drive cleaner for newbies

Hello and Welcome, as your post is in the Drivers section is it a Hardware Driver eg. Graphic Card you wish to clean?

or as I suspect, is it you wish to clean up the junk from your Hard Drive?

if the latter then this is very good at removing the junk accumulated CCleaner ( plus added bonus its FREE )

 

I would recomend the above linked program in my post earlier CCleaner as its very good at cleaning all the accumuated junk off your Hard Drive, plus its free

 

Did you get the CCleaner program to work ok? if the AOL security program tells you it doesnt know the publisher, see if you can over-ride it ( not a fan of AOL so dont know all its inner workings )

well Software forum would have been the ideal one, but left it in here as you are new here and moving it could have caused some confusion/frustration.

 

Regcleaner while one of my fav apps wouldnt help in cleaning junk files off your hard drive, it would have only cleared the missing/obsolete keys from the registry saving a few MBs at best.

CCleaner on the other hand clears out all obsolete temp files etc saving anything from 1mb > 100+mbs, I personally wouldnt have recomemded it to a new member if I didnt feel it was safe, which in using it for a fair while it is pretty much safe for all users so long as you leave it at default settings.

 

?????

And using a registry cleaner is safe? The question was cleaning junk files off her PC, in which yes granted the registry has junk in it and a registry cleaner will clean them out, but they are no safer than using CCleaner which deletes Temp Files, Old Internet files etc something Regcleaner doesnt do.

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mother_maree ~ sorry if I have been vague, but if you decide to use that program, let me know and I will post a few instructions and pictures to follow if that would help?

It is safe otherwise I wouldnt use it or have recomended it to less than techy relatives, plus many members here suggest runing this app.

 

Great you have it installed ok, have you taken the chance to use it yet? if so or not, here is a quick guide on what I would show friends/relatives/collegues etc what to start with,

Cleaner ( Windows )

These are the items I would personally tick in this section, the recycle bin is missing as I use something more secure because of info from work I may have used on this pc, but if your not the type of person that bins data to later look just to check its ok to bin then tick that option. The section I have arrowed in red, is one that you have to make a decision on....

Temp Internet Files ~ junk delete always
Cookies ~ well if you dont mind typing your login on some websites forums like this every time then tick this, if you like auto logging on then un-tick ( cavet to that is you can click Options > Cookies and specify the ones you wish to always keep, useful for forums, Gmail etc to save you typing User/Passward again/each time )
History ~ untick if you like to know where you have been on the net
Reciently typed URLs ~ again upto you if you want to keep
Last Download Location ~ I have this unticked as I download everything to the same folder, easier to find where you saved them
Autocomplete ~ Have this turned off anyway

http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/8122/ccleaner11nq.jpg


Cleaner ( Applications )

These the other software packages that you have installed and depending on wether you wish to know what the last few opened files from Office etc are then tick or untick.... I have them all the below ticked as I have no use to knwo what I opened a day or hours ago ( again personal preference )

http://img61.imageshack.us/img61/5836/ccleaner25su.jpg


Those are the bulk of removing old junk files the next section is totally upto you if you want to use or not as this section deals with the registry of your PC, basic terms its a directory of where all program locations and settings are stored and if manually adjusted CAN cause your PC to error, now this is where software like CCleaner and the mentioned RegCleaner come in handy as the search for safe* missing links in the directory and delete them, helping your PC to run smoother ( NOTE: they do backup what they delete as you are given the option in case something is deleted in error, never had it in the many years I have used a registry cleaner )


Issues ( registry )

The below represents what I have my settings and that of all PCs I install this software on set to and have not found it causes a problem...
http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/9417/ccleaner39qq.jpg

AGAIN it's upto you if you want to use the registry cleaner.


Tools
Uninstall ~ Wouldnt touch
Startup ~ Again wouldnt touch unless you are experiencing a very slow starting PC and this could be covered at a later date.


Options
The softwares settings, not much to adjust their from default, apart from the Cookies in which I mentioned at the start




and if in doubt the online help guide is superb http://www.ccleaner.com/help/?v=1.23.160&l=1033

 

easy to get the names of different apps mixed up, I do it all the time... so many to remember Yeah, I would be very weary of registry only cleaners as you can do much damage with some of them if you dont pick the right one ( RegCleaner being a very easy and good first one to use and still in my arsenal of cleaners ) as the registry as you rightly say is something for slightly more advanced users to play with, but CCleaner is a good all rounder.