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How To Auto-Clean Windows Vista With CCleaner

Norm — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:08:57 +0000

If you’re not familiar with everyone’s favourite system cleaner, CCleaner, it’s a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. This application does a very nice job at cleaning up after you, assuming that you actually remember to run it. In today’s fast-paced world, many of us don’t have the time or capacity it takes to remember all of the little things that have to get done. System maintenance is no exception.

In this tutorial, I’m going to walk you through setting up CCleaner to automatically run on a schedule in Windows Vista so that you can simply set it and forget it.

Configure Your Options

Making sure that you have set the correct options inside of CCleaner is very important if you plan to automate it. For example, what if you decide to run it every night and you have it set to clean out your recent documents or cookies. That could become very frustrating in a very short time.

Start by opening CCleaner and selecting the options you want in the Windows Cleaner section that opens by default. I can’t tell you what settings to use because everyone will have different needs. All I can tell you is that you need to think about each option carefully and consider that possible outcomes.

The next piece that you’ll want to look at is the Advanced Options. Click on the Options button in the lower left corner of the window, then click Advanced. Make sure that Save all settings to INI file is checked.

Create the Scheduled Task

Open up the Start menu in Windows, then go to All Programs –> Accessories –> System Tools –> Task Scheduler. If Windows prompts you to tell you that it needs your permission to continue, simply click the Continue button.

Once the task schedule window is open, click on Create Basic Task. A new wizard will open to help you through the process. Give your task a meaningful name and description. I chose “System Cleanup” for the name and “This task launches CCleaner to perform a system cleanup on a regular basis.” Click Next.

The Task Trigger window is where you determine what causes the task to run. In our case, we want a time period to be the trigger. I personally find weekly to be sufficient, but you can choose daily or monthly depending on your individual needs. After you select your trigger, click Next.

Now the scheduler needs you to get a little more granular by selecting the day of the week and the time that the task will run. This choice is very important. For example, if you turn your PC off at night, then you don’t want to run the task in the middle of the night. You also don’t want the task to run when you are likely to be in the middle of using the computer. Once you decide on the finer details, click Next.

Now it’s time to tell the scheduler just exactly what you want it to do. It defaults to Start a program, so just click Next. Click the Browse button and locate the CCleaner.exe program file. The default location is:

C:Program FilesCCleanerCCleaner.exe

In the Add arguments section, add the /AUTO switch. This tells CCleaner to run automatically without waiting for user input. Click Next to get to the Summary screen. Check the box next to Open the Properties Dialog for this task when I click Finish and click the Finish button.

In the Properties window, check the box next to Run with the highest privileges. This is required so that the task can run without prompting you for administrator privileges. Next click on the Conditions tab and check the box next to Wake the computer to run this task. This will bring your computer out of sleep mode in the event that the power saver settings have put it to sleep. Click Ok to finish the process.

You can try out the task to make sure everything was configured properly by right-clicking on your new task and selecting Run.

If everything is ok, you should see the CCleaner icon appear in your system tray.

You can get more info about CCleaner from the CCleaner website, or from our handy walkthrough.

How To Auto-Clean Windows Vista With CCleaner originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How To Tune Up Your PC (and cover your tracks!) with CCleaner

Norm — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:25:49 +0000

CCleaner is an easy-to-use system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool that was designed with the masses in mind. The simplistic layout of this application allows even the novice user to perform a tune-up on their Windows-based computer quickly and easily. The results speak for themselves – a faster running system with some additional and valuable free hard disk space. CCleaner will also remove the tracks left behind by your browsing habits, securing you against prying eyes.

In this tutorial I’ll walk you through the basics of performing a PC tune-up.

Install CCleaner

Installing CCleaner is as easy as downloading the installer and walking through the wizard. There are no hard questions or complicated configuration steps. In fact, the only change I made to the default configuration was to remove the checkmark next to “Add CCLeaner Yahoo! Toolbar and use CCleaner from your browser“. The entire installation process takes only minutes to complete and the package is spyware and malware free.

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Configure CCleaner

Once you have CCleaner installed, launch the application via the start menu or desktop icons. Click the Options tab on the left-hand side, then click on Settings. At the bottom of the window, you can select the Secure file deletion radio button, then select the level of protection that you require. Simple Overwrite will suffice for the average user. If you happen to be worried about someone being able to recover the files that CCleaner deleted, then you can pick a higher level of security. The Gutman option will make recovery of such files next to impossible.

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Running the Cleaner

Now that your settings are configured, you can start the cleaning process by clicking the Cleaner tab, also located on the left-hand side. The default selections here will most likely get you the results you are looking for. Click Analyze and give CCleaner a couple of minutes to complete an assessment on your computer. The tool will scan through the selected locations looking for files that are deemed a candidate for deletion.

After 147 seconds, my scan revealed that I could remove 197.8MB of garbage files, Underneath the analysis summary, you can find a listing of the specific files that will be deleted if you choose to continue. All that’s left is to click the Run Cleaner button and wait for the magic to happen. If you selected a high level of secure file deletion, you should expect the process to take a number of minutes to complete. To clear out some additional files, wait for the cleaning to complete, then select the Applications tab and run it again.

This should speed up your computer a little bit and the free space you created is definitely an added bonus.

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Cleaning the Registry

One of the best uses for this tool is the Registry cleaner. Due to the number of applications that store information inside the Registry, it’s quite easy for the issues to pile up. This can lead to system slow downs or errors. CCleaner has you covered. Just select the Registry tab on the left hand side and click the Scan for Issues button. After a few minutes you should see a complete list of the problems that were found. Click Fix selected issues to initiate the Registry clean-up.

I strongly encourage you click Yes when prompted to backup your registry. Save the backup file to a location that you will remember. The default location is your Documents folder, which is as good a place as any. The Registry is a very fragile thing and having a backup will ensure that you can recover from any potential problems. Don’t get too scared though, I have used CCleaner on dozens of computers and haven’t had any incidents.

Now you can finish the Registry cleanup by clicking the Fix All Selected Issues button. Once completed, click the close button and give yourself a pat on the back. You just tuned up your computer and you did a pretty good job of it too!

Additional Tools

CCleaner comes with some additional tools to help you keep your PC in tip-top shape. Selecting the Tools tab on the left-hand side opens up the Uninstall and Startup management tools. Uninstall is basically the same as Add and Remove Programs in the Windows Control Panel. The extra bonus is that you can also delete entries for applications that were previously removed, but still show up in the program listing.

The startup manager allows you to disable or delete registry startup keys. Simply select the program that you no longer want to run on startup and either delete or disable it. If you are a novice user, I would recommend disabling such entries, that way if you make a mistake you can enable the program again at a later date.

One last tip – if you don’t know what the program is, don’t disable it because you might need it. If you have concerns about a particular program, try Googling the name of it and you will likely find some information on its purpose.

Useful Resources

How To Tune Up Your PC (and cover your tracks!) with CCleaner originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)