by a simple reboot.

Also it should be noted that as soon as you start using the computer after a clean up, new temporary files are created that the other programs may fine.

You may find folks who insist "all" registry cleaners are evil and MUST at all costs be avoided. I say that is nonsense - at least with CCleaner which, IMO, should NOT be lumped in with "all" registry cleaners. After all, CCleaner has been around for over 20 years. If it was evil and destructive, it surely would not still be around and such a popular - the most popular 3rd party cleaner.

Note CCleaner’s Registry section, called "Scan for Issues" is the only Registry tool I use or recommend because (1) it is not overly aggressive and (2) it always prompts the user to backup the Registry before making changes, always a necessary precaution. It is often necessary to scan for issues 2 or 3 times until it reports, "No issues were found".

Note too, no Registry cleaner, including CCleaner's should be used to "fix" a broken computer. I only use it for regular maintenance, starting with day 1 of a new build.

Also, there is much debate over the effectiveness and usefulness for using Registry cleaners. Again, many think they are evil. Microsoft claims these cleaners are not needed because of the way the Registry is accessed. I believe this to be mostly true, most of the time. I have, however, seen problems go away after running the CCleaner Registry cleaner. In particular, when switching from a Nvidia to an AMD graphics card (or the other way around), I have experienced problems. Running CCleaner's registry cleaner purged the registry of orphaned and broken Registry entries, clearing the graphics issues.

So my general policy is after significant hardware or software updates or changes, I will run the Registry cleaner. But that's me and again, all I can say is it has never broken a system I am responsible for.

[TIP: Run CC disk cleaner before manual malware scans and defragging hard drives - no need to scan 1000s of temporary files; that would be counterproductive!]

 

I was also using CCleaner for last so many years but stopped using it as I couldn't find any noticeable difference in computer either way. I guess Windows is intelligent enough to disregard broken registry entries.

 

Stopped using it completely? Or just the registry cleaner?

You are correct that Windows knows how to disregard broken registry entries. Actually "broken" is misleading. That vast majority are not "broken". That is, if you define "broken" as meaning they are still "active" entries, but point nowhere or to the wrong place - those are definitely broken, and very rare. And in most cases, a simple reboot or perhaps reinstalling the affected app (or driver) clears that problem.

What typically happens (usually due to poor or lazy coding ), is when a program/application is uninstalled, moved or updated, entries in the registry are left behind that point nowhere or to the wrong place. However, these entries are "inactive" so they have no ill-effect on the system or how Windows works.

There used to be concern about "bloat" - a registry that became HUGE and filled up with tons of these inactive "orphaned" entries impacting Windows performance. But that concern is unfounded because of the way Windows accesses entries; it simply goes straight to the entry, it does NOT have to read in the entire registry then search from front to back to find the correct entry. So yes, if the entry is no longer active, Windows simply ignores it.

So to your point, I can understand longer using CCleaner's Registry cleaner. If you keep Windows properly updated, odds are, you won't see any noticeable improvement. But it is still an excellent "clutter cleaner" and IMO, a great, much more flexible alternative to Windows own Disk Cleanup.

What I like best about CCleaner as a disk cleanup tool is you can tell it which cookies to keep when cleaning up the disk. So if I don't want to re-enter my login credentials for all the "trusted" sites I regularly visit, I can tell CCleaner to keep the cookies for www.windowsbbs.com, for example. Then when I run CCleaner's cleaner, it will purge my system of all cookies, except those belonging to WindowsBBS and other sites I have selected. Windows Disk Cleanup will wipe them all out. I find this feature alone a HUGE time saver and reason enough to use and recommend CCleaner. Plus, its free!

HOWEVER, I must quickly and and warn like many programs these days, especially free versions, always, as in EVERY SINGLE TIME, select the custom install option so you are presented with the option to opt-out of any extras you don't want - for example, the CCleaner Browser, or auto-updater.